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The Top 10 Articles of 2011 for Ad Agency New Business

December 29, 2011

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How new business is being acquired for ad agencies is currently undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of pursuing clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency.

I’m sure that you are well aware of the changing marketing landscape and the need to make fundamental changes to the traditional methods for business development.

Data Explosion - 90% of the world’s data was created in just the past two years. Content marketing has become a key element in building awareness for agencies.
Social Media Eruption - social media is now mainstream and is as a key engagement channel for prospects.
Channel and Device Boom - The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, such as smart phones and tablets, are quickly becoming a priority for reaching prospective clients.
Expanding Markets - Small to midsize agencies have a new window of opportunity to reach a larger market than ever before through new media. There are even international opportunities for agencies.
New business Professionals Struggle - Those who were once good at acquiring new business are finding it to be more complex and changing rapidly. Many are struggling. The interruption type tactics, which were successful in the past, are becoming less and less effective.

Unconventional times call for unconventional methods for ad agency new business.

For those charged with developing a new business program for a small to midsize ad agency, PR firm or digital shop, the following resources are for you. I’ve pulled together a list of the “best of” FUEL LINES agency new business articles based upon analytics of site visitors and their comments. These articles include some of the latest trends, tactics and tips for business development as well as articles that hopefully will give you inspiration.

The Top 10 New Business Articles of 2011:

#1 Steve Jobs: 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business

#2 Steve Jobs’s 10 Best Quotes for Advertising Agencies

#3 Forbes: 20 Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns

#4 Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

#5 The Top 14 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business

#6 New Roper Study: 9 in 10 CMOs See Value in Content Marketing

#7 2011 Forecast: 100 Global Trends That Will Drive Consumer Behavior

#8 28 Stimulating Digital and Social Media Marketing Quotes

#9 16 of the Top Quotes from Fast Company’s The Future of Advertising

#10 The 10-20-30 Rule for Keynote Presentations for Ad Agency New Business

Here are some additional new business resources by category:

Leave a Comment » | Best Practices, Compensation, New Business Tactics, New Business Talents, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, business development, content marketing, Digital Agencies, Michael Gass, pr firms, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Social Media: 10 Idea Starters to Keep Fresh Content Churning

August 9, 2011

Content creation is an important part of social media success for ad agency new business, but it is also difficult to maintain without a little help.

I’m going on my 5th year of creating content for my blog. I’ve found that my reading always seems to help fuel my writing and inspire ideas.

So first and foremost, establish a focused reading program that is centered around a specific target audience. When you do, finding resources and developing content becomes mush easier because it is focused.

Here are 10 additional idea starters, along with examples, to help keep you going:

Take non-relevant content and make it relevant to your audience. This is one of the most important tips that I can share with you. There is so much great information online. Most of it won’t be related to your readership but you can easily make it relevant as I did in this post, “When it comes to new business Ad Agencies are ADHD.” I was reading about multitasking and ADHD from a number of online resources, and knew this type of information would be very helpful for agency new business, particularly given the working environment and culture typical of most agencies.
Become a reporter at events you attend by conducting on site interviews, take photos and video. Compile a top 10 highlights’ post of the event. You probably will come away with enough material for several blog posts. I was able to interact with attendees of Ad Age’s first Small Agency Conference. From my social media interactions I wrote this article: 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference. The amazing thing – I wasn’t there!
Create a bulleted list of things to avoid. I’m currently working on a list of “Top 10 Non-productive Office Traps and Solutions for Avoiding Them.”
Use a celebrity to enhance a top 10 list. One post that generates the most traffic to my site, “Steve Jobs 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business.” Be sure and connect the benefits to your particular readership. Make it specific to them and their needs.
Provide resources. Share resources that are specific to your readership’s industry. Here are a couple of examples of resources that I’ve shared: “10 Reading Resources for Ad Agency New Business” and “The Top 14 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business.” I wrote a post about agency networks because so many agencies were asking about them and I found very few online sources. I researched and grouped this information conveniently together for my readers. This also helped put me on the radar of many of these agency networks.
If you’ve been writing for a while, revise an older post and beef-it-up with current information, stats, etc. A lot of the information for this article, “3 Quick Tips for Developing a Consistent Program for Ad Agency New Business”, was gleaned from a post that I had written in 2008. I took some of the more important elements to highlight and expand upon in this post. It isn’t copying a pasting, having mirrored content. This takes some work but much easier and quicker than developing a post from scratch while still creating content that is of good value to your readers.
Conduct an industry survey. You can generate some great PR by conducting your own primary research and propagating the results through your social media network, online tools such as PRNewswire and PRWeb. You can generate a number of post as you expand upon pieces of the survey in various posts. Here’s an article that was written on a survey that I conducted, “Ad Agency Survey Finds Traditional New Business Methods Aren’t Working.” The survey became a magnet for a significant amount of web traffic to my site as other bloggers and columnist wrote articles based on my research.
A quick turn around of research and a post can come from conducting a simple online poll. I wrote this post on an ongoing poll being conducted by Mirren Business Development, “The number one reason ad agencies new business plans fail.”
Develop your own online contest. A great jump-starter for my blog’s traffic occurred when I conducted an Ad Agency Blog of the Month contest. Agencies submitted their blogs, readers would review them in a post I created and they would cast their vote of their favorite. A follow-up post announced and highlighted the winner from each month. At the end of the year, a blog synopsis of the 12 Agency Blog of the Month winners was created and vote taken for the Ad Agency Blog of the Year. Here’s a sample article from 2010, “Vote for Fuel Lines’s Ad Agency Blog of the Year.”
Set up an editorial calendar for guest posts. Solicit industry experts who are glad to contribute if you give them enough lead time. Guest posts’ can be a huge help and provide some relief during summer breaks and holidays and keep good, helpful content churning out for your audience. Here’s a guest post, written specifically for my audience, by Jay Baer, “Ad Agencies: Don’t Turn Your Back on Digital”

