Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

new business

At 4A’s Presenting About Ad Agency Websites

· · Leave a Comment

imagesI am speaking at a CEO conference today at the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies.) My presentation is on the Good, Bad and Ugly of how agencies use their websites, social media and other digital tools for business development. Should be interesting as agency websites are a great window into how they think and position themselves.

To give you a couple of examples of what I am taking about:

Good: Maybe the best social agency (certainly in terms of self promotion) Likeable Media 

Really bad: Insane ad agency website home pages

If you are an ad agency and would like to see the presentation give me a shout.

The Most Fabulous Advertising Agency Website

· · Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2017-10-19 at 9.05.08 AMI’ve updated this older post about The Most Fabulous Advertising Agency Website because KesselsKrammer does not change their website on a monthly basis anymore. However, they do love their past, their somewhat crazy endeavor, by having this link to their website archives on their current website. Go here to see the old websites.

Why do I love this approach to website design? It’s kinetic. It is (was) unignorable. It has a life. It made me want to go back to the KesselsKrammer website over and over. How many of your advertising agency website visitors are repeat visitors? Sorry, most are not rushing back to read your latest blog post.

Opinionated? Me? I recently (2017) wrote about how to build the Best Advertising Agency Website. One that will act like a 24/7 sales tool. Isn’t that what you want? Check it out.

—–

My Original Post:

Finally, an ad agency website that delivers a very important message. Just keep refreshing KesselsKrammer’s home page. This is, without question, well, um, a unique (understatement) advertising agency website. Clearly, these Amsterdamians are more stoned that you are.

Take a look… Lots more advertising agencies in the world’s most incredible advertising agency directory.

Does Your Advertising Agency Know Google’s Matt Cutts?

· · Leave a Comment

matt cuttsChances are, and this is the interesting part, if you work in advertising or digital design or mobile marketing there is a good chance that you do not know who Google’s Matt Cutts is. You should because he is one of the most powerful people in global marketing and advertising.

Matt is the head of the webspam team at Goggle. That means that he controls some of the more important methods that Google uses to rank web pages. He and his team can make or break your SEO plans and strategies via updates like Panda and Penguin to Google’s search algorithms (here is some history from SEOMOZ.)  Is this really that important? Is it important that your agency is listed high in a Google search for your keywords (i.e., “advertising agency Atlanta” or “storytelling social media agency”)?

Sorry for this Duh but I want to make a point… Is the SEO work you are doing for your clients well rewarded and wouldn’t be if they were served up on page 4? While I understand that you may leave SEO up to an expert, I think that it’s wise to actually have some understanding about the Google team that decides how Google ranks web pages.

Here is a video from Matt on what is coming up. Yes it is way esoteric. But so are many of the elements of digital marketing.

If you’d like a quick take on Matt’s video pointers, visit The Short Cutts for, well, short cuts.

Since early 2009 Google’s Matt Cutts has recorded a superhuman number of videos to help struggling site owners understand their site in search. While the videos are great, sometimes the guy just needs to get to the point. With that in mind we’ve done the hard work and watched every Matt Cutts video to pull out simple, concise versions of his answers: The Short Cutts!

I may not be a SEO specialist but I have been building websites that rank high and drive organic traffic for 18 years. If you need some high level strategic insights into how to integrate your business development strategy with smart SEO…. well, give me a shout.

 

2 Must Have Social Media Tools

· · Leave a Comment

“Must have” Social Media Tools… “Must Have”, really? Well, ya know, directive copy like that just may have gotten you to click on this post – so there. OK, on to the meat.

Social media is a very hard working marketing tool. But, authoring social media is time consuming and we need to make sure that we are efficient  Now that’s an understatement. Here are a couple of tools that will make your social media campaigns work harder and look better.

Twylah

Get a free Twitter Brand Assessment Action Plan Twylah

Here is a nice freebie. Go to Twylah and get a free brand assessment of your Twitter activity. I filled out the form and a day later got a very revealing report that told me that I was not creating twitter copy that delivered on my core strategy of letting the world know that I am a master at helping ad and digital agencies grow. Oops. I learned a lot. Here is what Twylah says on their website…

YOUR BRAND ASSESSMENT REVEALS

  • Your true brand identity (it may not be what you think!)
  • Which of your brand topics are resonating with your audience and which are not!
  • The simplest and quickest way possible to create branded content that showcases your unique brand and business value

PicMonkey

PicMonkey_Logo

PicMonkey is an online photo editor that rivals the basics of Photoshop without your needing to go to Photoshop academy. I’ve been using Photoshop for years but know that I probably only use 15% of its features. PicMonkey gives me that 15% and its way easier and faster to use. This is a great tool for editing, and adding copy, to your social media images.

Don’t forget to visit my Pinterest Advertising Agency Directory. Is your agency on it?

2 Reasons Ad Agencies Fail At New Business

· · 1 Comment

You would think that most advertising agencies want to grow and understand that marketing is the way to get what they want. My discussions with ad agencies indicate that less than 50% (and I am being kind) have comprehensive business development plans to create new business programs. This is a major FAIL that is easily rectified with some brain + elbow grease

But, wait… there’s more: the super smart folks at RSW/US report that …

From our report, “79%+ of Marketers say it is “very important” to come to an initial meeting with thoughts about their business and/or smart questions to show they have interest. ”

And, get this:

And yet: “Only a little over 12% of Marketers say that Agencies “always” come to the table prepared in a way that isn’t about the Agency.”

How could this be possible? I’m flummoxed.  Arriving prepared and looking interested and hungry to early client prospect meetings is critical. Image all the work that is required to get your in the client’s room in the first place and then to show up empty headed??? Here are the RSW/US charts:

Agency New Business The Area Where Marketers Think You’re Still Falling Down Agency New Business

If your agency is stalled go here, read about my programs and call me up. I can help you grow by planning a smart active agency new business program. I bet I’ve been doing it longer than your agency.