The List - FUEL LINES

Infographic: Social Media Demographics for Ad Agency New Business

You must choose and know your audience if you are to have success using social media for new business.

Most small to midsize agencies refuse to name who their target is because of the fear of missing a new business opportunity that won’t be reflective of their target audience. They lack the will power to publicly state it.

“By appealing to everyone, brands (agencies) end up appealing to no one. Standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing.” Tim Williams, author of, Positioning for Professionals

Knowing your target is a prerequisite to any new business program.… Continue reading

The List for Ad Agency New Business

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

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.… Continue reading

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

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

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

The survey was sent by e-mail to a database of over 10,093 U.S. full service advertising agencies ranging in staff size from 5 to 350 full-time employees. The survey closed end of day, December 31, 2010.… Continue reading

Jump Start Your Ad Agency Blog Using Email

This is a guest post from my friend Todd Knutson, CEO of The List, the most accurate online database of marketing and advertising decision makers in North America. Todd is also the author of a great new business blog, New Business Intel.

If your ad agency has or is considering writing a blog, deciding how to spread the word to acquire readers is important: If relevant corporate marketers aren’t reading it, the time you invest in writing may be in vain.… Continue reading

10 Tips for Creating an Ad Agency Blog for New Business

The following 10 tips are my suggestions for creating an ad agency new blog with the objective of generating inbound new business leads while simultaneously building social media capabilities and credibility:

1. I recommend that you do not incorporate your blog into your agency’s website

Online inbound lead generation is like fishing. You should fish for a particular fish (your target audience) with a particular bait (an appealing positioning that differentiates your agency from the rest) and do your fishing away from the boat (the agency’s website) so that you don’t scare away the fish.… Continue reading

Three Helpful Services Improves Ad Agency New Business

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

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

The Top 50 Ad Agency New Business Articles

With almost 500 post on this blog, I thought it would be good to publish this top 50 post list. I’ve assembled the “best of” FUEL LINES agency new business articles based upon analytics of site visitors and their comments.

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

FUEL LINES Top 50:

Advertising Works: Ad Agency Advertises for New Business

Todd Knutson, CEO of The List, recently highlighted an agency that actually practiced what it preached, An Ad Agency that was advertising its services, even offering a discount during the recession. It worked!

When asked by a reporter from the National Post, Ron Telpner, chairman and CEO Brainstorm, a Toronto-based agency, (read interview here), Why did you choose to advertise your services? It’s not a move that many agencies would take — at least not so publicly.… Continue reading

3 Ad Agency New Business Blogs That Provide Fresh Perspectives

There are several blogs that will be of help to your agencies new business efforts that I want to introduce. Each of these blog authors has a great amount of experience working with advertising agencies of all sizes for new business and each of them also has a unique perspective. I highly recommend that you include them in your online reading as resources for your agency’s new business.