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How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program

Peter · May 16, 2023 · 27 Comments

Advertising Agency new Business

An Advertising Agency New Business Survival Guide

A minor (OK, big) update… If you want to run a kick-ass advertising agency new business program that stands out, makes more money, and is happy, then buy my new book. Its 27 chapters cover every aspect of agency management and business development. Even your very own personal branding. Go here: “How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency.”

I admit it, this blog post… “How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program” has been read by your competitors over 50,000 times. Glad you stopped by.

Advertising agency business development is a 24/7 operation that requires the right agency positioning, strategies, action, and high efficiency. I help my agency clients get there faster.

The post’s popularity is due to three key factors:

1. It directly addresses a major marketing pain point: how to build a winning and efficient advertising agency new business plan.

2. The post is well optimized for search engines, delivers high value, and, therefore…

3. Google loves it. FYI, my number two trafficked post is, “How To Name Your Advertising Agency – Part One” at 30,000 + views. While always rethinking their website, advertising agencies also obsess about their name. By the way, this post is also a very good cheat sheet on naming that you can steal if a client ever needs a new brand name.

“How To Build…” is all about the most important thing an advertising agency can do (while it is nurturing its current clients)… run a new business program that ensures that the agency will keep growing. Agencies are like sharks. They must keep moving forward to eat or else.

Your potential clients have over 4,000 marketing communications ‘agency’ options (other agencies, new consultancies, freelancers, even your ex-creative director…).

Therefore, any form of business development passivity on your part – sucks. If you think you are doing everything right, you probably are not. How can I say this? I never thought that all was well whilst running business development at Saatchi & Saatchi and when I owned my own agency.

Here’s my “ad”: I suggest that you give me a shout and take me up on my Corleone offer – It’s hard to refuse.

OK, Let’s Go… The 24/7 Business Development Plan = Advertising Agency New Business

I moved from New York to Bend Oregon in 2002 to buy a very successful advertising agency (and raise a family 20 minutes from a ski lift).

Citrus grew to add a Portland office and national accounts including Dr. Martens, Harrah’s, Leagalzoom, Nike, Providence Health, Montana Lottery, and the UN.

I woke up every day as if a client like Nike was going to walk out the back door along with its revenues. I bet as an ad agency owner or manager you have rough nights too. One of the things I knew I could and should do was to manage this back-door issue was to have an active, I stress active, new business plan in place.

Here are some (I stress some) of the elements of my marketing plan. They helped me grow Saatchi & Saatchi and my agency Citrus. I hope my insights help you grow your agency.

Execution Rules.

When I set out to write this advertising agency new business post I didn’t think that it would be this long – a warning to the ADHD types. But, advertising agency new business planning is complex and is getting more complex every day due to the rapid changes in our industry and technology. That said, the devil in business development, you know what’s coming, is in the detail. Success is all about execution.

For example, running a successful inbound biz dev program that attracts market attention must be based on a sound strategy and smart agency process if you want to run a 24/7 sales program. Staying the course is critical.

The Advertising Agency Business Plan. First Things First.

[Read more…] about How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency New Business Program

The Big Advertising Agency Resource List

Peter · April 27, 2023 · 47 Comments

Advertising Agency Resource List – Updated Often

advertising agency resourceMy Advertising Agency Resource List is curated often to help advertising, digital, design, and PR agencies easily find the inspiration and industry resources that will help y’all build killer agencies and careers.

If I were you, I’d grab a glass of Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (LOL only $150 or a nice craft beer – a bit less expensive) and check out all of these links. I guarantee that at least one of these websites and/or tools will help you or your team grow your agency.

Dig growth and sharing? Therefore my friends, go ahead and share this page with your friends, family, and staff.

A kudo from David Ogilvy: “I wish I had this advertising resource list when I was in the ad biz. All I had was my brain.”

