Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

digital marketing

More Advertising Agency Christmas

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An Advertising Agency Christmas Video That…

…Is actually entertaining. In this case, no surprise, it’s from Toronto’s Zulo Alpha Kilo.

“The holidays are a time for forgiveness. And what better way to ask for forgiveness than with Dmitri the Apology Dog from Zulu Alpha Kilo.”

Hard to go wrong with a talking dog.

 

Inbound Marketing Works

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Inbound Marketing Delivers Inbound New Business

inbound-marketing-graphicOK, not big news here: inbound marketing works. But, in the interest of sharing, I’d just like to say it works for me big time and how it does that.

A couple of weeks ago I sensed that the number of high-octane inbound inquiries was falling off. I usually get at least a couple of qualified new business leads from interested advertising agencies a week. Noting the decline, I did the following…

  • I increased the number of new blog posts. I make sure these are very SEO friendly.
  • I boosted a Facebook post on my ‘corporate’ Facebook page (note, not a page I update on a frequent basis, at least not as much as my blog). $50 helped me get this post on advertising agency search consultants read by 1,275 well-targeted advertising leaders.
  • I upped my use of Buffer to get high traffic past posts scheduled in increased frequency on LinkedIn and Twitter. I scheduled these at different times across the day and night since my business is global.
  • I increased posting relevant blog posts in advertising and industry-related LinkedIn Groups.

Did it work?

Yes. I now have four ‘hot’ leads – from the USA, South America, and Europe. Was this a direct result of my upping my inbound efforts? I can’t directly attribute all of the leads to this effort  since not all agencies ever remember how they heard of me*. However, I have seen a 300% increase in the type of leads I want.

This makes me happy.

So…. I will just do more. Why not? My increased efforts just cost me some time and $50 bucks.

*Interestingly, it is often a long-term / repeat exposure to my brand. They see me via SEO on Google, read the blog, see guest posts, read me on LinkedIn and have bought my book on pitching.

 

 

Is Your Advertising Agency Ignoring Chatbots?

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Is Your Advertising Agency Watching The Chatbot Space?

I’ve written about the potential of chatbots as an advertising agency revenue and new business source. Read about it here on HubSpot and here on my blog.

Facebook + Microsoft + Google = Pay Attention

If you have any reason to think that chatbots are NOT going to be a major part of the digital world & your marketing, listen to the leaders of Facebook, Microsoft and Google on what they are up to.

 

Chatbots and Your Advertising Agency

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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.

 

eMarketer and Digital Advertising Growth

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eMarketer and Digital Advertising Growth

download-eDouglas Clarke, eMarketer’s PR Manager – North America (dclark@emarketer.com) shared some information on the digital advertising market ahead of the large Advertising Week conference.

US Advertising Revenue

  • In 2016, total media ad spending will reach $195.76 billion, an increase of 6.9% over last year.  
  • This year in the US, digital ad spending will reach $72.09 billion, a jump of 20.5% over last year.  
  • Digital will represent 36.8% of total media spending in the US.
  • Mobile internet ad spending in the US will grow 45.3% this year to $45.66 billion.  
  • Mobile represents an increasing share of total digital ad spending – this year growing to 63.3%.
  • US display ad spending will grow 28.4% this year to $34.56 billion.
  • US search ad spending will grow 15.4% this year to $33.28 billion.
  • Digital video ad spending will reach $10.30 billion this year, a jump of 34.1% over last year.
  • TV ad spending will grow 3.5% this year to $71.29 billion.
  • Social network ad spending in the US will grow 41.3% this year to $15.36 billion. It will represent 21.3% of total digital ad spending.

These growth numbers (!!!) are rather aggressive. Or, let’s face it, if you are in the advertising / digital industry — they are very impressive. If I still owned my agency I’d sure be going strong into mobile and video desktop and its relationship to Social and SEO. 

I Know You Like Charts

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