New Business Intel

» Strategy to Drive Small Ad Agency New Business

4 steps to benefit from focused learning and strategic targeting during slowdowns

Elizabeth Baskin of Tribe passed along a good idea to me yesterday that may be of use to those who work or own small agencies. We ran into each other at Catapult New Business' New Business from Social Media conference, which is being held through today in Atlanta (full disclosure, I have a financial stake in Catapult).

Elizabeth founded Tribe about 10 years ago. She describes it as "a branding company with an expertise in niche markets. Our sweet spot is building relationships between specific tribes of people and the brands that can make their lives better." This is a good, solid positioning statement. And what I really like is that you can tell they live what they say they do; this is not some fluffy positioning written by someone uninvolved with the business.

One of her secrets to drive new business in this: every summer, when things slow down a bit, her team focuses on in-depth learning of a new niche market or skill. In the past they've immersed themselves in Gen X employees, Millennials, and high income households. This summer, it's social media.

They use their new-found knowledge immediately. Here's their simple 4-step process:

1. Identify very specific corporate marketers who you believe will be interested in the subject matter.
2. Create short, focused thought-pieces.
3. Send one to each prospect.
4. Follow up with each prospect, engaging them in conversation about the subject.

They've found that if what they study is current and they target appropriate marketers, it's relatively easy to begin a conversation.

And that's all you can ask of a new business strategy like this: use it to crack open the door so you can start a conversation.

» Pizza, Twitter and Ad Agency New Business

Proactive client outreach explored using Twitter

Naked Pizza is driving new business using Twitter. Jeff Leach, Randy Crochet and Brock Fillinger, Naked's founders, filed an article with Ad Age last week that struck a cord.

Their goals are to find new ways to connect with their customers, and measure the ROI of their efforts. Sound familiar?

What they're experimenting with:

• Using Twitter to supplement or potentially replace their e-newsletter
• Using Twitter to provide "brand marketing power"
• Providing daily tweets containing links to in-depth information on their mission and products
• Using analytics to test and measure every aspect of their social media strategy
• Calculating the ROI of their social mediate strategy

And what they've learned:

Twitter has taught us an obvious but often overlooked lesson of building a new company: The brand is just as much a creation of the end user as it is a product of the ideals and hard work of the founders.

If an agency has really specific positioning, I can see relevant marketers finding value (insights, updates, humor, etc.) in periodic tweets.

So who is experimenting with using Twitter as an agency (not an individual within it)? How frequently are you able to send tweets to marketers? How are they responding? What are you learning?

» 15 Ways to Improve the Title of your Ad Agency’s Next Blog Post

The title of your agency's next blog post must appeal to your target audience. Here's a guide to improve title selection

As someone who is new to social media, and knowing that many agency new business people are in the same boat learning how to blog for their agency, I thought that a recent post in ProBlogger by Darren Rowse might be helpful to bring to your attention. I've boiled it down, so if you want more you can read the full post here.

1. Communicate a Benefit - A title should tell readers something that they’ll ‘get’ by reading your post.
2. Create Controversy or Debate - Not suitable for every post title but there’s nothing like Debate to get people checking out a post.
3. Ask a Question - In my experience posts with questions in the titles tend to get read more than others - they also are better at stimulating comments from readers.
4. Personalize Titles - For example: using ‘you’ in your post title (and post) can have a real impact and take a post from the realm of ‘theory’ into a more personal post.
5. Use Keywords - Keywords that signal to readers and search engines what your post is about can help draw in significant traffic if you use them well.
6. Use Power Words - Not all words are created equal - some evoke a powerful response in readers - words like ‘free’, ’stunning’, ‘discover’, ‘warning’, ’secrets’, ‘easy’ etc all work well in my experience of blogging.
7. Make Claims and Promises - as long as you can back them up in your post - a big claim or promise can get someone’s attention.
8. Humor Titles - be careful with this one - funny can work great but it can also leave your readers very confused if it’s too cryptic…. or if it’s just not funny.
9. Run it by Your Blog Buddy - I have a couple of fellow bloggers that I regularly ping with an instant message to bounce ideas off when it comes to titles. The quick conversation that follows improves the title considerably.
10. Consider Title Updates - Updating post titles after they’re published if it is clear that they are just not working.
11. Write for Readers First and Search Engines Second - It’s possible to have a post that ranks really well in Google but that is so poorly worded that even though it ranks #1 nobody will click on it - keep readers as your #1 priority.
12. Keep it Simple - There are times to be a little ‘clever’ but more often than not it is a title that clearly gives the topic and communicates a benefit of reading the post that will get clicked on most.
13. Learn what Works and Repeat it - The more posts you write on your blog the more you’ll begin to learn about what works and what doesn’t work.
14. Don’t Oversell Your Post - The temptation with blog posts is to make them so compelling and have such a big promise that they go beyond what the post itself can deliver. Dont'.
15. Numbers and Lists - Tried and True - The title that tells readers how many points you’ve made has something about it that just seems to connect and compel people to click them.

Well-written titles should help your posts be found by the marketers you want to know you. Good luck and let me know how what else works for you?

» Eavesdropping as an Ad Agency New Business Strategy

Use search and social media to reveal insights and initiate conversations with prospective clients

Medical Marketing and Media magazine published a story called "The Science of Eavesdropping" in the May 2009 issue. While the authors, from Wunderman NY, are writing it from a client research perspective, I found that it offers some interesting ideas for agency new business pros.

Extrapolating from what the authors report, I've come up with the following:

Research industries and companies you're targeting

• Read your prospects' blogs and those of their consumers
• Listen to what those consumers are saying
• Identify broad themes, topics and sub-topics that they are talking about
• Identify perceptions about your target's brands, as well as their competitors
• Determine insights that you can use to develop marketing messages

Use your research to start conversations

Insights become your 'door-openers' - the reason you're calling; the reason to meet; the reason to have a second meeting.

• Plan your voicemail series to incorporate the insights you have gained and get your prospect's attention
• Structure first meetings to ask questions around your insights to determine if you're on target and learn more
• Suggest second meetings to reveal your insights and plant seeds for how you might help capitalize on them

I know certain large and sophisticated agencies are employing research methodologies and strategies like those the authors discuss to gain insights into their prospects' consumers and markets. What tools do you use and how do you utilize them for new business? How are you using insights to open doors with your top prospects?

» Agency CEO’s Managing Their Time for Proactive New Business

If you can find the time to write a blog, you can find the time for proactive new business

A few months ago I committed myself to writing a blog post every day for the professional enrichment it provides, in that you don't really know what you know until you write it down.

The interesting part of the process is that it forces you to focus on the most important things in your day, and eliminate time-wasters. Here's what I've learned to change:

• Email - only look at your messages and respond at certain hours of the day. You may say, "That's impossible, I need to be on email all the time." You'll be amazed at the hours and productivity you lose every time you check your email.
• Meetings - focus the conversation, and start and stop on time.
• Writing - lead with what's important, make it easy to scan, keep it on-subject. Some posts used to take me 1-2 hours to write; I can now write them in 45 minutes or less.

Over the years, numerous ad agency presidents have told me that they don't have time for proactive new business. I've nodded my head in understanding and then pushed them to find it.

I am now experiencing first-hand a similar time challenge, and have discovered that while there are a limited number of hours in every day (for all of us), if there is sufficient time to write a blog, there is sufficient time for proactive new business.