business development « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

The Challenges of Jumping from a Creative Shop to a Digital One

August 16, 2011

What are you doing to prepare your agency for the digital revolution?

Digital training is critical for the traditional small-to midsize advertising agencies. The strategic partnerships with digital shops have all gone by the wayside, mainly because digital agencies don’t need them any longer.

To quote Aaron Reitkopf, North American CEO of digital agency Profero, “There’s never been a better time to be in advertising, and there’s never been a worse time.”

Advertising agencies aren’t changing of their own accord, they are being changed. Rising to meet the escalating demands for digital, a lot of agencies are now requiring that almost all of their employees develop digital skills.

Kristina Slade, made the radical decision to leave her job as associate creative director at Omnicom Group’s TBWA \/Chiat\/Day, Los Angeles, to become creative director at San Francisco-based digital agency AKQA. In a recent Ad Age interview, Slade shared her challenges. Here are some of the highlights and challenges she expressed in that interview:

“… there are better [online] opportunities for brands and consumers.”
“Jumping in and absorbing all that tech info was the first hurdle.”
“Digital is a self-curated experience, so if someone didn’t engage with you, it just didn’t happen. It’s about what can a brand give someone.”
“It was just getting behind the scenes of technology so we could make smarter choices and creative work that was better by leveraging all the potential of different platforms.”
“… we actually have metrics and can prove what we can get for every dollar spent in digital.”
“The traditional shop is getting smaller. It’ll look like a hybrid shop.”a

Click on the following link to read Alexandra Bruell’s article, “Creatives out of Their Comfort Zone: Kristina Slade”

Additional articles that may be of interest:

For daily industry news check out Gass Online.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Digital | Tagged: Aaron Reitkopf, AdAge, advertising agencies, AKQA, Alexandra Bruell, business development, Digital Agencies, Kristina Slade, Michael Gass, Omnicom Group's TBWA \/Chiat\/Day | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

When it comes to new business Ad Agencies are ADHD

August 2, 2011

Photo Credit ADHD CENTER

ADHD is a problem with inattentiveness, over-activity, impulsivity, or a combination – It also is descriptive of most advertising agencies, especially when it comes to new business.

For a large number of ad agencies, the atmosphere is chaotic. It is an environment that is in a perpetual state of distraction. Working in this kind of climate is stressful. You’re constantly shifting from one task to the next. There are numerous interruptions and urgent requests throughout each day.

The digital revolution has created additional challenges – how do we stay focused and productive with so many intriguing distractions only a click away. That’s exacerbated with laptops, smartphones, tablets and the popularity of social media.

New business directors must continually refocus their attention, creating fatigue and decreased productivity. That’s bad for agency new business.

Office and internet distractions lessen productivity:

Every time we become distracted, it takes an average of 15 minutes to regain complete focus.
Gloria Mark, a UC-Irvine professor has found that the average employee switches tasks every three minutes, is interrupted every two minutes and has a maximum focus stretch of 12 minutes.
A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs, the equivalent of losing a nights sleep.
An American study reported in the Journal Of Experimental Psychology found our productivity goes down by as much as 40% when we attempt to do several things at once.
Studies by Gloria Mark, an ‘interruption scientist’ at the University of California, show that when people are frequently diverted from one task to another, they work faster, produce less, report significantly higher stress levels, frustration, workload, effort and pressure.

I have been working in ad agency new business almost my entire advertising career and have completed two post-graduate degrees. I’m organized and focused but far from perfect. I’m constantly learning new techniques that lessen distraction and increase my productivity.

One solution that has been the most helpful for me is to dedicate blocks of time to similar tasks. The result – it increases your productivity, creativity, and mental sharpness, while decreasing fatigue, procrastination, and stress. You simply group similar tasks that require similar resources in order to streamline their completion.

Set aside a specific amount of time for specific tasks and make a specific effort to not allow the distractions or disruptions of others break your focus. After that block of time is up, take a brief break, then begin to focus on the next block of time.

Here are some tips to help get you started:

Write it down. Write down 4 to 5 of the most important tasks that need to be accomplished as you begin your day.
Keep time. Use a wristwatch, timer, alarm, PDA or computer—anything that keeps accurate time and is within your sight at all times. When you start a task, say the time out loud or write it down. Allot yourself limited amounts of time for each task.
Check off. After completing a task, manually mark it off your list.
Take a break. A 5 minute break after the completion of each task.
Begin again. Refocus, reset the timer and begin working on the next task.
Take an extended break. After completing your top 4 to 5 task for the day, take a 20 minute break.

