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The Art Of Personal Branding

Peter · March 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A How To – Personal Branding Is A Fine Art

Warning, it will take you close to 500 words to actually get to my main point about the art of personal branding and a great example of How To. So, if you want, skip ahead. However, if you need a bit of branding history, don’t scroll yet.

A Definition

Today, everyone (well, OK, not everyone, but it sure seems like everyone) from high school students developing their college resumes to job seekers to ad agency owners like you to consultants like me, use personal branding to create their very own brand. What is a personal brand? A definition from our friends at Wikipedia…

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article by Tom Peters.

Do you know Tom Peters? I bet many of you don’t. Back in the 90’s Tom was a major marketing influencer and as you can see from this 1997 Fast Company article, “The Brand Called You. Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here’s what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc.”, he laid it all out. FYI: 1997 was twenty years ago. Side note, I kinda laughed when I read how Tom boldly referred to himself at the close of the article…

“Tom Peters (TJPET@aol.com) is the world’s leading brand when it comes to writing, speaking, or thinking about the new economy. He has just released a CD-ROM, “Tom Peters’ Career Survival Guide.”

Tom states (Tom!)…. “Tom Peters (TJPET@aol.com) is the world’s leading brand…” Cool. You know, most people don’t really have time to figure you out so go ahead and tell them that you are the guru. It works. Here is what I say (I say!) on my (as in this) website: “I Am The Most Experienced Business Development Consultant.” It works (and it is true.) There…. I just personal branded. Back in the day, I studied Tom peters, read his books and watched his presentations. Look him up, you’ll see what I mean.

Oh, just in case you don’t remember 1997, note in the statment that Tom had an AOL email address and created CD-ROM’s.

Back To Personal Branding – Actually, The Art Of Personal Branding

I will not get too deep into the concept of how to do the nuts & bolts of personal branding because there is a very good chance that you do that and Google will return 11 million results on the subject. Plus, you probably already use one or more of the following tools to get your brand out there. Or, should.

A blog (if you know how to use keywords, have something to add to the conversation and write decent English)
LinkedIn (your profile, groups, and publishing)
Facebook (your profile and advertising)
Instagram (image marketing)
Twitter (yes, it still works)
Snapchat (people won’t remember your inanity)
Pinterest (amazing what people search on)
Medium (borrowed reach)
Slideshare (an underused platform)
Commenting (presence)
Guest posting (seriously borrowed reach)
Recommendations and referrals (ask for them)
Awards (third party endorsement)
Buffer (efficiency)
Buzzsumo (more efficiency)
Word of mouth (yup, that old thing works too)

Margo: The Art Of Her Branding Is In The Execution – Not Just The Tools

All of these tools are nice. But, as is always the case, the devil is in the details. Here are the details of a personal brand I found (actually it found me) yesterday.

I have some bad habits. Instead of waking up and immediately studying Spanish (I now live in Mexico), I turn on my iPad and read my business email. So there I am in my bed (too much info?) with my iPad and I see an email from Medium that points me to… “How The Best Marketers Read Minds. How to hear the unspoken stories your customers tell themselves.” I read it. It’s an excellent take on marketing and messaging. It is very current. You should read it.

I then go, “Huh, who wrote this?” I click on Margo Aaron’s byline, I see this: “I write about the dubious underbelly of marketing and other lighthearted topics at www.thatseemsimportant.com.” I like the name of the website. I like the idea of reading about the “dubious underbelly.” I like Margo’s attitude.

I then go to Margo’s That Seems Important website. I find the following:

She points out that she is a ginger and is cute (my interpretation.) Just to be clear, I would have also thought that if it had been a cute guy like Domhnall Gleeson.

She has a sense of humor: The top of the home page visual says, “They say if I have a photo here it will increase my conversion rates.” Take that SEO / SEM folks.

She asks me to join her email list via this, “Please join this list so it’s not just my mom.” More humor.

I go to the About page and read her bio. Nice track.

Then I take her up on this… “If you’d like to “pick my brain” you can do so here.” Of course, I go. “Pick my brain” kinda reminds me of my Corleone Offer.

I arrive at a Clarity page where I can buy her time for $4.17 / minute. I see a couple of reviews like this…

Margo is a rock star. I gained more insights from a one-hour conversation with her than I would have in weeks of fumbling around with the marketing for my coaching service.

