Best Practices « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

16 Signs That Social Media Isn’t Working for Ad Agency New Business

April 18, 2011

If your agency’s social media participation isn’t generating traffic and new business leads, it is important to know why.

How can an agency help a client monetize their social media when it doesn’t have a handle on how to use it for itself? As more-and-more agencies jump on the social media band-wagon, clients are beginning to ask them,“what has social media done for you?”

Gone are the days when an agency can get by “talking the talk but not walking the walk.” Clients will be able to discern between the agencies that truly get social media from the ones that don’t with just a few clicks of their mouse.

100% of our clients are online and all they have to do is take a quick look and they can easily tell that most agencies have no plan with regards to social media. Agencies may have a blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but those accounts often hide behind the agency name and tend to be blatantly self promotional with little value to an undefinable audience.

Used correctly, social media makes new business easier not harder. It is an incredible communication’s channel for easily generating new business leads and creating personal networks far beyond your local market.

No traffic + no leads = no new business. Here are 16 signs that most likely indicate your social media isn’t working for your agency:

No social media strategy, no plan. 60% of companies using social media have no plan. I would say from my own experience that is probably true of most agencies.
No clear objective for using social media. The first step in creating a social media strategy for your agency, you MUST have an objective. I suggest it should be for new business.
There is no focus on a particular target audience. The second step in creating in a social media strategy is to identify who you are trying to reach.
A lack of positioning for agencies. The FOUNDATION of an ad agency’s new business program is its positioning.
“The common failing among agencies seeking new business is the inability, or unwillingness, to name what they stand for,”Bob Lundin, Agency search consultancy Jones Lundin Beals. Social media provides a great opportunity to showcase how your agencies are different.
Agencies using social media for blatant self-promotion. Credentials and capabilities belong on an agencies website but shouldn’t be the driving force of their social media program. Social media should be centered around benefits.
No integration between blogging, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. When the majority of agencies finally ‘jumped into’ social media, they just jumped in with a check list of channels. Yes we have a blog, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and LinkedIn. But there was no convergence, bringing them together into a single social media strategy.
Agencies are waiting passively for prospective clients to them. If you build it, doesn’t guarantee that prospects are going to come.
Many agencies lack appreciation for those that are willing ambassadors for your agency. Zig Ziglar’s statement, “You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.” His philosophy works well in the arena of social media.
A lot of social media efforts fail because of the lack of value/benefit for the intended audience. Your audience will be your judge and jury as to whether you have an appealing position, post titles that spur interest, content that is beneficial.
A lot of agencies obviously don’t care about anybody but themselves. To successfully build an online community, you must staf focused on the perspective and interests of your prospective clients. You have to genuinely care about their challenges and obstacles.
There’s no SEO strategy for your agency’s social media presence. According to Marketing Sherpa, 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. A CMO survey, 80% of decision makers say they found the vendor, not the other way around. “Content Doesn’t Win. Optimized Content Wins” – Li Evans, search marketing guru
Your agency’s social media ship has no rudder. Getting your staff on the same page and keeping them there is like herding cats. Empower the person charged with your agency’s new business to keep your social media efforts focused and directed.
Followers instead of leaders. Most agencies are still using social media the way the early adopters of social media intended. Instead of pressing the envelope for lead generation and networking for new business. This in no way means that you are SELLING.
A mindset of income first. Just like in our offline networks and referrals, it’s relationships first. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like.
Attending offline events such as trade shows and conferences without inclusion in your agency’s social media efforts. Social media has transformed offline events and can maximize the personnel connections with prospective clients. Your involvement with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can change your whole experience.
No social media training for their staffs. According to a recent 4A’s and Arnold Worldwide survey, 90% of agency staff say they have to figure things out on their own due to the lack of training.

Additional social media + ad agency new business articles that may be of interest:

6 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Advertising, Jones Lundin Beals, Marketing Sherpa, Michael Gass, new business, Social Media, Zig Ziglar | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Future of Ad Agency Promotion at Events Through Social Media

April 1, 2011

Social media can enhance your special event experience and make networking for new business easier.

Without a doubt an industry trade show or conference has been a beneficial professional networking event for business opportunities. Social media has transformed these events and taken them to a new level.

“I think social media is changing the nature of interaction surrounding conventions,” said Steven Paganelli, vice president of business development-DMOs/CVBs for the Washington, D.C.-based, TIG Global. “Certainly, the opportunity to connect on a higher, more meaningful level face-to-face has always been at the heart of meetings and conventions, but social media tools and new technologies are making it easier for delegates to move beyond their comfort zone to meet new contacts, share ideas and engage in these events in deeper ways.”

In an American Express OPEN Forum article, Scott Belsky, Founder and CEO of Behance, shares insights from his 4-day experience at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive Conference. I’ve taken Scott’s main take aways regarding the future of advertising and self promotion to highlight the future of ad agency promotion at events through social media for new business:

1. Curation is a great tool for agency self-promotion.

Scott identifies one company that stood out above all others at this year’s SXSW event by serving as a curator of of event information.

“AOL set up a booth where they sorted through the day’s news at the conference and streamed channels of information for particular interests. In effect, AOL was serving as a curator of the overwhelming amount of stuff, and people gravitated toward the booth.”

This is a great social media strategy for ad agency promotion. Become a curator of information by allowing your agency blog and website to be a repository of helpful information for your prospective clients. Scott says, “If people like your taste—or just the way you display information—they will tune into your message.”

I was able to interact with attendees of Ad Age’s first Small Agency Conference. From my social media interactions I was able to create this article: 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference. The amazing thing – I wasn’t there!

I was able to create this list of the 50 Best Insights in an article for my blog and propagate it through my 50,000 + followers on Twitter before the conference was even over.

I also helped spread the word of the conference, create buzz and assisted in generating traffic for the conference sponsors: AdAge andAOL Advertising.

It put me on Ad Age’s radar: @adage And it’s not even over! RT @michaelgass 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Small Agency Conf #smallagency http://bit.ly/bTZqhL

2. The Future of Advertising (networking) is Education.

I wasn’t able to attend this years SXSW event, but according to Scott, the future of advertising was one of the main topics of discussion.

“With brands in the hands of the people, a new genre of advertising will arise that is more authentic and borderline educational. Companies will tap their expertise as a way to win people over. For example, GE knows a lot about the future of energy and jet engines, Pepsi knows a lot about marketing and beverages, The New York Times knows a lot about journalism.