The content that you create will propel your positioning as an expert so it’s worth the price of your time investment.

Here’s a good example: Kelly Fiddner, Business Development Director for Littlefield Brand Development, Tulsa, OK, writes the agency’s blog, “The One Thing: The casino marketer’s guide to understanding gamers.” Within just a few months, Kelly is being recognized for her thought leadership.

Kelly was recently featured in a gaming industry publication iNTERGAMING in this New Technology Interview, because of her content development that is specific to the advertising/marketing needs of the gaming industry.

Additional content marketing articles that may be of interest:

13 Comments | Content Marketing, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, blogs, content curation, content development, Jay Baer, Kelly Fiddner, Littlefield Brand Development, Michael Gass, PRNewswire, PRWeb, twtpoll | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Skype Infographic: From seed to future piece of the Microsoft empire

June 2, 2011

I often use Skype as a way to stay connected for new business, at home and while traveling for video conference calls.

How important is Skype? Bill Gates personally pushed for the Skype deal, the biggest purchase in Microsoft’s history. It seems to have a very bright future and should remain on your list of tools to watch and warrant your participation.

“The idea of video conferencing is going to get so much better than it is today. Skype actually does get a fair bit of revenue. It’ll be fascinating to see how the brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research, coming together with Skype, what they can make of that.” Bill Gates

I thought you might enjoy the following infographic that contains a host of very interesting information on Skype, and its walk from being nothing but an idea, to its acquisition by Microsoft. As a commemorative to Skype and its future, this infographic illustrates the history behind the brand and its integral part of Microsoft’s future.

Information provided by : Online MBA.com. Click on the following links for more of Online MBA’s infographics:

Additional articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | New Business Tools, New Business Trends | Tagged: advertising agencies, Infographic, Michael Gass, Microsoft, Online MBA, Skype | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Tips For Creating a Game Plan For Ad Agency New Business

May 18, 2011

It is absolutely essential that every ad agency have a plan for their new business development initiatives.

I recently spoke to a group of ad agency owners. I was amazed to learn that none of them had a written new business plan. That’s inconceivable to me. If you have no plan you can’t measure what you’re doing, there’s no real strategy behind your new business activities, no focus or direction.

“He who fails to plan, is planning to fail” - Winston Churchill

If you want to build a consistent pipeline for lead generation and new business opportunities for your agency you must have a game plan in place.

Here are my 10 tips for creating a game plan for your agency’s new business:

It might be a helpful exercise to create a SWOT analysis of your agency: it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Set realistic new business goals. I can’t tell you how often I hear “our goal is to take the agency to the next level,” but they have no clue what that level is or what it looks like. In my opinion new business goals should be obtainable.
If your goal is to double your RFP responses or double your pitches, you also must have the processes in place to handle the additional workload if those things are to come to fruition.
Identify your top category and audience you are going to target. You must have an identifiable target.
Know who is your primary competition and create a strong point of differentiation from them.
Follow the KISS method. Keep everything simple as possible including the plan. A one page plan can easily suffice.
Outline the new business plan through specific strategies: Public Relations, Social Media, Direct Mail, Digital, etc.
Establish benchmarks for the things you can measure. Have a review, update, make changes and refocus your efforts once a month.
Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online tool to help implement your plan. Set milestone dates, create an actionable To-Do List for keeping track of who is doing, what, when, etc.
The person charged with new business should be empowered to implement the plan as if this was one of your agency’s client accounts. The new business person must be like a rudder of a ship to keep the process moving in the same direction, no matter how the wind is blowing.

Additional agency new business articles that may be of interest:

14 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Promotion | Tagged: Ad Agencies, business development, Michael Gass, new business, new business plan | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The List for Ad Agency New Business

March 2, 2011

To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify your best target audience and build a data base of company information that would include a contact database.

The List is a B2B sales lead generation resource with access to over 108,000 marketing, advertising, and media decision makers. Subscribers use the corporate decision makers contact database to generate sales leads and target new business prospects.

The List is one of the better services that I’ve used when I was leading new business efforts for a number of agencies. They specialize in providing intelligence to advertising, marketing, and creative agencies.

