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

August 23, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How he has brought innovation and collaboration to McKinney: 

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

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

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Posted by Michael Gass

The Reader’s Digest Version of the Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

July 25, 2011

Steve Jobs is a master presenter and he provides some important lessons that are helpful to any ad agency pitch opportunity.

Carmine Gallo’s book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is a must read. There’s much to learn from Jobs presentation tactics and style since delivering. Applying his simple formula can greatly improve any agency’s pitch and help them to stand out from the rest.

“You’re time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
– Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is not a natural presenter, he has to work at it. Carmine shares that, “for two full days before a presentation, Jobs will practice the entire presentation, asking for feedback from product managers in the room. For 48 hours, all of his energy is directed at making the presentation the perfect embodiment of Apple’s messages.” 

Nancy Duarte recommends that a presenter spend 90 hours creating an hour-long presentation with 30 slides. But only one-third of that time is spent building slides. Another third is rehearsing, but the first third is spent collecting ideas, organizing ideas, and sketching the story.

  • Thinking
  • Sketching
  • Building
  • Slides
  • Scripting
  • Rehearsing
  • 90 hours | 30 slides

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version from a live presentation delivered by Carmine and recreated through by Peter Walker in this Slideshare format.

4 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Cause Branding: It is Now B-2-WE for Ad Agency New Business

June 8, 2011

WE -habilitating Capitalism – How valuable your agency will Be to ME no longer depends on b2c or b2b but on b2we

Simon Mainwaring is founder of We First, a social branding consulting firm that helps companies use social media to build communities, profits and positive social impact. A highly recognized creative director, he has worked at many of the world’s top creative advertising agencies in Asia, Europe and the U.S. including Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, on Nike and as Worldwide Creative Director for Motorola at Ogilvy, Los Angeles.

Simon’s first book, entitled We First, presents a new vision for business. An answer to Bill Gate’s “Creative Capitalism” challenge,  a practical and actionable plan for how brands and consumers use social media to create a partnership that provides sustained prosperity for business and our world.

Ad agencies could learn much from Simon’s approach where clients are expecting their agency partners … to contribute to the social good, where the future of profit is purpose and agencies that thrive … will be will be those that put the well-being of their brand community and the world at large first.

Enjoy the We First video, how brands and consumers use social media to build communities, profits and positive impact. WE-defining Me written and performed by Sekou Andrews (sekouworld.com). Design and animation by Troika (troika.tv). Original music and sound design by Machine Head (machinehead.com).

Edelman Goodpurpose Survey measures consumer attitudes about corporate responsibility. The survey was conducted in 13 countries among more than 7,000 adults. It is the only global study of its kind. Here are some highlights from that report:

  • 71% believe “brands and consumers could do more to support good causes by working together”
  • 65% say they “have more trust in a brand that is ethically and socially responsible.”
  • 73% agree government and business need to work together more closely to ensure the environment is protected
  • 62% would “help a brand to promote their products or services if there is a good cause behind them. (compared to 53% in 2008 and 59% in 2009)
  • 62% of global consumers “would switch brands if a different brand of similar quality supported a good cause”
  • 64% believe it is no longer enough for corporations to give money; they must integrate good causes into their everyday business

4 Comments | Agency Branding, Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Positioning, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

12 Tips for Building a Rewards Program for Ad Agency New Business

June 6, 2011

Everyone in the agency should contribute to new business and one of the best ways to encourage lead generation is through a referral program.

A referral program is one of the most cost-effective and efficient methods for generating new business for small-to-midsize ad agencies. Here are my 12 tips on how to create or enhance your agency’s new business referral program:

  1. Identify the kinds of clients you are looking for and set parameters for qualifying leads (size, niche or category, etc.) so all employees know the kinds of clients you want to pursue.
  2. Make your process simple and easy to understand. Your staff will not be willing to jump through lots of hoops to participate.
  3. Set goals such as getting a 75 percent participation rate or a certain number of referrals per employee by year’s end.
  4. Regularly encourage employees to make referrals. Get in front of them often and present a clear message of how your new business referral program works, why they are an integral part of its success, and what’s in it for them.
  5. As a way to increase the quality of referrals, pay out their incentives in two stages, offering an initial payout upon a referral as well as a second, supplementary bonus if the initial lead turns into a new account for the agency.  The “right” reward will depend upon your agency’s size  and the size of the new business account.
  6. For initial leads offer gift cards, movie tickets, dinner or non-monetary prizes like reserved parking spaces or a cubicle by the window, or thanking them at a reception with their peers. I would suggest rewarding ALL qualified referrals in some way to ratchet-up participation.
  7. If the referral leads to a new account for your agency, provide a much larger financial bonus or allow employees too earn extra vacation days – with pay.
  8. Be sure to publicly say “thank you” to the person who supplied the lead that generates new business. Make it impressive enough that employees will proactively feed you names on a regular basis.
  9. Teach your staff how to ask for referrals and train them to be better networkers, especially integrating social media into the mix of tools available. You will systematically turn your employees into indispensable brand advocates.
  10. Do a good job of providing periodic status updates. Employees will be frustrated with the lack of follow-up on the status of their referrals.
  11. Continuously find ways to improve the program.
  12. Create consistency. The deeper you draw your employees into the hunt for new business “hunt,” the easier it will be for your agency will stay focused and consistent in generating new business.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Leave a Comment » | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , | 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:

  1. It might be a helpful exercise to create a SWOT analysis of your agency: it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Identify your top category and audience you are going to target. You must have an identifiable target.
  5. Know who is your primary competition and create a strong point of differentiation from them.
  6. Follow the KISS method. Keep everything simple as possible including the plan. A one page plan can easily suffice.
  7. Outline the new business plan through specific strategies: Public Relations, Social Media, Direct Mail, Digital, etc.
  8. Establish benchmarks for the things you can measure. Have a review, update, make changes and refocus your efforts once a month.
  9. 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.
  10. 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: , , , , | 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: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

April 18, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The List for Ad Agency New Business

March 2, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 Comments | New Business Tools | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

28 Stimulating Digital and Social Media Marketing Quotes

February 23, 2011

Write something memorable, that stands out and provides inspiration to others.

I’m reading constantly and often find and keep the most memorable quotes from my daily reading. Here’s a collection that I thought would be of interest as they relate specifically to digital and social media marketing. I hope you find inspiration, a spark for your creativity and to take the time to write something memorable.

Here are my favorite digital and social media marketing quotes:

  1. “There’s never been a better time to be in advertising, and there’s never been a worse time.” – Aaron Reitkopf, North American CEO of digital agency Profero
  2. “We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.” –  Pierre Omidyar, founder, eBay
  3. “The Internet has been the most fundamental change during my lifetime and for hundreds of years.” – Rupert Murdoch, media mogul
  4. “Online advertising doesn’t have to be a “wild west.” – Benjamin Edelman, Harvard Business School
  5. “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” -  Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia
  6. “Social media is a savior not a nemesis, an asset not a liability, a time saver not a time killer for ad agency new business” – Michael Gass, new business consultant for advertising agencies
  7. “In the 21st century, the database is the marketplace.” - Stan Rapp, MRM Partners Worldwide
  8. “Content Doesn’t Win. Optimized Content Wins” – Li Evans, search marketing guru
  9. “Finding new ways, more clever ways to interrupt people doesn’t work.” – Seth Godin, best selling marketing author
  10. Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign. – Jon Buscall
  11. The rule of 5 is that each and every content development undertaking should produce content assets that can be used at least 5 different ways. – Ardath Albee
  12. “Think like a publisher, not a marketer.” – David Meerman Scott, marketing and leadership speaker
  13. “What happens when you combine blogs, Google and millions of dissatisfied customers? An e-mob.” –  Bob Garfield, advertising author
  14. “The web attacks traditional ways of doing things and elites, and this is very uncomfortable for traditional businesses to deal with.”– Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP Group
  15. “SEO is a marketing function for sure, but it needs to be baked into a product, not slapped on like icing after the cake is baked.” - Duane Forrester, author and conference speaker
  16. “You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR). You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free.” – David Meerman Scott, marketing speaker
  17. “Blog policy at Microsoft is just two words: Blog Smart.” – Lawrence Liu, senior technical product manager, Microsoft
  18. “Don’t measure what you can. Measure what you should.” – Philip Sheldrake, blogger, marketer, web analytics specialist
  19. “People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising.” - Mark Zuckerber, Facebook
  20. “In our business, whenever there’s a disruption, our clients need guidance.” – Michael Roth, CEO, Interpublic Group
  21. “Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must.” –  Bill Schrader, businessman
  22. “Clients don’t care about the labor pains; they want to see the baby.” –  Tim Williams, founder of consultancy Ignition
  23. “It’s hard to find things that won’t sell online.” – Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon
  24. “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field” Niels Bohr, Danish physicist
  25. “Facebook Fan Pages are email newsletters with smaller pictures.” – Jay Baer, author, social media strategist
  26. “Our power has been matched and, in some categories, rivaled by user influence,” Nick Brien, CEO of Interpublic Group’s McCann
  27. “It’s been said that advertising agencies aren’t changing, they are being changed.” – Unkown
  28. And my favorite: “It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.” Clay Shirky, author, professor
Additional articles that may be of interest, “16 of the Top Quotes from Fast Company’s The Future of Advertising” and “50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference”