While you would likely skip over any commercials from these brands, you might be interested in their perspectives in areas where your interests intersect.”

Social media can play an important role in defining your agency’s brand. To be successful with social media you are compelled to lead prospective client engagement with benefits and value rather than agency capabilities and credentials. Check out these “Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business.”

Education provides a great networking platform to build value for your prospects and positioning of leadership for you and your agency.

3. The value of attending conferences lies with personal connections, not panels.

Some people believe that we are so connected online that offline conferences, seminars and trade shows are losing their importance. Scott’s takeaway is just the opposite:

“In a world of increasing remoteness and virtual relationships, the benefits of physical engagement only increase. I would argue that conferences will become MORE essential as our lives become more digital.”

Social media has transformed offline events and can maximize the personnel connections with prospective clients. Your involvement with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can change your whole experience. You can “get to know” many of the exhibitors, speakers and event attendees from your online interactions that will propagate and enhance meeting them in person.

I recently received this note from Tom Matter, CEO of MAX Advertising in Atlanta. Tom’s agency specializes in law firm marketing and had this to say after attending the Legal Marketing Association’s Conference in Orlando:

“I wanted to tell you how fast we have been noticed by the national legal marketing community. We are easily the most talked about new marketing strategy and creative shop in the business.

All the blogs we followed last year to get started are all now following me for content ideas! They told me this themselves. I

had women stop me and ask to get my picture taken with them because they love The Matte Pad!! No joke. So many people read it and follow it with their RSS reader.

It was great validation for all the hard work we are putting into it. MAX Advertising is a great social media success story. We will get so much work from the conference it’s not even funny.”

Tips for participating in special events using social media:

Include a banner for the event in your blog’s sidebar.
Information about the event in your email newsletter.
Invite one of the event organizers to write a guest post.
Write your own article prior to and/or after the event.
Find out if the event already has a Twitter #hashtag set up. If they don’t suggest one to the event organizers. Use the hashtag for Twitter posts about the event, before, during and after.
Use the time to network
Conduct interviews. Use your iPhone to video and edit podcasts that you can share on your blog.
Act an a reporter for the event with live updates via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Set-up “meet-ups” from your online networks of people

Click on the following link to read Scott’s article, “SXSW Interactive Takeaways: The Future Of Advertising & Self-Promotion.” If you are an event speaker, you might find the “7 Traits Event Organizers Need From Speakers” helpful.

9 Comments | Agency Networks, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Trends, Social Media, Speaking, Special Events | Tagged: Ad Age, Behance, CEO, curation, events, MAX Advertising, Michael Gass, networking, Scott Belsky, Social Media, Steven Paganelli, Tom Matte, trade shows | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways to Recycle Older Content for Ad Agency New Business

March 31, 2011

Continue to generate a great return on your time investment, writing for your agency’s blog, by recycling older content.

As you write your posts, learn to write “ever-green” to give the content a long shelf life. I recently wrote a post, 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference, the first ever small agency conference sponsored by Ad Age. Even though this was a one-day conference, I purposefully wrote the post in a way that would allow the content to be used for a much longer period of time.

My recycled posts continue to generate lots of blog traffic and fresh comments from readers who have just discovered them for the first time. The date of the material shouldn’t matter. What should matter is relevancy. Is the content still of value to your audience?

Here are 5 simple ways to repurpose older content:

Twitter: This isn’t like your email inbox. People are on and off Twitter rather quickly. Often they are scanning for helpful resources to their advertising/marketing challenges. That the majority of your followers would see a post that you published at 11 am on a Thursday is remote. It’s about reach and frequency. SocialOomph is a great program to assist with repurposing content through your Twitter account and allows you to control your publishing schedule knowing what post is being published when.
Email Newsletters: Posts from your archive will find new life by way of your newsletter. You can group older posts around a particular category or theme. Highlight the “best of” your online content. Here are a couple of examples: Fuel Lines, Convince and Convert’s Vault
Facebook and LinkedIn: Another way to repurpose content is through other social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Just not with the same frequency of posting as you would with Twitter.
Through other posts: Do the work on behalf of your readers and at the end of your new posts include links to additional content that is relevant. Check out my ‘Additional articles of interest’ at the end of this article. This makes it easier for your readers to find relevant, older content on your blog.
eBooklets and Whitepapers: After you have been writing awhile, you can easily pull together content to create eBooklets or whitepapers to share with your audience. I have also pulled older content together for SlideShare presentations. You can even recycle your blogs content into a book. An example is Bob Hoffman’s The Ad Contrarian.

I would also suggest revisiting older posts that may not have generated very much traffic. With the proper edits and revisions you can breath new life into them as well.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, content, Michael Gass, recycle, The Ad Contrarian | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Create a Call to Action for Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

March 11, 2011

A strong Call-to-Action is needed to convert your blog’s visitors into new business opportunities.

The most important key to converting your agency’s blog visitors into leads is to have a “call-to-action”. A strong call to action is a clear, simple and compelling offer that persuades your readers to take the action you want. Just having a “Contact Us” form on your blog site is not very appealing to your blog’s visitors. It doesn’t count as your call to action.

People want to work with other people that they, know, trust and like. Prospects are visiting your agency’s blog site or website, they’ve had a chance to kick your tires, check out your upholstery and take a look under your hood - they feel like they know you. What next? Don’t leave them clueless. Clearly outline a first-step engagement for them through a specific call-to-action.

I would suggest creating an offer for a particular service, something that is usually a first-step that you normally conduct with every new client, like a brand or marketing audit. Price it in lower than normal, a clear value to the prospect. This will do 3 things:

Render a quicker decision from your prospects. They are not having to make a major financial commitment at this point. They’re just committing to take a small initial step.
Identify the true prospect from those that just want to pick your brain for free and will never pay for your services.
Pay you, at least for a portion of your time, for important face time with your prospective clients.

I consistently hear from agencies, “if we can just get in front of our prospects, we have no trouble closing the deal”. We’ll here’s your chance. By using this approach for a call to action, you meet your primary objective of getting in front of qualified prospects.

