Fueling Ad Agency New Business
Can you define your agency’s positioning in a simple statement? I can’t begin to tell you how many agencies I know struggle with this. The starting point for any ad agency new business program is your positioning. It is a fundamental prerequisite for small and midsize agencies. Positioning is everything. But it is also the place where most agencies where most fail.
Forrester’s recently projected social media marketing spend to increase at an average of 34% a year through 2014. But Marketers are still finding it difficult to locate the ad agencies that are credible and capable within the social media arena. According to Forrester’s research, marketers don’t trust traditional agencies to run their social media campaigns, but neither do they trust interactive agencies their entire marketing program to smaller interactive agencies. Marketers find it difficult to find credible and capable ad agencies experienced in the social media arena.
A great resource for content marketing, social media marketing and agency new business is Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite authors. He was one of the most famous American novelists, short-story writers and essayists, who one both the Noble and Pulitzer prizes. I believe Hemingway would have easily adapted to write for Web and word limiting platforms such as Twitter.
How can an agency help a client monetize their social media when they don’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.”
Blogging has become the smartest strategy for growing an authoritative space on line to be found by your agency’s best prospects. Everyone has a desire to work with others that they know, like and trust. A blog provides a great way to network and generate new business leads, by plain written words designed to focus on the needs of your readers.
Guest Post: Adam Whitaker. New business, business development, agency marketing … call it what you will, it’s sales. Get over it. If you run an ad agency new business unit your role is to sell your agencies services.
I read an interesting ADWEEK article yesterday regarding the “Changing Role of Rainmakers”. Suffice to say that if there has been a major shift in the paradigm for how new business is acquired it would also impact the role for those with the responsibility for business development.
The top 25 ad agency new business research and white paper reports for 2008 according to our FUEL LINE readers. Each report is provided as a downloadable PDF.
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