Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Marketing

Advertising Agency Business Development Is Hard Work

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If there is anything I’ve figured out in my ad career is that business development is hard work. But, working hard at business development works. Here is what I did yesterday and what it netted.

agency-graphic-300x160I woke up to see that a new guest post of mine was published on the website Business2Community. I wrote the post during the weekend. I chose to post on Business2Community because at a score of 82 it has high domain authority and this authority gets passed on to my own website when I include links in the guest post (read about domain authority and why you want it at MOZ.)

My post, “6 Critical Sales Mistakes Advertising Agencies Make” was targeted to  the advertising and small business communities. Because of a B2C business relationship, my post was also published on Yahoo! Small Business (just imagine the power of Yahoo!’s domain authority.)

In addition to Business2Community, I’ve guest posted on AdPulp, The Advertising Week Social Club and Agency Post (see some links below.) A new post on Talent Zoo is next. Now that I’ve developed some street cred, I’ll soon approach the ad biz website holy grails of ADWEEK and AdAge to see if I can write on ad agency business development for them. They both have very high domain authority and obviously high readership in the ad community.

After my post was published, I followed up with Tweets to my Followers, RT requests to some of my more Followed friends and direct requests to friends asking for article comments. I wanted to generate some Internet juice.

The Net?

I received a bunch of retweets, comments on the article that are slowly streaming in because Business2Community reviews the comments, a very good day for unique visitors (any day I get over 250 uniques to my narrowly focussed website is a good day) and these visitors hit the pages that were linked to within the guest post. According to Google Analytics most of these are new visitors. So far, today is tracking to be another good day for me to make new friends care of B2C.

The Real Net?

The reason for working hard at business development is that it delivers work.

I got 2 new leads from potential advertising agency clients. 2 is good. I close most active leads.

I’ll be writing more about guest posting since I am a believer. Oh, here are the links to some guest posts that show just how hard this stuff is.

AdPulp.

Advertising Week.

Agency Post.

Need help with your business development strategy and program? Need a kick in the butt? Give me a shout.

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Social “Media” Still Means Face To Face

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f t fI know, I know, it seems really crazy but it appears that people in Europe actually ask each other in PERSON (as in that old-fashioned face to face style social “media”) about products and services. According to eMarketer, reporting on research by YouGov:

Despite social media forming a staple of much of UK consumers’ digital life, it will not feature as a significant influencer this Christmas according to research by YouGove for The Drum suggesting that only a tiny share of internet users would turn to social media for gift suggestions. 83% of internet users would not turn to social media for gift suggestions.

The UK’s social networking population is the second-largest in Europe after Germany with even higher penetration. Overall, just 83% of internet users said they would use social media for Christmas gift recommendations, however.

Now, if I was an advertising agency with a retail client, I might be elated to tell them that 11% of UK 18-24 year-olds now use social media for recommendations and that we better dial up our social activity. However… 0ver 18% of this age group group are unemployed.

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BooneOakley – Best Advertising Agency Website Ever?

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This BooneOakley YouTube site just might STILL! be the best (as in creative story telling that captures a client’s attention) advertising agency website ever. Remember how groundbreaking their use of YouTube was in 2009. The video has over 1.3 million views. How many views has your site had since 2009?

Oh, yes, they also have one of those look-alike agency websites. So, go figure. Well, not too much figuring is needed…. there are mucho clients that seem to like the same old same old.

BooneOakley

How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part Two

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8 pitfalls to watch for when naming your baby BabyCenterThis is Part Two of the two part series on how advertising agencies name themselves. Other than the gyrations that agencies constantly go through with how to design and redesign their website; what and how they name themselves is one of their most important branding decisions. Part One is right here.

Just a reminder… I worked for three ad agencies. Two were “founder” agencies: Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (remember “Where’s the beef?”) and Saatchi & Saatchi (which bought Dancer) and the other was my very own Portland agency with its “current usage” name: Citrus. Or, as one of our creative directors thought was critical to our success, citrus, with a lower case “c.’

The Naming Process

Yes, there is a process to naming. I believe that selecting a name should be one of the most important elements of your new advertising agency’s marketing plan (a new name also works for agency’s that need a facelift and repositioning.) And, importantly, this process deserves your team’s best thinking and the time to ensure that you have selected the most powerful name possible. Most of us thought hard about what name to give our kids or the letters on our vanity license plates. Your company deserves this as well.

Objectives & Positioning.

You cannot begin to name your brand without establishing a clear brand positioning and business objectives which in the case of ad agencies sometimes just means sounding cool. In San Francisco alone, agency names span Muh-Tay-Zik Hof-fer’s self-love (OK, maybe its just name-play) to Argonaut’s promise of brand voyage (I assume) to Engine Company 1 (yes, you guessed it) to Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners and Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ authenticity (for old times sake) to BarrettSF and its hope for BarrettNY — I suspect. [Read more…] about How To Name Your Advertising Agency: Part Two