Insights

Why I Guest Post On Agency Post

Peter · November 13, 2014 · 2 Comments

Guest Post On Agency Post For Fun and Profit

A post on today’s Agency Post blog got me thinking about the value of guest posting for ad agency new business. In fact, I’ve written on this subject before.

Here: 2 New Levitan Guest Posts on Agency Post and Advertising Week

And, here: Thanks To HubSpot, Ad Contrarian & Advertising Week

Once again, my relationship with Agency Post nets me awareness via my posts to their large and growing audience. Here is a post from Agency Post that includes a quote and shoutout from them about me. This one is about why I think that advertising agencies should write books. Here’s the paragraph:

“Advertising agencies should seriously consider writing books for four reasons: the credibility factor, to stand out because their competition isn’t, the physical nature of books (yes, physical objects are a good thing), and agencies have all of the elements to make it happen –something to say, writers, art directors, and the digital marketing chops to drive awareness,” said Peter Levitan, the author of The Levitan Pitch who spoke at the 2014 INBOUND conference on how agencies can write a book in six months.

Check out the whole post. –> The Path to New Business? 20 Agencies That Have Published a Book

The post provides a sweet list of ad agency books.

Note that one of the best agency books is inadvertently missing from the list. I heartedly recommend that you read Mitch Joel’s Ctrl Alt Delete: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on It. Mitch is President of Canada’s ad agency Twist Image and one the all time leaders in leveraging social media for the agency’s awareness and thought leadership via his blog, podcast and books. This is one prolific dude.

OK, one more guest post: Here is my take on writing advertising agency books via an interview with Beau Fraser, president of the agency The Gate Worldwide. Should Your Advertising Agency Write A Book? (FYI: Beau’s book is mentioned in today’s Agency Post article.)

The New Business Bottom Line:

Agencies that put themselves out in the social universe drive agency awareness and targeted inbound traffic to their messaging.

My advice that I give to all of my agency clients is to write strategic blogs (blogs written for their target markets and not other agencies) / post on other blogs for awareness / post on Twitter / publish on LinkedIn / play with Facebook / consider Pinterest and Instagram (if you are up for that) / write books (or zines if you want to get out fast) / put your thoughts up on SlideShare / speak at conferences and use the world of social media tools to learn about your potential clients and what your agency competition is doing in the social space.

All it takes is a smart business development and social media plan and a bias for action. Oh, and my help to get this done in early 2015. How? Take me up on my Vito Corleone offer.

Advertising Agency: Do Not Pitch That Account!

Peter · November 11, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Hello Advertising Agency Leaders: Do Not Pitch That Account – Yet!

Please, Don’t Do It!

The following blog post on when not to pitch for a new account is from my book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. I suggest that you buy the book if you want to (do I need to say this?) win more pitches.

Buy the book – > Here.

Virtually all of the advertising search consultants that I interviewed for the book said that advertising agencies pitch too often. Many agencies seem to pitch almost any account that knocks.

They are inclined to pitch most incoming because (pick one or more): they are feeling the pinch of lower margins; they just lost their big account; they are generally nervous and don’t know the next time they will be invited to a dance; don’t have a serious new business plan that attracts the right clients; haven’t actually identified the types of clients they really want to work with, etc. This pitch anything that breathes mentality really reared its head big time during the recession, but it has become omnipresent in our new world of projects vs. AOR searches.

From the book….

Just Say No!

Before you embark on a new pitch, you should be asking yourself one extremely important question…

Should we be pitching this account?

I know what you are thinking… Levitan’s kidding, right? We’ve made it through the RFI and RFP stages, and now he wants us to ask if we should even be going to the finals?

It’s still ok to say “no”, and now is the time to take a deep breath and review a go-no-go decision. You are about to spend a great deal of time and money. Are you sure that you should go through the next step? Are your colleague’s groans getting louder? Looking in any way ambivalent about the pitch will not help your pitch team feel good about charging into it. Passionless pitches don’t win.

Pitch or not is usually one of the most difficult decisions agency manage- ment has to make. There is a good chance that you think that you’ve already answered this question if you participated in an RFP that led to your selection as a short list candidate. I believe that even if you’ve performed a sound decision making process, now is the time to stop to determine if this potentially expensive pitch is worth the time, effort, and human and cash cost.

What More Can You Say? Media Planning Is Mind Numbing.

Peter · November 11, 2014 · 1 Comment

When I started in advertising we only had radio, print and outdoor advertising.

Ha. Just kidding. We also had 3 network television choices, some local channels and the birth of cable. Media planning was rather easy.

Today? Um, lots of stuff. So, Mr. and Ms. advertising, design, and digital agencies… this is what is what your potential clients are dealing with. They are worried and confused, help them out.

For even more, visit Scott Brinker right here.