I’m a fan of a technique invented in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, a professional in the fields of productivity and process improvement, called The Pomodoro Technique. This easy to use, simple system, used by professional teams and individuals in a range of fields has become a popular tool. It is easy to use and, most of all, it works.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management system that can help prioritize and accomplish important agency new business tasks.

Here are some Pomodoro resources to help get you started:

Download the Pomodoro Technique® book for free or order it on the Internet or from your bookshop.
Cheat Sheet. Download a one-page overview of the Pomodoro Technique® .
The Pomodoro Technique To-Do Checklist
The Pomodoro Pro app is a timer tailored for people using the Pomodoro Technique and designed specifically for the iPhone or iPad.

Whatever plan you use, be committed to improve your focus and time management. Practice makes perfect.

13 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: ad agency new business, ADHD, advertising agencies, business development, Michael Gass, multitasking | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Zig Ziglar and Ad Agency New Business Directors

August 1, 2011

Agency new business directors have one of the most important, as well as toughest, jobs in advertising – selling the agency.

Why is agency new business so tough? Primarily because agencies are notorious for their inability to sell themselves. Agencies desperately need an expert/specialist in the mechanics of new client acquisition, someone who has the sole focus and capabilities to bring“life-giving” new business to the agency.

“It’s just such a hard position to fill,” said Michael Zuna, New York managing director at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, “The Mad Men-rainmaker days — that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a tough job.”

In my time in the trenches as a new business director for a number of agencies, I was often inspired by the writings, tapes, videos and presentations of Zig Ziglar, a fellow Alabamian. He is one of the most famous motivational speakers and authors in the world. He is also one of the nicest persons you’d ever want to meet.

Ziglar comes from a successful sales background and has a first hand understanding about the daily grind of being in sales and the need for motivation.

He once said,

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily!”

To help feed your daily motivational needs, here’s my list of Zig Ziglar’s most notable motivational quotes (I’ve paraphrased a few of these to make them a bit more specific to our industry). Hopefully they will provide you with a spark of motivation as you attend to one of the most important jobs of your agency – business development:

Motivating gets you going and habit gets you there . Make motivating a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.
Stop selling and start helping.
Your agency’s most valuable asset is its reputation.
Prospects are perishable – handle with care.
Obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off our goals.
If you’re sincere, praise is effective. If you’re insincere, it’s manipulative.
The primary reason prospects will choose not do choose your agency is lack of trust.
New business is more than a profession, it is a way of life.
If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
When we do more than we are paid to do, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.
A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.
If there were no problems, most of us would be unemployed.
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.

Click here to heck out the official Zig Ziglar website for additional new business resources.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Photo credit Matt Wright

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Facebook, New Business Tips | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, business development, Michael Gass, motivation, new business director, sales, Zig Ziglar | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Multitasking Kills Productivity and That’s Bad for New Business

July 22, 2011

Photo Credit Daquella Manera

Research shows that the more you multitask, the worse you are at it and that can be bad for ad agency new business.

In some situations multitasking is deadly. I recently read of a well-known plastic surgeon who was killed when he accidentally drove his car over a cliff while sending a Twitter message about his dog. Most of us understand the dangers of multitasking while driving but many don’t realize that multitasking can be killing productivity.

The term “multitasking originated in the computer engineering industry, referring to the ability of a microprocessor to process several task at the simultaneously. Our ability to multitask is not as efficient as we might think.

On the surface multitasking sounds like it would boost productivity but studies show just the opposite happens:

Professor Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leader in multi-tasking research, says, ‘People can’t do it very well, and when they say they can, they’re deluding themselves,’ he says. ‘The brain is very good at deluding itself.’

Psychiatrist Edward M. Hallowell has gone so far as to describe multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one.”

A study at the University of California found that multitasking impedes the brain’s ability to absorb information

Author of the book Distraction, Damon Young, says, “When we move from our job to an e-mail, it takes about a minute to recover our train of thought and then we get another e-mail, or an SMS, so our concentration is fractured. The result? We’re not really multi-tasking. We’re switching between tasks in an unfocused or clumsy way.”

Studies here in the US have shown that students who do homework while watching television get consistently lower grades.

“There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way, we’re really built to focus.” Russell Poldrack,UCLA psychology professor

Persons charged with business development for most small to mid-size ad agencies often wear multiple hats. That increases the likelihood that they do a lot of multi-tasking and are less efficient than they could be.

We are not made for multitasking and it actually hinders our productivity:

The time it takes to complete jobs increases significantly. People actually lose time rather than gain it. The brain has to restart and refocus. Switching attention is from one task to another, work may be faster but studies show that productivity is less.
Multi-taskers are prone to errors.
Multi-taskers are more easily distracted. The more they multitask the worse they are at it and the less they can focus on one thing.
Multitasking hurts relationships. Even though it isn’t intended, it makes clients, coworkers, friends and most importantly family feel unimportant.
Multitasking comes at a high price. It greatly increases stress, even rage in adults and learning problems for children. You need to ask yourself, ‘is this the way I want to feel? Is this the way I really want to live my life?”