10 Comments | Digital, Fuel for Thought, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Twitter Study Provides Data for Ad Agency New Business

February 22, 2011

Understanding how your prospects are using Twitter and what personal data they are willing to share can boost its use for ad agency new business.

Sysomos is the leading provider of social media monitoring and analytics technology. They have analyzed more than a billion tweets generated by over 20 million Twitter users in 2010. This included bio, website address and location information (both textual and lat / long) disclosed in their profile pages to see how many details Twitter users were divulging.

Here’s some of the highlights of  Twitter usage in 2010:

  • The number of Twitter users offering personal information within their bios has more than doubled to 63.3%, compared with 31% in 2009.
  • 82% of Twitter users now provide a name, compared with only 33% in 2009.
  • 73% provide location information compared with 44% in 2009.
  • 45% of users submit a website address versus 22% a year ago.
  • From January, 2010 until mid-August, 2010, new users accounted for nearly 44% of the total Twitter population.
  • Only 0.05% have more than 10,000 friends they follow, and only 2.05% have more than 1,000. The vast majority of users – 95.8% – have less than 500 people they follow.
  • Only 0.06% of Twitter users have more than 20,000 followers, and only 2.12% have more than 1,000 followers. Meanwhile, 95.9% have less than 500 followers.
  • More than three-quarters of Twitters users – 80.6% – have made fewer than 500 tweets, 2.7% have made more than 5,000 tweets.
  • A small hard-core group (2.2%) have accounted for 58.3% of all tweets, while 22.5% have accounted for about 90% of all activity.

Click on the following link to read Sysomos report: Twitter Statistics for 2010: An in-depth report at Twitter´s Growth 2010, compared with 2009

Some Twitter tools to help you measure and improve:

  • TweeterGrader: a free tool that allows you to check the power of your twitter profile compared to millions of other users that have been graded.
  • Tweetstats: a free tool that will graph your Tweets and show how many retweets.
  • Bit.ly is a universal url shortener that not only provides a handy service in shortening urls but also allows you to access analytics to see how many people are clicking on your link.

Additional articles for using Twitter for ad agency new business:

2 Comments | Twitter | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Chris Brogan: The Future of Media

February 21, 2011

To create new business opportunities for your agency, it is imperative to stay ahead of your clients and be aware of the possibilities of media in the  near future.

It is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.” Clay Shirky

Chris Brogan was an early adopter of social media. I learned a great deal from him when I launched my consultancy through social media back in 2007. I’ve watched Chris build his personal brand awareness through social media to become one it’s rock starts.  He  has created an interesting video, discussing the future of media that I thought would be of interest to the ad agency community. Chris shares 7 ideas where he things media is going for the future and invites your participation in the discussion:

  1. Media will be Multi Touch
  2. Media will be Mobile
  3. Media will be Serial
  4. Media will be Two-Way
  5. Media will be Rich Data Mined
  6. Media will be Subscription Based
  7. Media will be Faster with Longer Burn

Chris Brogan consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies like PepsiCo, General Motors, Microsoft, and more, on the future of business communications, and social software technologies. He is a New York Times bestselling co-author of Trust Agents, and a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine. Chris’s blog,[chrisbrogan.com], is in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150.

Click on the following link to participate in the conversation by sharing your thought on the Future of Media

Some additional articles as to the future of the ad industry that may be of interest:

4 Comments | New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , , , | 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:

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: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The History and Evolution of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

January 22, 2011

A look back at the history of social media can help us better move forward as it continues to rapidly evolve.

