50 Tips for Ad Agency New Business

Tips for Ad Agency New Business

New business helps for Advertising, Digital, Media and PR Agencies.

Since 2007, I’ve conducted over 350 new business workshops for agencies in North and South America and Europe. No matter what country, I find there are many common problems when it comes to business development that makes it harder than it needs to be.

I’ve put together collection of 50 quick tips that I hope will help make your new business easier. Note: Each tip has a link to additional relevant resources.

  1. Perform SWOT analysis. As soon as you join/start an agency, make a written list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This strategic planning method, when used properly, can be  a valuable tool for making decisions, setting strategy, and evaluating courses of action.
  2. Develop a mission statement. Your agency’s mission statement can have new business value and measurable results. The mission statement captures the heart of an organization, what it stands for and why it exists.
  3. Create a new business plan. I often ask this question when speaking at industry events, “Does your agency have a marketing plan?”. Incredibly, the vast majority don’t have a master business plan. Without a plan you have no roadmap to reach your goals and objectives.
  4. A plan is just a plan until it’s executed. Execution is the battleground that determines success or failure. 66% of agency execs stated their new business hire was unsuccessful because the person lacked a methodology.
  5. Choose a primary prospective client audience. Narrow your focus. If you try to be EVERYTHING to EVERYBODY you won’t appeal to ANYBODY.
  6. Create your positioning. It is foundational for new business. Without a differentiated position, agency new business is much harder than it needs to be.
  7. Join a network. A network of  advertising agencies can improve your agency’s new business through collaboration, strategic alliances and  training.
  8. Provide a direct connection to your agency’s brand leader. As an owner, you should communicate through social media to help your agency appear more human and to create a strong emotional connection with those you are trying to reach.
  9. Growing your personal brand can greatly boost your agency’s new business opportunities. It makes sense for the principal to be the face of the agency. Not only are they the least likely to leave, but usually small to midsize agencies are built upon the vision, values and the type of culture that best suites their owners.
  10. Stop trying to sell your agency. It’s not about touting your credentials, capabilities and case studies. You will never build a community of prospects without value. Value is simply being of service.
  11. Revise your agency’s website. Research shows websites influence 97% of clients’ purchasing decisions. Your website’s key role is to generate business for the firm.
  12. There are two things that prospects want to buy: prospects buy a SOLUTION to a problem and prospects buy YOU.
  13. For agencies to grow new business, they have to attract and retain talent. The turnover rate within the industry is over thirty-percent. It’s time for agency owners to get serious about inspiring their employees and keeping them happy.
  14. It’s time to re-think how we compensate those “odd ducks” who do what no one else wants to do, selling the agency’s services. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Daniel Pink makes the pont that commissions can sometimes do more harm than good and he provides a good example of a company that eliminated sales commissions resulting in even higher profits.
  15. Marketing your agency should be a priority for new business. Prospective clients shouldn’t hire a marketing agency that can’t consistently market themselves.
  16. Someone needs to oversee your agency’s new business program. This person is like the ‘rudder of a ship’ who should keep everyone focused on new business, even when the agency is at its’ busiest. This person is responsible for executing your new business plan.  I’ve learned through experience, “if everyone” is responsible for your agency’s new business, in actuality, no one is. This doesn’t mean that others, particularly agency principals, aren’t involved in the process.
  17. Learn the art of negotiations. The negotiation process is the the most critical time in the client/agency relationship. Do you have the right formula in negotiating winning contracts for your agency?
  18. The battle for new business has moved online, which makes community development indispensable in marketing your agency online. Knowing how to build an online community has become an important skill-set for those charged with agency new business. Community development comes before business development.
  19. If your agency’s social media participation isn’t developing new business leads, it’s important to know WHY. The reason most agencies aren’t having success with social media is they have forgot that PEOPLE want to connect with other PEOPLE. Instead of leading with your agency’s social media accounts, utilize your PERSONAL accounts for new business success.
  20. Instead of chasing new business, it is now more important to be found. 80-90% of business to business transactions begin with a search on the web. What is your agency’s SEO strategy?
  21. Website traffic is very important. It’s the initial step in reaching prospects online. But you must also spend time developing a strong and clear call-to-action (CTA) to ignite engagement with them. Every call to action must immediately answer two primary questions: What do you want prospects to do? and Why should they do it?
