A New Business Plan is Just a Plan Until It’s Executed

Execution is the battleground that determines success or failure. For ad agencies that even have a new business plan, the majority fall short in its implementation. How many annual planning meetings has your agency gone through to create a strategic marketing plan, only to have it fail in its implementation? Maybe this year, instead of focusing […]

A Plan for Ad Agency New Business in 3 Simple Steps

A Plan for Ad Agency New Business

Having a written marketing plan makes new business easier and much more consistent. Most agencies have no plan for new business. They can’t express what they are selling or who they are selling it to. For you to state that you want to “take your agency to the next level” is not a strategy, it’s […]

12 Tips for Using Testimonials for Ad Agency New Business

client testimonials for ad agency new business

Adding recommendations is an easy way to empower a new business program. As part of my consulting work, I’m asked to review a lot of agency websites from a new business perspective. Recently, I had a request to review the website of a large ad agency in New York. I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t […]

7 Helps for Consistent Online Leads for Ad Agency New Business

help for ad agency new business

Business development doesn’t have to be so difficult. By creating simple steps and processes you’ll have a system to boost online leads. Here are 7 tips to get started: 1. Consistently Use Lead Generation Platforms The battle for new business has moved online. You want to enlarge your agency’s online footprint to generate more leads. […]

Social Media is now Pay to Play for Ad Agency New Business

social media is pay to play for ad agency new business

Paid social advertising can accelerate the process of attracting qualified traffic and leads. Since 2007, I’ve preached that there was a new model for new business that made the existing model obsolete. Agencies needed a new approach to new business. During the past decade, technology and the rise of social media changed how people communicated. […]

Ad Agencies: The Two Things Prospects Want to Buy

stop selling for ad agency new business

You should stop selling your services, that’s not what prospects are buying. Agency business development programs are often sales focused. They’re built around outbound, interruptive sales tactics that are designed to start engagements with prospective clients. The prospects have little, if any, awareness of the agency or how they’re different from their competitors. Success in “selling the agency” […]

Thought Leadership Study for Ad Agency New Business

Thought Leadership for Ad Agency New Business

Thought leadership influences prospects to help agencies win, retain and even grow client business. A recent study, by Edelman and LinkedIn, of 1,201 U.S. business decision makers, reveals that thought leadership is more powerful than marketers think. It not only helps attract new business, but strengthens relationships with existing clients. Definition: A thought leader is an […]

How to Spot Brands On the Brink of Agency Review

Winmo ad agency new business

There are important shifts that signal a brand will soon be shopping for new agencies on a permanent or per project basis, and the key is to strike at the earliest sign of opportunity. But how do you know when the iron’s hot?

Do this ONE Thing to Build Your Agency’s Brand

Content for Ad Agency New Business

Owners of small to midsize advertising, digital, media agency and PR agency’s need to WRITE Owners of small to midsize advertising, digital, media agency and PR agency’s need to WRITE!  This isn’t a new discovery for me. Since starting my new business consultancy, I’ve written my way into a thriving business. Creating helpful content has provided me […]

Content Marketing Benefits Ad Agency New Business

Michael Gass Ad Agency New Business

Agencies talk about the value of content marketing but few are doing it and even fewer do it well. I spoke recently, for the first time, at Content Marketing World Conference & Expo. There were over 4000 marketers from 50 different countries that participated. But, where were the ad agencies? They were noticeably absent from […]

Social Media Isn’t Working for Ad Agency New Business

social media and ad agency new business

 

If your agency’s social media participation isn’t developing new business leads, it’s important to know WHY. 

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

Ad Agencies Need Systems to Consistently Produce Leads

Systems for Ad Agency New Business

Believe it or not, most small to midsize agencies are not organized to consistently generate leads.

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

7 Benefits from the Right Positioning for Ad Agency New Business

seven benefits of ad agency positioning

The FOUNDATION of an ad agency’s new business program is its positioning.

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.

“By appealing to everyone, brands end up appealing to no one.  Standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing.” 

Continue reading

How to Create Your Personal Brand Story for Ad Agency New Business

Michael Gass Ad Agency New Business

I’ve learned the importance of creating my personal brand story when I launched my own consultancy a decade ago. I had led new business for a number of advertising agencies before deciding to start my own consulting firm. This could have easily been one of the worst decisions of my life.

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

An Idea Platform for Ad Agency New Business

A New Business Idea Platform for Ad Agencies

Ideasicleˣ: The First Advertising SaaS Platform For Virtual Creativity.

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.

“What the world needs now are ideas. Lots and lots of ideas.”

Continue reading

Panic is Not a Strategy for Ad Agency New Business

Panic is not strategy for ad agency new business

How to implement sales intelligence for agency growth.

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

Tips for Working from Home for Agency New Business

Home Office Ad Agency New Business

Your number one objective should be to maintain, if not increase, your engagement with prospects.

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

Great Onboarding: The Secret to 88% Employee Retention

employee retention ad agencies

How to cut employee turnover in half.

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

Change the Rules of Competition for Ad Agency New Business

Michael Gass Ad Agency new business

“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to step away from the shore” – Nobel Prize-winning author André Gide.

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,

“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.

Continue reading

Positioning is the Foundation for Ad Agency New Business

positioning for ad agency new business

Without a differentiated position, new business is much harder than it needs to be. 

Many small to midsize agencies have not addressed positioning because of either procrastination or, more likely, their unwillingness to make the difficult business decisions.

“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.”

Continue reading