New Business Trends « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

Study: The Top Five Causes of Friction in Client and Ad Agency Relationships

January 31, 2012

The evolution of the advertising industry demands that traditional agency services and client relationships evolve as well.

Only 9% of marketers believe traditional ad agencies are doing a good job of evolving and extending their service capabilities.

Marketing has become more complex. Traditional agencies must have new skills and fresh approaches to meet these new challenges. The “More Gain, Less Strain” survey offers a clearer picture on how traditional agencies are being challenged in their retention of client relationships.

Here are the CMO survey respondents rankings of the top five causes of pain and friction in their client/agency relationships:

Lack of an agreed-upon set of analytics and metrics that defines success and failure.
Limited knowledge and comprehension of the client’s business
Lack of value-added strategic thinking.
Pricing and budgeting issues.
Integration of marketing plans and services.

Here are some additional key insights from this CMO study:

Just 9% of senior marketers believe traditional ad agencies are doing a good job of evolving and extending their service capabilities in the digital age.
Only 5% of marketers report longstanding relationships with their agencies and only 37% rate their relationships as relatively stable.
22% view their agencies as struggling to transition their business models and service offerings.
51% see their agencies as playing catch-up with regards to new technology, or acquiring but not integrating digital marketing capabilities.
48% of respondents report they are hiring specialized digital marketing solution and service providers to implement new social, mobile, and interactive strategies. Another 47% plan to build internal capabilities and use incumbent agency services less, while an additional 45% are bringing in outside consultants to help set up and structure digital programs.
58% of marketers remain unsatisfied with the current process of measuring their agencies’ advertising effectiveness.
60% of marketers state that agency selection has become more stringent, time-consuming and complex.

Selection of agency partners tends to be CMO driven, with 50% of CMOs reportedly making the final agency choice. This is not necessarily welcome news, as Forbes recently estimated that the average CMO has the least secure job in top management, at just over two years per stint.

The study also recommends 5 top techniques for improving client/agency collaboration, output and performance:

Ensuring teams are fully aligned and in-sync with objectives and deliverables (71 percent)
Identifying and addressing points of friction and disruption (52 percent)
Using or developing performance scorecards or metrics (40 percent)
Continuously auditing and assessing competency and effectiveness (39 percent)
Refining marketing operational processes to maximize efficiency (37 percent)

“Smart advertisers understand that good advertising comes from a partnership. It doesn’t come from an agency just delivering work, and it doesn’t come from clients trying to do it on their own.” John Ingersoll,Vice President, Marketing, Farmers Insurance

Click on the following link to download the entire Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s milestone report on client/agency effectiveness titled, “More Gain, Less Strain”. Be sure to read the Expert Prescriptions and Perspectives section.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: client agency relationships, CMO, CMO Council, Digital, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

It is time for ad agencies to pay attention to Pinterest

January 13, 2012

Pinterest has great potential for ad agencies: storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas, even organizing agency pitches.

Time Magazine named Pinterest one of the top 50 websites for 2011. It is one of the hottest new social media sites with enduring specialties that qualifies it as the next ‘Twitter.’ Its value through venture financing has soared from $40 million to over $200 million in only a few months.

Pinterest (pronounced to rhyme with interest) is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections. The mission statement of Pinterest is to connect everyone in the world through shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting. Wikipedia

A site like Pinterest helps provide a place for discovery, saving and sharing.

Pinterest is like a giant scrapbook of ideas. When you find things of interest, this new platform allows you to upload those images as Pins and place them on customized , themed Boards and organize and share them on any topic that you choose. Others can follow your Boards and add comments. You can also allow them to post to your boards.

A ‘Pinterest Picture’ is worth 1000 words.

People tend to be “eye-minded”. I think this is one of the primary reasons this site has become so popular.

Studies by educational researchers suggest that approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually.

There is a soothing quality in using Pinterest.

Once you spend some time understanding how it works you’ll find it fun and very addictive. I’ve personally spent hours on it.

Here is a listing of my boards, which include some that are business related and some that are personal:

Pinterest is still far behind site visitors comparative to Facebook, but it is making up for it in the amount of time spent on the site. An incredible 88.3 minutes was spent in November, according to comScore. This number is third only to Facebook (394 minutes) and Tumblr (141.7 minutes) and is also twice the amount of time that the average user spends on Twitter and 10 times the time spent on Google +.

Here are a some ideas on how to use Pinterest for your agency:

Showcase your agency’s brand in a unique way
Great potential for internal use with your agency’s creative teams – storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas, even organizing agency pitches
Enhance visual thinking and planning
It has important potential for your clients’ social media marketing mix
A great way to keep tabs on what is hot
Potential for greater SEO (you can embed Pinterest to your agency’s website or blog)
Organize areas of focus of the agency – keep up and share what is hot within your agency niche or industry focus
Interact with your audience by testing campaign ideas and concepts

To help you get started I recommend Rob Lammie’s a Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network

Please email me if you need an invitation to Pinterest or would like to submit your agency’s photo to the Advertising Agencies’ Offices Board.

2 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Advertising, Michael Gass, new business, Pinterest, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Top 10 Articles of 2011 for Ad Agency New Business

December 29, 2011

www.funphotobox.com

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

Content Marketing is Hard Work: 4 Tips to Make it Easier

December 15, 2011

Content marketing is the wave of the future for ad agency new business, but to have success you will need to make advance preparations to consistently deliver quality content.

I’ve recently written my 650th blog post article. I have a sense of jubilation mainly because I had been battling one of the most serious bouts of “writers block” since starting my blog. I had dealt with this dreaded writers malady in the past but I have never had this much trouble overcoming it.

Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some “blocked” writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers. Wikepedia

If you are discovering just how difficult it is to write and create quality content, you aren’t alone. Here’s a collection of notable quotes on the challenges of writing:

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Red Smith
“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” Steven Wright
“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” Gene Fowler
“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” James Michener
“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” Joseph Heller
“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” Enrique Jardiel Poncela
“I do not like to write – I like to have written.” Gloria Steinem
“Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s good only when it’s over.” Hunter S. Thompson
“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.” Anonymous
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

There is nothing mystical about writing, it is simply hard work. It begins with deciding on the purpose of your writing and who you are writing for. What is the benefit to your readers? What is the benefit to you? It’s also about making a serious time commitment and then grunting the work out until you get it done.

Here are some tips that I would suggest to make content creation easier:

Know your audience: One of the first things you MUST do is to identify who your audience is. Then you must focus your content toward their marketing challenges and needs. Use your analytics for instant feed back to know what content is appealing and what isn’t. Your audience will become the guide for your writing.
Keep your objective top-of-mind: You are writing with a purpose. Use content marketing to generate new business opportunities for the agency by building awareness, lead generation, referrals and positioning as a thought leader. If you don’t have a clear objective you will be wasting your time.
Commit to create original content: Many agencies are trying to take the easy way out by only curating the content of others. There is a place for curating content, but note that original content is in great demand. You will get the best return of your time investment if you are the one that is creating the content that others are curating. That’s where the gold is.
Develop a process for delivering content consistently: Small to midsize agencies should develop a content marketing team, but be sure to name the team leader. If everyone is responsible then no one is. A designated person should be responsible for setting up and managing the editorial calendar and edits as well as managing the content delivery process. I’m hearing from many agencies that have recently created a position of Content Director who oversees the creation of content on behalf of the agency as well as agency clients. I think this is a smart move. Agencies can also hire a freelancer to oversee and manage the process remotely.

