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

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.

15 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

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:

7 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

Report: Inbound Marketing Channels More Cost-Effective for Ad Agency New Business

March 10, 2011

When it comes to ad agency new business, blogs and social media can deliver inbound leads for less.

I often say, “people want to work with other people that they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE”. Social media is an efficient and affordable way to build new business relationships quickly.

According to research from inbound marketing solutions provider HubSpot, businesses dominated by inbound marketing have a 62% lower cost per lead than firms that do mostly outbound marketing.

Inbound marketing refers to efforts that provide web users with information or tools of value to them, as opposed to outbound or interruptive marketing that pushes messages in front of them.

Traditional outbound marketing techniques for ad agency new business – including direct mail and cold calling – are becoming less effective. Your prospects have the capability to evaluate agency services on their own.

Inbound marketing offers your audience useful information and tools that attract prospective clients to your site, while interacting and developing relationships. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization and social media.

Here are the top 10 key takeaways from the “State of Inbound Marketing Report”:

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 latest 2011 “State of Inbound Marketing Report” is now available for download. The report is based on data from a recent survey of 644 professionals familiar with their business’ marketing strategy.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

10 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency new business, blogs, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, State of Inbound Marketing Report | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Tips for Writing for the Web for Ad Agency New Business

March 3, 2011

To fuel ad agency new business through social media, creating content is critical.

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

And … “businesses (agencies) that blog, get 55% more website traffic than those that don’t.”

Creating valuable content increases website traffic that will equate into new business leads. But writing for web can be daunting, even for experienced copywriters. They are often the ones that struggle the most with making the transition from print to web.

“Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.” – Jon Buscall

It doesn’t matter how great you write if no one finds your content and if they do find it, there’s no benefit to you unless they read it.

You need to think carefully about structuring and formatting your online content to ensure your readers find it and read it. Here are my 10 tips to help you write better for the Web:

Provide a Reader’s Digest or Executive Summary version. Readers love bullet pointed and numbered lists. That’s why so many readers are attracted to post titles that offer 10 tips or 25 ideas, etc.The work you do on behalf of your readers to simplify will be greatly appreciated and keep them coming back for more.
Key words in every post titles. Write for SEO. It doesn’t matter how great your article is if no one can find it. A simple tip to help boost your rankings in Google search is to identify and use certain key words in every post title. 90% of my posts will contain ‘ad agency new business’ in the title. It helps not only for search but will also help drive ‘targeted traffic’ as your posts are repurposed through Twitter. With only 140 characters that you can use for Twitter, that’s not much more than your title and a shortened URL.
Lead with the conclusion. I advise that you begin each post by starting with the conclusion, a take-away or benefits statement. Just answer this question, ‘what is my benefit if I commit to read this post?’
Break up long paragraphs. A reader’s attention span online is much less than for print. Readers tend to scan instead of reading word-for-word. Keep paragraphs concise and short.
Be sure and provide hyper links to your sources. Don’t be afraid that you will lose your audience if they go to another source. Your blog should become a repository of helpful resources for your readers.
Make your content scannable to the eye. Use bold, italics, quotation marks, indention, etc. to make copy pop. A person should be able to quickly scan through your article and get the most important parts.
Write in an Inverted Pyramid style. Similar to the way a newspaper reported would write, the most important copy should be at the top of your post.
Use common language. This is an opportunity to do away with industry jargon and agency speak and write content that resonates with your intended audience.
Get to the point, quickly. Online readers are extremely impatient. If you wade into a story and it takes 3 or 4 paragraphs to make show how it relates, you will have lost your audience before you’ve made your point.
Make your post visually pleasing. I always include a nice photo or graphic to further drive home the main purpose of a post. Using them will create interest and help draw in a reader.

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

6 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing | Tagged: Ad Agencies, ad agency new business, content marketing, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, writing for web | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

January 14, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blogs Can Convert Visitors into Leads for Ad Agency New Business

May 3, 2010

The chief benefit to your agency from using social networking is “getting new business leads.” Creating a community of followers through Twitter and a regularly updated stream of content on a blog builds engagement, can boost your agency’s presence on Google and ultimately bring in more prospective clients.

Don’t just take my word for it.

Inbound online marketing platform HubSpot’s The State of Inbound Marketing report that inbound marketing can double average monthly leads for small and medium-sized businesses. It can also generate leads for less money inbound marketing bring leads for less money.

“This report is designed to help businesses and marketers understand the current usage and results of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and its products.

Inbound marketing is becoming widely accepted because it complements the way buyers make purchasing decisions today — using the Internet and related media to learn about the products and services that best meet their needs.” – Hubspot

Three key takeaways from this report:

Businesses are generating real customers with social media and blogs. The use of social media and company blogs as marketing tools gets your company better brand exposure, but it also generates leads that result in real customer acquisition. 41% of companies who use Twitter for marketing have acquired a customer from a Twitter generated lead. 41% of companies using LinkedIn for marketing have acquired a customer from that lead generation source. 43% of companies using Facebook have acquired a customer and 46% of those using company blogs have acquired a customer from a blog generated lead.
Inbound Marketing channels continue to deliver dramatically lower cost per lead than Outbound Channels do. Respondents who spend more than 50% of their lead generation budget on inbound marketing channels report a significantly lower cost per sales lead than those who spend 50% or more their budgets on outbound marketing channels.
Inbound marketing budgets are increasing while outbound marketing budgets are decreasing. As a percentage of the overall lead generation budget, inbound marketing expanded slightly from 2009 to 2010 and outbound marketing contracted. The net effect is that the gap widened from inbound marketing having a 9% greater share of the overall marketing budget in 2009 to a 15% greater share in 2010.

An additional report highlight that I thought was interesting: Customer acquisition through blogs is directly related to frequency of posts.