If you want to be productive it’s best not to multi-task at all. There is no downside to it. Here are 10 tips to overcoming multitasking:

Embrace single tasking. Acknowledge the problem, “Hi, my name is Michael and I’m a multi-tasker.”
Manage your time better, do one thing at a time if at all possible.Schedule time to switch your attention from one task to another.
Look for ways to create silence. I turn off any distractions and even use a set of noise canceling headphones to help me get into a focused state of mind.
Turn off the cell phone and disable email alerts. Have set time to check voice mail and your inbox.
Distractions on the internet are abundant. To bring strategy and focus to your online reading, use an RSS Reader such as Google Reader.
Force yourself to disconnect. Take a break from social media and the internet.
Create a To Do List for the day. Plan your day in blocks. Set just a few primary objectives that you want to complete by end of day.
Begin at in the mornings to complete your most important tasks.
Amazing at how deadlines can keep things moving. Give yourself less time helps hyper-focus your attention on the project at thand.
Schedule in some periodic breaks during the day, such as going for a brief walk.

10 Comments | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: Ad Agencies, business development, Damon Young, Edward M. Hallowell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michael Gass, multitasking, productivity, Professor Earl Miller, University of California | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The number one reason ad agencies new business plans fail

July 20, 2011

Photo Credit DigitalNative

Why new business plans tend to fail and what you can do about it.

For ad agencies that have a new business plan, the majority fall short in its implementation. The reason? According to a poll conducted by Mirren Business Development , when asked “What is the primary reason new business plans fail?”, 57% responded that it was a lack of discipline/accountability followed a lack of team commitment – 21%.

Here are 20 tips to overcome the lack of discipline/accountability and team commitment assuring success implementing a new business plan for your agency:

Set goals that are realistically achievable within the culture and resources of the agency.
You’ll need to convert your strategic plan into a game plan that includes Milestone Dates, To Do List, Resources, Assignments, etc.
One person who is responsible. Have a new business director/manager who is held accountable for its execution. If “everyone” is responsible for your agency’s new business, in actuality no one is. But that doesn’t mean that others, particularly agency principals aren’t involved in the process.
Top management must be intimately involved in the process. No one in the agency feels the pressure to succeed more than the agency principals. Like it or not, they are the face of the agency. Their involvement is important for new business and they shouldn’t shy away from this responsibility.
Determine what is needed to achieve your priorities: People, funding, equipment, space, training/development, etc.
Get organized: Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online project management tool to help in the implementation process.
Make assignments: clear communications with those who must help with implementation of the various projects is a must. Who is doing what and when. Make sure they know their assignment, due dates and be prepared to prod, poke and push for completion
Look for ways to simplify your internal processes. From RFP responses, to new business reporting … always invoke the K.I.S.S. principle.
It may also be wise to outsource some services when possible. For some agencies outsourcing certain aspects of their new business program to services such as Catapult New Business orRSW is the best option. I know of a large full service agency,with their own PR department, that chooses to outsource PR for the agency to keep it consistent.
I say it often, you can’t improve it if you can’t measure it. Be sure to have measurements in place, but again, keep them simple.
I would suggest developing a 1 page monthly new business report on activities and results.
Be prepared to make changes. This is not an exercise in perfection – Plans give you a road map to our goals, but you have to be ready to make adjustments, based on your experience in execution. Every plan will have obstacles. Don’t abandon your strategy at the first obstacle, create “work-arounds”, solutions, even temporary ones that will allow you to keep the process moving. Don’t let anything stop implementation.
Create rituals for new business. If you are responsible for new business, you know how easy it is to get side-tracked within the agency environment. I would encourage you to simply set up a routine in the morning that you do as soon as you wake up. This works so well because what you do early in the day often sets the context for your day. A bad start usually leads to a bad day.
Consistency is a key component to ad agency new business. Remember that consistency is more important than perfection.
Do the things that you dislike the most first and get them out-of-the-way. It provides me with an incentive to get to the tasks that I enjoy the most.
Stay focused on the process. I’ve learned to maintain a consistency through the ups and downs by paying attention to the processes that I’ve created for new business. This makes me less prone to distractions and knee-jerk reactions. I know that if I consistently work the new business program that I have in place the results will come.
Use simple reminders. I use reminders, either on a sticky-note, my computer DeskTop, pop-up alerts, to keep me on course throughout the day. I know what I want to achieve by the end of the day and I use a variety of tools to help keep me keep me on track.
Celebrate successes. New business is tough. Especially in this economy. Life in the trenches for new business is nonstop hard work and often goes unnoticed. For the well-being of your new business team, it is important to stop, take the time to celebrate each new business victory.
Resolve to stay the course. New business efforts are highly relational and take time to come to fruition.
Incorporate “lessons learned” from accessing your accomplishments into the next year plan.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