Ad agency new business directors spend lots of time locating and pre-qualify prospective clients for their agency. The List simplifies this process and allows them to connect with prospective clients faster and easier. A very comprehensive new business prospecting tool.

Email and mailing list are easily assembled through a quick search and can be downloaded as an Excel or .cvs file. I’m already spending more of my time executing tactics to win new business and far less time looking for the right contact information.

The best way to evaluate whether or not The List provides the new business intelligence for the type of prospects you agency is focused upon it is to take advantage of their free trial. If you are interested, access it by Clicking Here

Conduct some prospective client advanced searches by geography, industries, specialties and revenue/media spend/size.

To evaluate any data resources for prospective clients here are a few helpful tips:

Out of 100 contacts, how many are incorrect information? More than 10 incorrect data points and you’re dealing with inaccurate information.
How long does it take you to find the contact you’re looking for? How does this compare to your current data provider?
Once you have your desired contact, do you have the (correct) email, direct dial, address? Does your current information provider have it? Is it accurate?

Trying to maintain your own database is not the best return on your time investment, that’s why services such as The List are valuable.

Todd Knutson, CEO of The List, has created a blog, New Business Intel: Driving Ad Agency New Business. Todd provides lots of resources, tips and tactics for new business that I’m sure you will find helpful. You can also follow and engage with Todd through Twitter: @Todd_Knutson

2 Comments | New Business Tools | Tagged: advertising agencies, data base, Michael Gass, new business, prospective clients, The List, Todd Knutson | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways Ad Agency Blogs Can Produce Significant Traffic for New Business

February 8, 2011

Your ad agency’s blog can become one of the most important tools for new business.

A blog is certainly the most critical component to fuel agency new business through social media. How? As a powerful traffic generator. Traffic = leads and leads = new business opportunities.

In a survey of business technology marketing executives by the research firm MarketingSherpa, blogs were voted the No. 4 tool for generating sales leads.

Your blog has the potential to create more web traffic than your agency’s website ever could. It can attract a high volume of quality traffic from the pool of prospective clients you are trying to reach.

Here are 5 Ways an agency’s blog can increase prospective client traffic:

1. Search visibility

The right search traffic doesn’t just happen. It will only occur if you consistently produce unique content. Frequently updated content makes search engines very happy.

Blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. With focus you can dominate search terms for your best prospects to find you. Writing focused content to a particular audience will help to optimize your blog quickly. When I want to rank well for something like “ad agency new business” optimizing my blog is much easier.

2. Repeat Traffic

Posting fresh content brings visitors back often. Most agency websites are too stagnant to produce repeat traffic. Helpful content that is reader-centric will naturally attract prospective clients to your site and provide top of mind awareness for your agency without having to rely on an interruption tactics such as cold calling for new business.

3. Click-Throughs from Twitter

At the time of writing this post, I have over 57,000 following my two Twitter accounts, @michaelgass and @fuellines. I’m able to fuel traffic by repurposing over 600 articles through these two accounts. This material gets retweeted often into other people’s Twitter networks and makes my content viral, growing my following and exposing my blog to a highly targeted audience.

If you are using Twitter alone, it’s not a very good tool for new business. But in combination with your blog’s content, you are one of the few providing helpful information for the many. Writing in an ‘evergreen’ style your blog’s content has a much longer shelf life than a Tweet. Twitter used in combination with your blog has the potential of creating even more targeted traffic than SEO.

You can continue to generate significant traffic for old posts, if you are intentional about it. Once the blog content is written, Third party Twitter tools like Social Oomph will allow you to easily create a system to consistently keep your content in front of a large audience with very little effort.

4. Personality

It’s hard to socialize an entity such as your agency. Social media is all about people and relationships. A blog puts a face to your age and allows your personality to shine through. You wont appeal to everyone, but that’s okay. You will have a strong appeal among the prospects who are the best fit for your agency.

A good example of this is Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco. Bob’s personality really shines through his writing for his blog, The Ad Contrarian.

I first learned of Bob’s blog through a critical article highlighting his frequent rants about the ad industry, often laced with profanity. I was curious enough to find out for myself and found was intrigued with his writing. Bob came across as a ‘straight-shooter’ who cut through all of the branding and social media b.s. I ended up becoming a fan, as have a significant number of others.

Social media is all about connecting on a personal level. People have a natural desire to work with other people that they know, trust and like. A blog is a great place to foster these initial personal relationships with your prospective clients.

5. Viral Effects

A blog provides content that can be easily shared across multiple social media channels. It can also be repurposed and shared through an email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. You could compile related or the best of your content into an eBook or white paper. Readers will share it through bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon. You’re return-on-your-time-investment (ROTI), writing content, can be extensive.

Ultimately, a blog can be highly effective and the most powerful and low-cost new business marketing tool your agency will ever use. Provided you know your target audience, have the right positioning, messaging and rich content that is of benefit to those you are trying to reach.