Here are some additional articles to help with your agency’s content creation:

6 Comments | Content Marketing, Creating Content, New Business Trends | Tagged: Ad Agencies, business development, content curation, content marketing, Gloria Steinem, Michael Gass, new business, Red Smith | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Think Multiscreen for Ad Agency New Business

November 11, 2011

Photo Credit: mbiebusch

Keeping up with mobile technology and how it impacts consumer behavior is important because it inevitably effects how ad agencies will be reaching prospects in the near future.

“Most marketers are still struggling to figure out how to truly capitalize on the opportunities represented by long-form video and — more recently — social content. Now, a new imperative is clear, especially for those spending heavily on TV. Content and experiences that move seamlessly from one screen to another are an absolute must.” Jeremy Lockhorn, VP Emerging Media, Razorfish

Consumers’ use of emerging media driven by new technologies is moving at such a lightning pace that it’s difficult for agencies and the brands they represent to keep up. There is also the tendency for marketers to “over-focus” on things like television, mobile and social media as stand alone mediums rather than fully comprehending consumer behavior and creating a multiscreen strategy.

Emerging media and new technology also impacts business development for ad agencies. There is a need to understand how prospects are using new technology such as mobile and web-enabled devices. Plus there is a paradigm shift in business development for agencies from outbound new business tactics to inbound marketing. Agencies will need to be able to effectively reach prospective clients through a multiscreen new business strategy.

To better understand the impact of new technology and its rapidly evolving use of consumers here in the U.S., digital agency giant, Razorfish, partnered with Yahoo Mobile to conduct a study of mobile habits.

Here are some of the highlights from this study:

80% of respondents are mobile multitasking while watching TV.
70% of respondents who multitask do so at least once a week, with nearly half (49%) reporting everyday multitasking.
60% check their phones at least “once or twice” during the course of a TV show, and 15% stay on the mobile Web for the full duration of the show.
The top 5 categories for multitasking: 1. Reality 2. News 3. Comedy 4. Sports 5. Food
94% of multitaskers engage in some kind of mobile communication. In order — They are text, talking, email, social networking and IM.
60% of multitaskers are accessing additional content of some type.
44% is unrelated to what’s on TV versus only 38% related to TV.
Survey respondents were more likely to state that they frequently engaged in multitasking during TV ad breaks.
36% of multitaskers use their connected devices for looking up information on a commercial they just saw.

Click on the following link to read Jeremy’s article and additional information regarding the Razorfish and Yahoo Mobile Study: ”Forget Mobile – Think Multiscreen”

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Photo Credit: mbiebusch

3 Comments | Digital, New Business Trends | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, business development, emerging media, Jeremy Lockhorn, Michael Gass, mobile, Razorfish, Social Media, Yahoo Mobile | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

20 Top Inbound Marketing Resources for the Paradigm Shift in Ad Agency New Business

November 9, 2011

Intersection Consulting

Advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops should reverse their new business efforts from “Outbound Marketing” techniques to “Inbound Marketing.”

There is a dramatic paradigm shift for acquiring new business opportunities for advertising agencies, digital shops and PR firms. Agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus on inbound tactics, such as creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying on the traditional interruption model which consumers are responding to less and less.

MarketingSherpa reported in a CMO Study, 80 percent of decision makers said they FOUND their vendors (not the other way around). Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

Most agencies are spending the majority of their new business efforts on “Outbound Marketing” tactics such as direct mail, cold calling, email blasts and other efforts that push their message out to a wide, diverse prospective client audience. Their prospects are already inundated with over 2000 interruptions per day. They are becoming experts at blocking out those unsolicited outbound tactics.

It is much more effective and efficient to follow the paradigm shift to “Inbound Marketing” techniques where 100% of your potential clients will begin an agency search by using Google. The internet, coupled with social media marketing and inbound marketing techniques, takes the ability to network and gain referral business to a whole new level. It allows agencies to maintain a top of mind awareness without using interruption tactics and helps to build relationships quickly.

If an agency has been 90% focused on outbound marketing tactics and only 10% on inbound marketing, I recommend that they do just the opposite.

To make this shift effective, the most successful Inbound Marketing programs will have three key parts:

Content – Content is the fuel for this new business engine. It is what attracts potential clients to your site.
Search Engine Optimization – 90% of new business begins with online search.
Social Media – This will amplify the impact of your content.

Those agencies that adapt to this new business paradigm shift from “outbound marketing” methods to “inbound marketing” will have a distinct advantage over their competition. Some are already seeing results.

In a recent 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, 69% of businesses surveyed said that inbound marketing attributed to their lead generation success.

With help from American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, Junta42 and MarketingProfs surveyed over 1,100 North American B2B marketers from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes. The survey revealed that inbound marketing was a key lead generation source for 63% of the respondents:

Brand Awareness – 78%
Customer Attention/Loyalty – 69%
Lead Generation – 63%
Website Traffic – 55%
Thought Leadership – 52%
Sales – 51%
Lead Nurturing – 37%

The internet and the rise of social media has changed the nature of ad agency new business and subsequently changed the shape of the sales funnel. That initial client conversation today is much different from the one a decade ago because the prospect often knows as much about your agency as the new business director does and the prospect is already much more “qualified.”

Here are 20 of Fuel Lines’s most popular resources for helping agencies make the shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing for new business:

Image Credit: Intersection Consulting

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, Creating Content, New Business Tactics, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, business development, digital shops, inbound marketing, lead generation, Michael Gass, Public Relations, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

IBM Study: The 4 key challenges that CMOs everywhere are confronting

October 13, 2011

As CMOs struggle there is a window of opportunity for ad agency new business.

A new IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveals that most CMOs are well aware of the changing marketing landscape and the need to make fundamental changes to traditional marketing methods of brand and product marketing. But they are struggling to respond. Their unpreparedness to manage these key changes in the marketing arena presents a great opportunity for advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops. But, only if they are prepared to lead.

The study’s findings point to four key challenges that CMOs everywhere are confronting:

The explosion of data - 90% of the world’s data today has been created in the last two years alone.
The rise of social media - 56% of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel
Channel and device choices - The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, from smart phones to tablets, is quickly becoming a priority for CMOs.
Shifting demographics - New global markets and the influx of younger generations with different patterns of information access and consumption, are changing the face of the marketplace.

The Importance of Social Media

This study reiterates the importance of social media and the need for agencies to be better positioned as leaders in this evolving consumer engagement channel. Currently very few of the global or regional advertising agencies can claim a leadership position within this space.

Carolyn Heller Baird, CRM research lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value and the global director of the study, likens marketers who underestimate the impact of social media to those who were slow to view the internet as a new and powerful platform for commerce.

“The inflection point, created by social media, represents a permanent change in the nature of customer relationships … Like the rise of e-business more than a decade ago, the radical embrace of social media by all customer demographic categories represents an opportunity for marketers to drive increased revenue, brand value and to reinvent the nature of the relationship between enterprises and the buyers of their offerings.”