5 Comments | New Business Plans, New Business Tips, Time Management | Tagged: ad agency new business, business development, Michael Gass, Mirren Business Development, new business director, plan | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Vacationing for Ad Agency New Business

July 18, 2011

Hopefully my personal experience can provide you with some ideas for you can keep your social media | new business program churning even while on vacation.

As I was preparing to write this post, I noticed that Edward Boches, Mullen’s Chief Creative Office, had disconnected for a short period from his social media activity and described his experience in this blog article, “Random Thoughts from a Summer Vacation.”

Edward writes, “Ironically while social media connects us to strangers it isolates us from the people we’re closest to. I got a taste of my own medicine last week as I watched my daughter disappear into her Facebook and YouTube communities, half unaware of my presence. Now I know what my family feels like when I’m saying “uh huh,” but staring at one of my screens.”

New business is tough, especially in this economy plus the acceleration of communication’s technology, just keeping up can be exhausting. Life in the trenches for your agency’s new business is nonstop, hard work. For your family and your personal well-being, it is important to take some personal time off from the rigors of new business as well as a refreshing break from social media.

Recharging your batteries with personal time away is always good and often needed to avoid burn-out. But just because you are taking some much needed time off doesn’t mean your agency’s new business has to suffer. Utilizing social media, with a few select tools and tactics can keep your new business pipeline full even when you are away.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve cut back on my social media engagement, unplugged myself for a period to reflect, rewind and redirect my energies. I’ve spent less time online over the past couple of weeks than anytime over the past 4 years. But, even while I’m off unwinding and off the grid my social media program continues to churn out new business opportunities.

Here’s are a few tactics that I employ to keep my social media | new business program working for me while I’m away:

My blog continues to generate traffic throughout my off period because it is highly optimized for search. I was also able to repurpose my blog’s content through multiple tools through other social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.
Schedule Guest Post for content creation for your blog while you are away. John Sharpe, CMO of the BOHAN agency, created this post that was used for FUEL LINES while I was on sabbatical: How did YOU get into ad agency business development?
I created my email newsletter in advance and preset it to publish during my break time.
I use a variety of social media apps to add some personal touches to my social media stream using my iPhone and iPad. It only a few minutes of my time per day while vacationing. Most of my followers wouldn’t even know that I’m mostly off the grid during this time.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Leave a Comment » | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tips, Social Media, Time Management | Tagged: ad agency new business, business development, Edward Boches, Michael Gass, Mullen, Social Media | 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.

I was born to be a hunter/gatherer.

If you’re a new business professional, whether a beginner or a veteran of decades of pitches like myself, I am really curious to know your story. What path did you take and how did you get into the business development end of the ad agency business? Were you born to close, or did you learn by watching someone else, or do you just practice trial and error?

Shoot me an email and let me hear from you. We may soon have the beginnings of a new business online support group!

Have a great summer, and happy hunting.

John Sharpe

Email address: jsharpe@bohanideas.com
Follow John on Facebook and LinkedIn

We’d like to hear your story. How did you get into ad agency new business? Feel free to email John or add it in the comment section below.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

3 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends | Tagged: ad agency new business, advertising agencies, BOHAN, business development, John Sharpe, Michael Gass, Nashville, TN | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

3 Quick Tips for Developing a Consistent Program for Ad Agency New Business

June 21, 2011

Image Credit

The key for consistently generating new business opportunities is to develop a new business program that your agency can consistently execute and sustain.

As you create a new business program for your agency you should think in terms of “what is sustainable when our agency is at its busiest”.

Here are 3 things your program must have to be consistent:

1. Be realistically achievable within the culture and resources of the agency

Set realistic goals. There are a lot of agencies, when asked what are their new business goals will say, ”we want to double in size” or ”we want to take our agency to the next level”. This aren’t realistic goals unless you have an actionable plan that provides for the resources, personnel and budget to be fully implemented.

2. Have a manager who is empowered and held accountable for its execution

If everyone is responsible for your agency’s new business then no one is responsible.

Someone must be accountable, have the authority and ability to drive it. There’s a lot of pushing, prodding and poking that must be done to keep the new business program working. Someone must be responsible for keeping it focused and on track.