Here are some additional agency blogging resources that may be a help to get you started:

7 Comments | Agency Blogs, Creating Content, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, blogging, blogs, Marketing Sherpa, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

What do ad agencies, Pomplamoose and Hyundai have in common with social media?

December 22, 2010

Social media stuff allows for endless opportunities for individual, small groups, businesses and of course, my favorite agency new business. It levels the playing field.

Thanks to social media, Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn are hitting the big time with their videosong Christmas ads for Hyundai. A remake of ”Up On the Housetop” very similar their quirky pop videos they’ve been creating on YouTube since 2008. After hearing to one of their commercials I was smitten and searched for more of their material.

The duo started making music together in the summer of ’08, and decided to form a band. Pomplamoose (which means grapefruit in French). The group, comprised solely of Jack and Nataly, have performed a grand total of two live shows ever. The pair has garnered their fame from YouTube and MySpace and perform all parts on every track. They are as visually gifted as they are musically.

Check out another Pomplamoose song that has generated over 1 million hits on YouTube, Expiration Date

You can learn more about this duo through their social media sites and activities that I’ve collected for your convenience.

To fully enjoy Pomplamoose the best thing to do is scroll down these links, watch their videos, listen to their music and enjoy them yourself:

Leave a Comment » | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Jack Conte, Michael Gass, Nataly Dawn, Pomplamoose, Social Media, videos, YouTube | 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

Ad Agency CEO’s Blog – The Ad Contrarian

December 8, 2010

Social Media = transparency and you can’t be more transparent than ad agency CEO Bob Hoffman

Recently I was introduced to the blog, The Ad Contrarian, cranky opinions and advice from the CEO of a pretty big ad agency. Bob Hoffman the author is CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. He is the author of the book by the same name, The Ad Contrarian. Bob has a growing following as one fan recently wrote, “Your no b.s., take-no-prisoners approach to our business is entertaining, informative, and spot-on…”

You see a personal side of Bob through his blog. Blogging has given him a platform to express himself like non other. Bob is blatantly honest about our industry. He doesn’t hold back on his opinions.

The Ad Contrarian Says:

“In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management.”

“We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product.”

“Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes.”

“If the message is right, who cares what screen people see it on? If the message is wrong, what difference does it make?”

“Account planning has gotten way out of control. We’ve got to kill them all and start over.”

“In the entire history of civilization, nothing good ever happened to a teenager after midnight.”

“There’s no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he’s missing a trend.”

“All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent.”

“Nobody ever got famous predicting that things would stay pretty much the same.”

The more I read his post the more I like him. If I were on the client side, Bob’s blog would go a long way to winning my business. People want to work with people they know, people they like and people they can trust. This is what The Ad Contrarian does for Bob.

If I were developing new business for Hoffman/Lewis advertising I guarantee I would be using Bob’s blog as the “gateway” to the agency. I would introduce prospective clients to Bob first. He is the face of the agency. He wont be appealing to everyone but to a great number of prospective clients he will have a strong appeal.

If you are an agency CEO and don’t have a blog, you are missing a prime opportunity to develop a following of loyal fans, ready to do business with you and your agency.

A sampling of Bob’s blog posts:

2 Comments | New Business Talents, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: agency blog, Bob Hoffman, Hoffman/Lewis advertising, Social Media, The Ad Contrarian | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

7 Tips for Using Twitter for Ad Agency New Business

September 1, 2010

Used in the right way, Twitter can be one of the best social media tools to be used to generate traffic and leads for your agency’s new business.

For the past 3 years Twitter has been the leading traffic generator to my Fuel Lines blog. It definitely needs to be part of your agency’s overall social media marketing strategy.

The following are seven of my personal tips to help make Twitter more effective for your agency’s new business:

Don’t be afraid to use Twitter differently from the way it was originally intended to be used. Twitter is more of a broadcast tool that most would admit and current research validates. Treat it as a broadcast tool through reach and frequency of your content marketing efforts and generating the best return on your time investment by repurposing your content through tools such as Social Oomph.
Build a targeted Twitter following. Research Twitter lists such as Mashable’s Twitter List Directory, third-party programs such as TweetAdder.
In addition your own blog’s content, be sure to supplement your Twitter posts with resources from others that are of help to your target audience.
Pay-it-forward. As others are so kind to publicize your content, also help to promote theirs.
In addition to Twitter being a broadcasting tool, it must be utilized as a networking tool for you to have success. Content helps build awareness but it is up to you to turn awareness into relationships. The efficiency of these kinds of online networks should be all that is need to motivate you to participate. People want to work with other people that they know, like and trust.
Use third-party Twitter tools like CoTweet and HootSuite to minimize your time and maximize the effectiveness of your Twittering.
What you learn to do for your agency can be used for your clients. There are a multiplicity of benefits from your involvement.

To provide you with further help in using Twitter for new business here are 20 of the most popular post:

Follow this list of agencies and see first hand how they are using Twitter: Twitter List: 500+ Advertising Agencies on Twitter

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: content marketing, lead generation, Mashable, Michael Gass, Social Media, Social Oomph, TweetAdder, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Is social media making many ad agencies look and act the same?