  22. Prospects are looking for expertise. Industry expertise is more than credentials, capabilities and case studies. The commonality among experts is that experts write. This makes content marketing a tremendous tool in establishing a positioning of expertise quickly. You’re not “selling” your expertise, you’re demonstrating it.
  23. Public speaking is an excellent tactic for business development, particularly for small to midsize agency owners. Speaking at events provides instant credibility and immediate new business opportunities. It is the most effective form of lead generation.
  24. Improve your agency’s presentation skills. The number one rule to remember when presenting: Don’t be boring. Every agency presentation must be focused on capturing your audience’s ATTENTION and keeping it. It is the presentation rule that matters the most.
  25. Give your presentations LIFE rather than SUCKING THE LIFE out of your audience. Delivering a speech that moves people to action STARTS with the presentation deck. PowerPoint and Keynote slides have the ability to empower your presentation or kill it. Studies have shown that people only remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, and about 80% of what they see and do. Retention is six times greater when the information is presented visually.
  26. Rehearsing your presentation is key. Steve Jobs always rehearsed for two full days before a presentation. Jobs practiced the entire presentation, asking for feedback from product managers in the room. For 48 hours, all of his energy is directed at making the presentation the perfect embodiment of Apple’s messages.
  27. Time management is an essential element of new business. The working atmosphere of an ad agency is chaotic. It is an environment that is in a perpetual state of distraction. You must get control of your calendar. Rembemer: If it isn’t on your calendar it doesn’t exist. Don’t focus on being busy; focus on being productive.
  28. To keep up in this industry you must read a lot. Create a “system” for reading. I recommend using an RSS reader such as FEEDLY. You can use it to compile customized news feeds and other online content from a variety of online sources and view all of that content conveniently in one place.
  29. The K.I.S.S. principle, “keep it simple stupid” is a great maxim to remember. The person charged with new business for the agency should be on point to simplify anything that relates to new business. Be proactive in keeping all of the processes as simple as possible. When it comes to new business, consistency trumps perfection.
  30. Create a Not-To-Do list. A lot of our time and energy is wasted on non essentials. Most everyone has a “To-Do List.” But I would suggest that you periodically create a “Not To-Do List.” Simply make an assessment of all of the non-productive things you are currently doing that need to be eliminated.
  31. To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify and qualify your best prospects. Unqualified prospective client meetings are as bad as no meetings at all. It is a waste of agency time and resources.
  32. The riches are in the niches. A personal blog can provide small to midsize agency owners with a perfect platform to create positioning of expertise and appeal to a very specific target audience. It’s like a fishing expedition. You fish for a specific fish with a particular bait, you fish away from the boat (the agency’s website) so you don’t scare off the fish.
  33. Clients want to work with PEOPLE that they know trust and like. As agencies grow the more faceless they become. Agencies need to find ways to personalize their brand to help stand out from their competition.
  34. Create systems to simplify your new business program. Every agency needs detailed methods, procedures and routines for consistency and success in new business. I suggest you use a program such as Basecamp, an excellent, inexpensive, online project management tool to help implement systems for new business.
  35. RFP responses shouldn’t be a numbers game, especially for small-to midsize ad agencies. Every agency needs a “simple” system to qualify which of the RFPs they should respond to. Start by asking the right questions: Is the opportunity a right fit for the agency? What is the budget? Why are they issuing an RFP? Is the incumbent agency participating? etc.
  36. Ad agencies still try to lead with being a full-service agency to attract new business but, marketers don’t find their claim to be credible. According to research from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), ‘Fortune 500 companies have an average of 17 agency relationships. None of them have an actual ‘Agency of Record.’ Like it or not, prospects are demanding specialists. They’re looking for specialized agencies that have a proven track record of success to help them with their marketing challenges.
  37. Social Proof: Use client testimonials. Adding third-party validation is a potent tool to empower new business. Testimonials help to eliminate skepticism, provide credibility and trust. If done correctly, it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways of creating appeal with potential clients.
  38. PR is an important tool that can help you attract attention and generate new business opportunities. While there are many things that go into a successful ad agency new business program, one that is often overlooked or underutilized is the strategic use of public relations.