CMOs identify customer relationships as one of their top priorities. They recognize the impact of real-time data and social media supplementing traditional methods of marketing and gathering market feedback, but they remain stuck in traditional approaches. Missing another opportunity to lead, agencies haven’t been receptive to social media and slow to understand its relevance.

“Marketers who are receptive to social media and the insight it provides will be far better prepared to anticipate future shifts in markets and technology.”

Additional insights from this study:

78% of CMOs expect more complexity over the next five years, but only 48% are prepared to deal with it.
82% of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years, only 26 % are currently tracking blogs, 42 percent are tracking third-party reviews and 48 % are tracking consumer reviews to help shape their marketing strategies.
63% of CMOs believe return on investment (ROI) on marketing dollars spent will be the most important measure of their success by 2015. However, only 44 % feel fully prepared to be held accountable for marketing ROI.
Less than half of the CMOs surveyed have much sway over key parts of the pricing process and less than half have much impact on new product development or channel selection.
56% of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel, but they still struggle with capturing valuable customer insight from the unstructured data that customers and potential customers produce.
CMOs still focus primarily on traditional sources of information such as market research and competitive benchmarking and 68% rely on sales campaign analysis to make strategic decisions.
Four-fifths of respondents plan to use customer analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), social media and mobile applications more extensively over the next three to five years.
75% of CMOs believe marketing must manage brand reputation within and beyond the enterprise.

The IBM 2011 CMO Study Video News Release:

To access the full 2011 IBM Global CMO Study, visit http://ibm.com/cmostudy

8 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, CMO, digital shops, IBM CMO Study, Michael Gass, new business, pr firms | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The All Business “No Bull Crap” Guide to Social Media Marketing

October 11, 2011

Turning social media into social media marketing for ad agency new business.

No Bullshit Social Media is a new book that I highly recommend for ad agencies. It is hype-free advice on how to use social media marketing for business and contains a wealth of statistics, illustrations and case studies. The books insights will be of practical help to your agency and clients.

The reason your agency needs social media is that it can drive real new business opportunities and will provide a serious step up on your competitors.

The book is co-written by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers.

I’ve known Jason since starting my own consultancy back in 2007. He understands ad agencies having previously worked for Doe Anderson, a regional agency in Louisville, KY. Jason has built a successful and highly regarded digital and social media consulting service, the Social Media Explorer. He also authors one of the most widely read and well-respected blogs in the industry where he shares his insight at ExploringSocialMedia.com.

Erik was an early adopter of social media and has been blogging since 1997. He is the co-owner and VP of Creative Services for Professional Blog Service in Indianapolis. He has been a newspaper humor columnist for 17 years, and is published in 10 newspapers around Indiana. Erik co-authored Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (Pearson, 2010). He also helped write Twitter Marketing For Dummies.

I love the following quote taken from the first chapter of the book. It sets the tone for the practical no-nonsense advice you are going to find in this book.

“Social Media Is for Hippies. Social Media Marketing Is for Business.”

That is exactly the mindset needed if you are going to generate new business through the use of social media. Jason and Erik, unapologetically, break from the way early adopters of social were using it. Their philosophy is more pragmatic by taking social media from the playground to the office suite to market your business.

“… the social media marketing world now knows that companies need business outcomes from their social media efforts, namely increased sales, profits, and market share.

A lot of preparation went into writing this book. Erik shared with me that he and Jason spent over 5 months on just the research for the statistics and illustrations on how businesses are finding success with social media marketing. These case studies makes a persuasive argument for social media’s potential as it continues to evolve and mature.

“If social media can help overthrow a government, what will it do for your company.”

Most agencies are accustomed to gaining new business through networks and referrals. Social media has the potential to take your personal networks to a whole new level. Jason and Erik provide you with rich insights on why and how you should do it.

The book addresses 7 major benefits social media marketing has for businesses and agencies.

Social media marketing can:

Aid in branding and awareness
Protect your reputation
Extend public relations
Build community
Drive customer service
Funnel research and development
Drive sales and leads

A reminder that you can’t measure your progress until you first define success. This book gives you a strategic blueprint to get your agency focused for new business success with social media marketing and some great ideas to help your agency become more of a social business.

PEOPLE want to work with other PEOPLE that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE.

Order the book now at NoBullshitSocialMedia.com. I purchased the Kindle version from Amazon but you can also order it from B&N, Borders, Books-A-Million and Que.

2 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Business, business development, Erick Deckers, Jason Falls, Michael Gass, social media marketing | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

8 Reasons Why This Is Such An Exciting Time for the Smaller Ad Agencies

October 5, 2011

Big Fuel

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

These are certainly unconventional times that we live in. A recent IBM study states that we will see more change in the next 5 years than in the previous fifty.

We are still in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The recession that began in 2008 still isn’t over and economists are forewarning the possibility that this could be a double-dip recession.

The rise of social media as another communication’s channel, has impacted our society and the way we do business. Social media marketing best practices are quickly evolving. But as soon as you start to get comfortable using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, a new social media platform is introduced, such as Google Plus, and it’s back to school all over again.

Smart phones and tablets further impact our culture and how we communicate.

New business professionals for ad agencies and PR firms, who were once good at what they did are now struggling. The way new business is acquired is changing rapidly. The interruption type tactics, which were successful in the past, are becoming less and less effective.

With all of the upheaval and uncertainty for our industry, this is certainly an exciting, revolutionary time to be in advertising. Particularly for the small-to-midsize advertising or public relations agency.

8 reasons why this is such an exciting time to be in advertising, particularly for the smaller agencies:

They have the opportunity to build awareness well beyond their local markets.
A real opportunity exists to work with bigger clients and nationally known brands.
Agencies can generate more appeal by creating a narrower niche. They can hyper-focus on a specific target audience, category or discipline or a combination of these.
Increased revenue by being better positioned for their advertising and marketing expertise through category or target audience experience or through a particular discipline.
Network and referral business becomes more efficient.
Inbound lead generation is proving to be less expensive than traditional outbound leads.
Allows agencies to work with the clients that match up well with its core strengths.
More new client accounts can be won without pitching.

9 Comments | Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency, advertising agencies, inbound lead generation, Michael Gass, new business, public relation firms, Recession, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Advertising Week: Resources for Daily Reports, Live Updates and Videos

October 3, 2011

If you can’t attend Advertising Week here are some good resources to follow the events, capture insights and even participate in the dialogue through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google +.

Oct. 3 kicks off Advertising Week, New York’s premier annual gathering of marketing and communications leaders from around the world.

Begun in 2004, Advertising Week now draws over 70,000 people who will attend some 200 events featuring the industry’s best and brightest thought leaders. The panels, programs and parties during Advertising Week are divided among multiple locations.

In honor of the week, The Huffington Post has dedicated a new site to cover the events, news, people, articles, blogs and buzz for the week: The Huffington Post Advertising Week 2011. This is a helpful resource.