She has a rare acumen for asking the right questions to understand you and your offer and then translating that into a captivating marketing strategy.

The value I received from the call far exceeds her rate. If she’s amenable to helping you, don’t hesitate to work with her.

I think, sure I’ll call her.

My Point? Margo Seriously Branded Herself.

How?

Marketing – Margo introduced me to her via a broad reach vehicle – Medium. Somehow she got Medium to get her into my email.

Persona – Her branding delivered a smart, funny persona. Not a me-to list of attributes. She is likeable.

Smart – She writes very well on subject that should be of interest to you.

Sales funnel – She funneled me to her bio.

Sold – She further funneled me to her advice site.

Margot did all of this in a way I call – Unignorable.

You?

You can do this too. This is particularly important if you run an ad agency. Here’s an example…

Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has done a masterful job of self-branding. I am sure you know his story. From wine shop to YouTube star to building the fastest growing ad agency in the universe (Gary’s ~~words~~ thought.)

His secret… He used marketing; a unique compelling persona; he’s smart and makes damn sure you know it; he funnels you into his books and speeches and if you are a client, into his agency. He is not timid. He has sold you. His brand sold you.

Does your brand sell your agency?

The ADD & ADHD Marketing Advantage

Peter · March 8, 2017 · Leave a Comment

The ADD & ADHD Marketing Advantage

You are in the marketing communications business. Your brain has to move at warp speed given today’s fast-paced digital marketing options. You have to juggle one or more intense client requirements and needs. Everything is coming at you. This is OK and you really dig it. You like the variety of your challenges.

There is a decent chance that you have some form of ADD or ADHD. I’ve always thought that I (as well as my marketing colleagues) have ADD / ADHD or, what my friend Peter Shankman calls Fast Brain. Hmmmm, I like the sound of Fast Brain.

To learn more about Peter’s take on ADD and ADHD and how this is a benefit, not a malaise, head over to his website Faster Than Normal.

And, for a more direct take on ADD and your marketing life, read my interview with Peter on HubSpot’s marketing blog: “How ADHD Gave This Tech Founder a Creative Advantage.”

Here is my conclusion:

Adapting Marketing Strategies for Distraction

I am sure that many of you digital marketers were perpetually distracted students like me. I was the type of student that was bored and whose grades never matched his potential. After all, I really didn’t want to have to take biology to fulfill my college science prerequisites.

Fortunately, I managed to find my way to art college and eventually to a long career in advertising and digital marketing — the perfect industry for fast brains.

Shankman thinks that 40% of the population has some degree of ADHD. If this is so (and I agree), then we should consider how to bake this important consumer insight into our marketing strategies.

Of course, this isn’t groundbreaking news. We are well aware of the effect of device distraction and content marketing overload. However, I seldom see marketing communications professionals sit their clients down and tell them that they really only have nano-seconds to deliver a sales proposition. I am talking about the critical importance of having an ‘unignorable’ sales proposition — not just an ad tech solution.

So, go forth and Fast Brain your day.

How To Own A Brand Positioning

Peter · March 4, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Ah, The Brand Positioning – How Are You Going To Own Yours?

All of the medium to small advertising, PR, design and digital agencies I work with (even network agencies) are by nature, challenger brands. As in, they are not R/GA or Droga 5 or 72andSunny or today’s hottest – pick your current digital-flavor-of-the-month specialist. I’m sure you know what challenger brand means and that is one of your potential brand positionings but… Here is a nice clear definition of challenger brand from Chron.com:

A challenger brand is a company or product brand in an industry that is not the category leader. The term denotes the fact that such companies have to play from a position behind the dominant player or leader in an industry. This makes the process of marketing significant to attracting customers.

The nurturing of challenger brands is one of the marketing agency positionings that I’ve discussed on this blog and with many of my agency clients. No, it is not a brand new proposition. But, it has power since most brands are by nature challenges and, as stated above, marketing is critical to elevating a challenger brand to brand leadership. This makes having a dedication to helping challenger brands a winning proposition.

Eat Bigger Smaller Fish

I have been following the challenger brand consultancy Eat Big Fish for years. They are without question the leading consultancy in this space and their leader Adam Morgan is the numero uno voice of the challenger brand market. I have used Eat Big Fish in my agency business development recommendations as one of the benchmark agencies that I believe represents a best of class B2B marketer. As in, how they market themselves under, inside and around their positioning umbrella.