There are social media solutions for almost every need. These are exciting times for the advertising industry.  I enjoy every day of exploring the potential of social media to advance ad agency new business and share what I’m learning with you.

Social media, in an incredibly short period of time, has become mainstream. Millions of people connect through social media channels daily.  To better understand where it is going, it is important to review its brief past.

Webdesigner Depot, has created an excellent summary of the  history of social media. Changes occur almost on a daily basis but this look back can help you put rising popularity of social media into context.  The following are the major topics covered in this resourceful article, that highlight’s social media’s history along with summaries of the various platforms that continue to evolve:

  • Precursors to Social Media: Usernets, BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems), IRC, ICQ, and Instant Messaging
  • Early Social Networks: Dating Sites, Forums, Six Degrees (the first modern social network) and Live Journal
  • Major Advances in Social Networking: Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook
  • Other Major Social Networks: Multiply (family friendly social network), Orkut (Google’s social network), Kontain (allowing users to follow each other through photos, videos, and music, rather than just simple status updates)
  • Niche Social Networks: Ning, Media Sharing, Photobucket. Flickr, YouTube, Revver
  • Social News and Bookmarking: Delicious, Digg, Reddit
  • Real Time Updates: Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr,
  • Lifestreaming and Lifecasting: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, FriendFeed, WP Lifestream

Click the following link to read the article, pass it along to your clients: The History and Evolution of Social Media

Some additional resources:

5 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Something for the 34% of Ad Agencies That Have No Blog

January 21, 2011

 

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is becoming the gateway for agency new business.

Ad agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus for creating magnetic content that will attract prospective clients, rather than relying primarily on the interruption model of cold calls an unsolicited direct mail, which consumers are responding to less and less.

In a recent Ad Agency New Business Survey that I recently conducted, 64% of the 430 responding ad agencies said they have a blog. For the remaining 36% of the agencies that don’t but should, I’ve compiled the following check-list to help get your agency’s blog quickly up and running for new business:

  • RSS Subscription button so your readers can opt to read content through a tool such as  Google Reader. Readers may also choose to get these feeds for new content from your blog through their in-box. You can easily set this up through Feedburner.
  • Email Subscription: provide a linked-button for readers to opt-in to receive your email newsletter.
  • Also provided linked-buttons in your blog’s sidebar for people to be able to connect with you through your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
  • Use a Facebook app to post new content directly to your Facebook account. There’s also a similar app for LinkedIn. Anytime you posts, those posts will automatically be published to your social media accounts.
  • Provide readers a way to ‘Like’ and ‘Tweet’ your posts. Also provide the button-links for your readers to easily share content through sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit or that would allow them to share it through an email or print out a copy.
  • Host your blog on your own domain. You never know when you might want to change from a WordPress or Typepad blog to something else.
  • SEO Measure: the number of your inbound links and the power of those links.  You can use Page Rank Checker, a free tool, to check the current page rank of your blog. Rankings will range between 1 and 10 (with 10 being the highest)
  • Unique post titles, less than 75 characters. I recommend consistently including key words to dominate in Google (i.e. for me it’s  ”ad agency new business”, which I include in almost every post title.
  • Post 2 to 5 times per week, 1 ‘original’ post for every 4 to 5 ‘resource’ posts.
  • Average post length should be 350 to 450 words. Less than that your post probably doesn’t have enough valued content to make it worths someones effort to click-through. If it’s more than 450 words, the amount of content is daunting and they often wont even begin to read your content.
  • People generally don’t read word-for-word online, they tend to scan. Make your posts scannable. Use bold, italics, indention, quotation marks, bullet-pointed and numbered lists.
  • Add links to your posts when appropriate. Be sure to provide attribution for resources used in your post and links to your primary resources.
  • Add 1 image per post, it will make your copy visually more interesting and emphasize your primary point.
  • Check your blog’s analytics frequently (once or twice a day) to see top posts, number of page views,  referring sites, search engine terms, clicks, incoming links, etc. Keep your blog traffic trending upwards from month-to-month.
  • Your blog should be easy to navigate by your readers. Provide at least 10 to 12 blog post categories and search feature for your blogs content. Highlight your top posts in a sidebar widget.
  • Make it personal. Include your photo in the blog’s sidebar and a welcome which states the purpose of the blog and ways for your audience to connect. Keep in mind that people want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. Your blog provides them that opportunity.
  • I would recommend that you add and About page, Contact page and Services page for when a reader wants to check you out further, in their on time. Provide specific information about your first-steps with a new client so that they know exactly how to engage you. For example, my first-point of engagement with a client is a social media | new business workshop.
  • Be sure that you have a nice a clean blog template that allows for easy navigation and also highlights your content. Content is more important than design and is key to your blog’s traffic.

