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Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?

Peter · May 13, 2024 · 16 Comments

Your Advertising Agency and Social Media. Oh, And Your Business Development Program.

I am updating this older relatively well-read blog post about the how-to make it happen for an advertising agency social media program. Updating is a good blog strategy to help Google love you.

Does Advertising Agency Social Media Work Anymore (As In Drive Incoming Leads)?

Start here: “Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?” I am not going to bullshit you. There is no perfect social media platform for advertising agency new business. Why? Cause ya know… the devil is in the details, and your details might just be different than the agency down the road.

2024.

I originally wrote this very viewed advertising agency social media blog post back in 2014. Yikes. Time for an update, right? Like I said… Updating old blog posts that once had decent activity is critical to bumping them back up on Google searches. There is an art to this.

When I wrote this back in the good old days, blog posts by ad agencies had not yet exploded, Twitter posts had not yet exploded, Instagram was not yet a smash, TikTok had not been invented, and on. Here are some of those “we are now bombarded” stats.

Depending on who you listen to, you’ve got like 4,000 competitive agencies and freelancers.
How many blog posts are there today? Here is just one directional figure: there are “like” over 2 million blog posts daily – out of 1.7 billion websites. You think your ad agency can stand out?
From Claude: Assuming 85% of the 229 million daily active users on X, that’s around 195 million real users tweeting daily.
It’s estimated that around 200 million businesses across the world use Instagram each month. Around 90% of Instagram’s users follow at least one business account on the platform.
There seem to a billion LinkedIn posts a day.
I have over 6,000 “advertising people” connections, yet when I post on LinkedIn, I get maybe 80 individual post views. Pay per play, baby. It’s not so organic these days.

Do you get the idea here? You are kinda fucked if you think that your blogs, tweets, etc are gonna get noticed. You are competing with other, probably really good at SEO agencies.

The best I can do is share my personal experiences. First, here are my social media objectives.

How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency Business Development Program

Peter · May 13, 2024 · 7 Comments

How To Build An Effective, High-ROI Advertising Agency Business Development Program

Start Here. Ask Yourself: How Is Your Marketing, Digital, and Advertising Agency Business Development Program Going?

What do I mean? Are you getting the leads you want? Are these clients high margin? Do they want great thinking, media planning and creativity from you? Might they be long-term? Do they look cool on your client list?

#1: Tough News From the 2024 RSW/US Agency New Business Report

RSW/US asked agencies: “How Difficult Is Obtaining New Business, Compared to Last Year?”

58% of agencies found it harder to obtain new business in 2023, and 38% of ad agencies reported a decrease in new business opportunities in 2023, up from 26% in 2022.

#2: My Second Book On How To Run And Grow A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency Is being bought by your competitor down the street.

If you want to run a kick-ass advertising, digital, or whatever you call your agency business development program that stands out, makes more money, and is happy, then buy my new book. Its 27 chapters cover every aspect of agency management (including staffing issues), business development, and building critical personal branding. Go here: “How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency.”

Advertising Agency Business Development Strategies and Tactics

This is an update to “How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program.” Your competitors have read it over 50,000 times.

Advertising agency business development is a 24/7 operation that requires the right agency positioning, strategies, action, and efficiency. I help my agency clients get there faster by building them a custom, efficient business development plan. A plan that they will run 24/7.

The post’s popularity is due to three key factors:

1. It directly addresses a major marketing pain point: how to build a winning and efficient advertising agency business growth plan.

2. The post is well optimized for search engines, delivers high value, and, therefore…

3. Google loves it. FYI, my number two trafficked post is, “How To Name Your Advertising Agency – Part One” at 30,000 + views. While always rethinking their website, advertising agencies also obsess about their name. By the way, the How to Name post is also a very good cheat sheet on naming that you can steal if a client ever needs a new brand name.

Your Competiton Is Growing – Be Unignorable

Your potential clients have over 4,000 marketing communications ‘agency’ options (other agencies, new consultancies, freelancers, even your ex-creative director…).

Therefore, any form of business development passivity on your part – sucks. If you think you are doing everything right, you probably are not. How can I say this? I never thought that all was well whilst running business development at Saatchi & Saatchi and when I owned my own west coast agency.