Eat Big Fish is an excellent example of a marketing company that has a single-minded sales proposition, a well-defined market and a dedication to thought leadership that… makes them, without question, the thought leader, “I must talk to them” leader in their category.

How They Do It

I think that, no, I know that, EBF (I hope they don’t mind the abbreviation, I just don’t like typing ‘fish’ too often) can offer some direction for all agencies.

EBF nailed their approach to a large hungry market. And, they appear to be early in. Or, even better, they market themselves so well, that they look like they were early in.

They nailed their brand name and logo. Ah, the British and branding.

They nailed their messaging.

Adam Morgan established his credentials in 2009 by writing the book, “Eating The Big Fish”.
Their latest book, “A Beautiful Constraint”, speaks directly to today’s time and resource scarcity. Here is how they describe the book: “A Beautiful Constraint is a book about everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the kinds of issues that all of us face today — lack of time, money, resources, attention, know-how — and see in them the opportunity for transformation of oneself and one’s organization’s fortunes.” Oh, they have two more books. I like ‘agencies’ that write books. Here’s is a blog post on how to do that.
EBF has a hard to resist sales proposition: “We enable ambitious brands of all shapes and sizes to do more more with less.” Um like, what client would you want that isn’t ambitious and would just love it if you offered them a high ROI?
Their Our Work section delivers on their strategic focus and client benefits. Nice, clear and concise. Like, if you were a big brand, why wouldn’t you give these guys a call? Plus, they sound like they play nice with the other children – they fit in seamlessly between the brand and the brand’s agency.
EBF’s thought-leadership is, well, thoughtful. This series is timely, thought-provoking, insightful, and fun to read. It would be of interest to any client out there: “Challengers To Watch In 2017”. Cool! I love this one — Impossible Foods. Imagine trying to challenge the all-beeeeeef burger.
They give good videos. Check out their Speeches page.
They nail client testimonials. Most agency client testimonials are — boring. These are not.

And… you should subscribe to their newsletter. You’ll see why after you get one. The pitch: “Sign up to The Challenger Project and get our monthly roundup of challenger inspiration every last Friday.”

One thing I dig about their approach is that their focus is on sharing the insights and stories from the broader world of challenger brands. Whether client or not, eatbigfish get out of the way of the story.

Inspiring in an agency world where we just cannot stop talking about ourselves. Ya know what I mean?

Your Advertising Agency Must Kick Ass In 2017

Peter · December 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Dear Advertising Agency: Kick Ass In 2017

As you will see below, times are tough and getting tougher for advertising agency business development. Clients are confused; are (massive understatement coming…) a bit uneducated in all of the new advertising options; worried about their budgets; worried about ROI; worried about data overload; find it hard to work with a range of specialists from PPC to video to mobile to chatbots and on.

Oh, and if you are an advertising, digital, PR, SEO, PPC, experiential and on and on agency… you have like (massive understatement coming…) 4,000 agency competitors ranging from multinationals to single really smart dudes (as The Donald says) who are working from their bed in New Jersey.

Daunting?

Sounds daunting, right?

Sure, sales is daunting. But, the only people that will win new business in 2017 are the people that kill it. Sleeping through your business development program (or lack thereof) is, well, sleepy. From a sales perspective, given how tough business development has become, being sleepy is not gonna work. Your agency will fail.

The only advertising, digital, PR, SEO, PPC, experiential agencies that will grow in 2017 are the ones that realize that EXECUTION rules. Having a business development / sales plan is nice (and most agencies do not have one.) But, having that plan and not kicking ass with it, as in executing, is a losing proposition.

It’s Tough Out There

eMarketer’s advertising agency new business article, “Agencies Face Tougher New Business Environment” was in my inbox last week. The article references RSW/US’s (always smart) industry research. In this case, RSW/US reports that…

“In an October 2016 survey of ad agency professionals by business development group RSW/US, 43% of respondents said that obtaining new business had gotten either “harder” or “a lot harder” this year.”

Surprised? I’m not. Sales isn’t easy.

OK, So It Has Gotten Harder

What is your advertising agency going to do about it? Here are some of my thoughts and advice from working with dozens of agencies on their sales plans.