July 20, 2010

It’s time to un-level the playing field. To have success with social media, agencies need to fly a differentiated social media flag.

Small-to midsize ad agencies tend to constantly promote how they are alike rather than how they are different from other agencies. They tend to look and sound just the same.

When agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in, instead of using this new communications channel to showcase how they were different, they ended up just following the lead of others. Once again positioned as a generalists instead of a specialist and following the “safe-way” rather than the “smart-way.”

I had hoped that agencies would have learned this lesson by now, “if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one”.

Having spent my entire advertising career in new business, I know first hand the financial pressures small to mid-size agencies are under. I understand their reservation for not wanting to focus to narrowly on a target audience or discipline. I know all of the excuses for not wanting to drive a stake in the ground and define themselves for who they are. But agencies are missing a grand opportunity.

Social media provide agencies to boldly declare who their target audience truly is, what their points of differentiation are. Social media allows agencies this freedom without fear of ”throwing the baby out with the bath-water.” It provides favorable, acceptable conditions for the agency’s principals to fly their differentiated flag proudly without fear of missing “other” opportunities that use to come by way of their personal networks and referrals.

Agencies tend to look and act the same because they merely have a check list of social media tools and platforms to prove their participation. But their social media practice has no strategy, no connection to a particular target audience, no demonstration of how they are different. Merely showcasing that they are a bona-fide member of the global social media community.

Here are my 5 tips for flying your agency’s differentiated social media flag:

Create an agency blog for a specific targeted audience. If you don’t, it will lack focus and be nothing more than mishmash that has no flavor , appeal or audience.
Have an objective. I would suggest the objective to be using social media for your agency’s new business pipeline. Inbound new business leads through content marketing that positions you as a thought leader to your best prospective clients.
Remember that social is about people. I would strongly suggest that you don’t incorporate your blog into the branding of your agency’s website. Give it room to breath and grow on its own. Let your agency’s blog be a reflection of key persons within the agency instead of trying to socialize an entity. You connect with people online the same way you do offline, but online you can efficiently reach more people over a much broader geographical area. People want to work with people that they know, trust and like. Social media provides you with this great opportunity to network.
Don’t be afraid to use social media differently than the way it was intended. Some social media purists act like Barney Fife and may threaten you with”citizens arrest,” but there is just one social media rule for you to keep in mind, there are no rules! This is still the wild, wild west.
Never lose your marketing mind when it comes to social media. Remember that it is just another communication’s channel. I have had much better success working with the agency “baby boomers” and their getting up-to-speed with social media than younger staffers who understand this new communication technology but they lack the experience in marketing and advertising. Don’t be intimidated. It’s not as hard as it may appear to get your marketing mind around the social media space.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

11 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, small ad agencies, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Three Helpful Services Improves Ad Agency New Business

June 23, 2010

There are three services that are essential to “jump-start” you agency’s ability to generate inbound leads for new business using social media.

Most ad agencies are participating in social media, meaning they have a blog, Facebook Fan page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, but they haven’t connected the dots to generate qualified leads for their new business pipeline. It is primary for agencies to have a focused strategy and a clear objective for using social media specifically for new business.

Ad agencies can’t wait six months to start generating leads. They need to new business now.

To accelerate the time it takes for your online new business activities to begin producing, there are three services that I recommend:

To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify your best target audience and build a data base of company information that would include a contact database.

Many ad agencies and marketing services companies expect their new business director to build their own marketing and sales database. A number of ad agencies that I talk with attempt to maintain their own database of prospects. For a short list that is doable but if your list is large it is impossible to maintain unless you have someone totally dedicated to keeping it updated on a regular basis.

I recommend using a database service company. Most charge an annual fee to subscribe but the cost is usually worth the price because of the internal time saved along with updated information on thousands of companies, agencies and businesses.

My recommendation is The List, the service that I currently use and the service I recommend for my clients. It provided the “seed list” of email addresses for the FUEL LINES email newsletter. If I need information on a company not in their data base, I can make a request and The List will research and get the data for me.

It’s worth your time to review their free trial and explore how many of your targeted prospects they have in their data base.

Questions to help determine if The List is the right new business database service for your agency:

How many “qualified” companies are listed that are viable prospects for your agency?
How many (marketing) contacts do they have at the companies that matter to me? Be sure they have them in the quantity you need to justify the expense for their.
What contact information is provided? Beyond the usual address and phone numbers do they have sufficient numbers of email addresses which would be a great resource for your agency’s eNewsletter.

SocialOomph.com is a service that provides free and paid productivity enhancement services to fuel your agency’s new business through social media. It is not only a great tool for your agency but also one that will greatly help with your clients social media efforts.

Content marketing is a key component for using social media for ad agency new business. Content is written for SEO so that it will be found by your best prospects who elevate you to a position as a thought leader. SocialOomph will help to repurpose you content through multiple social media channels. It is a huge time saver.

Out of the hundreds of tools that have been developed to enhance Twitter’s usefulness for marketing SocialOomph is the one that has been the most helpful for me.

