Smart Agencies

Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting

December 3, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

The Art & Science of Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting – A Smart ‘KISS’ Approach

You know what advertising agency sales prospecting is. Yup. But… let’s start with a couple of definitions to get us on the same page.

From Shopify: Prospecting is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying potential customers, aka prospects. The goal of prospecting is to develop a database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them from potential customer to current customer.

From Peter Levitan: Sales prospecting is efficiently going after and getting the new clients for your advertising agency that y’all deserve.

A ramble: All advertising agencies, digital marketing expert agencies, PR, well you get the idea, need to grow. If you have been reading me for a long time, I’ve told you that you start to lose that new client the minute they become a client. So, knowing that your clients will eventually leave by the back door means that you better be working hard at bringing them in the front.

NOTE: The following is NOT a definitive prospecting plan. I am just toplining the core elements that you have to do. Sales prospecting is both science and art. I help agencies every day get this particular act together.

Sales Prospecting

I am going to assume that you have a referral strategy so you have taken care of that critical business development tactic. But, you cannot rely on referrals and WOM alone for growth. Can’t, shouldn’t. Way too many agencies do this. need a referral plan? Here you go.

Your Brand Positioning Comes First

To be a great prospector, you need to offer the market, your specific market, a compelling brand proposition that will get their attention — one that resonates. You can do all of the prospecting you want but if you do not sound like you will meet a potential client’s needs then ‘fuhgettaboutit‘… you will be wasting your time and money. Need to rethink your positioning? Go here – How To Position An Advertising Agency. [Read more…] about Advertising Agency Sales Prospecting

Deliver An Advertising Agency Newspaper

September 30, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

Really? An Advertising Agency Newspaper. Peter, You Must Be Joking.

Websites are ephemeral. Social media is like the wind. Email. well email, just fades away. Same for LinkedIn messages. But paper, well paper sticks around. So, here is a suggestion. Consider having an advertising agency newspaper. Whoa… A newspaper? In 2021 or beyond. Yup.

Just to get the conversation going… that’s one of my photography series newspapers over there from my Mexico LaGente photo series.

I Am A Photographer. I Use Newspapers To Give Back.

I photograph communities (and dozens of people) around the world. I have created ‘newspapers’ as a follow-up for photo series I’ve done in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and Selma Alabama. It is a way that I give back to the community. People dig it. I’ve even gotten hugs in Mexico when I’ve given a newspaper to a person that has their photo in it. Hugs. Doesn’t your ad agency want a hug? See some pics of ‘hugs’ below.

Yo, Be Unignorable = Get attention = Creat An Advertising Agency Newspaper Or Zine

Ok, getting past that ephemeral digital problem. Go newspaper, or if you prefer a more modern approach – call it a zine.

Smart words get attention. Groovy imagery gets attention. Smart insights get mucho – repeat – attention. So, if you are going to the trouble of doing all this outreach work to get attention… why not try to really get attention. Go 1990’s and put it in ink. Let people touch your brilliance.

I Use The Newspaper Club

Go to the UK’s Newspaper Club for inspiration and, hey, why not use them to produce your groovy print work.

OK. One More.

Minneapolis’s video production company Current Resident also uses print / zines / newspapers…. whatever you want to call it.

Issues? Sure.

Yes, it is paper. Go green and make it eco-friendly paper.

Need addresses? Now that many businesses are back at the office – at least some of the time – mail is getting delivered to the right person. Or, you know what… ask people for their home address. I often send one of my The Levitan Pitch. books to people. They gladly supply their real address. These days, getting anything in the mail is like Christmas.

Paper in action. Hugs from my neighborhood. A FB post from a community leader.

Try Not To Weep When You Read ADWEAK

August 8, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

Try Not To Weep When You Read ADWEAK.

6 Years Later: My 2021 take on my 2015 ADWEAK take

I thought that I’d update my 2015 (yes, 2015) blog post about the wonderfully endearing but way too insightful and painful ADWEAK take on the advertising industry. I’m re-upping my extremely positive perspective on ADWEAK because they have begun to up their use of LinkedIn so I see them daily.

And, because they talk about themselves like this – like humans:

What began as a fun parody Twitter account has become a full-blown creative studio. @Adweak has grown organically to over 75k followers with an average of over 3 million impressions a month. But snarky tweets don’t pay the bills. Our real job is working with brands and agencies on a wide variety of creative projects. You name it, we’ve done it. We have a shit-ton of experience with agencies (TBWA\Chiat Day, BBDO, Deutsch, DDB and more) and brands (PlayStation, HBO, Dr. Pepper, Energizer and the list goes on).

We’re good, we’re fast and we’re not A-holes.

ADWEAK – Attitude Is Good

Hey, most advertising agencies have little to no attitude & point of difference. They kinda all use the same lingo and would never say ‘shit‘ or ‘A-hole’ in their descriptor copy. There is little attempt to break out of the crowd. I am talking about having a strong and competitive positioning; established expertise and a smart messaging system that makes them unignorable.

Too bad. But, wait, there’s more. Here are some of the painful but all-too-true ADWEAK posts that blast out to their 81,000 Twitter followers. To put that number in perspective, 20-year-old Digitas North America has 66,000 Twitter followers.

Current favs… cause they are all too spot on.

BREAKING: VMLY&R Considers Adding More Letters To Name

BREAKING: After Several Rounds Of Presentations, New Business Client Informs Agencies They’re Going To Hold Off Making Decision Until Early Next Year

BREAKING: Agency Forced To Revise Schedule To One Day For Creative Development, Three Weeks For Client Approvals

BREAKING: Charmin Toilet Paper Challenges Agency To Make Them A “Lifestyle” Brand (LOL< I actually think that Charmin is a daily lifestyle brand…)

OK, I’ll stop. But first. If you are a client looking for different and unignorable, give these guys a shout: adweakeditor@gmail.com

Back to my 2015 Post

ADWEAK joined Twitter in 2008 as @adweak. In case you are speed reading this is not… Adweek, the advertising news magazine [Read more…] about Try Not To Weep When You Read ADWEAK

r/Advertising Advertising School

June 21, 2021 By Peter Leave a Comment

An Advertising School For You. Yes, You.

A few months ago I bumped into the r/Advertisingschool on Reddit. I’m like = this is a cool, smart, and free online advertising school. All of this, especially smart, being a good thing for the vast majority of advertising agencies who do not do any employee training – a thing from the higher-margin past.

Not to get too far into the old days. but, when I started in the business at my mega New York agency, I, along with my cohort group, had weekly training sessions. We covered how to communicate with clients, how to be strategic geniuses, how to write creative and media briefs, and how to present.

Those were the old days. Days before agencies curtailed training. Now with r/advertisingschool y’all got… Imagine… A free, smart set of courses that even an “I know it all” veteran can learn from. For example, watch the Digital / Social course on YouTube – its below.

Just Do It

I urge you: agency owners; employees from all groups and your “I wanna work in advertising” types to peruse and watch the sessions. Try one on for size. Here is the school’s description:

r/Advertising School is a free portfolio school hosted in Reddit’s r/Advertising community.

The 12-week program features courses from industry professionals alongside real assignments to promote diversity in the ad industry.

Yes, a course. BUT, BUT… you can watch the advertising school course videos at your own speed when you want.

Hey, just go here and check the videos out.

The courses include:

Digital/social
Strategy Account
PR
Media Planning
Design
Brand building
Portfolio

Watch the Digital/Social video as an appetizer… it gets cooking at about the 4:30 minute mark. I have been using and social media thangs since 1995, yes, true. I learned from this one.