But first, back to my rant. Everything I am about to say is smart and actionable. However, if you do not actually do it, as in run it, 24/7 you will fail.

The 2017 Advertising Agency New Business Sucess List

This is the must do list. Once you agree to this list, the hard part is doing it. Yes, I am repeating myself. The single biggest issue confronting advertising agency sales is not running the plan. And. I do know all of your excuses for not running your plan with any consistency.

Can the excuses.

Have a business plan that outlines how your agency is going to make money.

Build your agency to deliver on the promises in your business plan.

Do not be one of the 17% of agencies that actually admits that they “Can’t make the investment in a new business program.” WHAT 17%? Are you kidding me? I bet that 17% is probably more like 30%. If 30% of advertising agencies do not invest then you must.

Have a business development plan that is based on what the market needs.

Make sure you treat your business development program with the same care and attention you deliver to a client. Put sales on your daily production list.

Know exactly who you want as a client. Have a set of criteria that makes sense for your agency.

Position your agency for success. What does that mean? It means that you cannot be everything to everyone. Know if you are a skill set specialist; a client category specialist; a regional or global specialist; a demographic specialist. “Specialist”… get it? If you want to “break through to prospects” (see the RSW/US research), give them a single-minded sales proposition.

Build brand messaging that clearly supports and amplifies your positioning.

Tell the market that you are the leader. Be bold.

Please… have a website that is more than a brochure; that does not look like your competitor’s WordPress site; that is designed to sell; that creates some agency to client chemistry and then asks for the clnet to make contact. Make them an offer they cannot refuse.

Have an inbound marketing strategy. An attraction strategy. One that makes sure that you can be found by that client that wants to meet you.

Go outbound to talk directly to the prospective clients that you have on your master list. Use the tools that will get their attention. I mean everything from direct mail 9yes, paper) to facebook ads to email to Instagram. Whatever makes sense for the category you are pursuing.

Be a thought leader. I mean an INSIGHT leader. Have things to say that cannot be ignored.

Busy? Use design, copy, sales, research or whatever outsourcing to help you run the plan.

Be an unignorable agency.

Write RFP’s that follow instructions to a ‘T’ then find a way to kick some ass to stand out.

OK, Last Point

You have a business plan. You’ve run a smart sales program. You got that RFP. You nailed it. You’ve been invited to pitch the business. Now, do not look and sound like every other agency.

Pitch smarter than the other agencies. Buy my book. Win more pitches.

Ad Agency Business Development Trick

Peter · November 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment

My Business Development Trick Interview

I have a business development trick I use when working with my ad agency clients. It’s my easiest and yet most beneficial trick. After some highly intelligent blabbing, I point “my” agencies to a set of benchmark agencies that are directly relevant to my customized business development plan recommendations. These benchmark agencies are perfect examples of how to fine-tune an agency positioning, how to enunciate the positioning, how to do thought leadership, how to be concise, how to actually run a ‘sales’ program that delivers new clients and how to build a website that gets read… as in, not quickly passed by.

One of those benchmark agencies has been London’s LONDON Advertising.

I’ll play the trick for you if you chat me up… and hire me. In the meantime, here is an interview I did with Michael Mosynski the CEO of LONDON Advertising that’s inside my book on winning more ad agency pitches… The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.

I suspect that there will be some ideas in here, Michael will help you create an agency story (note his simple sales pitch) that drives interest, how to beat mega agencies to win big accounts, how to build interpersonal chemistry and how to win the pitch. Oh, and how to create a simple agency website that sells the agency. Maybe one of the greatest tricks of all.

The LONDON Advertising Interview

Michael Mosynski is CEO of LONDON Advertising. He launched the agency seven years ago as a global agency built for today’s marketplace. The agency’s clients include Boots No7, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Ketel One, W&O Travel, and Wegwood.

Prior to starting LONDON, Michael was the CEO of M&C Saatchi Hong Kong, Middle East, and London’s IS. Prior to joining M&C Saatchi, he held a range of senior positions at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide. We worked together in London.

PL: LONDON Advertising is positioned as an international, yet very nimble one-office agency that that delivers “One Brilliant Idea that can work in any media, anywhere in the world.” Why does this positioning generate interest from multinational clients? [Read more…] about Ad Agency Business Development Trick