The report concludes that, “Traditional outbound marketing techniques – including direct mail, print advertising and telemarketing – are becoming less effective. Buyers are not only finding ways to tune these messages out, but more importantly they now have the capability to evaluate the products and services they need on their own.

Click here for a downloadable copy of this report. There’s also a free Webinar On Demand: The 2010 State Of Inbound Marketing

Here are five things that you need to incorporate into your blog to have success:

A genuine passion for the topic
Expertise, credibility, authority
Honest recommendations that really work
Welcoming, helpful, rewarding information, given freely
Demonstrate value

These are the things we should incorporate into any agency new business program. A blog is a great tool that almost forces you to do these things.

A blog is a new tool for agency new business. It is possible to stop chasing business and have business chasing you.

In celebration of Fuel Lines’s 500th post, here 10 agency blogging resources:

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Facebook, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: blogs, Blogs I Recommend, Hubspot, inbound lead generation, Michael Gass, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Socially Benefitting from My Twitter Habits

February 4, 2009

I’m sitting in front of the flat screen with my laptop halfway watching the new television program “Lie to Me” when I noticed that I’ve formed some habits, Twitter habits. No matter if I’m working or at leisure I’m drawn to Twitter.

Is time spent on Twitter worth it?

I’ve a lot of work to do for my own business and for my clients and I can’t afford to spend lots of time on Twitter, particularly if it has no benefit.

First let me address a small portion of Twitter’s benefits:

Networking tool. I’ve met a good number of professionals who I can now call friends. We’ve been able to share and discuss tips, trends, tactics, etc and be of help to each other.

Timely helps and resources. In need of immediate info, I’ve been able to make a request through Twitter and receive assistance immediately. Just yesterday I was conducting research for a client and someone on Twitter had a book that was loaded with the info that I needed. They volunteered to make copies of the info I needed or would mail me the book. I can give you dozens of other examples of generosity from people on Twitter.

Breaking news and new information. It has gotten to the point that most of the breaking news from either local, state and national news I’ve received through Twitter. I also am notified of just released industry articles and research.

Research. Not only have peopled shared research and resources but I’ve been able to conduct my own research such as these two current polls, Is Cold Calling an Effective Ad Agency New Business Tactic? How is business for your ad agency after the first couple of weeks of 2009?

Appreciation. Everyone likes to feel appreciated. When you help others through Twitter folks are quick to share their appreciation.

Personal brand evangelists. Word of mouth and a friends recommendation is huge. When you give people on Twitter will reciprocate by telling others in their network, often with zeal. They can be as passionate about your brand as you are. I’ve said this often that tools like Twitter is like networking on steroids.

The Twitter habits that I have developed save me time, allow me to be consistent and stay connected with my online community. I thought identifying a few of these Twitter habits may be of help to tto FUEL LINE readers.

When I sign onto Twitter, the first thing I do is check my direct messages and replies. I also use www.search.twitter.com and type in my Twitter name: Click here for a sampling of results.

I use a tool called Social Too to auto follow those who follow me and unfollow those who unfollow me. This tool does the best job of that over any that I’ve used. My ration of those I follow to those following me is within 100 persons and kept in balance due to this tool. An added benefit is the daily report that is automatically emailed to me daily letting me know of new followers and unfollowers. If there are lots of unfollowers I need to check to see if I’m using Twitter to the best benefit of my followers.

A program called Twitter Karma, helps me to automate the management of my Twitter follows and unfollows and provides daily report.

Angela Maiers, educator, author, blogger who now leads Maier Educational Services, developed a simple Twitter Engagement Formula that has provided provides purpose and direction for my participation. Using her 70-20-10 Formula.

70 % of my Twittertime is spent sharing the resources of others as well as my own.

I have over 260 blog post containing helpful new business tips, tactics, tools, talents and trends. I use a tool called Tweetlater to post links to that content on Twitter. Tweetlater allows me preschedule the release date and time of each posts days or even weeks in advance.

I am subscribed to another Twitter tool called Tweetbeeps. These are similar to Google Alerts. I can easily keep track of conversations that mention me, industry information, blog URL, etc.

In addition to my blog analytics I use Retweetrank to gauge what microposts are becoming viral and how I rank based upon people retweeting my posts. Today my Retweet rank:

@michaelgass is ranked 169 on retweetrank http://www.retweetrank.com/michaelgass/ Where do you rank?

Another metric tool that I use often is Hubspot’s Twitter Grader, which measures the reach and authority of a Twitter user. I’ve been able to attain a Twitter ranking of 100 and am now ranked number two among the Twitter Elite in Birmingham. You can also use Twitter Grader to make your own button to include in your post and encourage others to Tweet it:

One of the biggest benefits from my Twitter habits is the traffic it generates to my blog. I started seriously using Twitter back in September. Within five months I now have over 2,200 followers on Twitter and it has become the single best traffic generator to FUEL LINES. In the month of January, with a very specific niche audience of small-to midsize ad agencies, I had over 14,037 page views.

The better I become at using Twitter, Twitter tools and forming Twitter habits traffic to my blog accelerates. The more traffic more new leads that are generated.

Additional articles of interest:

18 Comments | New Business Tools, Social Media, Twitter | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, FUEL LINES, Hubspot, Michael Gass, Social Media, Tweetbeeps, Tweetlater, Twitter, Twitter Grader | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Reader’s Digest Version of SEO for Ad Agency New Business

December 13, 2008

A recent CMO study reported that 80% of decision makers found their vendors, not the other way around. SEO is important for agency new business. You need to optimize SEO for your agency’s target audience to be able to find you. Hubspot’s marketing blog provides the shortest tutorial ever for SEO (Search Engine Opitmization).

12 concise tips for better SEO: