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Time To Kill Your Advertising Agency Blog?

Peter · August 13, 2019 · 2 Comments

Is It Time To Kill Your Advertising Agency Blog?

I’ve updated my 2017 blog post about the power of the advertising agency blog and the question of should y’all continue to go for it or kill it. To blog or not?

I think that this is a big question that should be reviewed every year. Another question. Would anyone miss your blog?

To help answer these, I am going to discuss the pros and cons of advertising agency blogging. The kind of content creation that has been considered an integral element in an agency’s business development program. Blogging has been a key element of an agency’s Attraction Strategy.

Me

I have been consistently blogging since the early 2000’s. I started blogging as the CEO of my Oregon agency Citrus (I covered both advertising issues and the late 2000 recession’s effect on marketing).

The advertising agency business development blog you are currently reading has over 650 blog posts and acts as the core of my inbound marketing program. Good news for me, it fills my new client pipeline. Blogging has been very good to me.

But, but… my opinion about blogging, well at least for low volume advertising agency blogs, is that they are losing their power to attract a targeted audience, as in client leads. I see a few reasons for this.

There are zillions of blogs and blog posts every day. There has been a dramatic increase in the last five years.
There are hundreds (thousands?) of advertising agency blog posts and insights posted every week.
Most agencies write about the same subjects over and over.
Many agencies do not use online SEO tools to determine what blog post subjects will attract the most readership. I great way to do this is to look at what works for your most successful competitors.
Most agency blogs are boring.
Many client prospects are moving to podcasts and videos for their marketing information.

OK, Back To You. Should You Maintain Your Advertising Agency Blog? Or, Get Real And Just Kill It.

I look at a lot of advertising agency websites and their blogs. Many of the blogs are informative and brand building. However, way too many are just me-too blogs that actually deliver very little benefit to the agency.

The benefits should, stress should include the generation of incoming new client interest, showing that the agency Thinks Different (in a world of thousands of agency and advertising services options), help sell the agency as being on top of the advertising market, reinforces current client perceptions, demonstrates that the agency get content marketing, and demonstrates some personality and chutzpah. I call the chutzpah part… being Unignorable.

Start Here: Some Huge Blog Stats

The world really does not need another blog. As Steven Pressfield says in the title of his must-read book: “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It”. [Read more…] about Time To Kill Your Advertising Agency Blog?

The Best Podcasts In The World

Peter · July 15, 2019 · 1 Comment

Yikes, “the best podcasts in the world” — How is that headline for click-bait? Maybe a 7 on a scale of 10? OK, a 6? Really, how lame are the click-bait headlines we all get sucker punched into launching?

Ok, Ok… Now on to a couple of podcast recommendations.

I have an agency client that is training for her first marathon and she asked me for some podcast recommendations. I’ll share my recommendations with you.

Side note: I have often been ahead of the digital curve. In case you think I am bragging, I was too early, which means ill-timed and not smart about the market. I like those ‘shiny’ pennies. I had my first podcast in 2006.

The Best Podcast Player

I use the podcast app Pocket Cast to organize my podcasts on my iPad and iPhone. It has a decent search tool by subject. Here is how they sell themselves:

A podcast player by listeners, for listeners.

Pocket Casts is the world’s most powerful podcast platform. Our podcast player provides next-level listening, search and discovery tools. Find your next obsession with our hand-curated podcast recommendations for easy discovery, and seamlessly enjoy your favorite shows without the hassle of subscribin

Some Of My Favorite Podcasts

– General smart about the digital, news, etc. industry: Pivot, Recode Media, Recode Decode from VOX (just do this)

– Daily News: The Daily from NYT, The Daily 202 from the Washington Post (these two depress me every morning), and Marketplace

– Smartest guy in the room: Stay Tuned with Preet (smart enough to get fired by the prez)

– Music: All Songs Considered and Switched On Pop (you will be hipper than the kid down the street)

– Internet marketing: Marketing School, Social Media Marketing, Marketing Geeks (hours of insights on how to do your business)

– Advertising: AdAge Ad Lib, Advertising Influencers (frankly a bit boring, but, hey, you are probably in the biz)

– Branding: Real-World Branding is a podcast for and about brand and business building hosted by Bill Gullan, President of Philadelphia’s Finch Brands.

– General: anything by Malcolm Gladwell, Against The Rules Michael Lewis, This American Life, The Chernobyl Podcast (after you’ve seen this great 5-part series.)

– Art: Art Tactic, A Piece of Work (aging but smart)

There are more. I’ll spare you.

The History Of Podcasting

Just as an FYI, here is my older blog post, number 600!, on The History of Podcasting.

How To Follow-Up With Your Future Client

Peter · July 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Once Connected: Stay In Touch & Follow-Up With Your Future Client

I am going to keep this blog post brief. In fact, I will concentrate on one feel-good idea: do some follow-up touching.

Do The Client Follow-Up

No, it isn’t a 1960’s James Brown song. Follow-up means stay in touch with past clients, referrals that have not signed up yet and clients that you’ve pitched and did not win.

Need three reasons to have a follow-up plan?

Ex-clients can recircle to become a new client. I had a casino client that did just that after a couple of years of their wandering in the agency forest. It took them a while to re-realize just how wonderful my agency was.
Your ex CMO, the one that left your account in the lurch, will resurface someday at a new client organization that will want you.
Client prospects that did not choose you in a pitch will eventually tire of the agency they selected and might eventually realize that they want your brilliance. After a pitch loss, do not say, “oh, they didn’t select us – boo hoo” and crawl into a hole. Nope, stay in touch. After all, that client once put you on their new agency shortlist.

Here is a how-to from my book: The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. (LOL, given the book’s sales figures, there is a good chance your competition has already read the book. Go buy it).