Here are a few of the articles and insights from Day 1:

Google and Facebook to Take Advantage of Advertising Week

Both Google and Facebook are announcing new ad formats that each hopes will increase engagement between consumers and brands. According to Bloomberg, Google is launching Web-based circular ads that will “make Internet advertising look more like the Sunday paper.” Facebook is also planning to announce its own new crop of “expandable” ads, Mashable reported. Read more

For additional updates from Advertising Week:

Follow on Twitter: @advertisingweek Hashtag: #aw8
Facebook: www.facebook.com/advertisingweek
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/advertising-week
YouTube’s Advertising Week Channel
Advertising Week Blog
Website: www.advertisingweek.com
Forbes: A CMO’s Guide to Advertising Week
Advertising Week Brought to You by Bloomberg: Daily reports and video from NYC’s Big Event

1 Comment | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: Advertising Week, adweek, Andrew Robertson, Michael Gass, New York, The Huffington Post | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: 69% of Businesses Increased New Business Leads Through Blogging

September 30, 2011

Blogging greatly improves search engine optimization, which has proven to be a key lead generating factor for new business.

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. Blogs make their search easier.

2011 HubSpot ROI Study

In a recent 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, 69% of businesses surveyed said that blogging attributed their lead generation success. The study also found that 75% of businesses believed SEO was a primary factor. The study shows companies that blog attract 55% more website visitors than non-blogging companies.

Blogs generate far more visitors by:

Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked) the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
Click-through traffic - through posting interesting articles a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not conducive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
Personality - create a blog around your agency’s culture and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate with people they like. It’s hard to make friends with a business, but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors tell their friends, who tell their friends … and so on.
Authority/credibility – blogging allows you to become an expert in the minds of your prospective clients.

Ad Agency Website | Blog

Your agency’s website functions well as an online brochure, a place for agency credentials and credibility. A website doesn’t have the potential that an agency blog has for significant online traffic and provide prospects a reason to visit often. A blog can be the gateway to your agency. Through content marketing, focused toward a specific target audience, an agency’s blog can become a great lead generation tool for new business.

Your agency’s website is about YOU but your blog should be about THEM. Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It forces you speak to their benefit instead of agency credentials and capabilities. Blog content, if developed correctly, will have more appeal to your prospective client audience because it is focused on their marketing needs and challenges.

14 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, ad agency new business, blogs, content marketing, Hubspot, lead generation, Michael Gass, SEO, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

A 70 Point Checklist for Jump-Starting or Tuning-Up Your Blog for New Business

September 29, 2011

You should evaluate your agency’s blog to optimize its potential as a tool for lead generation, referrals and networking.

There is a dramatic paradigm shift for acquiring new business opportunities for small to midsize ad agencies. Agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus for creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying primarily on the interruption model of cold calls and unsolicited direct mail, which consumers are responding to less and less.

Creating new business opportunities through social media is growing. In a recent Ad Agency New Business Survey that I conducted, 64% of the 430 responding ad agencies said they now have a blog. Unfortunately, a number of these blogs are not optimized for new business.

I’ve compiled the following 70 point check-list to help “jump-start” or “tune-up”agency blogs for new business:

Identify your audience. This will help to make your writing easier and more focused.
State the purpose of your blog. Create a descriptor statement in the blog’s Header. A one sentence summation of the purpose for your blog. Expand upon the descriptor statement in a “Welcome” section in your blog’s sidebar.
Make sure that your blog’s benefit to your visitors is crystal clear.
Reading fuels your writing. You need a good strategic reading program with a clear focus that is centered upon your audience’s interest and needs.
Have calls-to-action that are clear. What do you want your audience to do? They can subscribe to your newsletter, inquire about your services, download a white-paper or eBook, email you their questions, etc.
Create each post title with the keywords you want to dominate through search (i.e. “ad agency new business”). It is also helpful to flag a targeted audience through Twitter and let them know the content is specific to their needs.
The first sentence of your post should be the “takeaway or benefit statement”. Just simply answer the question, what will be my takeaway or benefit if I commit to read this post? Lead with the conclusion.
Have a distinct point-of-differentiation.
Remember that online readers prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.
Focus on providing quality information over the quantity of posts being generated.
Build relationships with your readers by integrating your blog with Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Your blog should become a repository of valued information for your audience. This means that it’s not all original content. I recommend writing 1 original post for every 4 or 5 resource posts.
Use bulleted or numbered lists often. Readers love them.
Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others).
Publish on a regular schedule. Be consistent in delivering at least 3 to 5 posts per week. This will keep your readers coming back for more. Also, frequently updated content makes search engines happy.
Build credibility and authority for your niche.
Highlight your successes through a featured page such as Press, Awards or your Profile page.
Write headlines that are benefit driven.
Evaluate and improve your writing so that it stands out among the crowd.
Make your posts easy to find and your blog simple to navigate.
Highlight popular posts.
Provide links to additional resources. I almost always provide “Additional articles that may be of interest” at the end of most of my post, linking to similar content from my blog and other sources. It also will keep your visitors on your site longer and improve their experience.
Half the word count (or less) than conventional writing. Usually 350 to 450 words.
Demonstrate how you stand out in your niche. Provide testimonials, comments, featured articles, endorsements, and statistics—in text, audio, and video format through additional linked blog pages or specialty pages.
Provide one call-to-action with clear instructions above the fold.
Avoid jargon and agency speak.
Provide headlines and sub headlines that make it easy for readers to skim your piece before reading the entire article.
Don’t use white writing on black or colored background that makes it hard for people to read.
Create or choose a blog layout that isn’t cluttered or confusing.
Provide captions (where appropriate) on photos that are keyword rich and benefit-driven.
Don’t use too many fonts, colors, and sizes.
Check to see that your blog is quick to load.
Have a clean, simple, banner at the top of your blog that creates the right feeling on your site. A personal rather than corporate feel.
Break-up long text with sub-headings, bullet points, italics, indention, photos and graphics.
Your opt-in should be above the fold.
Provide an incentive for visitors to give you their name and email.
Only ask for opt-in information that you intend to utilize.
Don’t adhere to the belief that if you “build it and they will come”.
Test, monitor and fine tune your blog regularly.
Use offline-to-online marketing to further promote your blog.
Collect blog stats on results weekly, or per campaign.
In the early phase of promoting your blog, consider paid traffic, Facebook PPC and banner ads.
Build or buy email lists as you build your opt-in list for your niche. A good resource would be The List out of Atlanta, GA.
Write guest articles for other blogs in your niche and even other niches.
Submit your blog post to online directories.
Facilitate referral opportunities through your blog.
Interact regularly through social media—Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Run competitions. I’ve generated a lot of traffic to my blog through an “Agency Blog of the Month” contest that culminated into an “Agency Blog of the Year”.
Conduct online surveys and polls through your blog at least quarterly and share results in a post article, PRWeb or PR Newswire.
Create partnering and promotional opportunities with online thought leaders in your niche.
Find ways, through your blog, to help your readers engage with one another.
Write with an “evergreen” style that allows your blog posts to have a long shelf-life and provide a greater return on your time investment.
Write for fast comprehension.
Be sure to include a photo or graphic for each post to add some additional flavor. Use only images that you have rights to or Creative Commons-licensed content that you can find through photo sharing service such as Flicker.com.
Repurpose content. Someone that finds one of your blog post through search might click-through to another post because you have repurposed it through an email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google +.
Carefully think through your blog’s heading. A “heading” is a stand-alone phrase that describes your blogs content that appear below it. I usually advise clients to create a blog descriptor statement for the header that lets a reader and search engines know the purpose and intent of the content such as “Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media.”
Write consistently: This is important to creating regular readership. Write at least 3 to 5 posts per week.
Make sure that your blog’s content stays focused and relevant to your target audience. Especially when developing curated content. Curation is essentially the organizing and sharing (some might even say “repackaging”) of content in ways that are meaningful to a specific target audience. There is a lot of great information you can glean from online that is not related to your readership, but you can easily make them relevant.
Be sure you own your domain name. A person that still has “wordpress or blogspot” in their domain won’t be able to change blogging platforms without losing traffic. This is a huge mistake.
Be sure your site is indexed with Google. If your pages are not indexed, then Google is not crawling them.
Build quality inbound links.There are many online business directories where you can just submit your URL, agency’s name and a description of your services.
Make sure your content can be easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, Linked, as well as social bookmarking sites such as Digg, dell.icio.us and StumbleUpon with Share buttons.
Jump-start traffic by repurposing your blog’s content through an email newsletter that is sent every-other-week. Don’t assume that because you’ve written a post, everyone has read it. You should always assume just the opposite.
Build a sizable Twitter following that is targeted using TweetAdder and repurpose your blog content to your Twitter account using a program such as Social Oomph. Twitter can become your blog’s number one tool for generating targeted traffic.
Invite others to guest post for your blog but be selective.
Be proactive in facilitating speaking opportunities by creating a “Speakers Page” for your blog, list the topics and titles that you can speak to.
Place your RSS Subscription Feed button above the fold, near the top of you blog’s homepage.
Also place a subscription for your email newsletter within your blog’s sidebar to create Opt-Ins from site visitors.
Review your blog site’s analytics daily to see what posts are generating the most traffic, what search terms are being used, where traffic is coming from, who is linking to you, links readers clicked on, page views, etc.
Create a first-step call-to-action for your readers to know how to initially engage with your services. This could be a market or brand audit, or a workshop. Whatever it is, make it something simple and of good value . Price it low so that it doesn’t require a lot of time to consider. It will at least pay for your time in front of a prospect and lead to more new business opportunities. A call-to-action will also help separate your qualified prospects from those that just want to pick your brain for free.

