Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

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More Advertising Agency Resources

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Even More Advertising Agency Resources – August 2019

Its Friday 30 August, the ‘end‘ of summer, so I thought I’d shoot y’all some new advertising agency resources that could help you grow your agency. Or, at least, provide some much-needed efficiency. I’ll list these here and then add them to my The Big Advertising Agency Resource List.

Side note, thanks to all of the people that send me their favorite resources that I can have my huge staff of resource-munchkins review and pass on.

Go Ahead Play With These

Awesome Screenshot. Awesome Screenshot captures images, the whole image or a selected area, and records my screen so I can put the images on this very blog or use in my white papers and recommendations. For convenience, it sits on my Chrome bar.

Bulk.ly. I use Buffer to schedule and send out (as in LinkedIn and Twitter) my current and best-of past blog posts. But, I have to admit that it can be a pain in the ass to remember to do it on a regular basis. Bulky helps to automate the system and keeps a Buffer queue full-up.

Checkbot. Checkbot check’s your site (or others) to see and fix SEO, speed and security issues. Are you doing better than your competition? How are your clients doing?

ContactOut. I’ll use ContactOut’s words: “Find anyone’s personal email and phone number.” And, “ContacOut is used by recruiters at 30% of the Fortune 500.”

FormSwift. FormSwift has forty or so forms on their website that you can use to create and edit important documents. Documents include employee handbooks; employment contracts, non-competes, lease agreements, balance sheets, and my favorite: a resignation letter.

No Mas Verano

That’s it for summer, well soon. And for today.

Seasonality is interesting. I know from my years of working with advertising agencies on their growth and profitability strategies, that my incoming lead email will light up a bit once the summer passes. While I know that we’ve moved beyond the days when ad agencies got real quiet in the summer, there is still a deep-seated sense that September means that we all should get our business development acts in order. So, go ahead… give me a shout.

Let’s talk about growing your business. You are in a hurry, right?

Contact me now and take me up on my impossible to refuse 15-minute Vito Corleone offer. 

Nootropics, Brain Food For Advertising

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Nootropics And Advertising

limitless-nzt-nootropic-definitionUPDATE:

I originally wrote this 18 months ago and promised an update. I did not receive enough benefit – as in, making me enough of a smarter boy to merit ingesting the nootropics and the cost. It would have been nice to tell you that I became Bradley Cooper.

Back to the original blog post:

Remember the movie Limitless and the little clear pill NZT that turned Bradley Cooper into a raging genius? He had entered the new world of nootropics. Read on.

Today is Day One of my Nootrobox test. My “NZT” test. Nootrobox is a nootropics or “smart drugs” company. I hear you saying, “Nootropics?” Here’s the Wiki definition…

Nootropics (pronunciation: noh-ə-TROP-iks)—also called smart drugs and cognitive enhancers—are drugs, supplements, or other substances that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation, in healthy individuals.

And, here is the description from Nootrobox, the VC-funded company that is supplying me with my three-pill set. [Read more…] about Nootropics, Brain Food For Advertising

My Best Business Travel Resources

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Must Have Business Travel Resources

Traveling for ad agency business can suck these days (um, duh). Beyond the obvious: getting to the airport at rush hour; waiting in the TSA line; getting through TSA; gate hassling (“boarding group 9”); carry on stuffing and anxiety; being scrunched in a no-legroom seat; your late booked middle seat; slow exiting… Then there is the cost. Especially if your client tells you they won’t pay for $6,500 for 13 hours of business class to Tokyo. All of this calls for personal resourcefulness. Or, having a bunch of business travel resources at your disposal.

Here’s a list of some great travel resources that can make your business trip (and personal trips) easier and more efficient. I bet that many of you know about some of these. But, I recently mentioned SeatGuru to a couple of friends and they just blankly stared back. So, here is a short list of direct links to a bunch of business travel resources. (LOL, Google kinda still likes it if I keep repeating the keywords.)

Note, I’ll be adding these to my Big Advertising Agency Resource List. Have you seen this?

OK, go.

I am going to start with Plane Finder just because it is insane…

Plane Finder. Plane Finder is a geeky web-based and mobile app that lets you watch live air traffic from anywhere in the world. Did I say geeky? Try this one out. It’s kinda crazy.

Business Traveller. 12 regional editions to keep you up on the latest business travel news.

Momondo. These days I dig the travel metasearch engine Momondo. I simply like the interface and the information provided. Also the way they divide the flights into cheapest, shortest and best. Check out their travel information blog.

Southwest. Southwest does not provide data to flight aggregators. You need to go directly to their website.

Skyscanner. My second favorite flight, hotel, and car finder.

SeatGuru. This is simply the best website to figure out airplane configurations. You do want to know what is the best seat on that 777 to Tokyo, right?

Hotel Tonight. I use Hotel Tonight to find last minute deals. Often in the coolest hotels.

Trivago.  A sweet way to compare the best hotel options. Plus, they do advertising…. So support them.

Airbnb. I use Airbnb when I have to book multiple bedrooms for the family or if I am going to have to hang in a city for 7+ nights. They are also gearing up their experiential listings for local advisors to help you do things like a mezcal tasting romp in Mexico City. Here is an interesting interview with … the CEO of Airbnb. Just a good watch from Recode.

Eater. Have your client take you out for dinner. LOL. Eater delivers fresh food news and dining guides from across the country.

Travel + Leisure. Need more stuff? Here is a list from T+L on the 50 best travel apps.

Google Maps and Translation. Do I have to say more?

 

 

Updated Big Advertising Resources List

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Here’s An Updated Big Advertising Resources List

Hi, just wanted you to see that I added a few new links to my Big Advertising Resources List. You’ve used the list before, correcto?

The Updates

  • 13 Creative Ways To Find Blog Post Ideas. Super smart list from Authority Hacker. This will help you find new and exciting blog ideas. Frankly, it isn’t that easy to keep being super fresh, interesting and high value when you have zillions of earlier blog posts. Authority Hacker will help make that job a lot easier.
  • Canva. A free tool that makes it easy to create custom graphics to go with your social media posts. I love this.
  • Engagio. Want to grow your advertising agency? Engagio’s Account Based marketing will tell you how to do that. OK, here’s the drill. if you know what clients you want for your advertising agency then go get them. Engagio will tell you how to do that. I call it Super Smart Sales Pressure or SSSP.
  • An in-depth Entrepreneurship and Small Business Resource Guide from Job Hero. A BIG list.

Hope you enjoy the big list and get smarter, better, more good looking.

 

Marketing Tool Generators

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8 Marketing Tool Generators

legalzoom1A few years ago, my agency Citrus used a ‘sign’ to help us win the LegalZoom account. The Photoshopped sign illustrated how much Americans waste on legal fees. That’s it on the left.

You too can use a sign to win an account. And, good news, you can use a sign generator to make it happen in like 1 minute. A couple of sign generators and other time-saving generators are listed below.

I love automation. Um, that is until I get generatored out.

Says-It.com. Need a sign? Easy to use list of options.

Brand Genie. Your new brand in minutes.

Hipster Logo Generator.  OK, you don’t live in Portland yet. But you can have a hip Ripcity logo.

HubSpot Blog Topic Generator. Need some topics…?

Meme Generator. The first.

Icon Fonts Generator. Need fonts, icons, no time? Here you go.

Noisli. Background noise & color generator.

Invoicely. You want to get paid, right? Here is the easy way to craft that invoice.

More & More Online Resources

This post is just one more element of my Big Advertising Agency Resource List. Let me know if I am missing anything.