Marketing

Your Advertising Agency Will Get Fired

Peter · February 16, 2019 · Leave a Comment

One of the tenets of my business development system is the understanding that your advertising agency will get fired by virtually every one of your project work and AOR clients. This means that you better be out there finding your next set of clients because your current clients will sooner or later walk out the back door.

To get even more painful, we all need to get over the disastrous track record of agencies that wait till they get fired to get fired up about running a new business/sales program. The standard, awful, message is that the agency was too busy working on its current clients to run a solid business development program. You know, the horrible saying… “we are like the shoemaker who can’t make shoes for his kids.”

I’ve written in the past about why advertising agencies get fired – right here. This post expands on that review. But first, here is a key finding I wrote about a couple of years ago:

Why do advertising and digital agencies get hired and fired? A key reason for getting fired (other than the new Marketing Director’s need to look active; and an agency’s failure to keep up with the rapid pace of change) is very often the very same reason clients hire agencies in the first place…

It has a lot to do with interpersonal chemistry according to Darren Woolley of Australia’s TrinityP3, a leading global advertising agency search consultant and client advisor. I love this point: “It’s all about the relationship.”

Why You Will Be Fired & How To Stop It

There has been a bunch of research about the primary reasons that clients fire agencies. While getting fired is somewhat inevitable, I think that agency management must be very cognizant of the reasons and manage their agency and staff accordingly.

The smartest, most aware agencies get fired less frequently.

Let’s walk through the reasons you will get fired. I’ll be brief because I believe that most of these can be managed down without a huge effort.

It’s Much About KPI’s and Return On Investment

I counsel all of my agency clients that return on investment, the client’s investment in their marketing programs must yield a positive and calculated sales return on every dollar they spend. Obvious, right? That said, it is amazing to see how many advertising agencies cannot calculate ROI based on a client’s KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Some agencies do not even ask about key performance metrics. [Read more…] about Your Advertising Agency Will Get Fired

Advertising Agencies, Nerds And Digital Marketing

Peter · February 11, 2019 · 1 Comment

This is a post about advertising agencies and the ongoing move to digital marketing and as a result, the need for more nerds. In this case, I mean a single-minded person that is highly focused on a technical field, like mobile advertising; programmatic media, database marketing or, well you get it. Stick with me on this one.

There is some personal history here and yes, the name dropping is important. I am trying to make a point and can use all the help I can get.

History

I “discovered” digital marketing in 1994 when I came home to the U.S.A. from Saatchi London where no one had a computer on their desk. I returned to work as Business Development Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising New York and as it turned out, it was my 16th and last year at the agency.

My eventual move out of advertising was stimulated by my discovery of and fascination with the new world of interactivity via CD-ROMs and a life-changing conversation I had with Ted Leonsis who, at that time ran Florida’s Redgate Communications. Redgate was very early digital agency founded in 1987. I found Ted through the 4A’s Michael Donahue another early digerati (you could say this word then without cringing). Using my Saatchi credential, I met with Ted and he told me two very interesting things. One, his company had just been bought by America Online and two, this advice,

“Get the hell out of advertising, it is going to die. Move into digital.”

Well, after the meeting I did two things – one a mistake and the other, the smart one: I listened.

The mistake was that I didn’t buy America Online stock (its stock rose 600 percent in 1998). Had I, I might be sorta near (well, kinda near) where Ted wound up. Today, he is the owner of Washington D.C.’s Capitals, Wizards and Mystics. [Read more…] about Advertising Agencies, Nerds And Digital Marketing

What’s Your Smart Guest Blog Pitch?

Peter · January 23, 2019 · Leave a Comment

I’ve done a fair amount of guest blogging on advertising and marketing industry websites to drive my awareness within the advertising agency market. Based on this experience, I strongly recommend the guest blog opportunity to my agency clients and give them both strategic and tactical methods to amplify their messaging on OPW – other people’s websites.

As you might suspect, how one delivers the guest blog pitch is critical.

To start, these are the core objectives of the guest blog (care of Neil Patel):

Positioning yourself as an authority and well-known name in the industry. (This is especially important for an advertising agency that wants to get in front of a specific target market that reads their large audience industry blogs.)