Here are a few tips for creating your ‘call-to-action’:

Define your goal. I would suggest that your objective would be for a face-to-face meeting with a qualified prospect.
Keep your offering simple. Remember attention spans is fleeting online. They wont spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.
Make your offering valuable to the prospect. Their takeaway is much greater than their time and monetary investment.
What action. Be clear as to what action you want your readers to take.

1 Comment | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, advertising agencies, blogs, business development, call to action, Michael Gass, prospective clients, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

2011 Trends: Content Marketing Is Critical to Ad Agency New Business

January 14, 2011

Content is the most important asset in using social media for ad agency new business.

In the 2011 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, 77% of Agency Principals indicate that they plan on getting more aggressive on the agency new business front in 2011. ”Networking” and “Social Media” are the top two ways agency principals state they’re going to “get aggressive.”

It’s great to know that agencies are planning to be more aggressive with their social media efforts. But please note that even more than technology, original content is the key to success.

According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, original content, both branded and expert, is by far the most employed tactic for social media.

“Next year [2011], marketers will need to rethink their approach to advertising and marketing and intensify their focus on creating magnetic content that will naturally attract consumers, rather than relying solely on the interruption model of advertising, which consumers are responding to less and less. Think pull vs. push.” Geoff Ramsey, CEO, Co-Founder of eMarketer

Here are 10 Content Marketing resources that will provide you with some best content creation practices along with unique insights, practical advice and tips:

Some additional content resources that you might find helpful: Ad Agencies: 97 Articles on How To Write Effectively for the Social Web

Click on the following link for a downloadable copy of the 2011 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report! or the study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability : What Do Marketers Think?

15 Comments | Best Practices, Content Marketing, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency new business, content marketing, eMarketer, Geoff Ramsey, Hubspot, Junta42, King Fish Media, Michael Gass, RSW/US, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

An Ad Agency’s ‘Buy Local Campaign’ Generates New Business

January 3, 2011

Park Howell, president of Park&Co, a full service agency that specializes in environmental marketing, provides a successful promotional campaign example for how he built awareness for his agency … by promoting its competition.

Arizona is trying to heal the P.R. black eye and business boycott created by its strict illegal immigration bill SB1070. Among other issues, the state is also battling a historic state deficit, lack of investment in education and nearly 10 percent unemployment. As one solution, Park and his agency launched a ‘Buy Local Advertising Campaign.’

“I was honored earlier this year by being named Ad Person of the Year, by the American Advertising Federation of Metro Phoenix. I thought with the recognition came some modicum of accountability for our industry.

So as we close 2010, our agency wanted to take one last stand for the local advertising industry and encourage all of you Arizona companies that are spending your dollars in other markets with other agencies and production companies, to at least consider including local creative companies on your bid list for 2011. And seriously consider the impact your spending can have on your neighbors right here at home, versus spreading your important dollars abroad.” Park Howell

With the philosophy that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, Park&Co is encouraging AZ companies in need of an advertising agency, to give a first look to Arizona ad agencies and also reminding them that for every $100 spend for goods and services at a locally owned business, $73 remained in the AZ economy.

From Park & Co’s Extra Cut Blog:

You buy your lettuce locally. Why not your marketing?

“You buy local produce, seek out locally owned stores, and drink local wines. So why go to other markets like L.A. for your advertising? Phoenix agencies offer a wealth of talent, from brand strategy and development to internationally award-winning creative, as well as innovative interactive campaigns and Hollywood-caliber film and video production. And you don’t have to look far …

… So, if you want to buy your maple syrup out of state, that’s fine by us. But if its business-building brand strategy and creative you’re looking for, we encourage you to shop locally by visiting parkandco.com/azagencies. And no worries if you pick another local firm over us. Just tell them Park&Co sent you.”

Park&Co have enlisted support and generated buzz for the campaign through its blog, social media network, email and with print. Check out their campaign through the following links:

About the madness behind the “Buy Local” campaign: http://bit.ly/h7bN7v
The web and interactive ad: http://bit.ly/fBeyF6
Why would an ad agency promote its competition?
Your location for talented film and video companies starts in Arizona
You buy your lettuce locally. Why not your marketing?
@parkandco Buying your web out of L.A. is like sourcing your prickly pear jam in N.J. ExtraCuts http://bit.ly/fBeyF6
Flashpoint Newsletter: http://parkandco.com/_newsletters/flashpoint/2010-12/
Arizona Ad Agencies’ Landing Page: http://parkandco.com/azagencies/

Results thus far: Park shared with me that the response to their campaign was 95% positive and within the first couple of weeks of the campaign’s launch his agency had received an opportunity to pitch for new business, a direct result of the Buy Local campaign. By the 4th week of the campaign they had secured 5 new business calls, 3 of them in one day.

3 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, Promotion | Tagged: advertising agencies, AZ, Michael Gass, new business, Park & Co, park howell, Phoenix, Promotion | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

6 Reasons Why You Should Replace Your Paper Business Cards for Ad Agency New Business

December 21, 2010

The traditional method of networking with business cards is one of the most cost-effective means of marketing your agency but the online version provides greater opportunities for new business.

Online business cards allows an easier and more efficient way to share, receive, organize and even track your cards than their printed counterpart. Online business card services are now providing programs that mimics the action of handing out a paper business card as close as possible. All that is needed to share your card is an email address.

“No more stacks of cards on your desk. Paperless business cards are good for the environment, but they are also easier to carry, unlimited — you’ll never run out when you’re networking at an event or conference and you have a card ready for instant connections, for each context, every situation and any kind of person you meet in real life.”

A service that I recommend is MyNameIsE, essentially a mobile social network of business cards. E plays well with the services that contain all of your content such as your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Skype or other social media accounts like Foursquare, SoundCloud or Flickr. It supports over 50 social media platforms.

With E you can store notes, tags, ratings and the geolocation of everybody you meet or send cards to. From your free account on their website you can view all of this information from your user interface. Here you can also create new cards, one for each occasion and manage them all from one location.

If your card recipient doesn’t have an E account you can send your card directly by email. Recipients receive a nice card with your logo, contact information and social networking profiles. They can store the card directly to the Outlook, Entourage accounts or on their smart phone through E’s vCard support.

You can use E’s new apps to share your card directly, peer-to-peer, from phone to phone. You can even share your card with multiple people at the same time if they have our app installed.