3. Top management must be intimately involved in the process

No one in the agency feels the pressure to succeed more than the agency principals. Like it or not, they are the face of the small-to-midsize agency. Their involvement is important for new business and they shouldn’t shy away from this responsibility. To maintain consistency, new business, must be a priority in their daily responsibilities.

Mandate that your agency has an integrated new business plan. Unbelievably, 62% of agencies don’t have a planned new business effort.
Define your agency’s positioning. This is the starting point for any ad agency new business program. It is a fundamental prerequisite for small and midsize agencies. But it is also the place where most agencies where most fail. Positioning is everything.
Choose a target audience. This will not deter your agency from still obtaining “other” type of clients through your personal networks and referrals within your local market, but it will go a very long way to creating awareness, appeal, differentiation and focus for your agency’s new business program. It makes new business so much easier when you do.
Resolve to stay the course. New business efforts are relational and take time to come to fruition.

12 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips | Tagged: ad agency new business, business development, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency New Business: Tips for Eliminating the Tire-Kickers

June 13, 2011

How not to waste time with unqualified prospects.

It isn’t difficult to secure meetings with prospective clients of small to midsize ad agencies. What is key is to get appointments with qualified prospects that have the proper budget and a readiness to spend money for an agency’s services.

There are a lot of prospects out there are always glad to meet to glean whatever they can from your agency for free. These are the “tire-kickers”, prospects who eat up lots of your precious time and from the get-go never intend to work with you.

One way to eliminate the “Tire-Kickers” is to have a clear call-to-action … an initial first step for any prospective client.

How do you usually begin a relationship with a new client? Do you normally conduct a market or brand audit with a new client? Turn it into your call-to-action. Price it in a way that is a great value for the prospect but helps to recover some of your agency’s time investment. Tire-Kickers usually wont be willing to pay for anything. This will help to eliminate them and provide a reasonable first step for a prospect to become a client.

4 tips for creating your ‘call-to-action’:

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

*Market Audit

*Brand Audit

*Competitive Analysis

*SWOT Analysis

*Social Media Workshop

*Digital Workshop

*Strategic Marketing Plan

Prospects want to be able to read up on the details of your agency’s call to action within their own time frame. So make it easy for them to find. You can promote it on a special landing page, through your website, blog, eNewsletter, or traditional collateral print pieces.

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

Additional articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, call to action, Michael Gass | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Executing Your Agency’s New Business Strategy Requires a System

May 26, 2011

A plan is just a plan, wishful thinking, until it is executed.

How many annual planning meetings has your agency gone through the motions of creating a strategic new business plan only to have it fail in its implementation? Maybe next year, instead of focusing so much attention on the plan, use annual planning to create dynamic processes for execution.

“Execution, more so than planning, is the battleground that determines success and failure.”

Experience has taught me that successfully executing a new business strategy requires a system, not a series of diverse projects performed by different parts of the agency. Here are some practical tips for creating a system for new business for your agency:

One person responsible: You will not only need the right person in place to oversee the process, someone who has focus, determination and consistency, the qualities are required for success.
Convert your strategic plan into a game plan that includes Milestone Dates, To Do List, Resources, Assignments, etc.
Set goals that stretch your agency but that are reasonably attainable and measurable.
Determine what is needed to achieve your priorities: People, funding, equipment, space, training/development, etc.
Get organized: Use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive online project management tool to help in the implementation process.
Just start: A lot of time can be wasted if you don’t start somewhere. Identify and focus on the first step. Once you get going, it’s much easier to keep going. Also remember, don’t over think things, keep it simple.
Based on your tasks create a “must work week” schedule. Arrange your work week priorities ahead of time. “If you don’t know and control your schedule, someone else will.”
Be prepared to make changes. This is not an exercise in perfection – Plans give you a road map to our goals, but you have to be ready to make adjustments, based on your experience in execution. Every plan I have ever seen has obstacles. Don’t abandon your strategy at the first obstacle, create “work-arounds”, solutions, even temporary ones that will allow you to keep the process moving. Don’t let anything stop implementation.
Make assignments: clear communications with those who must help with implementation of the various projects is a must. Who is doing what and when. Make sure they know their assignment, due dates and be prepared to prod, poke and push for completion.
Close out completed projects.
Monitor and report progress: Unless there is an ongoing process for evaluating execution, making decisions about it, and closing the loop with the original strategy, the effort fails. Note: I’ve worked with agencies that are bombarded with internal meetings, communications and reports. Keep this part simple, a monthly one-page executive summary of progress and a brief monthly meeting with only the persons that are necessary to review and make changes, will usually suffice.
Periodically highlight successes and celebrate new business acquisitions: This will reward participants and create excitement within the agency.
Incorporate “lessons learned” from accessing your accomplishments into the next year plan.