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

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

January 3, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

From Park & Co’s Extra Cut Blog:

You buy your lettuce locally. Why not your marketing?

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

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

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

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

3 Comments | Best Practices, Fuel for Thought, New Business Tactics, New Business Tips, Promotion | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Mine Social Networks for Ad Agency New Business

November 29, 2010

Data mining is an increasingly important tool for ad agency new business transforming data into rich business intelligence, giving your agency an informational advantage.

“The real money in social media might not reside in the ads that sit on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, but in the data produced by users’ frantic friending and sharing.

Internet users are now spending 22 percent of their time in social media, and Internet activity leaves behind a trail of data: what people like, what they share, and who is connected to whom with similar tastes.

Brian Morrissey, Social Media Data: The Benefits of Friends

There is a shift in focus from social network sites to the data they provide. Mining data from social media sites is not only great for your clients it provides excellent intelligence and important data for you to effectively reach out to your prospective clients.

With 400 million users spending a considerable portion of their online time on site, social networks would appear to be an agency new business director’s dream.

Our accounts on Facebook contain a wealth of data about us, whereas an online merchant’s account contains only a credit card number, address and buying history.

Social Media data that can be collected by any listening platform like a Radian6 or a Networked Insights. But in reality it’s what you do with that data that makes the big difference.

Amazon knew your preferences and that was a good thing because they made your shopping experience better. Netfix knew that one person’s recommendation was 67% likely to be a good recommendation for you, and that was a good thing.

I recently read a brilliant article by Tac Anderson, The Cloud Opened Up and Rained Marketing Data. Here’s s snip-it from Tac’s article, how our personal information and interactions fills data-centers:

“… those data centers process that information in real-time as you move through the Webbed World. It re-calculates your personal algorithm with every click and new event, with each bit of new information you shared on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, your blog, your online and publicly available offline behavior.

There aren’t many other options really. Most people don’t think about it. They refuse to believe the degree of accuracy these machines have. You could do as some have done those who radically removed all convenience from their lives. You could be anti-social.

Even still most people don’t realize the level of slavery they are in. We know exactly what to offer you, when and at what price. We know how often to advertise to you, in what sequence and what frequency is most effective for preparing you to buy, vote or convert.” Tac Anderson, The Cloud Opened Up and Rained Marketing Data

The shift in focus development and growth of social network data opens up new possibilities for ad agency new business. The power to personalize your agency and it’s services is much greater.

When one has access to this rich, new set of data, the ability to target the individual needs of a particular visitor grows considerably.

When one has access to My data, My media, My connections, and My influence, one can truly create a “market of Me,” where the market is customized to my needs and enhanced by my actions.

Accenture’s, Social Networks: Enabling the Market of Me

Get ahead of the curve, learn the potential for data mining for agency new business, the companies and tools that will help you make strategic sense of the data.

Another article that may be of interest: “Five Things You Didn’t Know About Social-Media Tracking”

“A recent test of 101 popular smartphone games and applications for iPhone and Android phones finds that more than half secretly sent user information to other companies”

Additional articles on the subject of advertising and data mining:

1 Comment | Digital, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | 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:

