Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

digital marketing

Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?

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advertising agency social media Your Advertising Agency and Social Media.  Oh, And Your Business Development Program.

I am updating this older relatively well-read blog post about the how-to make it happen for an advertising agency social media program. Updating is a good blog strategy to help Google love you.

Does Advertising Agency Social Media Work Anymore (As In Drive Incoming Leads)?

Start here: “Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?” I am not going to bullshit you. There is no perfect social media platform for advertising agency new business. Why? Cause ya know… the devil is in the details, and your details might just be different than the agency down the road.

2024.

I originally wrote this very viewed advertising agency social media blog post back in 2014. Yikes. Time for an update, right? Like I said… Updating old blog posts that once had decent activity is critical to bumping them back up on Google searches. There is an art to this.

When I wrote this back in the good old days, blog posts by ad agencies had not yet exploded, Twitter posts had not yet exploded, Instagram was not yet a smash, TikTok had not been invented, and on. Here are some of those “we are now bombarded” stats.

  • Depending on who you listen to, you’ve got like 4,000 competitive agencies and freelancers.
  • How many blog posts are there today? Here is just one directional figure: there are “like” over 2 million blog posts daily – out of 1.7 billion websites. You think your ad agency can stand out?
  • From Claude: Assuming 85% of the 229 million daily active users on X, that’s around 195 million real users tweeting daily.
  • It’s estimated that around 200 million businesses across the world use Instagram each month. Around 90% of Instagram’s users follow at least one business account on the platform.
  • There seem to a billion LinkedIn posts a day.
  • I have over 6,000 “advertising people” connections, yet when I post on LinkedIn, I get maybe 80 individual post views. Pay per play, baby. It’s not so organic these days.

Do you get the idea here? You are kinda fucked if you think that your blogs, tweets, etc are gonna get noticed. You are competing with other, probably really good at SEO agencies.

The best I can do is share my personal experiences. First, here are my social media objectives.

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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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Improve Your LinkedIn Profile Fast (2023)

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Go To My LinkedIn Profile To See How To Seriously Improve Your LinkedIn Profile In Four Minutes

I’ve added a video and audio to my Wowzer LinkedIn profile here. Go click on the photo and the little speaker.

You can have one of your own little powerful videos instead of just your photo and your voice / audio message care of those baby speakers in your LinkedIn profile. Both of these active audio and video assets are a better way to tell the world what you do or who you are. Plus, you can change these out whenever you want.

How To Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn profileTo add the video, click on your photo and follow the instructions.

LinkedIn profileFor the audio, go to your profile and hit “the pencil” to edit your section. You will see “Your Audio Recording” and then edit “name pronunciation”. Use it to add your fabulous audio message.

Why Improve Your LinkedIn Profile?

Allow me to be obvious: Tell your story, sell yourself, sell your company, and entice people to click onward. This is your opportunity to make your personal brand shine and STAND OUT!

2 More Things.

The 88% Interest Message: Use Video Marketing

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Video marketingVideo Marketing Drives More Interest & Leads. Like 88% More Interest. 

(Side note… Keep reading to find out why Gandhi is in the pic above…)

Here are a couple of paragraphs on how to build a great/powerful advertising agency website from my book. It is amazing how few agencies use video marketing to tell their own brand story.

It is a long detailed chapter, this is just a tidbit. I’ll get personal below.

Video, Please

Too few agencies include brand-building video on their website. If they do, there’s a high degree of chance that it will be a sizzle reel.

I prefer a video that helps deliver the agency’s USP. The digital agency HawkSEM opens with an animated video that clearly states the agency’s mantra and client benefits—in 10 seconds:

“We could start by talking and bragging about award this and featuring that, but who cares? We believe in results. At the end of the day delivering measurable marketing results, predictable revenue, and high ROI is what matters.”

Another approach is to put a real human in the video. Why not have an agency leader deliver the message, and while they’re at it, also deliver some agency soul? You can make a compelling video introduction. You are creative.

Videos engage, are more memorable, are better at brand recall than text and… increase buying intent.

Still with me? MarketingProfs reports that “the average user spends

88% more time on a website with video than a website without one.” How can one ignore this 88% finding? 

Ok. I admit it. I haven’t used enough video enough.

I spent some time today looking at how to use Apple’s video apps. If I can do it, you can. And, yes, there are ways to make your videos better… from editing to including subtitles. Let me know and I can turn you onto some new AI tools and a smart video production company that is waaaaay affordable.

The video that Mahatma Gandhi made for me!

Check out even more thinking on advertising agency video marketing: HERE

Plus why haven’t you bought my Guide to Building A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency book?????? It is a paperback & eBook.

Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distributition

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How To Distribute Powerful Advertising Agency Thought Leadership

advertising agency thought leadershipI am writing a new book about how to build and run a highly profitable advertising agency. Chapters of the book cover the art and science of developing impossible-to-resist, as in unignorable, thought leadership as an account-based marketing and inbound tool.  Here is a quick list of advertising agency thought leadership distribution platforms. You can see more advertising agency resources right here.

Note that anything you produce can be efficiently sliced and diced and put on other platforms. Think content amplification.

13 Advertising Agency Thought Leadership Distribution Platforms

  1. Your website. In a blog post or via a downloadable white paper, webinar offer, or podcast page. The advantage of a PDF offer is that you can ask the interested party for their contact information. Gently, please.
  2. Your company newsletter. Build the list via website offers and gentle outreach. I’ve employed contractors in the Philippines to help build mailing lists.
  3. LinkedIn. Three basic opportunities: 1) Post on LinkedIn (note that LinkedIn loves video). 2) Put your thinking in LinkedIn groups (for example I am a member of Digital Marketing – 2 million members). 3) Use LinkedIn Navigator to make direct connections.
  4. Publish a LinkedIn newsletter. Your connections and followers will be invited to subscribe, and LinkedIn will alert your network whenever you publish new editions.
  5. TikTok. TikTok has become a new gen search engine. It is currently an underutilized ad agency universe.
  6. Video platforms. Australia’s Tiny Hunter agency has over 210 videos. They tell me that the videos help them close deals with the right new clients (right is the operative word), client types that spend time watching Tiny Hunter’s advice. The agency’s founders are more about closing the deal than racking up huge indiscriminate view numbers.
  7. Audio platforms. Build and distribute your own podcast then transcribe it into bite-sized content and roll it out.
  8. Leverage OPA = Other People’s Audience. Guest blog. Guest podcast. Why work to build an audience when you can borrow it?
  9. Paper: Zines and, yes, old-fashioned letters. Hmm, or a targeted very cool (has to be cool) postcard series. So, 1986. However, so 2023 clutter busting. Paper breaks through
  10. Write a book. Both paper and digital. The ultimate proof of expertise. Go self-published. There is no need for a time-consuming traditional publisher to write that B2B book.
  11. Advertising. You use advertising to generate awareness for your clients, right? See What LONDON Advertising did.
  12. Conferences. Go where your next client hangs out. Give that insight talk and make friends. Hand out that book.
  13. Doughnuts? My agency once delivered insights directly to prospects in Portland and San Francisco using a customized and personalized Krispy Kreme box. Free doughnuts to grab attention. The box delivered awareness, actionable insights, and the offer to get some recently launched Krispy Kreme stock. It made us friends.
  14. Write and produce your advertising agency thought leadership and get it out in the world to the right clients. They will love the good stuff.

More to come… in the new book.