Is Your Advertising Agency Findable?

“Is your advertising agency findable?” This is one of three key questions, and mucho critical points, I make when I start to help an advertising agency plan its business development program. First things first. The other two questions are: “do you have a new client referral plan/program” and “do you have a system for how to grow business from current clients?” Want to know how to do that? Ask me.

So, Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Your First Issue.

You should have clear objectives for your business development plan. And, the right marketing plan. And, run that plan 24/7. And do you have a smart process to align the agency and make stuff happen? But, the first thing (after having the right positioning and core marketing tools like a great/effective sales-oriented website and LinkedIn presence, etc.) is to make sure that a prospective client who is actually looking for an agency like yours can find you. Yes, a duh.

An idea (a good one)… go ahead and play client and see if you can be found. If you are a Tiktok specialist, will you be found? If you specialize in hospitality, will you be found? If you are the best agency in London, will you be found? You get the idea, right? Yes, a duh. But, go ahead and try to find you.

So, Let’s Get On With It. Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Are You Everywhere A Future Client Might Look – For You?

This question was driven home today when I examined the Roth Ryan Hayes** agency search consultant website. I noted that they ask advertising agencies that want to be found by clients to list themselves in the WINMO database. A database used by both prospective clients and search consultants. Roth Ryan Hayes asks agencies like yours to enter into the agency information database right here. Just do it.

Need a list of advertising agency search consultants? Search my website.

What else can you do to be found by that client that is looking for YOU?

Some other examples:

• Are you on the first page of a relevant Google search? Probably not. What can you do? Do the content thing and manage your SEO. OK, if not listed on page one (and this might take a long time), consider running a Google ad that targets that future client, it’s CMO, and its category. Test a message that breaks through the clutter.
• Gee, how about that crazy advertising thing. See what London’s LONDON Advertising has done.
• Be in all related marketing services directories. Clutch? Agency Spotter? WINMO?
• Optimize your LinkedIn presence. Pay for LinkedIn Navigator. This optimization goes for your company and all leadership and employee individual profiles. By the way, does everyone use the same, or similar, language to describe the agency? Do you look like a team?
• Are there client industry lists you should be on? Or, write for industry websites like hospitalitynet.
• Does the industry press know that you are a go-to expert on your expert thinking and category experience – always ready to give an educated sound bite? I know that a good PR maven could sell you guys.
• Are you speaking at the right industry conferences? No Cannes ain’t what I am talking about. That is ad agency navel-gazing.

There are more “Be found” ideas. Call me up.

Then, Yes, Then. Be Unignorable. Oh, That.

Ok, you are found. Then what? Is your positioning and messaging and branding UNIGNORABLE? Being found is cool. Being unignorably unignorable is even better. Do not waste that be found thing. Work it.

** From Above… 

Roth Ryan Hayes, founded in 1988 as Roth Associates, is a pioneer in the search consulting category.

The firm has forged a reputation as a trusted adviser to some of the world’s leading companies as they seek to optimize their agency resources and efficiently navigate the evolving media and marketing landscape. Today, RRH is a leader in the field of agency search, selection, and compensation, providing counsel on the intersection of digital innovation and business strategy to companies such as CVS Health, Aetna, Activision, Blizzard, Home Depot and many others.