These are some of the SocialOomph features that I like and use:

Manage multiple accounts from one dashboard (your agency’s as well as clients Twitter accounts)
Manage an unlimited number of blogs
Upload your agency’s blog posts and URLs from an Excel spread sheet, in bulk to Social Oomph
Pre-set the date/time range for each post in minutes
Automatically shorten post URLs through Bit.ly and track clicks
Automate – follow those who follow you in Twitter
Automate – unfollow those who don’t follow you in Twitter
Purge and filter your Twitter account’s DM box
Small monthly fee that is month-to-month, cancelable at any time (more than pays for itself for the time that it saves)
Junior level people/interns can be easily trained to use this tool on behalf of the agency and clients
You can also schedule your agency blog posts to Facebook, just keep the repurpose level to only a few per day

Basecamp is an online project management tool that focuses on communication and collaboration. It is the best tool that I’ve used for creating consistent new business programs for my clients. Many agencies enjoy it so well they in-turn use it for their clients. Basecamp expedites the new business process, provides an accountability system and moves projects forward. All communications, files, presentations, resources, meeting notes, etc. are all in one place. Milestones and To-Do lists easily created, assigned and tracked.

“Basecamp is so simple you (or your clients) can’t do anything wrong. Basecamp is addictively easy-to-use.” — Robert Hof, BusinessWeek

Basecamp features I love the most:

No “IT Guy” required
Nothing to download all Web-based, always up-to-date and backed-up
Plays well with Mac
Easily handles multiple client accounts and dozens of projects
Transfer info from one account to another such as detailed to-do lists
Any client can use it, no need for training

Additional new business resources: 75 Ad Agency New Business articles, posts, reports, surveys and white papers

6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, New Business Tools, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: ad agency, Advertising, Basecamp, Michael Gass, new business, Social Oomph, The List | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Top 50 Ad Agency New Business Articles

April 8, 2010

With almost 500 post on this blog, 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.

This is an example of how you can optimize popular blog posts on your agency’s blog. Here are also 10 Ways to Optimize a Popular Post on Your Blog, from ProBlogger.

FUEL LINES Top 50:

Additional ad agency new business articles can be found on these blog sites:

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends | Tagged: 4 A's, Ad-ology, blog post, blogs, Blogs I Recommend, business development, catapult new business, Clive Maclean, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, RSW, small ad agencies, The List | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A Great Ad Agency New Business Tool to Optimize Twitter

March 10, 2010

75 million people visited Twitter in January alone, over 23 million were from the US. According to Twitter, over 50 million tweets are sent daily.

Twitter is being talked about everywhere. People are drawn to it because of the buzz of its popularity but the majority of people don’t understand its potential. That includes most ad agencies.

My primary objective for using Twitter has been to increase traffic to my blog. Twitter is now the leading traffic generator for FUEL LINES.

There are hundreds of tools that have been developed to enhance Twitter’s usefulness for marketing. The tool that is most helpful to me and the one I use most often for ad agency new business is called Social Oomph.

These are some of the Social Oomph features that I like and use:

Manage multiple accounts from one dashboard (your agency’s as well as clients Twitter accounts)
Manage an unlimited number of blogs
Upload your agency’s blog posts and URLs from an Excel spread sheet, in bulk to Social Oomph
Pre-set the date/time range for each post in minutes
Automatically shorten post URLs through Bit.ly and track clicks
Automate – follow those who follow you in Twitter
Automate – unfollow those who don’t follow you in Twitter
Purge and filter your Twitter account’s DM box
Small monthly fee that is month-to-month, cancelable at any time (more than pays for itself for the time that it saves)
Junior level people/interns can be easily trained to use this tool on behalf of the agency and clients
You can also schedule your agency blog posts to Facebook, just keep the repurpose level to only a few per day

For Twitter to have real value from a new business perspective for ad agencies, you must have a clear objective and follow a simple formula for use.

To reach my objective to my blog’s traffic and exposing it to a new but targeted audience, I’ve followed Angela Maiers 70-20-10 Twitter Engagement Formula.

70 to 80% of my “Twittertime” is spent sharing helpful information for ad agency new business with my audience. I do this in two ways:

First, I share lots of information from my online reading that I think will be of help to my audience. I’m able to use some tools such as TwitThis that I’ve placed in my browser bar. When I come across a good article that I think will be of help all I have to do is click on TwitThis and automatically post the article title and tiny URL into my Twitter account.

Secondly, I also share the content from my FUEL LINES blog. I now have over 500 of my own blog post regarding ad agency new business. I’m able to use Social Oomph to expose these posts to new audiences.

I can easily schedule the date, time and recurrence of each post. With the volume of post that I now have I can publish a different post on Twitter every hour, seven days a week twenty-four hours a day without repetition. Older posts, that are still useful, have new life. The best posts are often re-tweeted and exposed to new networks of people.

Your Agency’s Blog Posts: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you’ve written it, everybody has read it.

Twitter is more than a fad. It is a valuable marketing tool. Twitter tools such as Social Oomph make it priceless for generating traffic and new business leads.