Please feel free to share additional tips and ideas for creating a system for agency new business in the comment section below

Additional articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | Agency Leadership, Best Practices, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips | Tagged: ad agency new business, advertising agencies, business development, Michael Gass, processes, system | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

May 18, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional agency new business articles that may be of interest:

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

Social Media Has Changed My Life and Ad Agency New Business

May 9, 2011

The single greatest impact upon my life professionally has been social media. It has changed the way I conduct my day, it has changed my perspective, it has impacted my intellectual outlook and it has become the best new business tool that I’ve ever had as a business development professional.

I’m writing this post from my hotel room in London, England reflecting on how far I’ve come since I was introduced to social media over four years ago when I started my consultancy. I have worked with new clients all across the United States from Costa Mesa, CA to Port Clyde, Maine and now my first overseas client located in the UK.

From my home office located above my garage in Alabaster, Alabama, I have built a global awareness for my services and established an international network of prospective clients solely through social media.

Almost every new business opportunity has come about the same way. Usually a prospective client is introduced to my blog ‘Fuel Lines’ by searching for “ad agency new business” through Google or they will click on a link to one of over 600 articles that has been repurposed through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or through a bi-weekly email newsletter. A growing audience helps to make my content viral. Acting as your brand ambassadors they fan these articles through their personal networks.

After becoming a reader, when a prospective client has a need for my type of service, they initiate the contact. This is a new business person’s dream because you’re not having to constantly chase business. You merely read and write, providing helpful content to your audience. The ones who are drawn to you will initiate the contact when they need help with their new business and social media efforts. I have yet to make a single cold call for any business since starting my consulting services.

A prospect who initiates a call and talks to you as if they know you. That’s because they do! Social media has allowed them to get to know a great deal about you. In their own time frame, they check under the hood, kick the tires and check out the upholstery so to speak. Rather than going through the dating process you’ve moved directly to engagement shortening the purchasing cycle.

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

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

Most agencies generate new business through networks and referrals. Social media can greatly accelerates this process. It is networking on steroids. Taking its offline networking expertise online, an agency can now affordably create an international reach for its services.

“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

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

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

With very little effort I have created, maintained and am growing touch points through social media networks with my best prospective clients and all I’ve had to do is read and write.

Click here to view some of my London trip photos I’ve shared on Facebook.

7 Comments | Agency Leadership, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: advertising agencies, business development, London, Michael Gass, networking, new business, referrals, Social Media, UK | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Ways to Recycle Older Content for Ad Agency New Business

March 31, 2011

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

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

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

Here are 5 simple ways to repurpose older content:

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

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

Additional articles that may be of interest:

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

Ad Agency Websites: An Important Tool for New Business

March 30, 2011

Research shows websites influence 97% of clients’ purchasing decisions.

Your agency’s website is your online brochure, the place to present credentials, capabilities and most importantly your agency’s creative work. Not only is it the place prospects and clients go to learn more about your agency and its services, but it has a huge impact on their ultimate purchase decision.

For professional services firms, “74% of buyers report the service provider’s website holds at least “some influence” over their ultimate decision to buy services from the provider.” – Raintoday.com

An agency’s website provides the opportunity for your prospective clients to look under-the-hood, kick the tires and check out the upholstery on their own timetable.

With well-designed websites prospects should be able to:

Establish capabilities and professional credentials: through professional design, writing, and arrangement of content.
Establish that your agency is worthy of consideration: through an overview of your services, client list, biographies of staff, case studies that show how you’ve helped clients and a sampling of your creative work.
Establish your agency as an authority: through a clear point of differentiation and expertise, essential elements for creating an appeal and a necessity of winning new clients beyond your local market.

Your agency’s website is the place for:

Press releases – Announcements about new hires, new client acquisitions, awards and other agency news.
Current clients and work experience.
Staff profiles.
Highlight case studies, testimonials, advertising and marketing campaigns.
Resources such as articles, white papers, research findings and presentations.
Agency services. Provide a clear understanding of what services your agency provides.
Show casing your agency’s creative capabilities.
Job postings, staff recruitment highlighting your agency’s culture.
Highlight your agency’s associations such as with the 4As, MAGNET, TAAN or other agency affiliations.
Links to your agency’s social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Facts about your agency. Provide a link to an easy to print, downloadable PDF Agency Fact Sheet on your agency.
A call-to-action. Provide a path to engagement for your visitors. Include information about first steps for a prospect, such as a brand or market audit.
Contact information. Make sure that prospects know who to contact for new business other than info@.

Remember also that usability is a critical success factor for websites. If yours isn’t easy to use it is a very poor reflection of your agency and prospects will simply leave it. Users are highly goal-driven on the Web. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.