  39. Look for the decision makers, not just the companies. To make the best use of social media for agency new business, you should be mining the executives of the C-Suite, not their companies. Do the research to identify who they are, where they are online and begin to follow and engage with them personally by using your personal social media accounts.
  40. Content Marketing: Successful writers spend 75% of their time in the preparation and editing process and only 25% of their time writing the content. David Ogilvy, one of the most famous names in advertising, said, “I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor.”
  41. Without a doubt, an industry trade show or conference has been a beneficial professional networking event for business opportunities. Social media has transformed offline events and can maximize the personnel connections with prospective clients. Your involvement with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can change your whole experience. You can “get to know” many of the exhibitors, speakers and event attendees from your online interactions that will propagate and enhance meeting them in person.
  42. Hosting events is good for agency new business. Hosting your own events gives you control over the attendees, the agenda and the outcome. The Barkley Agency in Kansas City, founded the world’s first Millennial Insights & Marketing Conference. Share.Like.Buy, continues to be the largest, most comprehensive conference for marketing to Millennials. It is a significant traffic generator for new business.
  43. LinkedIn’s “People You May Know” feature helps build a targeted network of prospective clients fast. It has been rated as the second most helpful LinkedIn feature, enabling users to easily build new relationships with potential clients. Always be connecting. It’s something you should commit to do on a daily basis. People You May Know makes it easy to stay consistent in building your LinkedIn network in just minutes per day.
  44. Find prospects by using The Business Journal’s Network. For years, I used The Business Journals Book of Lists for new business intelligence to find the decision makers of prospective clients.  I also subscribed to the print editions of The Business Journals in key markets that we targeted. These publications were always very helpful when scouting for new business.  They provided comprehensive coverage of local business news in each of their markets. Here’s information on how to access the online accounts of every American City Business Journal.
  45. Creating original content is a powerful tool to differentiate your agency and create new business opportunities but it is also a big challenge. Writing is challenging. To consistently develop content for new business, a lot of agencies, large and small, will need additional help.  I’ve recommended to my clients that they consider hiring or contracting a journalist. They have a refined process for delivering quality content consistently. With the newspaper industry in decline there are many journalists ready, willing and able to assist.
  46. Agencies need to embrace the discipline of publishing as a vital part of their overall new business strategy. The agencies that have their content marketing platforms in place have a huge advantage over those that continue to push their self-promotional marketing messages, which prospects will continue to block out. “If you’re not creating content on the web, you don’t exist.” Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing.
  47. Books are the new calling card. Think about the benefits of writing a book. Authoring a book could positively position you and your agency in the minds of your target audience as being an expert in your field. Not to mention the speaking and additional writing opportunities that also puts you in front of prospective clients. Linda Kaplan Thayer, the CEO of Kaplan Thayler Group, wrote a book, The Power of Nice, that put her agency, on the map. Linda has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, Nightline, The Today Show, Inside Edition and Fox News to name just a few.
  48. Use your personal Facebook account for new business. If you really want to generate new business through social media – get personal. Learn to use social media to humanize your agency. It’s the secret sauce that most agencies have neglected. Social media is all about people connecting with other people. Connecting and sharing online with others is important to building and maintaining relationships with prospects. In my opinion, the most personal social media platform is Facebook. It’s extremely effective in creating an emotional connection to prospective clients.
  49. A lot of people have difficulty with how to be personal on Twitter. Many tend to over-think their tweets. I was just on the phone with one of the partners of a large agency in the midwest. He asked me if I could give him some examples of how to be personal on Twitter, here are 12 examples of the types of personal information I share.
  50. One of the most important tips I can share is that you remember to Help Others. Zig Ziglar, one of the most successful sales trainers in the world says “if you help enough people get what they want in life, you will get what you want in life”.

Email me at michael@michaelgass.com if you’d like a copy of my guide, Seven Steps for Fueling New Business Through Social Media.

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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.