Getting exposure (traffic) back to your website.

Building backlinks to your website.

An Incoming Guest Blog Request

I recently received a request to guest blog on my website. I believe that the incoming email provides a teachable moment. Here is the email from Piyuesh Modi of Amsterdam + Bangalore + Melbourne’s PagePotato Digital Marketing.

Hi,

Hope you are doing great.

I was searching on relevant influencers talking about content marketing and stumbled upon your blog
https://peterlevitan.com/the-history-of-podcasting-9181/

Being the co-founder of Digital Marketing agency and sketching enthusiast, I have tried to put my sketching skills to use and made sketch notes on topics related to content marketing. The attachment has one example and this has many more
https://pagepotato.com/content-marketing-doodles-sketch-notes-piyuesh-modi/

Entrepreneur.com and YourStory.com have found it interesting and went ahead to publish them (the links will take you to the published blogs). This made me think that content marketing readers are finding it useful. Since I saw that your blog is already helping a lot of readers, I thought it would be a good idea to reach out to you and offer my content marketing sketchnotes FREE for use in your blogs or in your social media.

I am not expecting anything in return for this. However, if you choose to share it with your audience, it would encourage me to keep doing this 🙂

Moving a step further, if you have any valuable fresh content, then I would also be interested to share with my audience.

Thanks,

Piyuesh’s Guest Blog Pitch

Let’s break down Piyuesh’s guest post ‘pitch’. [Read more…] about What’s Your Smart Guest Blog Pitch?

Advertising Agency Marketing and Getting Past Sameness

Peter · December 30, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Beyond Sameness: An Advertising Agency Marketing Objective

This mini-thought-piece is about getting away from the awfulness of advertising agency marketing ‘sameness’.

First of all, of course, all advertising agencies are by nature the same. All dry cleaners are the same. All bars are the same. All optometrists are the same.

All advertising agencies make or deliver ads. Dry cleaners clean clothes, bars serve drinks and optometrists check out your eyes.

However, some agencies get past sameness and stand out from the pack. How do they do that?

How To Leave Sameness Behind?

Sameness sucks, but if you are like me, you do have your favorite dry cleaner (mine looks very modern); bar (mine is on a roof) and optometrist (mine is young and knows the latest methods and speaks English) I live in Mexico.

How can you get your advertising agency away from acting and looking like the agency down the street?

It isn’t by delivering the same message. “We are cool” / “We are smart” / “We know social media” / “We are creative” / “We have nice furniture” / We have a very human culture” / “We know content.”

The way out of this mess (the mess is huge given that there are over 4,000 ad agency-type choices) is to make looking and sounding different a goal. I call it being “Unignorable.”

6 (Easy) Paths To Being Unignorably As IN Un-Same-Ness Advertising Agency Marketing

Get past sameness. Make not being the same, make not being IGNORABLE an agency objective. Here are some things you can do.

Market the hell out of your agency. This means having a super smart plan, a plan that you run 24/7. Good news for you… most agencies do not do this. Just by running a solid business development program, you will be not same-like. How is your outbound program? Your account-based marketing calendar? Your must-read blog? Your Linkedin program? By the way, could you swap out your name and put in another agency and have all of your marketing activity be too same-like — as in not branding you? If so, you are screwed.
Get specialized. Pick something narrow to be known for. What’s available… Think expertise. Be the micro-expertise digital specialist example: Own search engine marketing like HawkSEM. Own data marketing expertise like Delve. Own category expertise like Red Interactive and entertainment.
Own geography. Portland’s Grady Britton is not only one of the oldest agencies in Portland, but it also supports the city. Check out its Portland non-profit grant program.
Own a high-interest demographic. Miami’s Viva owns multi-cultural marketing. Linda Gonzales, its leader, is a recognized expert. She gets the calls from the trade press about anything related to cultural marketing.
Own a personality. The essence of getting past sameness is having a personality. The clients you want, buy people (you are in a people business). Australia’s Tiny Hunter does a couple of things right from the go. First, they tell the market that they specialize in family business marketing. Second, they introduce you to the leadership team right away via a home page video. Tiny Hunter is all about people: the type of client, the client’s customer and the agency leaders. How clear are your agency’s message and personality?
One more. Have a website that isn’t interchangeable with your neighbor agency’s site. And, remember, ask for the order. Your website is a sales tool.