Some additional agency blogging resources:

7 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, Creating Content, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, blogs, business development, content curation, content marketing, lead generation, Michael Gass, networking, referrals, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways Social Media Marketing Makes New Business Easier

September 23, 2011

Photo Credit NCinDC

For agency new business, you need to look at social media as a saviour not a nemesis; an asset rather than a liability; a time saver rather than a time killer.

Having spent most of my advertising career in new business development I can tell you that social media marketing is the most efficient new business tool that I have ever used.

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

1. Social media marketing allows agencies to easily define and adopt a differentiating new business strategy

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

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

Small to midsize agencies have been reluctant to name what they stand for. Social media marketing allows agencies to adopt a narrower niche and a more differentiating strategy than they would be comfortable in doing through their website.

“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 waaay 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

“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 had 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 they would be missing opportunities.

Here are a couple of other examples:

The Littlefield ad agency, Tulsa, OK, is carving out a niche through their The One Thing blog: The casino marketers guide to understanding gamers, written by the agency’s new business director, Kelly Fiddner.
MAX Advertising, Atlanta, GA, has created The Matte Pad, Marketing know how for the legal profession, written by its CEO, Tom Matte.

The way these agencies are using social media as a differentiating tool doesn’t impact the way the have obtained new business in the past. It doesn’t impede the networking and referral business that is generated offline. MAX advertising will still obtain new business outside of legal marketing and even though Littlefield is focused on casino marketers, it doesn’t impact winning a sizable local bank as a new client.

Why would a prospective client, outside of your market, want to work with your agency? Why would they pass over hundreds of other agencies to work with yours? Through a differentiating social media marketing strategy you can give them a reason.

2. Social media marketing provides an easy system to create intellectual capital and share your area of expertise

Social media marketing is effectively driven by content development and curation. This in turn provides a customized continuing education program for your professional enrichment, keeping you ahead of the learning curve and positioning as a thought leader.

An added plus, social media marketing pays for you to go back to school! What you do for professional enrichment will also provide your FUEL for new business.

3. Social media marketing lessens dependency upon new business tactics that rely on interruption tactics

I’m a cold caller from way back and have had much success with it in the past. But times are changing rapidly. Cold calling isn’t what it use to be and it isn’t an efficient or effective method for agency 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 marketing has the potential for building prospective client relationships much faster than cold calling.

Can you imagine a prospective client picking up the phone and initiating a call for the first meeting with your agency? It doesn’t happen very often. That’s not the norm. The vast majority of the time, small to midsize agencies, PR firms and digital shops are chasing after new business opportunities.

Having steadily grown my consultancy over the past 4 years, I have yet to make an initial call for any new business. I strategically built awareness and appeal through my social media networks.

Prospective clients call and those initial conversations are much further down-the-road. They talk to me as if they know me, because they do know me. I’ve built a relationship with them online through the use of social media and when they make that call, they are usually ready to do business. You skip the dating process and move straight to the altar.

Why? People want to work with other people that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE. Social media is an efficient and effective communication channel that allows relationships to be built much faster than they could be offline.

For instance, to have a physical, initial meeting here in my home town of Birmingham, Alabama would take much longer and is less efficient than the way I generate new business opportunities online through my social media networks.

I can be building a relationship with an agency in Costa Mesa, California while simultaneously I’m doing the same with an agency in Portland, Maine and Miami, Florida. I am doing this while I’m networking internationally through a network of agencies in South Africa and a couple of agencies in London.

All of this networking is taking place from my home office located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama or from where ever I happen to be.

4. Social media marketing allows agencies to broaden their market

Small to midsize ad agencies can affordably build a national awareness.

Prior to using social media for new business, The Russo Group in 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 has extended their business in over 9 different states.

The growth clients well outside of their market of Lafayette had never happened before. Social media marketing made the difference.

Not long ago I received this message from a midsize agency located outside of Cleveland, Ohio:

“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

This agency has a very narrow niche, manufacturers who target professional tradesmen, plumbers, electricians, contractors. They’ve been able to play to their strengths because social media marketing broadens their business opportunities.

5. Social media marketing helps create consistent new business practices

You can keep your prospective pipeline full even when your agency is at its busiest. Once you develop your social media marketing strategy and get it in place, it will take little effort to keep it working on your behalf.

We previously owned a houseboat that was docked at a marina in Nashville, TN. I often would make the 250 mile drive to spend time on the boat. I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the culture around the docks at Black Jack Cove Marina. My new business pipeline didn’t suffer when I spent weeks there. Often I would be sitting on the back of the boat watching the sun set while cranking out another blog post and engaging with new business prospects hundreds of miles away.