6 reasons why you should replace your paper cards:

Never run out of cards. Ever left your business cards at home or back at the hotel room? Started to hand out cards but didn’t have enough? Had to put a line through inaccurate information and handwrite in the new? Look through your pockets for a prospects card only to discover you lost it? Having an online card solves these problems.
Make notes and tags. Just like your printed business cards, you can add simple notes to the electronic version. You can also add tags to index a person and even rate them as a prospect.
Expand your social networks. You can easily add all of your primary social networks to your cards for card recipients to easily connect with you.
Remembering the place. The online version of your business card can tell you the location from where the card was received.
Easily save card information. Cards that are received can be saved immediately to your phone, computer or other device through the standard vCard (.vcf) format. No more having to type or scan in card info when you return from business trips.
Mobile Connection. You can use any smart phone and exchange cards with multiple people from phone to phone instantly. Phone apps make this service even easier to use.

Click the link to take a tour or sign-up for MyNameIsE . You can connect with me or download my vCard info through my online card at this link: http://www.mynameise.com/michaelgass

Leave a Comment » | Best Practices, Digital, New Business Tactics, New Business Tools, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency new business, business cards, ecards, Michael Gass, MyNameIsE | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

4 Presentation Tips from Lee Iacocca for Ad Agency New Business

December 20, 2010

The former Chrysler CEO’s speech writing team provides some useful information for how ad agency executives can inspire their staffs, clients and prospective clients by the spoken word.

“Lee” Iacocca is an American businessman and pitchman, known for his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s. He served as President and CEO from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. He is one of the most famous business people in the world

Iacocca’s business success—saving Chrysler and reinvigorating the American automobile industry in the 1980s—has also become a staple of B-school “case studies.” And most analysts agree a key ingredient—what Iacocca himself called “my most important management tool” —was the spoken word. “I used that tool every day,” Iacocca wrote.

Speechwriter, Jeff Porro, wrote a recent article regarding how Iacocca’s used speaking ability to bring success to Chrysler. He interviewed two members of Iococca’s speech writing team. The following 4 presentation tips are just a small portion of the rich takeaway’s you glean from reading Jeff’s entire article:

Motive: “In every speech I give, the object is to motivate. You can deliver information in a letter or tack it on a bulletin board.” He wanted to know what we wanted to accomplish with each particular audience: the point he wanted to make, the behavior he wanted to influence, the actions he wanted them to take.
Rehearse: Iacocca understood how overwhelmingly important it was to persuade and put a huge amount of effort into each speech. He put in the hours to rehearse and revise each speech, his delivery was so smooth, natural and relaxed, it could sound ad-libbed.
Tell a Story: A good speech is a story.” Iacocca knew that everything having to do with communication was a story. “Iacocca was a great at telling stories with a beginning, a strong middle, and an end.”
Keep it Simple: He stayed far away from corporate-speak. Says Tsigdinos: “Simple but effective. That’s what we strove for. No convoluted language. He was great at making direct statements that people could remember.”

Speechwriter Jeff Porro (www.porrollc.com) helps executives prepare effective speeches and presentations. Click on the following link to read the full version of Jeff’s article, “For today’s CEOs, lessons from master speaker Lee Iacocca”

Additional articles that may be of interest:

4 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: advertising agencies, Chrysler, Jeff Porro, Lee Iacocca, presentations, speeches | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel Lines: Top 50 Ad Agency New Business Articles

November 12, 2010

Having reached the milestone of 600 post, I thought it would be good to publish this top 50 post list. I’ve assembled the “best of” FUEL LINES agency new business articles based upon analytics of site visitors and their comments.

FUEL LINES’ Top 50:

4 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, Michael Gass, new business, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways Social Media Can Make Ad Agency New Business Easier Not Harder

November 9, 2010

You need to look at social media as a savior not a nemesis, an asset rather than a liability and time saver rather than time killer for ad agency new business.

Agencies were reluctant to participate as social media was becoming mainstream because they saw it as a major commitment of their time without much value to show in return. A lot of negative perceptions of social media has been changed. But I don’t believe the majority of agencies have yet to appreciate the huge benefit that social media can actually make new business easier.

Here are my 5 ways social media makes agency new business easier:

1. Social media allows agencies to define and adopt a more differentiating new business strategy than they were ever comfortable doing before.

“Just thought I would let you know. We are participating in a pitch tomorrow for another national account. This opportunity is 100% related to our agency’s new positioning through our blog, She-conomy: A guy’s guide to marketing to women” – Stephanie Holland, president, Holland + Holland Advertising

Holland + Holland advertising, through their blog She-conomy, has now been invited to 3 national pitches as a result of their differentiating positioning. Nothing like this has ever happened before in their 25 year history. They even had trouble with local press coverage of their anniversary but through social media they have been recognized by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and NPR radio.

Stephanie had never been comfortable stepping out with this positioning prior to social media. She was like other agency principals who felt that she would be missing opportunities.

2. Social media provides a systematic way to create intellectual capital and share your area of expertise. It is the best customized continuing education program for your professional enrichment, keeping you ahead of the learning curve and positioning as a thought leader. Plus, it pays for you to go back to school. It pays in new business while you focus on being better.

“We just landed a significant project with Coca-Cola purely through our sustainable marketing niche. The best compliment we could receive was when they said our price was waaaay more than the next bid, but given our background in green marketing and sustainability, that it was worth the extra investment. Finally, a value over price purchase. Love it” – Park Howell, president of Park & CO

Specialists are respected and they tend to make a lot more money.

3. Social media eliminates the need for cold calling. I’m a cold caller from way back. I’ve had excellent success. But times are changing rapidly. Cold calling isn’t what it use to be and not a very efficient or effective method for your agency’s new business. You make dozens of calls to find the right prospect and the right time but you still have to go through the dating process.

Social media allows for you to build prospective client relationships faster than cold calling. People have a natural tendency to want to work with other people that they know, trust and like.

In my 4 years as a consultant I’ve yet to make the first cold call for any business. My clients all made contact with me when they were ready for business and our initial conversation was much advanced than an initial cold call. They talk to me as if they know me because they do. The “dating process” that is associated with cold calling is totally eliminated.

Social media provides a greater return on your time investment.

4. Your agency’s market can greatly increase through social media. Small to midsize ad agencies can affordably build a national awareness.