Here are 20+ additional Twitter articles, specifically for ad agencies that can help you take advantage of Twitter’s growth for new business:

20 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Angela Maiers, Social Oomph, Tweetlater, Twitter, Twitter Formula, Twitter tools | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies in “The Great Race” for New Business

January 4, 2010

The whole advertising industry is in a flux. Forrester’s Research has referred to it as “the great race” as traditional agencies scramble to add digital capabilities and digital shops seek capabilities beyond being Web site and banner ad specialists.

“When you consider the fact that traditional budgets are getting slashed, that interactive budgets are expected to grow significantly in the next five years and that technology is becoming more and more integral to marketing.

We see digital becoming the backbone of marketing and technology becoming so vital that everyone needs digital capabilities. Everyone is coming from a different strength. Everyone is trying to add the other’s capabilities.

The market is now ready to take a big step to join, and in some cases even replace, traditional agencies in leading marketing strategy for top brands.” Sean Corocran, The Forrester Blog for Interactive Professionals

Interactive agencies may have an enormous opportunity but all agencies are adapting and will be competing more than ever.

The role of small-to mid-size ad agencies will continue to evolve. Is your agency ready?

Additional articles that may be of interest:

12 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Research | Tagged: Advertising Industry, digital shops, Forrester's Research, Interactive Professionals, Sean Corocran, The Forrester Blog | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 iPhone Apps for Ad Agency New Business

December 10, 2009

For your social media efforts to be effective for inbound lead generation, its important for you to stay connected. Apps make it easier to do so, even when you are at your busiest.

If you don’t have an iPhone I highly recommend them. I was a long time Blackberry loyalist but finally decided to make the switch. Its been worth it. The apps are a big part of the iPhones success. There are now over 200,000 and and its expected there will be over 300,000 iPhone apps before the end of 2010.

The iPhone is a handheld computer. It not only is my phone and allows me to send and receive email but also web browsing, GPS, games, scanner, radio, TV/Video monitor and much more.

I’ve assembled a list of some handy iPhone apps that allow me to be efficient as I travel and make the most of my time out of the office. Here’s my personal top 10 list:

1. WordPress app for iPhone

This iPhone app lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (2.7 or higher), you can up and going in seconds.

Available on the App Store

2. Tweetdeck app for iPhone

Tweet on the go with all your favorite TweetDeck features, including the ability to view and update Facebook, direct from your iPhone.

Available on the App Store

3. Facebook app for iPhone

Facebook for iPhone makes it easier than ever to stay connected wherever you are. You can easily update your status numerous times day once you have Facebook in your pocket. The site lets you search for people with just a few quick taps and call your friends directly from their profile. Facebook events become even easier with your iPhone, as you can quickly look up maps and directions on the go. Available on the App Store

4. DropBox app for iPhone

The free Dropbox iPhone app lets you:

Access your Dropbox on the go.
View your files on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Download files for offline viewing.
Take photos and videos and sync them to your Dropbox.
Share links to files in your Dropbox.
View interactive photo galleries.
Sync downloaded files so they’re up-to-date.

This is one of my favorite apps. I use it to transfer documents that I’m using while traveling, and documents that I need to share. Super simple. Works easily across Mac and PC’s as well as iPhone.

Available on the App Store

5. Scanner Pro app for iPhone

Scanner Pro transforms your iPhone into portable scanner. It easily handles situations when you have printed document that should be send by email and there is no scanner nearby. You can scan multipage documents and email them or upload it to your DropBox (mentioned above). You also can transfer a scanned document to your desktop computer over Wi-Fi and, if you use iPhone 3GS, transform it into editable MS Word file with desktop OCR tool of your choice.

I never dreamed I would use this app as much as I do. It has come in very handy.

Available on the App Store

6. Evernote app for iPhone

Evernote’s claim is that it helps you remember everything. This iPhone app lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time — from your iPhone, computer, or the web.

Special features:

Create text, snapshot, and voice notes any time
Snap photos of white board, business cards, or wine labels and Evernote will recognize the text in the images
Turn your iPhone on its side to scroll through an endless stream of notes.
Quickly find your note by location using Evernote’s map view

Available on the App Store

7. MEO (My Eyes Only) app for iPhone

My Eyes Only is an iPhone application designed to secure your personal information by password protecting encrypted personal information that includes, web site passwords, credit card numbers, banking information, identity card information, passports, and other personal information that iPhone users want to carry with them for instant access. MEO uses secure RSA encryption to protect sensitive information from loss or theft, and protects access to all MEO personal information with user chosen passwords.

Very handy.

Available on the App Store

8. Dragon Dictation app for iPhone

Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application that allows you to speak and instantly see your text or email messages, 5 tims faster than typing on the keyboard. You can send voice-to-text messages on your iPhone by SMS, Email or paste into any applications.

Simple to use and works surprisingly well.