I can easily create, maintain and grow new prospective client relations through my social media network. It is similar to how I would network offline but much more efficient. It is like networking on steroids.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

4 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, content marketing, Michael Gass, she-conomy, social media marketing, SONNHALTER, Stephanie Holland, The Russo Group | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Prime Time Benefits of Blogging for New Business

September 22, 2011

Photo Credit zoutedrop

The majority of ad agencies have yet to comprehend what huge benefits a blog can make and why it deserves to be “prime time” for new business.

With help from American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, Junta42 and MarketingProfs surveyed over 1,100 North American B2B marketers from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes. The survey revealed that content marketing, including blogs, is a key lead generation source for 63% of the respondents.

Brand Awareness – 78%
Customer Attention/Loyalty – 69%
Lead Generation – 63%
Website Traffic – 55%
Though Leadership – 52%
Sales – 51%
Lead Nurturing – 37%

Here’s the story of how my blog helped launch my business

I started my consulting business just prior to The Great Recession. We had three kids in college at the time. I didn’t have a lot of funds to promote my services nor the time to play around with social media. But, I sensed the potential of social media for building awareness quickly and creating new business opportunities. So I jumped in, immersing myself in it as if I were back in grad school. From early mornings until late at night and even weekends, I spent time trying to get my head around this new communication channel but always from a new business perspective.

From the start I was compelled to monetize social media, forced to press the envelope beyond the way the early adopters of social media had intended for it to be used. Within a short three months I was already securing new clients as well as an income that matched my previous salary.

From the beginning, the centerpiece of my social media strategy was my blog

My blog, Fuel Lines, literally launched my consultancy. If I had promoted my business using traditional methods, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have spent a substantial amount of money and it would have taken much longer for my consultancy business to be where it is today.

Once I created my blog it became a never-ending cycle of content development and learning curves based on the fast progression of social media. It has been a process of “learn as you go”. I came upon an old adage in the early days of my writing, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down”. This is so true. My blog has served as a key tool for my personal continuing education program. It brought focus to my reading and writing along with the discovery enriching online resources that fuel both content created from other sources and original content.

Content marketing, through my blog, quickly became one of my most effective marketing tools. Instead of the typical “once and done” traffic of a website, my blog has provided a much better platform for repeat traffic and search visibility.

Here are the benefits that I hope will give you reason to devote Prime Time to your agency’s blog:

1. Generate more online traffic

“Businesses (agencies) that blog, get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t,” According to a social media study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42

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

Blogs develop more visitors by:

Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked), the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
Click-through traffic - by posting interesting articles, a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not conducive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
Personality - Put a face with your agency. Create a blog around a person(s) and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate and work with people they know, trust and like. It’s hard to make friends with a business, but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors share it with their friends, who share with their friends … and so on.

2. A blog is a great place for your best prospects to easily find you

MarketingSherpa reported that a CMO Study, 80 percent of decision makers said they FOUND their vendors (not the other way around).

New business for ad agencies has been going through a paradigm shift; instead of chasing after prospective clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find you. Blogs allows you to take full advantage of this paradigm shift for new business, shifting a good portion of your time and energy from outbound lead generation to implementing an inbound lead generation strategy.

A content marketing strategy is a major feature for inbound lead generation and a blog is a central component.

3. A positioning tool

Most ad agencies struggle with narrowing their target audience and thus have great difficulty in positioning and differentiating themselves. A blog is a tool that allows agencies to more easily define and adopt a differentiating new business strategy. Agencies are more comfortable with a narrower niche through a blog than they ever would be with their website.

Here are some examples of agency blogs with a strong target focus and differentiated positioning:

momentum: Moms rule the social web. Does your brand have momentum? - Big Fuel, Manhattan, NY
Off The Shelf: Helping private label food brands take advantage of all the opportunities the market offers – Barkley, Kansas City, MO
Park Howell: Sustainable Storyteller. How sustainable are you and your green marketing - Park & Company, Phoenix, AZ
Roxanne Joffe: Helping women to start, run and grow their business - Cap Brand Marketing, Sarasota, FL
Tradesmen Insights: Marketing to the professional tradesman in the Construction, Industrial and MRO markets - SONNHALTER, Berea, OH
Creative Triage: Market your community hospital efficiently – ABZ Design Group, Charlotte, NC
The Matte Pad: Marketing Know-How for the legal profession – MAX Advertising, Atlanta, GA
Turn Up Your Volume: Strategists and marketers that are looking for ways to drive high-contribution patient volume – The Heavyweights, Indianapolis, IN
Healthy Conversations: Inspiration, Insights & Ideas for Creating New Value – Trajectory, Morristown, NJ
MARKETINGHOMEPRODUCTS: Marketing strategies and communication tactics related to the home and building channel – Kleber & Associates, Atlanta, GA
The One Thing Blog: The casino marketers guide to understanding gamers - Littlefield, Tulsa, OK
Fifth Gear Analytics: Accerlarting sales through analytical insights – SIGMA Marketing Group, Rochester, NY
Ask Smarter Questions: Data drive marketing & business intelligence – Levelwing, Charleston, SC

4. Your own focus group for new business

I have been enriched by having this online, ongoing, personal “focus group” that has provided real-time feedback and insights. My blog readers provide me with an ongoing education. They help me to help them. They let me know whether or not I’m clearly communicating with them. They help me to take my experience and expertise with agency new business and social media and become better at meeting their specific needs.

5. The recycling of older content for a greater ROI

You will 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.

Here are some ways to repurpose your blog 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. The odds 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. These are not with the same frequency of posting as you would with Twitter.

6. A pipeline for consistent lead generation

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 content marketing through a blog can keep your new business pipeline full even when you are away.

7. Leading with client benefits instead of agency capabilities

Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It’s not about YOU it’s all about THEM. It forces you speak to their benefit instead of talking about your agency.

If you don’t have a passion to help your audience succeed, you wont success with blogging. As soon as you start to “sell” your agency or brag about your credentials and awards, you will lose your credibility along with your audience. Instead, provide content that helps your prospects with their marketing challenges and build trust. Then new business will come.

8. A professional enrichment tool

Blogging will enrich your professional life, keep you up to date with the freshest thinking and help you to be acquainted with the newest and best trends. Writing to a specific audience to help them with their needs will focus your reading and your writing. You have direction to begin each day and that makes blogging easier.

9. Enhances Network and Referrals

A survey of advertising agencies conducted by Fuel Lines, reveals that 50% of the 430 responding agencies generated new business from two primary sources last year: referrals and networking.

Agencies have long understood the importance of individual connections to generate new business. It has always been the lifeblood of small to midsize agencies. Thankfully, albeit slowly, agencies are starting to understand the potential of social media to enhance networks and referral opportunities.

A blog, as the centerpiece of your social media strategy, will greatly enhance your capabilities of networking within your local market plus far beyond it.

Over the summer, I wrote a post from my hotel room in London, England. I was reflecting on how far I’ve come since I created my blog. I have worked with new clients all across the United States from Costa Mesa, CA to Port Clyde, Maine and this year had my first overseas client in the UK. I’ve recently been invited to speak to agencies across South Africa in the cities of Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

I’ve generated these personal networks and referrals by blogging from my home office which is located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama. It’s absolutely amazing.

10. A Call-to-Action converting blog visitors into new business opportunities

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.

I would suggest creating an offer for a particular service, 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.