A critical message about not being unignorable… Watch this. I built it for my friends at AAR Partners, the leading ad agency search consultant. By the way, I read this thinking about consultants, “34 Advertising Agency Search Consultants“.

OK, Let’s Go… The 24/7 Business Development Plan

I moved from New York to Bend, Oregon, in 2002 to buy a very successful advertising agency (and raise a family 20 minutes from a ski lift).

Citrus grew to add a Portland office and national accounts including Dr. Martens, Harrah’s, Leagalzoom, Nike, Providence Health & Services, the Montana Lottery, and the UN.

I woke up every day as if a client like Nike would walk out the back door along with its revenues. I bet as an ad agency owner or manager you have rough nights too. One of the things I knew I could and should do was to manage this back-door issue was to have an active, I stress active, new business plan in place.

Here are some (I stress some) of the elements of my marketing plan. They helped me grow Saatchi & Saatchi and my agency Citrus. I hope my insights help you grow your agency.

Execution Rules.

When I set out to write this advertising agency new business post I didn’t think that it would be this long – a warning to the ADHD types. However, advertising agencies’ new business planning is complex and becoming more complex every day due to the rapid changes in our industry and technology. That said, the devil in business development, you know what’s coming, is in the detail. Success is all about execution.

For example, running a successful inbound biz dev program that attracts market attention must be based on a sound strategy and smart agency process if you want to run a 24/7 sales program. Staying the course is critical.

OK. OK. Help Me ChatGPT. Here is a quick FAQ that my buddy Chat created to help you understand the core elements of this missive.

What are the key elements of a successful advertising agency new business program?

Strategic Positioning: Define clear business and sales objectives, including your agency’s unique value propositions like media expertise or demographic specializations (e.g., mobile advertising, Gen X marketing).
Proactive Business Development: Employ a dedicated Business Development Director to lead client acquisition efforts, ensuring alignment with agency goals and maintaining regular prospect engagement.
Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Implement a balanced strategy with targeted content marketing (blogs, white papers) and smart use of social media platforms to generate inbound leads. Complement this with aggressive outbound tactics like cold calling, personalized emails, and strategic ad placements.
Client Acquisition and Retention: Focus on acquiring clients through thoughtful qualification of leads, engaging pitches, and effective management of proposals and pitches. Post-acquisition, ensure smooth transitions and high client satisfaction to foster long-term relationships.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation: Regularly update the business development plan to reflect market changes and internal growth goals. Utilize tools like CRM systems to track progress and optimize strategies based on data-driven insights.

How can an agency maintain continuous new business growth?

Consistency in Marketing Efforts: Regular updates and interactions via high-value emails and social media posts ensure continuous engagement with potential clients.
Leveraging Thought Leadership: Establish your agency as a thought leader by narrowing your focus to specific niches or industries, thus standing out from the competition.
Utilizing Advanced Tools and Analytics: Keep track of all marketing and pitch efforts through detailed analytics to understand what strategies work best and adjust accordingly.

What are common mistakes to avoid in agency new business development?

Overextending Without Focus: Avoid trying to be everything to everyone. Specialize in certain areas to differentiate your agency from others.
Neglecting Business Development Culture: Ensure that business development is ingrained in the agency’s culture, with all team members actively participating in growth activities.
Inefficient Use of Resources: Focus on quality over quantity in marketing efforts to avoid wasting resources on unqualified leads or ineffective strategies.

Back To Me: The Advertising Agency Business Development Plan. First Things First.

I have never been able to construct an effective business development program without first having an agency business plan.

The business plan should include (at least):

Your agency’s business and business development objectives
An assessment of your current strengths and weakness (I have all of my clients do an internal SWOT analysis)
A competitive agency positioning (specialization is a good thing)
An analysis of your space in the world – as in, why would a client hire you?
Clear target market objectives and target market personas
A service plan (it might mean adding new services)
Your inbound and outbound (think Account-Based Marketing) plan
The very important objective of running unignorable messaging
A dedication to being consistent and efficient – as in having a process

Your business plan should also help you plan for your future in the evolving world of marketing communications. I think that client confusion with the evolving state of advertising and marketing – this includes big and small clients – makes today a great time to be an agency. Winning agencies are resolving their business challenges, crafting the right services and guidance, and, importantly, are willing to modify their business model to avoid disruption to achieve success.