Prior to using social media for new business, The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA, 94% of their new business came from within their market. Since implementing social media, 94% of their new business has been generated outside their market and extended new business opportunities from coast to coast.

Why would a prospective client, outside of your market, want to work with your agency? Give them a reason.

“Kudos to all! Our social program is generating leads and business from around the world. Earlier this year got a client out of Australia and currently talking to a company in Japan that follows me on twitter” – John Sonnhalter, CEO, SONNHALTER

5. Utilizing social media can help you to be more consistent for new business. You can keep your prospective pipeline full even when your agency is busy with client work or you are away.

At the beginning of the summer, while my wife and I were vacationing in Key West, I wrote a post and published it along with a photo while on the beach. I wrote, “Vacationing with Social Media and Still Generating Ad Agency New Business,” to illustrate how social media can keep your new business pipeline full even when are away.

Social media is like networking on steroids and just takes a little effort to keep it working on your behalf.

My blog provides content that is optimized for search to a very specific target audience. I easily dominate certain search words. Over 600 older post continue to generate traffic long after they have been written.
I utilize blog posts for my email newsletter that takes literally 15 minutes to produce and send. I also repurpose content using some third-party Twitter tools that automate the process.
Through Facebook, family, friends and followers stay connected no matter where I am. It takes only minutes to update my status, connect with others, share location, photos, etc..

With very little effort I can create, maintain and grow touch points through social media networks and all I’ve had to do is read and write.

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, http://www.she-conomy.com, Michael Gass, new business development, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Reasons to Celebrate Ad Agency New Business Wins

November 2, 2010

As an agency owner, it’s important for to be sure that you celebrate new business successes.

New business is tough. Especially in this economy. Life in the trenches for new business is nonstop hard work and often goes unnoticed. For the well-being of your new business team, it is important to stop, take the time to celebrate each new business victory.

Here are 5 reasons to celebrate your agency’s new business wins:

It highlights the importance of new business keeps your agency focused on it for the future. Reminding the staff that it is the lifeblood for your agency is a good thing.
It creates buy into your agency’s new business process. To be consistent the new business pipeline needs to be a well oiled machine. A process that creates a consistent flow of new business for your agency. One that be measured, tweaked and honed.
It provides an opportunity to recognize everyone who contributed to the effort. A lot of times the staff doesn’t realize who was responsible for the initial lead, which could have come from your agency’s receptionist or an intern.
It breeds a positive attitude among the staff and creates excitement about the agency.
It builds a reputation that your agency is on a hot streak and draws the attention of other prospective clients. There a natural curiosity that comes to those who break out of the pack of from among their competitors.

As communication’s specialists we often are poor with our own internal communications. So, I thought I would pass on some ways communicate wins so that you staff isn’t hearing about new business just around the “water-cooler.”

Have a celebration with the entire agency.
Provide a monetary payment to the staff member who provided the initial referral.
Build buzz with a press release. Include “appropriate” photos from the celebration.
I shouldn’t have to say it but, don’t overlook communicating new business wins through your agency’s newsletter.
Your website is the place where your agency’s credentials and capabilities should live. Be sure to include your new business wins here as well.

If you would like to share some of your agency’s new business wins, please feel free to do so in the comment section below.

Some additional articles that may be of interest:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tips | Tagged: advertising agencies, celebration, Michael Gass, new business development, new business wins | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The 8-Word Mission Statement for Ad Agency New Business

October 29, 2010

Your agency’s mission statement can have new business value and measurable results.

Most ad agencies have a mission statement. Most are filled with wordy jargon that is often forgotten, misremembered or flatly ignored by staff and is meaningless to prospective clients. Your mission statement should foster clarity.

Kevin Starr, executive director of the Mulago Foundation, has created a compelling approach to developing a focused and useful mission statement that warrants your attention. Starr insists that companies he funds, express their mission statement in under eight words.

The Starr Method: Clients must follow this format: “Verb, target, outcome.”

This concise method is a fresh approach to developing a useable mission statement that will clarifying thinking and keep the agency focused on a single issue.

How long is your agency’s current mission statement? Do you think you could get it down to under 8 words using the “verb, target, outcome” format?

Try this exercise and share it through the comments’ section below.

My mission statement in 8 words is: “Fueling ad agency new business through social media.”

8 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, Kevin Starr, Michael Gass, mission statement, Mulago Foundation | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Using the Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing for Ad Agency New Business

October 26, 2010

The inverted pyramid style of writing works well to produce the kind of content that generates significant targeted traffic to your agency’s blog for new business leads.

I recommend using the inverted pyramid style of writing used by journalists where you place the most important information first with a text. It is a common method for writing news stories but works extremely well when writing for online versus writing for print.

Journalism on the Web is definitely different from print journalism. How most people read online? They don’t, they scan.

Nielsen Norman Group’s research found that 79 percent of their test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. A newer study found that users read email newsletters even more abruptly than they read websites.) People prefer sites that get to the point and let them get things done quickly.

Nielsen also predicted the use of the inverted pyramid style of writing for the Web back in 1996.

Most readers are impatient and want stories to get to the point immediately. The inverted pyramid style of writing helps compel the writer to get to the point quicker. For this style of writing, you put the most newsworthy information at the top, and then the remaining information follows in order of importance, with the least important at the bottom.

The pyramid style of writing is valued to your readers because they can leave the story at any point and still understand it, even if they don’t have all of the smaller details.

I would suggest actually leading your article/post with what I call the “takeaway or benefit” statement. Simply answer the question, “What is my take away, what is my benefit if I commit to read this article?” You actually lead the story by starting with the conclusion.

“The inverted pyramid organizes stories not around ideas or chronologies but around facts. It weighs and shuffles the various pieces of information, focusing with remarkable single-mindedness on their relative news value.” - journalism historian Mitchell Stephens

6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Creating Content | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, content marketing, Inverted Pyramid, Michael Gass, Mitchell Stephens, Nielsen Norman Group | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency New Business: 7 Traits Event Organizers Need From Speakers

October 25, 2010

Speaking at special events, seminars and conferences will provide positioning as a thought leader and a boost to new business opportunities for your agency.