3 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency, advertising agencies, blogs, business development, content marketing, Michael Gass, networks, new business, referrals, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing for Ad Agency New Business

September 19, 2011

Photo Credit Hubspot

Inbound marketing techniques are rapidly becoming more important for agency new business.

Over the past four years I’ve seen a steady progression of agencies embracing social media as part of their new business program. Primarily because of the way their prospective clients are making decisions on how they are finding their agency partner. Traditional, “outbound marketing” methods are getting less and less effective.

CMO Survey: 80 percent of decision makers said they found there vendors, not the other way around. MarketingSherpa

Social media is now mainstream and has greatly advanced the importance of “inbound marketing” techniques. Your agency’s prospects are more in control of what information they receive and how they receive it. They are able to get a considerable amount of information about your agency without ever interacting with you directly.

Those agencies that have adapted to this new business paradigm shift from “outbound marketing” methods to “inbound marketing” have an distinct advantage over their competition.

A helpful resource on how companies are generating business through inbound marketing is the “2011 State of Inbound Marketing” report. This is a study, conducted by Hubspot., and is based on responses from 644 marketing professionals.

Here are the reports top 10 key takeaways:

Inbound consistently delivers a dramatically lower cost per lead than outbound. In 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $373, while inbound businesses reported their leads cost on average $143.
The gap between spending on inbound v. outbound continues to widen: In 2009, inbound marketing had a 9% greater share of the lead generation budget; in 2011 inbound’s share was 17% greater.
Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.
More and more business are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog. From 2009 to 2011 the percentage of businesses with a blog grew from 48% to 65%.
Three out of four Inbound Channels cost less than any Outbound Channel: In 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $373, while inbound businesses reported their leads cost on average $143.
Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable: 85% of businesses rated their company blogs as “Useful”, “Important” or “Critical”; a whopping 27% rated their company blog as “Critical” to their business.
The majority of businesses are increasing their Inbound Marketing budgets:54% of those surveyed are increasing their inbound marketing budgets. Among the 54% of respondents with increased inbound marketing budgets, the most commonly cited reason was ―past success with inbound marketing.
Social Media and Blogs generate real customers:57% of those using company blogs have acquired a customer from a blog-generated lead; this is an increase of 11 percentage points since 2010. Facebook and Twitter users reported customer acquisition rates of 48% and 42%, respectively.
Company blogs are increasingly valued. The blog is the channel most frequently reported as critical or important, both in 2009 and 2011. Higher Education, Professional Services & Consulting, and Software & Biotech found blogging was highly effective. All of those industries had over 50% of respondents indicating customer acquisition through their blog.
Most company blogs publish at least weekly. 71% of respondents indicated they blog at least weekly. Despite the evidence showing that increased blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition, blogging frequency remained relatively steady between 2009 and 2011.

HubSpot’s 2011 “State of Inbound Marketing Report” is now available for download.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

6 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, Hubspot, inbound marketing, Michael Gass, outbound marketing, Social Media, traditional marketing | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agencies: 7 tips that will prep social media success for new business

September 15, 2011

Photo Credit Maxey

“It’s not the will to succeed, but the will to prepare to succeed that makes the difference.” Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant

It wasn’t until 2010 that most small to mid-size ad agencies gave up fighting against the social media tide and decided to dive in.

When most agencies finally jumped into social media, they had a check list that merely showcased how they were a bona-fide member of the social media community. From the get-go they were not prepped for success.

“We have an agency blog – check; Twitter account with the agency’s logo – check; Facebook Fan page – check; LinkedIn account for the agency – check!”

No strategy. No specific audience. No positioning and no appeal. Instead of using this new communication channel as an opportunity to showcase how they were different, they ended up looking just the same.

They are positioned online the same way they were offline – as a generalist instead of a specialist and once again following the “safe-way” instead of the “smart-way.”

Is there any wonder why most agencies are not having much success using social media to create new business opportunities?

As a new business consultant. I understand the need for acquiring new business NOW. But short-term solutions will not provide long-term results.

To be prepped for success using social media for agency new business, here are 7 tips that I hope you find helpful:

Identify and connect with a specific target audience. Face it, most agencies are afraid to put their stake in the ground and even identify their target audience. You would never recommend a marketing campaign for a client without first identifying who they are trying to reach.
Lead with benefits. Social media helps agencies to talk in a new way from the self promotional agency speak of the past. For success with social media, it’s about them not you. Your communication and content should be focused on your prospective client audience and be of benefit too them.
Differentiate from your competitors. You wont win any significant business by showcasing how you match up with the rest of the agencies. You must un-level the playing field. Set yourself apart. What would give a company a reason to fly across a number of states and over hundreds of other agencies, to do business with your agency? Social media provides a great opportunity for your agency to stand out.
Become a specialist instead of a generalist. Our world is becoming more and more specialized and the internet and social media allows you and your agency to become more specialized than you dared offline.
Create chemistry. Remember that social media is about people. You lead with a person, not the agency. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Social media is the greatest networking tool in my lifetime. I’ve built my consultancy utilizing it; building a network with agencies all across the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Africa from my home in Alabaster, Alabama. How incredible is that?
Develop appeal. One of the great benefits for using social media for new business is the instant feedback from your audience. It allows you to easily test your message and hone your appeal. It forces you to give up the “agency speak.” Analytics will provide insight into the needs, challenges and objectives of your prospective client audience. Your community of prospects will let you know whether or not what you communicate is of value to them.
Earn positioning as a “thought leader.” Thought leadership is a critical component in using social media for new business. But you will never attain such status without a platform and focus. Social media provides a great platform. You much choose your area of focus if you are to have success.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agencies, Bear Bryant, Michael Gass, Small to Midsize Ad Agencies, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

How McKinney achieved one of the best new-business records among advertising agencies

August 23, 2011

Innovation and collaboration, two keys to ad agency new business.

McKinney is an independent advertising agency based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1969 by Charles “Chick” McKinney, the agency is now independently owned by a management team led by Brad Brinegar, CEO. It has been recognized as one of the nine best agencies in the country by Advertising Age

In 2003, McKinney became one of the first agencies to pioneer connection planning, which determines the most innovative and creative ways of bringing brands and people together in mutually beneficial ways - ADWEEK

In that same year, McKinney hired a group of interactive experts and injected them into the agency’s existing disciplines. (Today, 35% of the agency’s revenue comes from interactive activities, and 88% of frontline staff is actively engaged in interactive work.) Brad Brinegar: Online Advertising

In 2006, McKinney combined its three strategic disciplines (account planning, connection planning and interactive strategy) into one strategic offering and named Andrew Delbridge, previously director of account planning, partner and chief strategy officer - The Cyber One Report 2006

Under Brad Brinegar’s leadership, Mckinney has achieved one of the best new-business records in the advertising agency industry by being collaborative and innovative.

Brad learned the meaning of collaboration as an oarsman on Dartmouth’s crew team: “It’s not intuitive, but a boat actually goes slower when one guy rows better than the rest. And there is no defense in rowing, no way of stopping the other team. So the only way to win is to be smarter, work harder, care more and pull together better than your opponents.” McKinney’s website

How he has brought innovation and collaboration to McKinney:

“We designed our entire space, from the ground up, for collaboration.”
“We invest twice the industry average in strategic resources, to make sure that our innovations are grounded in addressing the right business issues to create the results we want.”
“We work in cross-disciplinary brand-teams, to increase the odds that different perspectives will lead to fresh insight.”
“We bring in lots of outside speakers to teach new perspectives.”

