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An Optimized Search Engine Blog Strategy

Peter · May 22, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Optimized Search Engine Blog StrategyI started blogging in the early 2000s. I really cranked it up after I sold my advertising agency and became an advertising agency business development consultant. Below is a list of my blog posts. The subject matter of these hundreds of blog posts reflects my dedication to having an optimized search engine blog strategy. It worked.

My Optimized Search Engine Blog Strategy.

I am going to keep this easy. I could ramble on but these are the core elements of my blog strategy.

  • Understand your objectives. Mine is to entice advertising agency leadership to contact me about helping them develop an unignorable business development program. This has worked for me every week.
  • Understand and meet the needs of your market. You are writing for them. Example: My evergreen list that is just for advertising execs… Top Advertising and Design Awards.
  • Use all available SEO tools to help you determine trending subject matter and keywords. There are a bunch of tools listed on my advertising agency resources list.
  • Study your direct competition. What are they writing about? What are their best keywords?
  • Be consistent. As you can see, I have written, on average, over one post per week. In 2013 alone (when I wanted to really drive Google love), I wrote 188 blog posts.
  • Have your very own voice. Write with gusto,
  • Amplify the reach/frequency of your blog posts: post em on LinkedIn; use them in your agency’s email newsletter; send them directly to clients and prospects (even try paper), and on…
  • Go mega amplification. I am going to use some of these very best Levitan blog posts to form the basis of my new book.

OK – Here You Go… Levitan’s 750 Plus Blog Post Archive

[Read more…] about An Optimized Search Engine Blog Strategy

Does Your Advertising Agency Blog Kick Ass?

Peter · December 9, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Advertising Agency Blog Objectives & Strategies

This is how Google displayed my website to the world via a search on “advertising agency new business” – a perfect search phrase for my advertising agency consultancy. This makes me happy and is a direct result of my meeting the business objectives of my blog. My objectives are clear – get traffic for my keywords, present myself as an advertising industry thought leader and drive leads. I’ve achieved this via over 650 dedicated, focused blog posts. Does your advertising agency blog meet Its objectives?

Your Advertising Agency Blog

Here are what I consider the leading objectives and strategies for an advertising agency blog. I know that if you follow these best practices that your blog’s traffic will grow exponentially.

To get started, know that: according to Hubspot, business blogging leads to an average of 55% more website visitors. I think that this is light – you will do better. Blogs are worth it – if managed.

The 7 Most Important Blog Objectives

Core Objectives – this is the blueprint:

  1. Drive Google love.
  2. Grow website traffic.
  3. Support your agency’s brand identity and credibility.
  4. Look and sound like an industry leader. A thought leader.
  5. Build an email list.
  6. Attract the best talent.
  7. Attract media attention.
  8. Build a blog that drives leads.

[Read more…] about Does Your Advertising Agency Blog Kick Ass?

13 Steps To Building A Well-Read Ad Agency Blog

Peter · December 4, 2018 · Leave a Comment

What Is The Purpose Of My Ad Agency Blog?

If you run an ad agency blog – or any other word-centric social media platform – you will often ask yourself the difficult question, “What should I write about today? What pearls of wisdom will get us more attention?” Despite blogging for 15 years, I ask this all the time. It is like having an editorial meeting in my head.

The blog you are currently reading has, with this, 651 individual posts. The vast majority are spot on dedicated to one primary subject… ad agency business development. This dedication has yielded me page one positions for my keywords on Google. Good news, Google is the main driver of my consultancy’s awareness and business.

What To Write About? Where To Start?

The first success-oriented objective of a blog is getting traffic. To get there, business blogs need to be focused. With a billion blogs and opinions out in the world, being a generalist will not cut it. This is especially true in the advertising space where agencies often regurgitate the same, as in, similar, subject matter.

To really kick it, you need a solid plan. I suggest using the same type of creative or media brief you use for your clients. Clarify and agree on the following:

  1. Nail your blog’s objectives. Is it general awareness (if so, you better act-up a bit more like Gary Vaynerchuck)? Do you want to own a category i.e. pet products? A technology like mobile advertising? Your city?
  2. Nail your target market. Is it current or future clients? Your staff? Future employees?
  3. Have systems for finding new subjects. I read the trade press. I read my competition. I get off topic sometimes. But, I always have my eyes and ears open to even accidentally hear about a smart blog subject. A smart, traffic-generating, subject like this: What Should I Write About On My Ad Agency Blog?
  4. Have a point of view. Have some attitude. Please. That means having some personality. A voice. People tell me that I write the way I talk. It works for me. I write good stuff but I do not sound too serious.
  5. If you have multiple authors, agree on some parameters.
  6. Create a scheduled content plan. Schedule out three or so months of subject matter on your content calendar. However, pay attention to today’s hot topics. Example, Facebook and privacy is really heating up as I write. L2’s Scott Galloway has a strong opinion… do you?
  7. Understand your frequency. When I started blogging a few years ago, I wrote two or more times a week. Today, once a week sustains Google’s attention and gooses its algorithm.
  8. Vary your content. You will need to must have a bunch of 1,000-word posts (to look like an authority) as well and shorter punchier posts. Add photographs and videos.
  9. Do expert interviews. A 15-minute interview recorded and then transcribed by companies like Rev.com yields the fastest easiest way to build content. The interviews from my book on pitching are also up on this blog.
  10. Repurpose your content as in amplifying it. Why just have your thoughts on the blog – re-post it as a long white paper (and vice versa). Take a blog post and turn it into a LinkedIn article. Amplify! Have this in your plan.
  11. Promote what you write. The idea that, “If I build it, they will come” is a recipe for disaster. Promote the blog on your website 9make it easy to find), in your emails, on your social sites, etc.
  12. Marketing 101! Make the blog a sales tool. This is a key reason you have it, right? Make an offer to your readers can’t resist that will get them to subscribe.
  13. Be very patient. Let’s face it, the world is not looking for another ad agency blog. However, the world is looking for relevant information that will make them smarter via insights and answers to their marketing questions — and even resolves their insecurities.

The blogger’s bottom line(s)… Nobody automatically loves you can and you can count the ones that do

Just realize that the world is not waking up every morning to read your blog. Give the people something they want to read. Serve it up in ways they will find it. A great ad agency blog will attract website views, will help sell you POV and will act as a powerful marketing tool.

One more bottom line… pay close attention to your blog’s analytics. I use both Google Analytics and my WordPress stats. Not surprising, my very targeted ad agency blog post, Cures For Poor Advertising Agency Profits is a hot seller this month.

 

 

Does Search Engine Optimization Work?

Peter · March 21, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Guess What… Search Engine Optimization Does Work

The chart above is from WordPress analytics on the source of my incoming traffic. Yup, Search Engine Optimization works. Just look at all the traffic I get from search engines. And, note how many searches come from just Google. In one month… 2,538!

When I ask agencies that contact me how they found me… the answer is always via a search engine (OK, sometimes because they read my book on pitching – know what, go up top and buy it.)

The Drill

So, here’s the drill. I’ve been blogging on one subject, ad / advertising agency business development for five or so years. I’ve got over 600 super well targeted and keyword optimized blog posts. I support these with amplified mentions, emails to over 2,000 subscribers, posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. As you can see, Google wins hands down.

What can your agency learn from this?

  • Be single-minded. Find your competitive agency positioning and blog accordingly.
  • Use the right keywords that your audience wants to read.
  • Blog often.
  • Have long posts. Yes, its ok to have short ones like this. But, Google likes loooong posts.
  • Work to get people to link to you.

You know this stuff. So, just do it. If you want incoming, you have to work at it.

But…

I know, you are very busy. And, you only have 17 blog posts. And, your best writers don’t want to blog. And, you worry about being too dedicated to one subject. Then, I advise my clients to do a range of other tactics.

One is to guest blog on much busier sites.

Chatbots and Your Advertising Agency

Peter · November 18, 2016 · 1 Comment

Chatbots, Bots, Guest Posting and Your Advertising Agency

screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-11-05-24-amCheck out my article Why Bots Are the Next Big Frontier for Agencies that was posted this morning on HubSpot’s marketing blog. The article discusses my views on the power of Chatbots, the looming opportunity for advertising agencies to get on this bandwagon and my personal experience running ActiveBuddy, an early Chatbot company.

3 Takeaways

My article offers three big takeaways (I mean immediately actionable takeaways) for your ad agency and its new business program:

  1. Something new for you to talk about. Pay attention to AI and Chatbots. Savvy advertising agencies will jump on this bandwagon. It is real. Why? People like to talk to smart, friendly, uber programmed computers rather than tap out on the keyboard and phone. Oh, and Facebook loves chatbots.
  2. Your skill. Advertising agencies are good at writing or should be. Creating smart Chatbots is all about understanding human communications and writing scripts that recognize how interpersonal communications work. This is what a savvy advertising agency is good at. That savvy agency is also good at building brand to consumer conversations. Believe me, you’ve spent almost 10 years building static apps. Chatbots will unleash your inner conversational bot expertise. This is already in-house.
  3. Reach. I’m sure that you love your agency blog. But, guest posting on a mega website like HubSpot will drive way more incremental reach for your thought leadership, ideas and brand awareness. Why? Alexa tells me that HubSpot is the 529th highest ranked website. Get this, Ogilvy’s website is ranked at only 41,659 — after zillions of years of being in the ad business. Even a smart one at Ogilvy should think about guest posting if she’d like to reach more folks.

On the subject of reach… after only a couple of hours, my post was shared lots. See….

screen-shot-2016-11-18-at-10-54-01-amLast point. Here is the video ActiveBuddy made 14 years ago to launch our company. You’ll see that I thought bots were a big fucking idea then. I still do.

 

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