Fueling Ad Agency New Business
Twitter allows me to open up and share my personal side to make an emotional connection with my audience. Sharing personal information helps my audience get to know me beyond my profession. If all of my Tweets or Retweets were business oriented, my Twitter feed would be dry and robotic. “People want to work with other […]
Guest post written by Jay Baer, marketing keynote speaker, best selling author, consultant and my friend. Jay and I started our consulting practices about the same time, at the beginning of the Great Recession. He has become a global leader in social media marketing. His blog, Convince&Convert, is ranked as the #1 content marketing blog in the […]
Blog post titles should be reflective of your audience. Overly creative titles don’t work well online. Most aren’t searchable and don’t make the right connection with the intended target when seen in a Twitter feed, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google Plus. Clever titles will not be read if they cannot be found. I recommend, when creating […]
How to instantly subscribe to Twitter accounts of every American City Business Journal. For years, I used The Business Journals Book of Lists for new business intelligence to find the decision makers of prospective clients. I also subscribed to the print editions of The Business Journals in key markets that we targeted. These publications were always very […]
Agencies talk about the value of content marketing but few are doing it and even fewer do it well. Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision-makers said they prefer to get information via articles, not ads. 70% said content makes them feel closer to a company and 60% said content provided by companies helps them make […]
Podcasting is an effective tool for business development, networking, and a positioning of expertise. Trent Dyrsmid, is an online marketing expert, author, speaker, and the founder of BrightIdeas.co. His podcasting audience is made up entirely of ad agency professionals, small business owners, and independent marketing consultants. Trent has produced over 100 episodes. Trent writes, “Podcasting, if […]
Outlining a social media strategy for creating new business opportunities from inbound and content marketing quickly. strat·e·gy : A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. Since I launched my consultancy using social media in 2007, social media has become main-lined into traditional marketing. But, a lot of agencies […]
You can better manage and improve your agency’s New Business | Social Media program using HooteSuite Pro. In a recent survey, time management was one of the top three areas of difficulty agencies were having using social media for new business. There are a number of tools that I recommend to help manage your agency’s […]
Almost 70% of agencies surveyed believe that social media is great for new business and 81% believe it to be an efficient tool for networking. A survey was sent to advertising, digital, media and public relations executives to assess their attitudes toward social media, where they are finding success, what tools they use and where […]
This is a guest post written by my friend and colleague, David C. Baker. He speaks to, writes for, and consults with the marketing industry via ReCourses, Inc. He has worked with more than 650 firms individually and thousands of people have been through his seminars, such as Recourse’s New Business Summit held annually in Nashville, […]
The working atmosphere of an ad agency is chaotic. It is an environment that is in a perpetual state of distraction.
Have you often reached the end of a day with nothing to show for it? I know exactly how you feel. An entire day can be disrupted by just one phone call or email.
One of our biggest challenges for new business is knowing what to work on each day.… Continue reading
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jake Jorgovan for this episode of his, Working Without Pants Podcast, sponsored by Outbound Creative.
I share in-depth tactics to help agencies with their inbound marketing strategies. A lot of agencies have a hard time seeing new business results from inbound marketing, or success is taking a long time. I show ways that inbound and social media can start creating an impact within 30 days.… Continue reading
Almost my entire career in advertising was spent in business development. I’ve been a consultant to advertising, digital, media and PR firms for over ten years. I’ve worked one-on-one with over 270 agencies. From my experience, new business is becoming more complex and challenging.
The importance of social media to business has dramatically escalated. We have moved through the “hype phase of social media when businesses felt compelled to participate because it was such a fad. We have entered a productive phase where companies are starting to crack social’s code to turn it into a genuine marketing advantage.… Continue reading
Keeping your audience’s attention is the rule that matters the most.
If you want to reach your audience, you must have something significant to say and be passionate. Genuine passion will attract attention and attention will lead to action.
A lot of agency presentations are nothing but recycled insights or predictable services. They use the same agency speak with nothing note worthy or memorable.… Continue reading
Agency business development programs are often sales focused. They’re built around outbound, interruptive sales tactics that are designed to start engagements with prospective clients. The prospects have little, if any, awareness of the agency or how they’re different from their competitors.
Success in “selling the agency” is proving to be extremely difficult. And when business development isn’t successful, they think the sensible thing to do is to step-up outbound sales.… Continue reading
I thought I would share a recent interview conducted by content marketer, Andy Baldacci. Andy hosts Hubstaff’s Agency Advantage Podcast where he helps agency owners grow their business.
If you’re skeptical of the value of content marketing for your agency or are worried that it will take too long to get results, this is the episode for you.
Click Here for a full written transcript and to listen to: Fueling Agency New Business With Content
Here are some interview excerpts on the importance of content marketing:
“The average Fortune 500 company has 17 agency relationships.… Continue reading
I’ve reviewed hundreds of agency presentations. Could somebody please tell me why great CREATIVE PEOPLE become so BORING when creating a presentation?
PowerPoint and Keynote slides have the ability to empower your presentation or kill it.
Most presentation decks are created using PowerPoint. There are approximately 30 million PowerPoint presentations made each day. Though PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software, it isn’t my favorite.… Continue reading
My friend, Peter Levitan, ran business development and marketing at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide in New York and London, and bought and sold three of his own agencies (including Portland’s Citrus).
Peter has written the most complete ‘how-to-book’ on ad agency pitches I’ve ever read,“The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.” It’s the definitive how-to guide for every advertising, design, digital and PR agency that wants to increase its odds of winning new accounts.… Continue reading
Networking and trade show events for new business is often a total waste of time. Attendees are focused on their own personal agendas. A more efficient and effective way to spend your time is to host your own events.
Lasting business relationships don’t just happen. It takes a dedicated amount of time and energy to build them.… Continue reading
Michael Gass, Business Development Consultant | Speaker | Author of Fuel Lines
Fuel Lines provides new business resources for Advertising, Digital, Media and PR Agencies.
It has been rated among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world, according to Ad Age’s Power 150.
Since 2007, Michael has helped pioneer the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.
Read more about Michael
An essential component to your agency's new business program is a prospective client data base.
In my opinion one of the most accurate online database of marketing and advertising decision makers is Winmo. I highly recommend them.
I'm Michael Gass, I'm an author, speaker and a new business consultant to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.
Since 2007, I have helped pioneer the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.
Fuel Lines is my social media 'home-base. It has been ranked among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world, according to Advertising Age’s, The Power 150.
Learn more about me