Fueling Ad Agency New Business
A call to action is an important element for generating inbound leads. Inbound marketing earns the attention of prospects and makes your agency easy to be found primarily through content. By creating interesting and helpful content, written for a specific audience, you help draw prospects to your site. Website traffic is very important. It’s the initial step, but you […]
Adding recommendations is one of the easiest ways to empower your new business program. As part of my consulting work I’m asked to review a lot of agency websites from a new business perspective. Just yesterday I was reviewing the website of a large agency in New York. I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t find a single […]
“A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” – H. Stanley Judd, Author, Think Rich 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 […]
LinkedIn’s People You May Know feature helps build a targeted network of prospective clients fast. LinkedIn is an important new business tool, thanks to its’ People You May Know feature. It has been rated as the second most helpful LinkedIn feature, enabling users to easily build new relationships with potential clients. People You May Know provides you with a […]
A Formula for Fueling New Business through Social Media The new model for new business that will make the existing model obsolete might surprise you—instead of chasing new business, it’s more important for you to learn how to be found. Why? In a CMO Counsel study, 80% of decision makers said they found their vendors, […]
Business development doesn’t have to be so hard for small to midsize agencies. I’ve spent almost my entire advertising career in business development. I can tell you from my experience that agencies are historically bad when it comes to marketing themselves. It’s as if they lose their marketing minds. They tend to forget the very […]
Guest post by Trent Dyrsmid. Trent is an online marketing expert, author, speaker, and the founder of BrightIdeas.co. His podcasting audience is made up entirely of ad agency professionals, small business owners, and independent marketing consultants. Trent has produced over 100 episodes. Are you struggling to increase your firm’s revenue? Are you losing out on price? Do […]
If you’re serious about taking your agency to the next level, “you can’t succeed without a platform.” Most agencies were late getting into social media. Then they literally “jumped in” with little to show for their time and effort. It takes more than a completed check-list for having an agency blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts […]
Advertising agencies, PR firms and digital shops should reverse their new business efforts from “Outbound Marketing” techniques to “Inbound Marketing.” There is a dramatic paradigm shift for acquiring new business opportunities for advertising agencies, digital shops and PR firms. Agencies need to rethink their approach to new business and intensify their focus on inbound tactics, such as […]
Direct mail isn’t dead as a tactic for ad agency new business. When everyone Zigs, maybe you should Zag. So much attention is being given to online tactics, it may be a good time to do the opposite and utilize some offline tactics such as direct mail to raise awareness for your agency and stay […]
From my experience, most agencies finally got on board with social media in 2010. They created their agency’s blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram accounts and jumped in.
70% of marketers report that social media marketing delivers poor or average return on investment.
Many agencies thought that by merely having a social media presence, it would give them social media credibility.… Continue reading
Agency life is chaotic. Too much to do; to little time. The answer to this problem is to work smarter not harder by creating SYSTEMS for new business.
A system is a set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a repeated business issue.
Business development doesn’t have to be so difficult.… Continue reading
When you have the right positioning it’s like fishing for a specific fish with a particular bait. You know where the fish are, what bait is appealing to them, the right equipment to use and you have developed the expertise to catch the real trophies.
… Continue reading“By appealing to everyone, brands end up appealing to no one. Standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing.”
My advertising career had been spent working in only two markets, outside of Birmingham, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee, I had zero awareness. Little did I know that I was about to start my new business at the beginning of one of the longest economic downturns since the Great Depression.… Continue reading
If timing is everything, then Ideasicleˣ is the poster child. Just when the world closes down due to Covid-19, a platform arrives that helps accelerate creativity through remote work. I was intrigued enough with the concept, particularly as a new business idea machine, to reach out to its founder, Will Burns, to learn more about it.
… Continue reading“What the world needs now are ideas. Lots and lots of ideas.”
No one opens an advertising agency because they have a passion for sales. That’s why many agencies only have one dedicated new business specialist or include it in the laundry list of owner responsibilities. By not prioritizing additional revenue opportunities, it only gets done when work is slow or the worst happens.
Maybe your biggest client leaves and now a significant chunk of your annual revenue is gone.… Continue reading
I’ve been working from home for almost thirteen years, but many of you are working from home for the first time. You’re having to adjust to a new work environment that includes kids, spouses, and pets. You’re probably having to develop new skills to successfully work remotely. The last thing you’re probably thinking about is new business.
But just because your environment has changed, doesn’t mean your commitment to growing your agency should change.… Continue reading
This is a guest article written by John Paul Strong, the owner of the Birmingham-based advertising agency, Strong Automotive Merchandising. John Paul has developed a very robust onboarding process that I wanted him to share with you.
Their original roster of 10 employees and eight clients has exploded today, growing to more than 115 full-time employees and 250 automotive dealers. And it hasn’t gone without notice. Strong Automotive Merchandising has been recognized as a perennial winner in Birmingham’s Best Places to Work contest and as a Top 20 Agency among Google’s National Ad Partners.… Continue reading
I read an insightful article on why the focus of a company’s (agency’s) business strategy should not be upon its competitors. The article was written by Gabor George Burt, internationally recognized expert on innovation, creativity and strategy development, and the author of the book, Slingshot.
Burt states,
… Continue reading“In today’s marketplace, I would argue that doing something unprecedented is not just adventurous but imperative … eliminating competition by trying to beat it is dangerously shortsighted.
Many small to midsize agencies have not addressed positioning because of either procrastination or, more likely, their unwillingness to make the difficult business decisions.
… Continue reading“Contrary to common belief, all agencies have pretty much the same basic capabilities, and processes. They all claim to have proprietary tools, and they may have different labels for what they do, but the approach is essentially the same at big or small agencies.”
Michael Gass, Business Development Consultant | Speaker | Author of Fuel Lines
Fuel Lines provides new business resources for Advertising, Digital, Media and PR Agencies.
It has been rated among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world, according to Ad Age’s Power 150.
Since 2007, Michael has helped pioneer the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.
Read more about Michael
An essential component to your agency's new business program is a prospective client data base.
In my opinion one of the most accurate online database of marketing and advertising decision makers is Winmo. I highly recommend them.
I'm Michael Gass, I'm an author, speaker and a new business consultant to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.
Since 2007, I have helped pioneer the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.
Fuel Lines is my social media 'home-base. It has been ranked among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world, according to Advertising Age’s, The Power 150.
Learn more about me