To facilitate more of these opportunities its important for you to understand and meet the needs of event organizers. Here are 7 traits that event organizers need and will appreciate:

1. Promote the event. Event organizers will be more adapt to invite you as a guest speaker if they see you how you promote other events. Here are a few ways to promote events through your own networks that organizers appreciate. You could:

Include a banner for the event in your blog’s sidebar.
Information about the event in your email newsletter.
Invite one of the event organizers to write a guest post.
Write your own article prior to and/or after the event.
Find out if the event already has a Twitter #hashtag set up. If they don’t suggest one to the event organizers. Use the hashtag for Twitter posts about the event, before, during and after.

2. Participate in the event. Not every speaking engagement is a paid gig. Often times it they may only provide for your travel expenses but most allow you to take in all of the event for free. As a participant you have an opportunity to:

Use the time to network
Conduct interviews. Use your iPhone to video and edit podcasts that you can share on your blog.
Act an a reporter for the event with live updates via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Set-up “meet-ups” from your online networks of people.

3. Prepare for the unexpected. Here are a few of my to-dos in preparation for the unexpected:

Email a copy of my Keynote or PowerPoint in advance to event organizers.
Back up my presentation, notes and graphics on a thumb-drive and use a tool called Dropbox as a safety net in case my laptop is stolen or crashes.
Bring cords and adapters for about every situation. Keep them in plastic bags in your laptop case, so that you can quickly find what is needed.
Grab current screen shots just in case event’s internet connection isn’t working.
Bring my own air-card in case I have to forgo the events internet connection altogether.
I have two different versions of my presentation, one geared toward a larger group and another for small groups. The audience of 150 you were promised may turn out to be only 15.
Get comfortable with your surroundings. Visit the presentation hall or room in advance.

4. Support and promote other speakers. At a recent BOLO Conference, I met my good friend Jay Baer in person for the first time. Jay was a keynote speaker and went out of his way to promote my session by Twittering to quotes and comments to his network, mentioning me during his presentation and in the event’s wrap-up session. He was very kind. I also did the same for Jay and for other event speakers like Tom Martin.

I was reminded of this from a quote given by Zig Ziglar on my return flight home, “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

5. Take time to meet with others. Instead of being locked in your hotel suite, take in the event’s socials. Provide an opportunity to mingle with your audience, gain new friends and get to know your loyal followers in person. Meeting with as many agency principals as I do it amazes me at the number that seemingly don’t like being around new people. Networking is a chore for them rather than a natural curiosity for getting to know about other people.

6. Don’t be a prima donna. The unexpected always happens so be willing to adapt to last-minute changes without a fuss. Be as flexible for your host as possible. Event organizers often network with one another. You will want them to be positive when they talk about you so be pleasant to work with and easy to please.

7. Give it your very best. Event organizers spend a lot of time and effort for speakers to not bring their A-Game for their presentation time. Be prepared, rested and relaxed. Customize your presentation specifically to each event. Rehearse as if you were in a play, practice as you would before a game. When you speak, turn IT on, light IT up and let IT go.

Inspiration for this post is came from an article in I discovered in a recent SlideShare newsletter, 5 Traits Event Organizers Want From Speakers

Here are some additional presentation articles that you may find helpful:

Please click here if you are interested in booking Michael to speak. Booking Michael to Speak

7 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Trends, Speaking | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How to launch a blog for ad agency for new business — fast!

October 15, 2010

Agencies can’t afford to wait 6 months for social media to help generate new business, they need the business now.

An agency blog serves as the central component for your agency’s social media strategy. I’ve compiled my suggested best practices to help you to get your agency’s blog up, focused and running quickly as well as rapidly building your agency’s credibility within this space.

An agency blog is like fishing. You want to fish for a particular fish, with a particular bait and you want to get the bait away from the boat so you don’t scare off the fish.

To get an agency blog up and running quickly you’ll need to do the following:

Have a clear objective: Create content to generate inbound leads for my agency’s new business.
Identify your target audience.
Compose a descriptor statement, subtitle that states emphatically what your blog is about (i.e. A Guys Guide to Marketing to Women, Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media, Data-Driven Marketing That Pays for Itself)
Create a unique title for the blog. It’s helpful if you can also tie in the title with a URL for the blog that you own.
URL, just be sure that you own it instead of having a wordpress.com, typepad.com or blogspot.com. That way you can change blogging platforms without losing your online traffic.
Know the key words that you want to dominate in Google Search. Be consistent to include your key words into your post titles.
Come up with 10 to 12 categories that you will write to. These will help guide your writing and will facilitate navigation of your blog’s content for your readers.
Start with a simple blogging platform that you can easily switch from in the future. My suggestion would be WordPress.com.
Keep your IT and Creative department out of the picture in the beginning stages. Keep the process as simple as possible and focus on the blog’s content.
Set a goal for writing 50 post within 30 days. This will help you to develop your research, resourcing, writing and publishing processes. You will quickly know what obstacles will inhibit you and allow you to figure out workarounds to keep the process moving.
Navigation is critical. Make your blog easy to navigate with Top Posts, Categories, etc. Install a search widget that is included in your blog’s sidebar and located above the fold.
Create a “welcome to your blog” and include your photo to make it more personable. The “welcome” copy should be an expansion of your blog’s descriptor statement.
Add these pages: About, Services, Speaking, Contact.
Add social media buttons for your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Be sure to add an RSS subscription button and create a Feedburner account through Google to get your link.
Add a subscription button for an email newsletter that is directly linked to your email provider account such as Vertical Response, Emma, Constant Contact, etc.
Jump start traffic by sending out an email newsletter at least monthly, preferably every other week. Content from the blog is used in the email newsletter. Don’t assume that just because you’ve written it, everyone has read it.
Generate initial traffic as well through Twitter using tools like Social Oomph and TweetAdder.

Create a format that you can use for every post:

Incorporate your key words into every blog post title.
A benefit/takeaway statement that begins each post that answers the question, “what is my benefit if I commit to read this post?” This is the inverted pyramid style of writing, like a newspaper report would use, lead with the conclusion.
Easy to read copy, breaking up long paragraphs and editing to make the post concise, a Readers Digest version, on average 350 to 450 words.
For the best return on your time investment, write post that are “evergreen.” Try not to “date” your content.
Consistently create valued content that is “reader-centric.”
Hyperlink to resources and attribution to primary sources.
Select one or more categories that are reflective of the blog’s content.
Add tags for people, places, entities that are referenced in your post.
Include “additional articles that may be of interest” at the bottom of the post with titles and links to 4 to 5 other post that you’ve written.
Include a photo or graphic in every post to make it visually pleasing.