It is also imperative that you develop a roadmap for how to grow your current agency to become the agency of the future. The market, communication platforms, and client expectations are changing rapidly. Assess your current strengths, weaknesses, and how your agency expertise and personnel are going to stay ahead of change (do an annual SWOT analysis).

Change can be very profitable. What if you could restart your agency using a blank sheet of paper? Would you build a replica of your current agency or would it look dramatically different? If you think that change is in order, you better get started. Here is a powerful mantra from General Eric Shinseki.

“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.”

The Agency New Business Program – Join The 34%

Armed with your business plan you can get ahead of your competitors by having a comprehensive new business plan. Most agencies do not have a plan. Get this industry research…

66% Of Advertising Agencies Report That They Do Not Have a Business Development Plan. This Is Lunacy!

Your plan should include most, if not all of the following: [Read more…] about How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency Business Development Program

How To Position An Advertising Agency – Part I

Peter · March 24, 2024 · 7 Comments

How To Position An Advertising Agency

Ok, but first: Here is a comprehensive guide the ANA dug that will help your agency become a winner in today’s crazy advertising marketplace – The Advertising Agency Survival Guide.

Part I: The Advertising Agency Position – The Heart Of Your Agency And Reason For Being

An updated look at how to build a smart advertising agency position today… Agencies are wondering how to position themselves in the current environment. I have some thoughts before I get to the details on how to position your agency.

If you have worked on and delivered on a smart advertising agency position in the past couple of years, do not toss it away because it might not be a perfect business development strategy for 2024. For Example, if you ‘own’ the positioning/expertise in travel and hospitality, do not totally back burner that hard-fought-for brand equity—you might have done that during Covid days. But it is back.
Be a very strategic thinker and an insight-driven agency. Be the idea guys. Have ideas that relate to your current and future clients – meet their current needs. Do and deliver market research. Drive respect for your brains. Use this to stay in touch. Truly valuable insights will not be viewed as ass being too ‘salesy’.

Need one simple but, believe me ahead of your compeitive agency curve… do some reasech and thinking abut the new Tik Tok advertising world. And, OK AI.be the idea guys in whatever thing is on a client’s mind. Make them smarter.

One more, why don’t you get one of your folks to start a respeted Tok Tok channel. but, please do not make it about your agency. i have a few ideas. need them?

The Starting Line

.My perspective on this series is that you have to read all three parts to maximize your agency’s benefits. Yup, all three.

Read it all. As Enzo Ferrari would say: “Devi differenziare la tua agenzia. Per fare ciò, leggi tutte e tre le parti.”

Why start with Ferrari?

I think Ferrari is a well-positioned brand (LOL, how’s that for an understatement!). Ferrari is known for its racing heritage, engineering, design, and luxury. Everything they do supports their positioning and, importantly, sales.

At this point, you might be asking two questions.

“What does Ferrari have to do with my advertising, digital or design agency?”

Well, your agency’s brand positioning needs to be as well designed and supported as Ferrari’s.

2. “Do I really need to hear yet another advertising agency business development consultant tell me that advertising agencies need to do a better job of positioning their agencies?”

Yes. Why? Because the great majority of marketing communications agencies look and sound alike. Not sounding like the guy down the street will result in your driving a much more powerful agency

Before I get into the meat of the positioning issue, I’d like to help answer one of the most perplexing questions of our time:

Is the term “Advertising Agency” still relevant?

Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distributition

Peter · January 3, 2023 · 9 Comments

How To Distribute Powerful Advertising Agency Thought Leadership

I am writing a new book about how to build and run a highly profitable advertising agency. Chapters of the book cover the art and science of developing impossible-to-resist, as in unignorable, thought leadership as an account-based marketing and inbound tool. Here is a quick list of advertising agency thought leadership distribution platforms. You can see more advertising agency resources right here.

Note that anything you produce can be efficiently sliced and diced and put on other platforms. Think content amplification.