  1. Steve Jobs: 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business
  2. Forbes: 20 Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns
  3. Ad Agency CEOs: Social Media Philosophy and Tips for New Business
  4. Ad agency having explosive new business growth by leading with social media
  5. The Top 10 Social Media Questions Ad Agency Clients are Asking
  6. Ad Age: A List of the Worst Agency Websites for IPhones and IPads
  7. Four Ways Social Media is Changing Advertising Agencies New Business
  8. IBM Study: The end of advertising as we know it
  9. The Top 14 List of Advertising Agency Networks for New Business
  10. A Guide for Ad Agencies: The Cost and Servicing of New Media
  11. Social Media “Teaches” Ad Agencies to Promote Themselves the Right Way
  12. Twitter List: 500+ Advertising Agencies on Twitter
  13. The Dysfunctional Client and Ad Agency Relationship
  14. 5 Ways I Use Twitter to Help Ad Agency New Business
  15. The Top 100 Social Brands of 2009
  16. A Simple Twitter Formula for Ad Agency New Business
  17. Social Media Marketing Map Used For Ad Agency’s New Business
  18. Promote Your Ad Agency Through the Recession
  19. Recession Creates Opportunities for Small-to Midsize Ad Agencies
  20. 400 articles on the subject of “Advertising In A Recession”
  21. Does social media end cold calling as an ad agency new business tactic?
  22. How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen media trends
  23. Design Your Ad Agency’s Website for New Business
  24. Four Things Your Ad Agency Should Know Before Jumping Into Social Media
  25. Clear and Present Danger of Social Media for Ad Agencies
  26. Prediction: Ad Agencies that make social media central to their business model will be hiring
  27. 10 Things Ad Agencies “Usually” Say About Themselves
  28. Ad Agencies: 6 Quick Tips for Pricing and Servicing Social Media
  29. Edward Boches, CCO for the Mullen Agency: What Twitter Can Do For You
  30. The Changing Role of Ad Agency Rainmakers
  31. 5 Reasons Ad Agencies Have Problems Creating Online Communities
  32. Major Shift in Advertising Means a Shift for Agency New Business Practices
  33. 6 Practical Tips for Ad Agency RFP Responses
  34. How Social Media Impacts Advertising and Marketing
  35. Top 25 Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media Articles
  36. 10 iPhone Apps for Ad Agency New Business
  37. 10 additional questions to ask before hiring your agency’s new business director
  38. 10 Blogging Tips for Ad Agency CEOs
  39. Four-step Approach to a Social Media Plan
  40. The First of Five Ways to Promote Your Ad Agency Using Social Media
  41. 50 Ad Agency New Business Tips
  42. 10 Reasons Ad Agencies Should Participate in Social Media for New Business
  43. Top Ten Reasons Your Ad Agency Should Blog
  44. Ad Agencies: 5 Ways to Find Prospects on Twitter
  45. Should Ad Agency Pitches and RFPs Be a Thing of the Past?
  46. Digital Agency Uses Social Media for New Business
  47. 40 Ways to Take Your Ad Agency’s Blog to the Next Level
  48. 75 Ad Agency New Business articles, posts, reports, surveys and white papers
  49. What words do you use to describe your ad agency?
  50. SlideShare: Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

4 Comments | Best Practices, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

October 11, 2010

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

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

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

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

Here are his top 10 mistakes in Web design:

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Digital | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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

September 28, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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9 Comments | Best Practices, Pitches, Speaking | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

The Top 10 List of Articles for Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

September 8, 2010

How to use social media as a channel for ad agency new business continues to be a hot topic with most agencies.

The articles below created the most appeal and traffic from readers for this past quarter.  Evidence that agencies still are very interested in social media and how to monetize it for themselves and for their clients.

Information that helps with agency presentations has also generated interest. An article on Steve Job’s presentation tactics led to 2,300 page views within an hour of being posted.

So, just in case you missed any, ranked in order of their appeal,  are the top 10 articles for fueling ad agency new business through social media:

  1. Steve Jobs: 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business
  2. Forbes: 20 Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns
  3. 50 of the Best Insights from Ad Age’s First Ever Small Agency Conference
  4. The Top 10 Social Media Questions Ad Agency Clients are Asking
  5. Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business
  6. 5 Reasons Ad Agencies Continue to Have Problems Understanding Social Media
  7. Study: 60 percent of companies using social media have no plan
  8. The Four Great Laws of Copywriting for Ad Agency New Business
  9. Ad Agencies: 6 Quick Tips for Pricing and Servicing Social Media
  10. 10 Tips for Creating an Ad Agency Blog for New Business

Note: Popular articles/posts are usually of interest to your audience. This type of post is by far one of the easiest to write and typically will generate a lot of traffic to your agency’s blog site. Use you blog’s analytics to pull the top trending posts for the month, quarter or year.

This will provide you with an even greater return on the time investment in writing each post and help them to have a long shelf life.

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1 Comment | Agency Leadership, Fuel for Thought, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

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