Here is a collection of additional blogging resources:

12 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Creating Content, Social Media | Tagged: best practices, blogs, Blogs I Recommend, Cody Gass, content marketing, inbound lead generation, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design That Hurt Ad Agency New Business

October 11, 2010

Usability is a critical success factor for websites. If yours isn’t easy to use it is a very poor reflection of your agency and prospects will simply leave it.

I’ve written this often, a good creative rational for your agency’s website is that it should become your agency’s online brochure. It is he place where your work resides along with your agency’s capabilities and credentials. It must be user-friendly.

Web design expert, Jakob Nielsen states that, ”Web design is not a matter of taste or aesthetics — it’s a matter of science … what we actually know from our studies is that the average user experience on the Web is that of failure.”

Nielsen practices what he preaches. His own Website registered some 5 million hits last year, and he estimates that some 200,000 visitors read his bi-monthly column on how to make Web sites more “usable” — that is, easy to navigate and clearly organized so that visitors can find the information they’re looking for.

Here are his top 10 mistakes in Web design:

Bad Search. Search is the user’s lifeline when navigation fails. Overly literal search engines reduce usability in that they’re unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms.
PDF Files for Online Reading. Users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing. PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content that’s hard to navigate. Reserve it for printing, distributing big documents.
Not Changing the Color of Visited Links. Knowing which pages they’ve already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again.
Non-Scannable Text. A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read. Write for online, not print.
Fixed Font Size. Respect the user’s preferences and let them resize text as needed. Read more about letting users control font size.
Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility. Search is the most important way users discover websites. The humble page title is your main tool to attract new visitors from search listings and to help your existing users to locate the specific pages that they need.
Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement. It is best to avoid any designs that look like advertisements. Selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation.
Violating Design Conventions. If you deviate on your site what is commonly done on other sites, your site will be harder to use and users will leave. Jakob’s Law of the Web User Experience states that “users spend most of their time on other websites.” Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don’t have to worry about what will happen.
Opening New Browser Windows. Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user’s machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the Back button which is the normal way users return to previous sites.
Not Answering Users’ Questions. Users are highly goal-driven on the Web. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.

Why do Web site designers neglect to ensure usability? 2 Primary reasons:

“First is that they just neglect the entire issue because they think their own Web site is easy to use because they designed it so they don’t understand the need for usability testing,” says Nielsen.
“The second reason is that even if they recognize the need for usability, they think ‘we’ve got to bring in a team of five Ph. Ds, build a special laboratory with one way mirrors and test fifty users’ — no you don’t.”

Nielsen also points out that there are 2 things that a site can do to improve usability:

“You can run a very simple user test in three days… just get some real users in.”
The second method is professional analysis, which requires an expert with many years of experience to assess a Web site’s design and structure.

Read the full version of Jacob Nielsen’s article, Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design. See also: Usability 101: Introduction to Usability

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Digital | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Jacob Nielsen, Michael Gass, new business, web design | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Tips for Handling Social Media Negativity for Ad Agency New Business

October 1, 2010

You can’t let a few negative people dictate how you use social media for ad agency new business.

Unless you are Rush Limbaugh, most of us don’t enjoy having others say negative things about us. We have a desire to be liked. But please know that if you participate in social media you are guaranteed to get some negative comments. The larger your followers, the more negative comments you can expect.

Some of this negativity can be very rude and nasty. But you can’t let a few negative people dissuade you for using social media for agency new business.

At times early adopters of social media or those that are using it strictly for personal pleasure can act as though they have been sworn-in as a special social media detective ready and willing to point out when people are using it incorrectly from their point-of-view. But if you can’t build relationships, generate leads and build your business through social media, you are wasting valuable time.

Here are of my 5 tips for handling negativity:

1. Consider the source.

When I receive a negative comment to a blog post or through Twitter, the very first thing I do is a little background check of that person. I can soon ascertain if they are normally negative and love to play the devils advocate with others or if they are a respected social media participant and/or a member of my online community. I consider the source before I choose to even respond.

For instance, if someone pops off with a negative response to me through Twitter, they are not in the advertising industry and have less than a 100 Twitter followers, why would I even respond to their negative comment and then expose it to my 25,000 + followers? I would probably choose to “unfollow” them and even “block” them from following my Twitter account.

2. Know upfront, everyone isn’t going to like you.

I like it when people like me and no matter the source, it often bothers me if someone doesn’t. But, that is life. You are going to have an appeal to a certain audience and to others you will have little or no appeal. To have success in social media, you cannot be all things to all people. If you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one.

3. Be thick-skinned but not hard-headed.

When you get through some of the negativity as a participant in social media, you can develop a thick skin and not let negative comments affect you, or not take it so personal if someone unfollows you in Twitter. But when you are generating lots of negative comments or unfollows it pays to take note and reevaluate your social media tactics. Do pay attention to those that you are trying to reach. They will help you to hone your appeal.

4. Learn from your mistakes then let it go.

I once had an intern that I was paying to do research. The person came up with a great list of companies who were using social media and how they were participating. I wrote an article and published the list on my blog.

A week later, while I was on vacation, I received a very angry voice mail from a highly respected, early adopter of social media who wanted to know why I had stolen his list. I was mortified, did some quick research and discovered my list was exactly the same as his, even the fonts. What I felt was beyond embarrassment, but I made a quick call to apologize and immediately took down the article. I now always double-check my sources.

Take your lumps when you’ve made a mistake, learn from it and then let it go.

5. Follow the Golden Rule.

Be nice. Simply follow the Golden Rule and “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” There’s a huge difference between helpful criticism and being a jerk.

I speak from experience when I tell you that the positives far outweigh the negatives for your participation in social media. It provides a multiplicity of benefits. The greatest being your personal and professional enrichment. That it can generate agency new business is like icing on the cake.

3 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, negativity, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Only Rule That Really Matters When Presenting for Ad Agency New Business

September 28, 2010

Every agency presentation must be focused on capturing your audience’s attention and keeping it. It is the presentation rule that matters most.

A lot of agency presentations are nothing but recycled insights, predictable services, with the same agency speak, nothing note worthy or memorable for an audience that must be bored out of their minds. I wonder how much new business opportunities were squandered because of boring ad agency presentations.

