personal branding

“The Levitan Pitch” Ad Agency Book Video

Peter · January 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment

“The Levitan Pitch” Ad Agency Book Author Video — On Amazon

I’ve written and talked about why and how your ad agency should write a book. You can see my presentation “The Agency Book. From Idea To Published In 6 Months” below.

In the presentation I mention that video is a great way to promote your agency-built book and that the video can go up on your author page on Amazon (very easy to do.) You can see how it fits in right HERE. But, to make your life easier, I put the video below.

As I discussed in the presentation, interviews are a great way to create lots of content – easily. In fact, my author video is an interview I set up with my friend Rebecca Armstrong, the leader of Portland’s ad agency North. The whole experience took about 45 minutes and it was done in one take. Again, very easy.

Here is my SlideShare presentation.

Yes, You Can Write and Publish A Business Book in 6 Months from Peter Levitan & Co.

Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business

Peter · January 13, 2015 · 1 Comment

This is my 400^th blog post. Why 400? I Am Driving Interpersonal Chemistry.

First of all, I enjoy writing. I started this blog when I published my first book, “Boomercide: From Woodstock To Suicide”. The blog also supports the marketing of my agency consultation business and my second book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This book. Win More Pitches”.

Beyond the fun of writing and expressing my views on the advertising industry, the blog’s primary purpose is to act as my main marketing vehicle for my ad agency new business consultancy (and marketing ‘guinea pig’ to learn more to help my clients).

Last year, 32,111 people visited the blog and viewed 70,202 pages. My blog posts were marketed across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and in guest blog posts on websites like AdPulp, Agency Post (now HubSpot) and Advertising Week.

The blog, guest posts and my book on pitching have also made me new friends that have helped expand the reach of my marketing program. Guest blogging got me a speaking gigs at conferences like HubSpot’s Inbound conference and the publication of my book made friends like Mitch Joel who invited me to be a guest on his 9-year-old “6 Pixels of Separation” podcast. Mitch has over 64,000 Twitter followers.

Michael Gass of Fuel Lines advertising agency new business fame gave me this great review (which he promoted onto his 71,000 followers)

I possibly have read every book about agency pitches and none come close to the rich, detailed information and guidance that you will find in this book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches, written by Peter Levitan. The book lives up to its title. I highly recommend that every advertising, digital, media and PR agency principal read it. (Yes, go ahead, you can Tweet this.)

All of this activity resulted in my working with advertising agency clients on three continents. As you can see, the blog has been read in virtually every country. I even had 5 views in Syria. [Read more…] about Blogging + Interpersonal Chemistry Drives Ad Agency New Business

The Video: How To Write An Advertising Agency Book

Peter · December 8, 2014 · Leave a Comment

My HubSpot Inbound Conference Video: “The Advertising Agency Book – From Idea To Publication in 6 Months”

Here is a video of the talk I gave at HubSpot’s Inbound 2014 conference. Watch my presentation to find out how to write an advertising agency book by mid 2015. Yes, you can do it.

The video will show you how to get a good head start on adding this special arrow to your new business quiver. I discuss the multiple benefits of writing a book; that it can be done relatively quickly (I wrote my 65,000 word The Levitan Pitch, Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. in less than 6 months); how the book will drive your thought-leadership program and how your agency is particularly well set up and well endowed to get a great business-building book out the door.

Writing is a good thing

As I’ve written before: I got the speaking gig at Inbound 2014 because I write for HubSpot’s Agency Post. Using thought leadership to gain broad awareness of your agency is, well, its a very good thing. Here’s my earlier post on the value of guest posting: “Why I Guest post On Agency Post.”

Here is my dedicated post on writing an advertising agency book and how it can be used for new business outreach. The post includes the PowerPoint presentation I used in the following video.

To help you find the gems in the 30 minute talk, I’ve put some highlights below.

Video Timelines

This are approximate…

Intro: :00 to 1:30
6 Months, Really?: 1:30 to 3:00
The how to: 3:00 to 7:00
Mistakes: 7:00 to 10:50
Objectives and Strategies: 10:50 to 25:00
Recap: 25:00 to 30:00

OK, Buy The Book – I wrote my book for you. I want you to win more pitches.

If you read the book you will pitch better than your competition.

Here’s more:

You will mange your agency’s pitch process much better.
You won’t burn out your employees.
You will plan better.
You will reduce your pitch budget.
You will strategize better.
You will arrive better prepared.
You will present better.
You will win more pitches.
You will retire earlier.

Buy multiple copies of the book as Christmas / Hanukah gifts right here: Amazon

Buy the “How Not To Win A Pitch” poster here: Society6

Another Photo Side Of Vietnam: Apocalypse Now

Peter · December 4, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Saigon’s Apocalypse Now

My first couple of photos were tame. Kids having fun.

American buddies told me that I had to check out two clubs while in Saigon. One was Tuesday ‘ladies’ night at Lush (turn your sound on). My take… I could have been everyone’s dad, the sound was deafening (and I am not kidding), conversation was out of the question, strobes provided the only light, the Vietnamese and western women and men were all hot… you get the idea.

The other was Apocalypse Now. From Lonely Planet:

Others have come and gone, but ‘Apo’ has been around since the early days and remains one of the must-visit clubs. A sprawling place with a big dance floor and an outdoor courtyard for cooling off, it’s quite a circus, with a cast comprising travelers, expats, Vietnamese movers and shakers, plus the odd hooker (some odder than others). The music is thumping and it’s apocalyptically rowdy.

I went early hoping to snag some discrete photos. I made friends with a couple of the waiters, one dug my Fuji X100S (a great camera), that I was shooting in B&W and told me that I could bypass the no-photo rule for five minutes. Here are a couple of shots. Not yet processed but I’ll put them up now cause I am killing some time before heading back to Hanoi. By the way, I have been all over SE Asia and I highly recommend a trip to Vietnam. The people are wonderful.

The photo on the bottom is more like real life here than the club scene.

The Vietnamese Advertising Scene

Oh, yeah, this is a blog about advertising.

I visited a couple of advertising / social agencies in Saigon. Vietnam is a major growth market. I’ll be writing about my impressions soon.

Do You Hug On LinkedIn?

Peter · July 31, 2014 · 1 Comment

I love LinkedIn. It is a key element in my inbound marketing program. In the past 30 days alone, LinkedIn delivered over 250 visitors to my website and my posts on LinkedIn have been viewed by lots of nice folks. I’ve written about how to use LinkedIn as an inbound marketing tool a few times on this blog. Here is a list of past posts.

The LinkedIn Group Hug

I also post and comment occasionally in my LinkedIn groups. Some groups are better than others and a quick look to see if they are spam heavy helps me figure out which ones are run professionally. That said, one thing I haven’t done is to contact and send out hugs to fellow group members. I may do so when my book comes out but I won’t make direct contact unless there is a very good strategic reason to do so.

My friend Steve Klinetobe, the master of The Cartoon Agency, has a very funny take on how shared group membership alone might not be a powerful reason to get other members to hug you back.

Sign up below for my weekly email, get the free guide to making a fortune in advertising and you will hear when my book on pitching hits the market. I am shooting for September.