Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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What Is Your Elevator Pitch

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How To Build An Elevator Pitch

elevator pitchRemember elevators? You know, those things we rode multiple times a day to get to and from an office or hotel room? The fleeting elevator ride spawned the idea that we need a way to describe ourselves or our company in 30 seconds or less – what we call an elevator pitch. This 30 second or less exercise is very useful since in our very attention-deficit world, our world where so many of us do the same thing and can sound very much alike (“hi, we are a creative advertising agency”, yada…). You get the idea.

Let’s Get Elevator Pitch Personal

One of my ad agency clients asked me to help her quickly and succinctly describe herself for her appearance on an upcoming online seminar. By coincidence, I received an invite to a SharpSpring event and noted how a bunch of advertising agency and marketing thinker and influencer types described themselves. I noted their self-descriptions as food for thought. Food for elevator pitch thought. Just for the hell of it, here are ways that very successful marketing thinkers describe themselves.

Hype-free digital marketing and customer service strategist.

Recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama.

Leading authority on positioning and reinventing in the creative and digital space.

Internationally recognized speaker & contributor to Ad Age’s Small Agency Diary.

Ranked one of LinkedIn’s Top Ten Voices in Marketing for four years in a row.

Works with 250+ agencies every year. Latest bestseller – Sell With Authority.

NYT bestselling author of nine books and counting.

Named among the 30 best young tech entrepreneurs under 30 by Business Week.

Host of the smart agency master class podcast. The number one digital marketing agency owner podcast.

Content marketing guru featured in NYT, Mashable and search engine land.

Agency business expert keynote speaker author and virtual event trainer.

Author of 19 international bestsellers, and one of the most popular bloggers in the world.

Digital marketing pioneer, Wall Street Journal bestselling author and tiny house owner.

Bestselling author and host of award-winning YouTube series.

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An Irresistible New Business Sales Pitch

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new business sales pitchLove Our Sales Pitch

Imagine running a business development program that is so powerful your potential clients can’t ignore it. I am talking about the business development power of creating an agency brand position, business proposition, and importantly, a new business development sales pitch system that becomes a must-read. And, even better, a must-read totally unignorable insight that must be passed around entire organizations.

Is this a Mission Impossible? No.

L2 and Me

L2 Business Intelligence for Digital L2 Business Intelligence for DigitalA few years ago when I was running the advertising agency Citrus, I discovered New York’s L2. L2 was a research company that zeroed in on luxury marketing.

Here is what L2 said about itself on its website: [Read more…] about An Irresistible New Business Sales Pitch

Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy That Cannot Be Ignored

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You Will Need An Unignorable Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy

advertising agency podcastI recently wrote a white paper on how to create a successful advertising agency podcast. “9 Unignorable Reasons Why Your Advertising Agency Should Not Podcast” covers learning from my 15-year podcast marketing journey and provides the pros and cons of podcasting. Even better, the doc is designed to guide you through an advertising agency podcast strategy that will deliver a must-listen-to podcast show. Here is how I start the 3,000-word white paper:

What’s Up With Podcasting?

I recorded my first podcast in 2007 when I owned the Portland advertising agency Citrus. After recording 18 shows, I gave up.

Why did I give up? It was just too early in the podcasting wilderness to put the time and effort into the show. I had great conversations with an editor of ADWEEK Magazine about the future of digital marketing and the growing power of Google as an ad platform (she was right); a business development guru that grew Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide, and two with the father of podcasting itself. You can hear a couple of those early interviews in my current podcast series “Advertising Stories”.

I recently gave up again.

I just ended my latest podcasting series. Why? Last June I had a plan to test a series of podcasts to see if this audio platform, which has grown exponentially since 2007, could drive my awareness and leads to my advertising agency business development consultancy. My plan was to record 40 shows between May and December 2020. These are really good interviews with cool, smart advertising people from New York to New Delhi… and I am a good interviewer. But, despite doing lots of things right, I have seen no appreciable business gain from all of this work. Some pain, no gain.

Which brings me to this instructive missive.

OK, that was the intro. You can get the white paper by subscribing to my occasional email newsletter (see the links on this page) or by contacting me at peter@peterlevitan.com

A Winning Advertising Agency Podcast Strategy – How To Be Unignorable

In the last section of my advertising agency podcast recommendations doc, after my take on some “how-tos”, I discuss how to create a podcast that is well-targeted and will be hard to ignore. I stress hard to ignore (by your cherished target market) because the list below covers the things that you will undoubtedly compete with for your future client’s work-life attention and time:

  • The client’s actual 8 to 7 management and marketing job.
  • 72 daily emails.
  • All the incoming biz dev messaging coming in from your advertising agency competitors that are vying for the same client’s attention.
  • Facebook.
  • LinkedIn.
  • Instagram.
  • YouTube.
  • TikTok.
  • SMS text messages from Gary Vaynerchuk.
  • Clubhouse. Yikes, now Clubhouse.
  • And, a world of a zillion general podcasts from small players like The New York Times, Campaign Magazine, and NPR. Even worse, you will not be alone in the growing world of 30 to 60-minute marketing and advertising agency podcasts.

How To Get Loved? Here Is A Sample Advertising Agency Podcast Creative Brief

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The Big Advertising Agency Resource List

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Advertising Agency Resource List – Updated Often

My advertising agency resource list is curated to help advertising, digital, design, and PR agencies easily find the inspiration and industry resources that will help y’all build killer agencies and careers.

If I were you, I’d grab a glass of Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 and check out all of these links. I guarantee that at least one of these websites will help you or your team grow your agency. Therefore my friends, share this page with your friends, family, and staff.

I wish I had this advertising resource when I was in the ad biz. All I had was my brain. – David Ogilvy

OK, one more. This here Peter Levitan blog has over 800 posts dedicated to helping your marketing communications company grow. I hope that my insights on the art and science of agency business development, growth and management help you to make more bucks. Speaking of resources, take me up on my Corleone offer. 

A Couple Of Quickies:

Need A Headline That Grabs?

The Portent Content Idea Generator. Yes, it is a bit crazy. But, it does stimulate the mind looking for a click-bait headline for your blog, Instagram thing, or whatever. Put in “advertising“. Then laugh.

Website Speed Is Good.

Google PageSpeed Insights. Do you know how fast your website download speed is and how its performance ranks against your competitive agencies? Here’s the drill. If your site takes too long to download, it will lose some traffic.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Here’s another very important test. If you are like me, over 20% of your website visitors are looking at you on a mobile device then you better make sure that they are digging how fast your website loads.

BROWSEO.We might be getting a bit geeky here. That said, BROWSEO helps you view any web page like search engines see it. The tool helps you to identify issues with your site and with your current and future clients’ websites.

And, To help Your Thought Leadership Program: What Are People Searching For?

AnswerThePublic. This is a free visual tool that shows you what questions and queries your consumers have by getting a free report of what they’re searching for at Google.

Exploding Topics. Yes, just like it sounds.

Google Trends. Chances are good that you are aware of Google Trends. This a powerful tool to help you know what is hot and what is not on Google’s search universe. A look at the top 2019 Google searches may or may not make you a fan of humanity.

Social Mention.  Ever wonder what the world is saying about you or your company? Here you go.

The Advertising Agency Resource List…

Advertising Agency News Sites

Ad Agency Directories

Top Advertising Blogs

Favorite Social Media Tools

Video Marketing Tools & Information

Creative Inspiration & Idea Generation 

Creative Space & Time

Online Advertising Education

Online Legal Resources

Life After Advertising & How To Make $$$

Top Ten Twitter Tools

Top Advertising And Design Awards

Marketing & Advertising Podcast

Marketing Tool Generators

Advertising Agency News Resources

  • The Ratti Report. Your agency needs fresh business development leads, right? So check out this website for a daily list of business development opportunities. News you can use to buy that new Tesla Roadster.
  • Advertising Age. Ad Age delivers the latest news from the world of advertising and marketing agencies.
  • Ad Asia Online. AdAsia Online focuses on automation, advertising technology, and creative technology,
  • AdNews. Australia’s advertising, marketing, and media industries news resource.
  • Adweek.  Adweek covers media news, including print, technology, plus.
  • branding in asia. Need to know what’s up in the Asian marketing and advertising world? Sure you do. Check out this comprehensive resource for creative work, news, interviews, and insights. Read it and you just might take the next non-stop to Singapore.
  • Business Insider. Business Insider’s daily take on the ad industry.
  • Campaign Asia. Campaign Asia reports on advertising and emerging media in the Asia Pacific region.
  • Campaign Magazine. Ad industry news from the UK’s advertising industry “bible”.
  • Communication Arts. Print publication offering competitions, forums, feature articles, job bank, graphic design resources and online shopping.
  • Creative. The magazine of promotion and marketing.
  • Digiday. Digiday creates content, services, and community that foster change in media and marketing.
  • Direct Marketing News. Provides news, feature articles, columns, and special reports on direct marketing.
  • The Drum. The alternative to Campaign. Delivers lots of news and views.
  • MediaPost. Comprehensive advertising and media industry coverage.
  • TechCrunch. Keep up (or try to keep up) with the fast-paced world of startups and VC’s.

Ad Agency Directories

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Just Write An Advertising Book, Please

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That’s Right… Write An Advertising Book.

an advertising bookI want you to write an advertising book. For your personal brand and your agency’s branding. And to help y’all become unignorable. How so?

I have spoken at big conferences (as in how to write a book at Hubspot – plus remember to take off the lanyard thing), been interviewed on lots of podcasts, occasionally make it into an ADWEEK article. Why? Because I wrote this book. Books beget authority. Proof that you actually give a shit, know something, and can actually write.

That said, the biggest benefit…? The book has generated business leads that have resulted in thousands in business $ for my ad agency consultancy.

Between direct business, I also make moolah from Amazon – well, a tiny bit but it paid for the book itself. Here is an email I just got from Amazon.

This royalty payment notification is for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) sales recorded in the Kindle Store. Payment will be made to your bank account and should appear in your available balance within 2 to 5 business days after the Payment Date. Details of the payment will be available on the Payment Report.

More Books?

Yup. I also wrote “Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide” and two photo books, Potlandia and Jointlandia on the early days of the cannabis industry. That’s one of the photos of a 2013 product above. From the days before big business and package designers got involved.

And, I am updating my thinking about how to build the world’s best sales presentation & pitch by writing about the ‘good, bad, and ugly’ in the world of virtual meetings. Oh, and a book about how to be a great agency account manager.

Frankly, not enough advertising agencies write an advertising book. Even a digital agency deep into data can write a book. This does not have to be hard, or big, or long. Just look at what Austin Kleon did with the writing and design o “Steal Like An Artist.”

Need ideas for a book and how to use it for business development? Give me a shout.