Insights

Advertising Websites Only Get 8 Seconds

Peter · April 18, 2014 · 1 Comment

Let’s start this post with an admission… I don’t have informational graphics on every page of my site (some, but not a lot.) But.. stay tuned cause I have ten cartoons coming from my friend Steve and his The Cartoon Agency that will support my new book’s discussion of the top ten pitch-killing mistakes that even super smart advertising agencies (that’s you amigos) make when they pitch.

8 Seconds, Only

One of the most important discussions I have with my advertising agency clients is about gauging the marketing power of their websites. I start the talk by telling them that I know that critiquing their website is like discussing their kid’s soccer moves. That said, the agencies are paying me to be honest, so I am.

I begin the review process by telling them that their visitors only give them 7 seconds of examination before they stay to learn more or move on. Agencies… you better hook ’em in 7 seconds. I just found out that I am wrong. According to the smart Neil Patel its 8 seconds (more on him later):

“How long do you think your attention span is? Maybe a minute or even two, right? Sadly, your attention span is 8 seconds. That’s one second shorter than that of a goldfish.”

What does that mean for your advertising agency websites? It means that you better pay lots of attention to attention deficit clients that may be looking at ten, twenty or more agency websites before they land on a few to contact. 8 seconds. Keep this in mind and make getting to a point an objective when you build or rebuild your websites. If you want to see how some agencies get this job done, or not, take a look at my set of San Francisco agencies and how they handle their 8 seconds.

Here is how Neil helps us visualize visualization by using his “This Is Your Brain On Visualization” infographic. There is a lot of information here for you and your clients.

Back To Niel Patel

I dig Neil because he provides great insights and is a serial self-promoter worth watching. His stuff works works. His Quicksprout website has a page rank of 5 and he has 1110,000+ Twitter Followers. From Neil’s bio:

Neil Patel is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 online marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Yeah, this is a bit crazy for a 29 year-old. But, he is surly working it. Check out his outrageously unrelenting promotions. Yes, a bit too many popups and forms for most advertising agency websites, but these is a lot of benchmark sales learning in there.

Last point. He walks his talk. See his visual bio.

Do Advertising Agencies Have Business Plans?

Peter · April 16, 2014 · Leave a Comment

This post is is based on my personal SEO experience and is meant to be instructive for all small, medium and large advertising agencies that want high search results for their websites. That’s you, right?

I am in Mexico working. Just for the hell of it, I took a look at where my site ranks in the Google results for “advertising agency business plan.” Since my business is helping advertising (and design and digital) agencies position and market themselves for growth (and actually write a smart / active new business plan), I figured I’d see where I rank on this particular search. Well, I come in on page 1 (that’s sweetly good) – but, only at position number 8.

Now, considering that I am preceded by some famous and huge names…

Bplans / Fuel Lines / Wiki How / Inc. / Forbes and Entrepreneur, I am not feeling too bad.

However, I have over 250 blog posts related to this subject and I think that I should rank higher. Note: my competitor Fuel Lines started his industry blog in 2008 (wow!) and I didn’t start blogging about new business until January 2012… I shouldn’t be feeing too bad.

An important fact: I only have four blog posts with “business plan” in the headline. Lame… well, five including this new post.

So, here is what I am going to do about growing my Google position:

I will write more posts like this that have the keywords “advertising” and “business plans” in the headline and of course, include these keywords (but not too many) in the body copy.

I am also linking from this page to 3 past posts with these words in the headline. Note: most of this website is about new business after all. Here you go:

Your Advertising Agency New Business Plan

How To Write An Ad Agency Business Plan

Why Don’t Advertising And Digital Agencies Have A Business Plan?

Another factoid that answers the question… do agencies have business plans?

After talking with dozens of agencies, I figure, at best, 20% have up-to-date business plans and about 50% (I am being kind) have well-thought-out business development plans. Given that there are over 4,000 advertising agencies around the world, my market opportunity is huge / and so is yours if you have a plan.

Finally, I am going to ask you to contact me. I get about 3 qualified incoming inquiries from agencies a week. I’ll tell you how this happens. It isn’t magic and there is absolutely no reason that you can’t get lots-o incoming as well.

By the way, sign up below for my weekly newsletter.

Post Advertising: Big Data And Small Data

Peter · April 15, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Ten years ago I wrote a brilliant (yes, it was and is brilliant) white paper on how even big marketers like Nike and Disney fail to manage / love / re-market to their customer base. This fail still going on across industries. However, I’d like to think that understanding the value of CRM has advanced.