13 Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distribution Platforms

Your website. In a blog post or via a downloadable white paper, webinar offer, or podcast page. The advantage of a PDF offer is that you can ask the interested party for their contact information. Gently, please.
Your company newsletter. Build the list via website offers and gentle outreach. I’ve employed contractors in the Philippines to help build mailing lists.
LinkedIn. Three basic opportunities: 1) Post on LinkedIn (note that LinkedIn loves video). 2) Put your thinking in LinkedIn groups (for example I am a member of Digital Marketing – 2 million members). 3) Use LinkedIn Navigator to make direct connections.
Publish a LinkedIn newsletter. Your connections and followers will be invited to subscribe, and LinkedIn will alert your network whenever you publish new editions.
TikTok. TikTok has become a new gen search engine. It is currently an underutilized ad agency universe.
Video platforms. Australia’s Tiny Hunter agency has over 210 videos. They tell me that the videos help them close deals with the right new clients (right is the operative word), client types that spend time watching Tiny Hunter’s advice. The agency’s founders are more about closing the deal than racking up huge indiscriminate view numbers.
Audio platforms. Build and distribute your own podcast then transcribe it into bite-sized content and roll it out.
Leverage OPA = Other People’s Audience. Guest blog. Guest podcast. Why work to build an audience when you can borrow it?
Paper: Zines and, yes, old-fashioned letters. Hmm, or a targeted very cool (has to be cool) postcard series. So, 1986. However, so 2023 clutter busting. Paper breaks through
Write a book. Both paper and digital. The ultimate proof of expertise. Go self-published. There is no need for a time-consuming traditional publisher to write that B2B book.
Advertising. You use advertising to generate awareness for your clients, right? See What LONDON Advertising did.
Conferences. Go where your next client hangs out. Give that insight talk and make friends. Hand out that book.
Doughnuts? My agency once delivered insights directly to prospects in Portland and San Francisco using a customized and personalized Krispy Kreme box. Free doughnuts to grab attention. The box delivered awareness, actionable insights, and the offer to get some recently launched Krispy Kreme stock. It made us friends.
Write and produce your advertising agency thought leadership and get it out in the world to the right clients. They will love the good stuff.

More to come… in the new book.

Advertising People Die Earlier. Why? Job Burnout.

Peter · August 30, 2022 · 4 Comments

Job Burnout Kills.

Job burnout is a hot topic (no pun intended.) I’d like to start with a question before I share some data on burnout. We talk about employee burnout. Do we ever discuss owner/leader/HR job burnout? Imagine trying to figure out how to manage a remote workforce. Hybrid working? Juggling salaries for in-house and out-of-office staff? Trying to figure out if you still need that office coffee system? How to manage a growing freelance workforce?

Have you read about leadership burnout? Can you point me to any data? It is going in my next book in the burnout chapter. Yes, with solutions.

Advertising Agency Job Burnout – Since the 1950s

Job burnout is endemic in the advertising industry (see some history below). I’d even say endemic in most service industries. From the Mayo Clinic:

“Job burnout is a special type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”

For the entire history of the advertising profession, workplace stress (today’s burnout) has been a health concern and worse largely unaddressed.

Here is a passage from Stephen Fox’s history of advertising, “The Mirror Makers”. He riffs on the 50’s burnout. 1950s!

“A survey of advertisers in 1957 found that nine out of ten ad people routinely took work home at night. “What other business has so many young men anxious to break in,” asked one adman, “and so many older men anxious to break out?”

Wait. This Is Crazy. Even More. Now 1956.

A study in 1956 by Life Extension Examiners of New York compared the health of executives in manufacturing, banking, and advertising. The ad people showed up worst in ten of eighteen categories, including high blood pressure, organic heart and prostate problems, and abnormal blood counts.

From 1949 to 1959, at a time when life expectancy for white males was 67.1 years, the average age at death in Advertising Age’s obituaries was 59.9. “It’s a killing business,” concluded Lou Wasey, seventy-one years old in 1956.

“Most of the men who have been along with me in business – they’re all dead, and they were younger than I.”

Wait for a second… I need to repeat this alarming fact…

“From 1949 to 1959, at a time when life expectancy for white males was 67.1 years, the average age at death in Advertising Age’s obituaries was 59.9.”

Good thing I sold my agency. No more Job Burnout for me.

Advertising is simply a very demanding service business that has gotten much more complex from a time perspective with the proliferation of needy 24/7 digital programs.

I’ll be frank. Other than being ready to move on to my other loves, a key reason I sold was to not have to manage a large crew of creative workers. not easy then and I think way harder today.