Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Insights

Advertising Clients, Yes You, Be Nice

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southA few years back, a client really pissed me off. They were disrespectful and frankly, I do draw a line. Sure I know that this is part of the client services program but please…. don’t be mean and wake up to the fact that poor behavior is counterproductive. In fact, love begets love. We were  “full-service” but not an S&M agency.

So, I addressed my perspective by writing the white paper, “I Heart My Agency” and sent it to all of my clients.

I was nice, not ranting. I think its a good blueprint for developing a more fruitful, symbiotic agency and client relationship. A win-win.

Here it is:

i_heart_my_agency

 

 

The Gap Between Social Media and Business Impact: 6 stages of social business transformation

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Brian Solis and Charlene Li studied how organizations approach social media and how planning, processes, and outcomes mature over time. Read the Altimeter group Study.

In business, social media is becoming a lot like email. Every company has it. In an Altimeter Group survey of 700 executives and social strategists fielded in late 2012, we found that 100 percent of participating enterprise organizations run to varying extents an active social media strategy. But unlike email, organizations haven’t mastered how to […]

Read more from the source: briansolis.com

SEO, Me and Advertising New Business (Or How To beat Out Goodby)

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advertising agency new business Google SearchYes, I am going to pat myself on the back. Why, because in less than a month my website is now on the first page of a search on Google for “advertising agency new business.” Why is this cool? Other than the fact that this is good for my business, allow me repeat myself… “in less than a month my website is now on the first page of a search”… OK. I’ll stop that. Also, why only two listings with a picture? Pictures drive higher click-throughs.

But, here is the main point. I am blown away at how poorly many advertising agencies manage their website SEO. The ones that do are obvious because when you search on related terms, terms that could actually lead to new business, they show up. How is it possible that advertising agencies, even digital agencies, can’t get SEO right? Or, is it that they don’t care? Possibly, if you are not a local agency or specialized (as in a mobile or healthcare expert) you asume that your new business will come from search consultants or awareness from an AdWeek article on your latest Facebook campaign. I guess if you are Ogilvy, search isn’t that important. But, having worked across the Saatchi network, I can say that the smaller offices needed a high SERP.

For me, the bottom line is that many agencies seem to design their sites for the creative directors at other agencies and not prospective clients. In these cases, SEO isn’t a critical objective.

Want more (I bet not, but, I can’t control myself…) Below is a screenshot of a search on “San Francisco Advertising Agency.” Note the Pinterest advertising agency directory. That’s mine. Also about one month in existence.  But, I am especially hyped because I am listed ahead of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and they were founded in 1983.

san francisco advertising agency Google Search

How Advertising Agencies Can Grow Their Twitter Followers

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Man, agencies like to be followed. Followed by potential clients, future gifted employees, the trade press, ad bloggers and on Twitter.

How to grow on Twitter followers? Here is a link to an academic study on Twitter usage and popularity from The Georgia Institute of Technology. You will need some spare time for this or just scroll down for the chart.

So, what works?…

  1. Network overlap. People follow tweets that their friends follow.
  2. High re-tweet ratio. People love what others love and recommend. Why not ask for the RT?
  3. Activity as in Tweets per hour. Reasonable Tweets per hour that is. I have some friends that are way too prolific.
  4. Audience relevance. Lots of pics of your agency dogs might not cut it.

What dosen’t work?

  1. Negative sentiment.
  2. Overdoing irrelevance. Those pesky dogs again.
  3. Interestingly, the over use of hash-tags. No argument here.

Here is the handy chart:

sai-cotd-030113-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been building social media traffic since 1995 (when I put newspapers online) — Lets talk about how to build an active social media (I mean strategic social media) program for your agency.