If you make sameness your enemy, you will become unignorable.

13 Steps To Building A Well-Read Ad Agency Blog

Peter · December 4, 2018 · Leave a Comment

What Is The Purpose Of My Ad Agency Blog?

If you run an ad agency blog – or any other word-centric social media platform – you will often ask yourself the difficult question, “What should I write about today? What pearls of wisdom will get us more attention?” Despite blogging for 15 years, I ask this all the time. It is like having an editorial meeting in my head.

The blog you are currently reading has, with this, 651 individual posts. The vast majority are spot on dedicated to one primary subject… ad agency business development. This dedication has yielded me page one positions for my keywords on Google. Good news, Google is the main driver of my consultancy’s awareness and business.

What To Write About? Where To Start?

The first success-oriented objective of a blog is getting traffic. To get there, business blogs need to be focused. With a billion blogs and opinions out in the world, being a generalist will not cut it. This is especially true in the advertising space where agencies often regurgitate the same, as in, similar, subject matter.

To really kick it, you need a solid plan. I suggest using the same type of creative or media brief you use for your clients. Clarify and agree on the following:

Nail your blog’s objectives. Is it general awareness (if so, you better act-up a bit more like Gary Vaynerchuck)? Do you want to own a category i.e. pet products? A technology like mobile advertising? Your city?
Nail your target market. Is it current or future clients? Your staff? Future employees?
Have systems for finding new subjects. I read the trade press. I read my competition. I get off topic sometimes. But, I always have my eyes and ears open to even accidentally hear about a smart blog subject. A smart, traffic-generating, subject like this: What Should I Write About On My Ad Agency Blog?
Have a point of view. Have some attitude. Please. That means having some personality. A voice. People tell me that I write the way I talk. It works for me. I write good stuff but I do not sound too serious.
If you have multiple authors, agree on some parameters.
Create a scheduled content plan. Schedule out three or so months of subject matter on your content calendar. However, pay attention to today’s hot topics. Example, Facebook and privacy is really heating up as I write. L2’s Scott Galloway has a strong opinion… do you?
Understand your frequency. When I started blogging a few years ago, I wrote two or more times a week. Today, once a week sustains Google’s attention and gooses its algorithm.
Vary your content. You will need to must have a bunch of 1,000-word posts (to look like an authority) as well and shorter punchier posts. Add photographs and videos.
Do expert interviews. A 15-minute interview recorded and then transcribed by companies like Rev.com yields the fastest easiest way to build content. The interviews from my book on pitching are also up on this blog.
Repurpose your content as in amplifying it. Why just have your thoughts on the blog – re-post it as a long white paper (and vice versa). Take a blog post and turn it into a LinkedIn article. Amplify! Have this in your plan.
Promote what you write. The idea that, “If I build it, they will come” is a recipe for disaster. Promote the blog on your website 9make it easy to find), in your emails, on your social sites, etc.
Marketing 101! Make the blog a sales tool. This is a key reason you have it, right? Make an offer to your readers can’t resist that will get them to subscribe.
Be very patient. Let’s face it, the world is not looking for another ad agency blog. However, the world is looking for relevant information that will make them smarter via insights and answers to their marketing questions — and even resolves their insecurities.

The blogger’s bottom line(s)… Nobody automatically loves you can and you can count the ones that do

Just realize that the world is not waking up every morning to read your blog. Give the people something they want to read. Serve it up in ways they will find it. A great ad agency blog will attract website views, will help sell you POV and will act as a powerful marketing tool.

One more bottom line… pay close attention to your blog’s analytics. I use both Google Analytics and my WordPress stats. Not surprising, my very targeted ad agency blog post, Cures For Poor Advertising Agency Profits is a hot seller this month.