Click on the following link to read Business Management Daily’s recent interview with Brad, “Distruptive Player a Game-Changer”

Leave a Comment » | Agency Branding, Agency Leadership, New Business Talents, New Business Trends | Tagged: Ad Age, advertising agencies, adweek, collaboration, Durham, innovation, McKinney, Michael Gass, NC, new business | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency Compensation: The biggest frustration of CMOs

August 22, 2011

For small to mid-size ad agencies, it’s time to address the cost of creating advertising in terms of time and money.

All our clients want to know is this – Can your agency solve my problems quickly and at less cost?

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. We’ve seen digital technology bring about fundamental change to the news industry, then the music industry. Now seismic change is being forced upon the advertising industry.

Ad industry downsized. There are nearly 120,822 advertising and marketing services companies in the US. We have an over supplied market and receding demand. This is an industry that has already laid off over 160,000 people because of the bloat, the wrong kinds of people and too much inefficiency. Not to mention that we are in the worst economic periods since the great depression and it is far from over.

The same problems that led to he agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution are now plaguing the ad industry in this digital revolution.

John Winsor is currently the CEO of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowd sourcing principles and former VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. John addressed the future of advertising agency compensation head on in a recent article written for his blog, John Winsor: Views from the CEO of Victors & Spoils about the future of marketing and product design.

Personally having discussions with dozens of CMOs of Fortune 500 companies John addresses their greatest frustration, the cost of creating advertising – both time and money.

He writes,

“Businesses act based on the way they are compensated. And, the majority of agencies are compensated by selling their people’s time. Compensation is based on the number of FTE’s or full-time employees working on a piece of business. In the age of collaboration the FTE model is broken. The fact is that many agencies make more money when they put more people, or say they do, onto a piece of business. Likewise, it’s more profitable to take more time to do something. If a project should take a month there’s no disincentive for most agencies to drag it out longer.

If advertising industry is to thrive in the age of collaboration we must address the root of the problem, the way we are compensated for our work. If we don’t many companies won’t survive the current economic transformation that’s underway.”

John encourages agencies to come together to fix the problem and proactively transform our industry before it is changed without us.

Click on the following link to read John’s article, “Fees, Lies and Advertising” also follow John on Twitter. John’s books include:

For the latest industry news and resources from all corners of the internet, be sure and check out my new site: Gass On Line: Daily fuel for ad agencies

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Compensation, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency compensation, CMO, Crispin, digital revolution, Fortune 500 companies, John Winsor, Michael Gass, Porter + Bogusky, Victors & Spoils | 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

How did YOU get into ad agency business development?

June 27, 2011

John Sharpe and his dad mowing the lawn

Ad agency new business hunters are a unique group who share some common traits even though their personal stories of how they got into this business are usually very different.

John Sharpe a partner and the Chief Marketing Office for the BOHAN advertising agency, Nashville, TN. He heads up the marketing and PR efforts for the agency itself.

John is a long tenured new business executive with a sampling of wins such as Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the Grand Ole Opry, the Peabody Hotel Group, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Brunswick Outdoor Products, Red Lobster, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, The Greenbrier, Citicorp Diners Club, Clarks of England and Shoney’s just to name a few.

In his own words, John shares his personal story, how be got his start and ended up spending the majority of his advertising career focused on new business.

“Hey Mister, can I cut your yard?”

Over the years I’ve often wondered how other agency new business people got their starts in this crazy profession. Seems like most everyone finds their way to it by means of a slightly different path. My path just happened to be an 18” swath, cut clean across a hundred neighborhood back yards.

It was the last day of school and I was about to put the fifth grade behind me. The entire summer lay ahead but at my house, the tantalizing combination of summer and no school only meant that real work was about to begin. I was ten years old facing three months of hard labor. Drat.

My dad was what you might call a stern taskmaster, preparing a weekly list of chores as long as my arm. He was old school and just couldn’t stand the thought of me goofing-off all summer, riding bikes and playing basketball with my pals, so he made lists of things to keep me busy. Cut the yard, trim the hedge, paint the doghouse, hoe the garden and then start the next week with a fresh assignment. If and when he ran out of ideas, he would just repeat a previous list.

Remember that classic movie scene in Cool Hand Luke where the sadistic prison guards made recaptured chain-gang escapee Paul Newman dig a hole out under the blistering Florida sun, only to order him fill it up and start all over again? Well, it wasn’t exactly that bad at my house, but after cleaning the garage top to bottom for the third time since school got out, it sure felt that way. Of course there is always the slim chance that the recollections of a fifth grader, some fifty years hence, might possibly be time-enhanced…but nah, I don’t think so.

But then one mid-summer day it came to me like a bolt out of the blue. There was only one possible way to escape my fate of indentured summer servitude. I was a ten-year old who needed a legitimate paying job!

An old man who lived in a duplex down the street always had grass knee-high in his yard, and I am sure the neighbors all grumbled about it. He kept a lawnmower sitting right out by his front porch but I guess he just didn’t have a ten-year old on his staff. Maybe he didn’t even know how to use that old push mower, but I sure did.

I saw him sitting on his porch one day, staring across the sea of Johnson grass before him and without a moment’s thought I hollered from the street: “Hey mister, can I cut your yard?”

He stared at me for what seemed like forever and finally squinted and said, “how much?”

“If I can use your mower, one dollar.”

By the end of that summer I was cutting most of the small yards at the duplexes nearby, and some of the bigger yards too. After that first job I convinced my dad to let me use his old push lawnmower, if I paid for the gas out of my earnings—and I spent the next four summers going from house to house all over the neighborhood, fearlessly knocking on doors and making my pitch.

My pitch? Did I say my pitch? Yes, I now realize that’s where it all began. Mowing lawns was a means to earn some cash and escape my dad’s list of stay at home chores, but it was actually closing the deal with a neighbor–negotiating cash for services that really gave me a buzz.

Soon I expanded my product line to include trimming and weeding with my dad’s hedge clippers and swing blade. I was still working all summer while the other kids were playing but at least…I was an earner. And as I had hoped, my dad stopped making lists of chores for me to do. He knew I was working hard and he saw it was paying off. He never said so but I could tell that he was secretly proud. Summer was suddenly looking good for a change and I was emboldened by my ability to close a deal.

Did I mention that my dad was an ad man? I’m a second-generation new business guy. I guess even third generation, if you count my grandfather who worked at a Buick dealership long before I was even born. We were all closers.

My dad had been an ad agency art director back when I was ten and soon after, he struck out on his own and started a little ad agency design shop where he would pitch an account, play the AE role after he got the business and then run back to his cramped little office to crank out the layouts and mechanical art.

It was only recently, after nearly forty years in the ad agency business myself and the last twenty pretty much in business development exclusively, that I realized I had truly been pitching one thing or another my whole life. It just took a while to realize I was born to be a hunter/gatherer.