Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

New Business

Inbound Marketing Works

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Inbound Marketing Delivers Inbound New Business

inbound-marketing-graphicOK, not big news here: inbound marketing works. But, in the interest of sharing, I’d just like to say it works for me big time and how it does that.

A couple of weeks ago I sensed that the number of high-octane inbound inquiries was falling off. I usually get at least a couple of qualified new business leads from interested advertising agencies a week. Noting the decline, I did the following…

  • I increased the number of new blog posts. I make sure these are very SEO friendly.
  • I boosted a Facebook post on my ‘corporate’ Facebook page (note, not a page I update on a frequent basis, at least not as much as my blog). $50 helped me get this post on advertising agency search consultants read by 1,275 well-targeted advertising leaders.
  • I upped my use of Buffer to get high traffic past posts scheduled in increased frequency on LinkedIn and Twitter. I scheduled these at different times across the day and night since my business is global.
  • I increased posting relevant blog posts in advertising and industry-related LinkedIn Groups.

Did it work?

Yes. I now have four ‘hot’ leads – from the USA, South America, and Europe. Was this a direct result of my upping my inbound efforts? I can’t directly attribute all of the leads to this effort  since not all agencies ever remember how they heard of me*. However, I have seen a 300% increase in the type of leads I want.

This makes me happy.

So…. I will just do more. Why not? My increased efforts just cost me some time and $50 bucks.

*Interestingly, it is often a long-term / repeat exposure to my brand. They see me via SEO on Google, read the blog, see guest posts, read me on LinkedIn and have bought my book on pitching.

 

 

Is Your Advertising Agency Ignoring Chatbots?

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Is Your Advertising Agency Watching The Chatbot Space?

I’ve written about the potential of chatbots as an advertising agency revenue and new business source. Read about it here on HubSpot and here on my blog.

Facebook + Microsoft + Google = Pay Attention

If you have any reason to think that chatbots are NOT going to be a major part of the digital world & your marketing, listen to the leaders of Facebook, Microsoft and Google on what they are up to.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df9NFPH904c

Chatbots and Your Advertising Agency

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Chatbots, Bots, Guest Posting and Your Advertising Agency

screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-11-05-24-amCheck out my article Why Bots Are the Next Big Frontier for Agencies that was posted this morning on HubSpot’s marketing blog. The article discusses my views on the power of Chatbots, the looming opportunity for advertising agencies to get on this bandwagon and my personal experience running ActiveBuddy, an early Chatbot company.

3 Takeaways

My article offers three big takeaways (I mean immediately actionable takeaways) for your ad agency and its new business program:

  1. Something new for you to talk about. Pay attention to AI and Chatbots. Savvy advertising agencies will jump on this bandwagon. It is real. Why? People like to talk to smart, friendly, uber programmed computers rather than tap out on the keyboard and phone. Oh, and Facebook loves chatbots.
  2. Your skill. Advertising agencies are good at writing or should be. Creating smart Chatbots is all about understanding human communications and writing scripts that recognize how interpersonal communications work. This is what a savvy advertising agency is good at. That savvy agency is also good at building brand to consumer conversations. Believe me, you’ve spent almost 10 years building static apps. Chatbots will unleash your inner conversational bot expertise. This is already in-house.
  3. Reach. I’m sure that you love your agency blog. But, guest posting on a mega website like HubSpot will drive way more incremental reach for your thought leadership, ideas and brand awareness. Why? Alexa tells me that HubSpot is the 529th highest ranked website. Get this, Ogilvy’s website is ranked at only 41,659 — after zillions of years of being in the ad business. Even a smart one at Ogilvy should think about guest posting if she’d like to reach more folks.

On the subject of reach… after only a couple of hours, my post was shared lots. See….

screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-10-54-01-amLast point. Here is the video ActiveBuddy made 14 years ago to launch our company. You’ll see that I thought bots were a big fucking idea then. I still do.

 

Advertising Agency Business Development Timing

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Is Your Advertising Agency Good At Timing?

screen-shot-2016-11-06-at-5-35-01-pmThis might be the most important advertising agency business development blog post you will ever read. It is all about timing. And, it discusses an oh so simple solution.

Why? Because if there is any one thing that advertising agencies of all sizes do not do when it comes to business development it’s… a paucity of planning and follow-through.

Note: My research with agency clients indicates that only 40% of agencies use and are slavish to their business development calendar.

I don’t care if you are small or huge. Failure to run your plan, once you have one (and, yes, this is a whole notha story), could be your primary failure. You know it and I do. We even have an oft and way over-used metaphor to describe the issue… the cobbler who does not have the time to make shoes for his own children. I am tired of hearing this parable and so should you. It is a shitty poor and very lame excuse.

You want clients like Nike and Audi and that huge healthcare client and that global e-commerce website job, right? Well, do you think that these marketers sit around and talk about how they do not have the time to plan and run their sales program? That they are too busy working with their current customers to go find new ones?

If Your Agency Is Shoeless… Read On

Look, I get it. I ran business development at the world’s largest agency and at my own digital and advertising agency companies. Hey, I even do sales right here at my consulting company. Sales requires dedication and on-going activity. It is time-consuming. It takes you away from servicing your current clients. It can be a real pain. But, if you do not do it with a high degree of consistency, you will fail and will go under. You certainly won’t make enough moolah to buy that Porsche 911 or the Cadillac of mini-vans for your kids.

The Solution: The Business Development Calendar

[Read more…] about Advertising Agency Business Development Timing

Is Your Ad Agency Special?

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The “Special” Ad Agency Wins

imagesbjbjbjI’ve written about the need for creating ad agency differentiation if an agency wants to excite and win new clients…

(I know, I know, you know that I know that you know how important having an agency  positioning that stands out is.)

But, most agencies do not seek a high degree of differentiation. They are not bold. Full stop. They are willing to be not different.

There are many reasons for this. One of the most expressed fears is that (and I know that this is going to sound insane)… is that agencies do not want to sound too different for fear of losing the opportunity to pitch LOTS of clients. The belief is that being a ‘general’ agency, even a general digital or PR agency, will beget more opportunities to pitch for a broad range of clients. These agencies are playing a losing numbers game. Having a clear, yes narrower, refined, brand positioning will win in the end.

Give clients an opportunity to view your agency as being special and unmistakenly desirable. Think different and look different.

My Unignorable Agency Presentation – 9 Paths To Special

I was recently asked by a large agency network to give a brief presentation on what are key ways to differentiate an agency. I came up with nine paths to being Unignorable: Positioning; Attitude; Ego Mania; Specialization; AHA!; Carpe Diem; Humor; Awards; Your Website.

Each one of these paths represents an opportunity to help your agency stand out from the other 3,999 agencies seeking the clients you deserve and… Be Different.

Hope yo enjoy the presentation and take away a couple of paths to specialness.