A final tip that I hope you find helpful: Businesses that blog get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

2 Comments | Agency Leadership, Digital, New Business Tips, SEO | Tagged: advertising agencies, Blog, business development, fact sheet, interactive, Michael Gass, websites | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

March 11, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business

February 16, 2011

Photo Credit xotoko

How to engage Twitter with purpose and intention for agency new business.

Twitter is the leading traffic generator to my blog Fuel Lines. Out of 30,000 monthly page views, Twitter easily delivers more than half of my blog’s traffic.

Twitter, like SEO, also delivers highly targeted traffic to my blog. My tweets are specific to a clearly defined audience, ad agencies.

When I first started using Twitter I stumbled upon a ‘twitter engagement formula‘ shared by an educational consultant, Angela Maiers. Her simple formula helped me to understand the potential of using Twitter for new business. Angela calls it her 70-20-10 Formula for using Twitter. Over time I’ve refined her formula and created my own method that I share often in agency workshops, conferences and meetings.

So here it is, My Formula for using Twitter specifically used specifically to generate blog traffic and create new business leads:

Share Helpful Resources

Sharing resources that are of value to my niche Twitter followers makes up 75% of my tweets.

I share content from my blog. Over 600 posts are circulated through Twitter. All specifically written for ad agencies, providing new business tips, trends and specific tactics. A repository of information to help make agency’s new business program easier. Here are a few examples of recent Tweets that link back to my blog’s content:

10 Ways to Create An Ad Agency Blog That is Reader-Centrichttp://dld.bz/Ck25
The Top 14 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Businesshttp://dld.bz/Ck28
5 Ways Social Media Can Make Ad Agency New Business Easier Not Harder http://dld.bz/Ck2u

Few of those on Twitter are creating and sharing original content. You want to be the one whose content your followers are retweeting, sharing with their followers, exposing your content through their personal networks which creates awareness and a strong appeal.

People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Sharing resources through Twitter can keep top-of-mind awareness for your services.

I also share rich, helpful content that I find through my reading. I usually spend the mornings perusing through my RSS feeds in Google Reader. Content from a wide variety of online resources into one location. I save a considerable amount of my time, not having to constantly searching for content.

Meers Advertising turns itself around by plugging into digital | Kansas City Business Journal http://bit.ly/eeKczE

Downloadable Report: B2B Blogging Trends in 2011 featuring @johnsonnhalter @jaybaer http://bit.ly/emjPB0

When I find something particularly good that I think will be of benefit to my audience, I can immediately share it through bit.ly, or schedule a time to share it through tools like Hootsuite or Co-tweet. This way I can scatter the helpful articles that I’m finding, over time instead of Tweeting them all within my morning reading hour.

I share tweets from others. I use some personal Twitter lists that I have created to help me keep up with Tweets from friends and other groups that I find helpful. When read something good, I’ll retweet it.

RT @TimWilliamsICG Ad Agencies: How and when do you make the decision to outsource? Here’s a friendly guide. http://ht.ly/3Q0kp

RT @marthabush B2C companies see a year-over-year market share growth when using analytics in lead gen efforts http://bit.ly/h2V2tt #b2c

As you can see, the biggest percentage of what I do with my Twitter account is sharing information with my audience.

Here’s a convenient list of the tools that make it easier for me to share content with your followers:

Networking

20% of my Tweets are directly responding to others.

Twitter is a real-time networking site. Answering questions, sharing a point-of-view, re-connecting, collaboration, participating in conversation, etc. From these important tweets, lifelong professional and personal relationships have been forged.

Here are a few examples from just this morning:

TravisJLeone @michaelgass Do you have any specific case studies on social media leading to ad agency new business?#presentation4boss

EricWerner @michaelgass – Are there any events you’re planning to speak at in the Southeast this year? (Missed the one earlier this month)

@agencyside thanks for the RT. Look forward to seeing all of you at Bolo 2011 http://bolo2011.com
TonyCeresoli @michaelgass Hi Michael! Things are moving along pretty well, thanks for asking. How are things with you?

Note: Twitter isn’t the only place that I’m networking. I also use LinkedIn and Facebook. Over time I see a lot of previous Twitter conversation move to Facebook. Especially as relationships grow.

Status Updates

5% or less of my Twittering is sharing “as-it-happens” updates.

I share status updates from workshops, conferences, seminars and other live events.

I’ve even reported on events that I wasn’t present at but was a listening participant, such as the Ad Age Small Agency Conference, I gathered information from attendees and was able to create this report: 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference

This was the response from AdAge:

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

This formula is intended to provide you with an example, a place to get started. No doubt, the more you participate, you’ll create your own formula for using Twitter.

