Ad Agency New Business Success Through Positioning

Small to midsize agencies can create a position for new business through content marketing and social media.

Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising,Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men. She is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. That’s an astounding statistic given that 85% of all brand purchases are made by women.

Stephanie has found success by creating a position of expertise on marketing to women. Her primary target audience is male advertisers.

“As a general rule, ad agencies try to be all things to all clients for fear of losing potential business. We were no different. But narrowing our focus on a particular target audience gives us a much better focus for new business and has led to more opportunities than we could have imagined.”  Stephanie Holland

Stephanie was able to differentiate her agency through content marketing.

She created She-conomy, a marketing blog that teaches male advertisers how to target the biggest consumer group in the country – women. It has created a clear point of differentiation and raised awareness for her agency. Stephanie and She-conomy have been recognized by such respected news sources as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and NPR Radio. It has produced new business opportunities with national brands.

The most recent new business opportunity: Stephanie has been hired as a consultant for the luxury car manufacturer Porsche.

“I was very fortunate for the opportunity to participate in creating one of the sales training modules titled, “Demystifying the Female Market,” for the launch of the 2012 911 Carrera S. With more than 200 dealers across the nation on board to better understand the female consumer, Porsche® is most likely going to continue to speed past the competition when connecting with women.” – Stephanie Holland

Of all automakers Porsche®,  has made the largest relative market share gains among women nationwide over the past year. In the following video Stephanie, discusses the common marketing mistakes large companies are making when trying to market to women, reinforcing her place as an expert in this particular arena.

Content marketing has also created new opportunities for other small to midsize ad agencies:

“We just landed a significant project with Coca-Cola purely through our sustainable marketing niche. The best compliment we could receive was when they said that even though we were a little more expensive than the local competition, and given our expertise in green marketing and sustainability, that it was worth the investment. Finally, a value over price purchase. Love it” – Park Howell, president of Park & CO

Prior to using social media for new business, 94% of The Russo Group’s business came from within their market, Lafayette, LA. Since creating their blog Razor Branding and using an integrated social media marketing strategy, 94% of their new business has been generated outside their market and has extended their  business in over 9 different states. Their new business is up 118%.

“2011 was our biggest year for new business wins in several years thanks primarily to our social presence (Tradesmen Insights).” We’re now recognized as an “Industry Expert” in the field of marketing within our space.”– John Sonnhalter, CEO, SONNHALTER

Click on the following link to read Stephanie’s article, “Guys, Knowing That Women Are Your Market Is Only Half The Battle.”

Additional articles that might be of interest:

Stephanie is using Twitter to network and repurpose her blog’s content to a growing following. Twitter has become the leading traffic generator to her blog.

How content marketing and social media created new business opportunities for your agency?

About Michael Gass

Consultant | Trainer | Author | Speaker

Since 2007, he has been pioneering the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.

He is the founder of Fuel Lines Business Development, LLC, a firm which provides business development training and consulting services to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.

Comments

  1. Great article! I think it is important that your provide contextual and relevant content tied to where they are in a buying life cycle. To succeed and be like Stephanie. 🙂

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  1. […] Holland + Holland: A small 25-year-old agency creating national attention through social media (Hired by Porsche). Agency owner and creative director, Stephanie Holland is the author of the niche blog She-conomy. Stephanie’s story is told in this article, Ad Agency New Business Success Through Positioning. […]

  2. […] Ad Agency New Business Success Through Positioning […]

  3. […] A Formula for Fueling Ad Agency New Business: A Different Approach to Create a New Business Program […]

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