OK, one more. This here Peter Levitan blog has over 860 posts dedicated to helping your marketing communications company grow. I hope that my insights on the art and science of agency business development, growth, and management help you to make more bucks. Speaking of resources and advice, take me up on my Corleone offer. 

AI Tools (April 2023)

Yikes. There are new AI tools designed for marketers every day. OK, OK. But, here are a few of my current favorites (I stress current):

ChatGPT. Obviously, you know about this. Here is a nice prompts mini-list for marketers:

chatgpt marketing prompts

Jasper and Copy.ai are AI content generators that utilize AI to generate high-quality content for various purposes. Jasper has been in the market for longer and is more feature-filled, while Copy.ai offers templates, a chatbot, and team features.

MarketMuse is a content optimization tool that utilizes NLP and machine learning algorithms to improve the quality and relevance of your content for better SEO and audience engagement.

Pictory and Synthesia are AI video generators that create high-quality videos without prior experience in video editing or design. Synthesia offers over 60 languages and various templates, a screen recorder, a media library, and more.

A Couple More Quickies:

Website Speed Is Good. A slow website drives down SEO. Check out your website.

Google PageSpeed Insights. Do you know how fast your website download speed is and how its performance ranks against your competitive agencies? Here’s the drill. If your site takes too long to download, it will lose some traffic.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Here’s another very important test. If you are like me, over 20% of your website visitors are looking at you on a mobile device then you better make sure that they are digging how fast your website loads.

BROWSEO.We might be getting a bit geeky here. That said, BROWSEO helps you view any web page like search engines see it. The tool helps you to identify issues with your site and with your current and future clients’ websites.

And, To help Your Thought Leadership Program: What Are People Searching For?

AnswerThePublic. This is a free visual tool that shows you what questions and queries your consumers have by getting a free report of what they’re searching for at Google.

Exploding Topics. Yes, just like it sounds.

Google Trends. Chances are good that you are aware of Google Trends. This a powerful tool to help you know what is hot and what is not on Google’s search universe. A look at the top 2019 Google searches may or may not make you a fan of humanity.

Social Mention.  Ever wonder what the world is saying about you or your company? Here you go.

OK – The Advertising Agency Resource List…

Here are the topics covered:

  • Advertising Agency News Sites
  • Ad Agency Directories
  • Top Advertising Blogs
  • Favorite Social Media Tools
  • Video Marketing Tools & Information
  • Creative Inspiration & Idea Generation
  • Creative Space & Time
  • Online Advertising Education
  • Online Legal Resources
  • Life After Advertising & How To Make $$$
  • Top Twitter Tools
  • Top Advertising And Design Awards
  • Marketing & Advertising Podcast
  • Marketing Tool Generators

Advertising Agency News Resources

  • The Ratti Report. Your agency needs fresh business development leads, right? So check out this website for a daily list of business development opportunities. News you can use to buy that new Tesla Roadster.
  • Advertising Age. Ad Age delivers the latest news from the world of advertising and marketing agencies.
  • Ad Asia Online. AdAsia Online focuses on automation, advertising technology, and creative technology,
  • AdNews. Australia’s advertising, marketing, and media industries news resource.
  • Adweek.  Adweek covers media news, including print, technology, plus.
  • branding in asia. Need to know what’s up in the Asian marketing and advertising world? Sure you do. Check out this comprehensive resource for creative work, news, interviews, and insights. Read it and you just might take the next non-stop to Singapore.
  • Business Insider. Business Insider’s daily take on the ad industry.
  • Campaign Asia. Campaign Asia reports on advertising and emerging media in the Asia Pacific region.
  • Campaign Magazine. Ad industry news from the UK’s advertising industry “bible”.
  • Communication Arts. Print publication offering competitions, forums, feature articles, job bank, graphic design resources and online shopping.
  • Creative. The magazine of promotion and marketing.
  • Digiday. Digiday creates content, services, and community that foster change in media and marketing.
  • Direct Marketing News. Provides news, feature articles, columns, and special reports on direct marketing.
  • The Drum. The alternative to Campaign. Delivers lots of news and views.
  • MediaPost. Comprehensive advertising and media industry coverage.
  • TechCrunch. Keep up (or try to keep up) with the fast-paced world of startups and VCs.