“Engage Twitter with purpose and intention, and new business success will follow!”

Additional Twitter articles that may be of interest:

1 Comment | Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Michael Gass, Ad Agencies, AdAge, new business, Twitter, business development, SocialOomph, Bitly, CoTweet | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Survey: Economy Improving, New Business is Up for Small to Midsize Ad Agencies

January 27, 2011

Having endured one of the harshest economic periods since the great depression, agencies are reporting that 2011 is off to a better start.

A total of 430 advertising agency executives participated in the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey.

The survey was sent by e-mail to a database of over 10,093 U.S. full service advertising agencies ranging in staff size from 5 to 350 full-time employees. The survey closed end of day, December 31, 2010. The survey was developed and results analyzed by Michael Gass Consulting, Special thanks to THE LIST for providing the data sampling.

The results are not a scientific study, it does however, provide an indication of their beliefs, feelings and perceptions regarding agency new business trends in the last quarter of 2010.

Here is a summary of the survey results:

How has the economy impacted your business? Business is up or up significantly for 47% of the 430 advertising agencies that responded. 34.3% reporting that business was down or down significantly. These percentages are reverse from a similar study conducted in 2008. It looks like the end of The Great Recession for the advertising industry and business is starting to improve.
Would you say that obtaining new business is easier or harder than it was in 2009. New business is slightly better. In a 2008 survey, 56% of the agencies indicated new business was hard/harder than the previous year. That number drops to 47% for this 2010 survey, indicating a slight improvement. For 34% of the agencies surveyed new business was the same. 18.5% said it was easier or a lot easier in 2010.
What is the number one reason why it is harder to obtain business versus last year? Lack of opportunities (48.6%) was the number 1 reason new business was harder, followed by more competition (23.8%).
What are the 3 top sources for new business? 50% of ad agencies generate new business through referrals (25.9%) and personal networks (24.5%), the third primary source of new business is the agency’s website (9.1%).
Does your agency have a full-time new business director? If yes, how long have they been employed? More than half of the agencies (57.3%) have a new business director and most of them (38.5%) have been in their position 5 or more years.
Does your agency have a blog? 35.8%, of the agencies surveyed still do not have an agency blog.
Does your agency have a written new business plan? Just over half of the agencies that responded (53.7%), have a written new business plan.
Does your agency have a unique point of differentiation from competitors? An impressive 76.8% of agencies surveyed said yes, they indeed have a unique point of differentiation from their competitors.
When asked to briefly describe how their agency was different from the rest, you can decide if they are really that much different from their competition. Here’s a link to over the 243 of the agency’s that chose to respond: http://bit.ly/i3oe8J

Click on the following link to download a copy of the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey

6 Comments | New Business Survey, New Business Trends, Recession | Tagged: 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey, Ad Agencies, business development, Michael Gass, Recession, The List | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: 50% of Ad Agencies Generate New Business Through Networks and Referrals

January 25, 2011

Most ad agencies are still generating new business the old-fashioned way, networks and referrals, but there’s a way to boost those personal networks nationally.

A soon to be released 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 social networks and individual connections to generate new business. It has always been the lifeblood of small to midsize agencies. Lots of activities went into building these personal networks to generate business within an agency’s market.

Thankfully, albeit slowly, agencies are starting to understand the potential of social media to enhance networks and referral opportunities. What will make the social media pill easier for them to swallow is to understand the multiplicity of benefits it provides:

You can realistically build awareness among your best target audience well beyond your geographical location. Small to midsize ad agencies can affordably build a national awareness.
Everyone has a desire to work with someone they know, trust and like. Social media greatly accelerates and expands networking opportunities.
Creating and managing social networks is more efficient online than generating networks offline.
It’s hard for people to socialize with an entity such as an ad agency. Social media is about people. It puts a face to the agency.
Even though social media is very time intensive in the beginning, as you get up to speed, it becomes an extremely efficient use of your time. You are not constantly having to chase new business.
Social media isn’t that complex. It’s not hard to get your head around it once you are a participant. Just remember to use your offline personal networking skills online.
Social media allows agencies to differentiate themselves, to be more narrowly focused and niched than they would have been comfortable with otherwise.
Through social media prospects have an opportunity to check under the agency’s hood, kick the tires, examine the upholstery within their own timeframe.

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

Click on the following link to download a copy of the 2010 Advertising Agency New Business Survey

3 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency, advertising agencies, business development, Michael Gass, networking, Recession, referrals, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fuel Lines: Top 50 Ad Agency New Business Articles

November 12, 2010

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

FUEL LINES’ Top 50:

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

The 8-Word Mission Statement for Ad Agency New Business

October 29, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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