If you want to reach your audience, you must have something significant to say that you are passionate about, genuine passion will attract attention and attention will lead to action.

What can you do to keep the audience’s attention through your entire presentation? Chris Atherton, an applied cognitive psychologist, a self-described dork of attentionomics, suggests these 7 specific rules of attention:

People can really only retain about four bits of new, unrelated information — and sometimes not even that many.
It’s hard to process spoken and written words at the same time. Integrating your spoken words with pictorial slides makes it easier for the brain to process these two streams of information efficiently.
A story will keep people’s attention, because they will want to know what happens next.
People really like looking at screens. If you’ve ever been in a pub with the TV on and the sound off, you’ll know that screens are an attention-magnet.
Sustaining audience attention requires frequent changes. Unexpectedness is a great tool for acquiring and maintaining people’s attention as well as changes in your tone of voice, speaking volume, or where you are standing to draw the audience’s attention to a particular point.
Your audience will tell you when their attention is wandering. It’s a kindness and a courtesy to stay with your audience, and a presenter on auto-pilot is not a pretty sight.
Chris’s last rule, short is good.

Here are some additional rules of attention that I would add to Chris’s list:

Use a remote. I take one with me to every presentation. It is a great tool to keep me from losing eye contact.
Don’t use the podium. I tend to have less energy and am less engaging when I use a podium. I like to be able to move and my presentations tend to be much more animated without one.
Less text on the screen is more. People can read faster than you can speak. I find that using images and telling stories allows me to keep my audience’s attention better. I want to be so engaged that they wont break contact to write notes.
The fewer the slides the better. Some of my best presentations were less than 10 Keynote slides.
Get into a flow. I’m a student of the cadence, inflection and the use of rhyme and repetition that Black ministers have. Their delivery styleexcites their congregants with memorable effect.
Passion is more important than perfection. I strive to make my presentations inspirational, not flawless. Passion garners attention and will enthuse your confidence.
Know your environment. I almost always ask permission to view where my meeting will be held in advance. For agency presentations I would even make an onsite visit in advance and snap photos of the facility to discuss with our team in advance of our pitch.

Just this past week, reviewing a banquet hall an hour before presenting, I asked permission to make my presentation from a different spot. The speakers podium, set-up to the left of the stage, wasn’t as engaging as a smaller stage closer to the audience and that was more in the center of the banquet room.

Read Chris Atherton’s article, When giving presentations, the only rule that matters is the rule of attention.

I want to always improve upon my speaking skills. Having spoken in workshops, conferences and seminars in over 40 different cities this year, I’ve also found a wealth of presentation tips from Olivia Mitchell’s website, Speaking About Presenting.

Here are some additional presentation resources that you might find helpful:

9 Comments | Best Practices, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: advertising agencies, Chris Atherton, Michael Gass, new business, Olivia Mitchell, presentations | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: 10 Tips That Separates the Best From the Rest

September 23, 2010

The agencies that win the most new business have a differentiating position from their competitors.

“Most managers invest their time and energy in trying to make their firms better, when in fact they should be also be working to make their firms different” – From Positioning for Professionals

I had the privilege to attend a Tim Williams seminar, “What Separates the Best from the Rest,” when I was the new business director for a regional advertising agency. Since that time I have read everything he has written.

Tim understands and can articulate agency positioning for new business better than anyone. He has a new book that was recently released that I personally recommend to you, Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success.

10 quick tips from Positioning for Professionals:

Bigness is no longer a competitive advantage
Its better to be a profit leader than a market share leader
There is no competitive advantage in doing what others do
There is no such thing as full service
Most professional service brands are not overpriced, they are just underexclusive
Most firms are engaged in fighting turf wars, instead of finding new turf
No customer is going to buy a vague brand
For a brand to be in the middle of the road = death
“Boxed in?”, no box means no strategy
The main difference between mediocre firms and great ones is not just vision, but execution

I thought you might also enjoy a perusing through some of the book’s best parts, an expansion on these 10 tips:

Tim Williams leads Ignition (www.ignitiongroup.com), a consultancy devoted to helping marketing communications firms create and capture more value. He is author another book that I highly recommend, “Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out” ranked by Amazon as one of the top ten books on brand building.

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Trends, Positioning | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, differentiation, Ignition Group, Michael Gass, positioning, Tim Williams | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

7 Benefits from the Right Positioning for Ad Agency New Business

September 20, 2010

The FOUNDATION of an ad agency’s new business program is its positioning.

When you have the right positioning its like fishing for a specific fish, with a particular bait. You know where the fish are, what bait is appealing to them, the right equipment to use and you have developed the expertise to catch the real trophies.

“By appealing to everyone, brands end up appealing to no one. Standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing.” Tim Williams, author of, Positioning for Professionals

So, the starting point for a successful agency’s new business program needs to be positioning. But it is also the place where most agencies fail.

“The common failing among agencies seeking new business is the inability, or unwillingness, to name what they stand for,” Bob Lundin, Agency search consultancy Jones Lundin Beals

I hope these 7 benefits for having the right positioning, will spur you to more narrowly focus and define the uniqueness of your agency for new business.

The right positioning provides:

A clearer direction for how the agency should spend its time, money and resources. It is amazing how these things fall into place so easily once the agency’s rudder has been set by the right positioning.
A broader market area for your agency. A strong positioning, particularly coupled with social media can greatly expand your market area affordably. The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA, now generates over 90% of their new business outside of their market.
A specific target audience. Through positioning you can have a well-defined criteria for identifying who are your agency’s best prospects that are reflective of its strengths and expertise.
A smaller group of competitors. There will be fewer agencies that do what your agency does. You’ll be able to identify a smaller group of competitors that you can use to greater enhance your agency’s point of differentiation.
A greater winning percentage for new business. Your agency can become the 800 pound gorilla, the agency with the moxie but only by having the right positioning. An agency that specialized in marketing academic medical centers, refuses to do speck creative, wins a greater amount of their pitches and those accounts are profitable from day one!
Improved profitability. First, you can command premium pricing because your agency is viewed as a specialist not a generalist. Secondly, your agency will know its playing field better than most and is not spending excessive time trying to get up to speed with every new account.
Greater appeal. Instead of always chasing business, it’s possible to have business start chasing you. When prospective clients know what your agency stands for, they’ll seek you out.