Ad Agency Directories

[Read more…] about The Big Advertising Agency Resource List

WOW: A Chef Makes Big Bucks On TikTok

Peter · April 27, 2023 · Leave a Comment

The Show “Chef Reactions” Is A Mega Hit On TikTok

How does this shit happen? All of a sudden I’m watching the TikTok show “Chef Reactions” every day. Somehow it arrived in my feed and because it is so cool I subscribed. In the show, an unnamed very glib chef reviews the cooking videos of other cooks. Some are good recipes and some just suck. The show is funny and kinda instructive. All C/O of a cool unnamed dude.

I just listened to an interview with the chef on Peter Kafka’s Recode Media podcast. Listen to it.

This guy has gone from zero to 3 million Followers. Is now also on Instagram and Twitter.

BUT! BUT! $$$ $$$

Hyundai is now a sponsor. He sells merch. And, was just signed by Endeavor. #TikTok == Congress, do not kill this.

ABM As In Account-Based Marketing Fails

Peter · April 21, 2023 · Leave a Comment

account-based marketingAccount-Based Marketing Anti-Failure

I help my advertising and marketing agency clients build effective ABM – Account-Based Marketing programs. I’ve seen some failures over the years and want to share my thoughts on failure over the next few newsletters. Here is a quick list:

  1. You cannot build your best prospect list because you haven’t accessed the right information and data. As a result, your target list is too broad and undefined.
  2. You do not personalize your outreach content.
  3. Your marketing and sales teams are not aligned.
  4. You do not give your ABM programs the time to become effective. This isn’t usually an overnight/one-time hit tactic. As in, your sales cycles might be too short for pure ABM, and worse you are way too impatient.
  5. You do not have an efficient, smart, hard-to-resist thought leadership program. Plus, you might not be sending unignorable content out into the world. Be not boring.
  6. You haven’t allocated the right budget for your Account-Based Marketing efforts. There are staff, design, and marketing costs. Plan well.

ABM works if you have a solid plan. Full stop.

More ABM Insights

I will riff on these fails. soon.

A Series On The Marketing Solopreneur: #1 Dan Koe

Peter · March 6, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Dan KoeI am doing a series on the world of the solopreneur that offers two things.

1) Insights from a serious thinker/doer that will help you grow your business. I am talking solopreneur.

2) An alternative career path roadmap. No working for the “man”. Even if that man/woman/person is you, as in someone that runs a marketing agency.

Definition…According to Merriam-Webster, a solopreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise without the help of a partner.”

#1 solopreneur is the design guru Dan Koe. He delivers courses +

Dan offers courses on writing, productization, and a Modern Mastery system. These range from $150 to $999. He makes a lot of money. I am considering the book course even though I am now completing my fourth book and am outlining my fifth. Never too late to tap into someone else’s experience. Factoid… Dan has 75K followers on LinkedIn. 295K Twitter followers. 223K YouTube subs. 1.2 million Instagram peeps. Yikes!

From Dan’s website – a very cool website by the way:

Hey, I’m Dan.

I’m a brand advisor for 6-7 figure creators and influencers.

I’m the guy they come to when they want to go from starving artist to a highly-paid and authentic creator. No fancy sales funnels and pushy marketing in this household.

I help them systemize their workflow, marketing, and content so they can work for 2 hours a day, charge more, and sell their products & services without manual effort.

As a freelancer turned consultant turned creator, I’ve developed effective systems with time, skin in the game, and experience with 4000+ students and clients.

Four Things For You To Do

  1. Sign up for future newsletters to scope out even more interesting and way active solopreneur thinker/doers.
  2. Pass this newsletter on to your friends.
  3. Tell Dan you love him. -> LinkedIn
  4. Go here to read my series of 850+ blog posts.
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