Below (after I force you to read my 2004 white paper “Get a Grip – The Marketing Power Of Managing Customer Relationships”) I will introduce you to one of the best posts / insights into how marketers should be starting to use big data for CRM C/O the Marketo blog.

[If you have any problem seeing the SlideShare doc below, you can find it right here.]

First My Take On Small Data & Nike & Disney

[slideshare id=13759471&doc=getagrippdf-120725210347-phpapp01&type=d]

OK, Now For Big Data and Marketo

This is without question, one of the best marketing blog posts I’ve read in a long time. DJ Waldlow’s post, “If You’ve Got It, Use It (Data, That Is)”, deconstructs his weekend experience with Fandango to illustrate how to use big data to customize / ROIize marketing. Oh, lets toss in realtime cause like big data you are becoming obsessed with this too. These are generally good things to be focussed on.

Here is DJ’s conclusion:

Big data is all the rage. The potential to do something interesting with that data to create more personalized user experiences is ginormous. However, if you don’t have the resources – human capital, financial capital, etc. – to leverage big data, start small. As described above, Fandango is using some pretty basic data they have about me to personalize my experience across channels (app, mobile/SMS, web, and email). It’s simple, yet incredibly effective.

Back to the top (ala Nike) — Big Data? Just do it. Or, at least start to think how to start to use it. I bet some of your clients are.

The Kinks On U.S. Tax Day

Peter · April 15, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Lets see, I bet that only about 75% of my blog readers know this Kinks song. Am I being muy generoso? None the less… today, April 15, is tax day here in the United States of America.

Therefore a wonderful song from the British Invasion…

The tax man’s taken all my dough,
And left me in my stately home,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLs09J_x6-c

And I can’t sail my yacht,
He’s taken everything I’ve got,
All I’ve got’s this sunny afternoon.

Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

My girlfriend’s run off with my car,
And gone back to her ma and pa,
Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty.
Now I’m sitting here,
Sipping at my ice cool beer,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

Help me, help me, help me sail away,
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
‘Cause I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

Ah, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

My take on paying taxes is that it is better to HAVE to pay them than to not make money. Oh, and have a good accountant.

1 Reason To Pitch French Advertising Clients

Peter · April 13, 2014 · Leave a Comment

One of the better weekly newsletters I get is from the long-time-insight-rich-website Six Pixels of Separation. As the website says:

TWIST IMAGE PRESIDENT, MITCH JOEL, BRINGS YOU DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA HACKING INSIGHTS AND PROVOCATIONS FROM HIS ALWAYS ON/ALWAYS CONNECTED WORLD.

Twist Image is a digital agency with offices in Montreal and Toronto that kicks most digital agency’s marketing butt and, as you can see, has a blog that adds value and drives agency awareness. Interesting fact… the agency website does a location lookup to personalize the home page. In my case, it knows that I am in Mexico right now. Nice touch.

OK, Back To Pitching French Clients

The blog has a guest feature called: Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention. This week it points to the news that the French government has dictated that management can’t email employees after work hours. In France that means after 6PM. Here is the post along with a link to the CNET News article.

French say ‘non’ to work email after 6 p.m. – cNet. “Ahh, who doesn’t want to spend their entire childhood and teenage years studying in an old school education institution that is making young people miserable, feeling inadequate and, ultimately, forcing them into a regiment of memorization of things they should never need to remember? I see this often when you look at more traditional European countries and their non-progressive school curriculums The good news? You get to graduate and become a ‘fonctionnaires,’ (if you live in France). A place that makes insane rules like this. I have a better idea: why stop at email? Just shut down the electricity for all fonctionnaires so nobody has to do anything? Alternately, you could just say, ‘hey, what if we let these adults make their own rules and attempt to find their own balance? Wow, what decade are we living in? How stupid do we think that people are?” (Mitch for Hugh).

My take…

France is fucked up. I am not a small government guy but please… can’t people run their own lives? Are the French babies that need coddling?
Recent press has discussed France’s issue of losing talented digital / programming / entrepreneur / creative class types to countries where they can do their thing in a pro-business environment.
It must be a sign of the times when management (this means some of you) has to be told to let people live their lives. I never emailed my staff after 6PM. I am a really good, understanding, caring pro family guy. I didn’t need laws to be act like a decent person. 🙂

If French agencies are going to work at say 80% of capacity then go and get business from the French clients that need 100% agencies. Hello Peugeot. That said, you will need to have a French language website like Twist Image (it helps that they are in Quebec where the government dictates that they need a bilingual website.) Hmm… is there something about French speakers?

Bon chance!