The Post Pitch Follow-Up

You’ve busted your ass to get into and then pitch the new client. Sorry, you did not win. Now what?

Chances are good that it has been at least a couple of months since the client or consultant first made contact. This major league pitch might have included an RFI, RFP, a kick-off meeting, phone calls, questions, and your own special strategies designed to make you look smart, passionate and well, you fill in the blanks of what you did ahead of the big presentation.

After the presentation, you graciously handed over your leave behind, smiled, hugged, and walked out. Now what? Really, now what? You could sit by the phone like a 1950’s ingénue on a Friday night waiting for that call or be a bit more aggressive. But, how aggressive? And how long should you take before you make contact? How passionate do you want to look – because there can be a fine line between looking passionate and, well, desperate.

As I have said before: every pitch lives in its own little world and has its own pace. Some clients recognize that you are anxious, there is a need for speed, and that they should get back to you quickly. Some are not so caring. Or worse, after going through the pitch process, they may be revaluating their initial business objectives and requirements. Need more maybes?

Maybe the client is now wondering about what type of agency they really need. Do they want a huge agency or a specialist? Maybe a decision maker just went out of mobile range to climb K2 for three weeks. Or, maybe, just maybe, the budget has shrunk.

Or, bam! After getting to know a few new agencies, they’ve realized that they really love the incumbent agency.

Lots of maybes. But fear of follow-up? Get over it. I mean, get over over-thinking. The deal is that you have no choice but to follow-up. You have to look like you care, a lot. Clients, good clients, respect passion. Here are my 3 follow-up rules.

Do it. Find the balance between looking very interested in working with the client and being respectful of their time. Being a nuisance does not work. Acting interested does. The other agencies will follow-up. Just do your own follow-up scenario smarter.
Find a value-add reason to follow-up. Chances are good that the client asked a question in the meeting that could be the basis for a follow-up call. It is quite possible that you didn’t have the time during the presentation to answer a question in detail, or you might have some new related research to impart. Maybe you held back some information, and it’s now time for your pre-planned reveal.
Be you. Maintain the personality you used in the presentation. Be genuine, professional, and if you can, add some humor if appropriate.

A Pitch Planning Tip:

Don’t wait till after the meeting to create a follow-up plan. Think ahead and have a follow-up insight or document at the ready. Consider embedding a preplanned reason to follow-up in your presentation. Let the client know that you will be sending them something and get it to them fast. Get it in their head that you are on the ball and are proactive.

Give me a call. Let’s discuss your last or future pitch.

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One

Peter · June 14, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch

This interview with Tony Mikes, Founder of the Second Wind Network, is a first-person perspective by an advertising agency management and business development leader who sat on the client side of an important ad agency pitch. It is an enlightening review of how advertising agencies performed, or didn’t, in a new business pitch for the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

Frankly, A Must Read

The interview and perspective on agency new business pitching will be highly instructive for small, medium and large agencies… to say the least.

The interview first appeared in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

It is very rare to have an advertising agency veteran sit on the client side of a pitch and give his impressions of the process and how the agencies performed. You will hear about what the winning agency did and what the losers failed to do.

The interview is over three thousand words so I broke it into two parts. I urge you to read both.

At the end of part two, I will give you my impressions on the lessons that every agency can learn from Tony’s experience and insights.

Tony Mikes

Tony Mikes was the Founder and Managing Director of the Second Wind Network, which today has over 800 small to mid-sized agency members.

Tony consulted with and advised advertising agencies and their leadership on best practices for almost 20 years. He provided members and clients with ‘old school’ agency wisdom and combined it with cutting-edge strategies. Before starting Second Wind, he was President of Pennsylvania’s Mikes & Reese Advertising from 1972 to 1988.

My Portland agency Citrus had been a member of Second Wind, and Tony was one of our advisors. Tony was an experienced mentor that could always help me resolve an agency-related issue or grab an opportunity and turn it into success. Sadly, Tony passed away in 2015.

The Anatomy Of An Advertising Pitch Interview

PL: You were on the client side of the agency selection table recently. How did that go? [Read more…] about Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One

How To Study Your Competitive Advertising Agencies

Peter · June 10, 2019 · Leave a Comment

3 Competitive Advertising Agency Growth And Business Development Tools

This post provides a brief look at 3 tools for you to study your competitive advertising agencies. And, they are excellent insight drivers to use for your new client business development program. Want to prove to prospects that they need you? Use these tools to deliver insights and to make your point.

In order to be truly competitive, you need to know what your competitive agencies are doing online, how well they are doing and what wonderful and effective marketing and content plays they are using to drive their awareness and new client interest.

Good news, many of these analytics can be used for free – up to a point. Neil’s tools are free. SEMrush and SimilarWeb will start you out for free and then change for enhanced analytics.

I’ll be adding more business development tools – Sign up on the left for my weekly newsletter so you don’t fall behind your very own agency competitors.

Neil Patel’s UberSuggest, Traffic Analyzer, and SEO Analyzer and SEO Analyzer

Neil Patel’s free UberSuggest, Traffic Analyzer, and SEO Analyzer tools generate free website analysis reports that include top keywords and pages and suggested revisions to improve website health. Use it for your advertising agency website and then compare it to your competition. By the way, note how Neil uses these tools to drive his own traffic and love. IP is cool people.

Here is a quick look at an analysis of the digital award winning agency The Many’s Site Audit.

SEMrush

Need some more online visibility? SEMrush is a longstanding winner in the analytics arena. Their online research tools deliver insights into traffic analytics; organic and advertising research; backlinks and keyword research.

Take a look at New York’s Oberland, another hot agency. I bet your agency would be happy with 19,300 visits last May 2019.