Available on the App Store

9. Jeremiah Owyang’s Blog app for iPhone

Web Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, is among the first bloggers to have his own iPhone app that extends his reach to the mobile medium. This is not only an example of what is to come from other bloggers, Jeremiah offers great insight into web strategies, interactive marketing and social technologies.

Available on the App Store

10. Advertising Age app for iPhone

The most recent news and views from Ad Age, the leading source of the advertising/marketing industry. You can read it and share it while on the go.

Available on the App Store

Additional article that may be of interest: Creating an iPhone App for Your Ad Agency’s Blog

15 Comments | New Business Tools, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: iPhone apps, Michael Gass, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

2010: The future of magazines and ad agency promotion

December 3, 2009

Online resources such as Mashable help you stay ahead of the upcoming communications trends that will impact your clients as well a agency new business. An excellent read and video was posted by Mashable writer, Stan Schroeder, on the possibilities of Apple’s Tablet on the future of magazines.

This Sports Illustrated demo is very impressive and deserves a look. Its amazing that magazines are already anticipating the possibilities of a kindle version that could become mainstream.

This can also generate some ideas for how to using this technology to introduce your agency to your best prospective clients. Lots of possibilities for agency promotion here.

Go to the following link to read Stan’s entire article: Time Inc. Shows Us Their Idea of the Future of Magazines [Video]

4 Comments | New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Promotion | Tagged: Apple Tablet, Blogs I Recommend, magazine, Mashable, Sports Illustrated, Stan Schroeder | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: When it comes to advertising experience matters

December 2, 2009

A special note to the small-to midsize ad agencies: This post has helpful intel that will relate to your clients but I want to stress, keep in mind, that this information relates just as well to your agency. This is a prime time for agency new business. According to Forrester consumers now spend nearly as much time online as they do watching TV. Just think of the possibilities of reaching your best prospective clients online.

Razorfish “Digital Brand Experience Survey” shows that even though consumers are more empowered than ever before, they still desire a relationship with a brand, and a brand has a major say in that relationship. It’s just that brands need to shift their thinking from one-way advertising to two-way consumer experiences if they want to take advantage of the attributes of the digital world.

I’m grateful to my good friend David Deal who passed on this Razorfish research and his key takeaways:

Consumers are not shutting out brands – they’re interacting with them. 77% of consumers surveyed have watched a commercial or video advertisement on YouTube with some frequency; 69% have provided feedback to a brand, either through a website or a third-party service like GetSatisfaction.com; 65% have played a branded browser-based game. Moreover, 70% have participated in a brand-sponsored contest or sweepstakes.
Digital experiences create customers. The overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand in digital fashion are much more inclined to purchase products and recommend the brand to others.
Digital can make or break a brand. 65% of consumers say that a digital experience, either positive or negative, changed their opinion of a brand. Of those, 97% said that their experience influenced whether they eventually purchased from the brand.
This is the year of the brand fan. According to this study, 40% of consumers have friended a Facebook brand page, and 26 % have followed a brand on Twitter.

Click Here for a PDF version of the report

3 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Skype Infographic: From seed to future piece of the Microsoft empire

I often use Skype as a way to stay connected for new business, at home and while traveling for video conference calls.

10 Tips For Creating a Game Plan For Ad Agency New Business

It is absolutely essential that every ad agency have a plan for their new business development initiatives.

The List for Ad Agency New Business

To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify your best target audience and build a data base of company information that would include a contact database.

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

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.

Ad Agencies in “The Great Race” for New Business

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MICHAEL GASS

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205.370.7750

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Follow “FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media”

How new business is being acquired for ad agencies is currently undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of pursuing clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency.

Unconventional times call for unconventional methods for ad agency new business.

Content creation is an important part of social media success for ad agency new business, but it is also difficult to maintain without a little help.

I often use Skype as a way to stay connected for new business, at home and while traveling for video conference calls.

It is absolutely essential that every ad agency have a plan for their new business development initiatives.

To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify your best target audience and build a data base of company information that would include a contact database.

Your ad agency’s blog can become one of the most important tools for new business.

Social media stuff allows for endless opportunities for individual, small groups, businesses and of course, my favorite agency new business. It levels the playing field.

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.

Social Media = transparency and you can’t be more transparent than ad agency CEO Bob Hoffman

Used in the right way, Twitter can be one of the best social media tools to be used to generate traffic and leads for your agency’s new business.

Here are my 5 tips for flying your agency’s differentiated social media flag:

1. WordPress app for iPhone

2. Tweetdeck app for iPhone

3. Facebook app for iPhone

4. DropBox app for iPhone

5. Scanner Pro app for iPhone

6. Evernote app for iPhone

7. MEO (My Eyes Only) app for iPhone

8. Dragon Dictation app for iPhone

9. Jeremiah Owyang’s Blog app for iPhone

10. Advertising Age app for iPhone

Analytics is a crucial component to successfully generating traffic to your agency’s blog and Website and inbound new business leads. But for many agencies, best practices for using analytics is little understood.

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MICHAEL GASS

205.370.7750

Top Posts

Blogs I Recommend

Books I recommend

Workshop Photos

Follow “FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media”