RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for November 24, 2009

Welcome to our 101st post! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and enjoy the holiday.

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:

Facebook Marketing 101: After you've mastered the basics of Facebook and set up Facebook fan pages for your business, it's time to promote your fan pages and identify ways to be found in real time search results. Many people are fixated on the goal of acquiring new fans. You can't ignore this metric because the more fans you have, the more successful your campaign is, right? Well, not exactly.-Ron Jones, SearchEngineWatch.com

RSW Comment: Not all this will relate to your agency Facebook page, but there’s enough good stuff on how to market yourself more effectively that I wanted to include it. Some good links on basic Facebook fan page setup as well in this piece.

The Future of Agencies: What Do You Think?: We’re in the process of pondering a very important question in the industry today: what is the future of agencies? Agencies have played such a crucial role in helping companies market their products and services for more than a century. Yet the agency model was built during a time when there were only a handful of channels in which they could push one way messages en masse. Does that model still work in a time when nearly a quarter of online US adults now create content online? -Sean Corcoran, Forrester Blog: Interactive Marketing Professionals

RSW Comment: A heady topic, to be sure. More an introductory piece on the research to-be-featured in future posts. Worth checking back to review their results.

Agencies: 15 Risks You Can't Afford Not to Take: Risk-aversion is a natural human trait, and it's one that gets amplified in times of trouble. Given we're all suffering through an exceptionally difficult economy, this is one of those times many of us feel like pulling in our horns and toughing the tough patch out. That's the worst possible course of action we could take. As every informed agency executive knows, we're at the nexus of the Great Recession and the Great Transformation of Marketing. In circumstances like these, a strategy of "just try harder" won't take you very far. –Tim Williams, Advertising Age

RSW Comment: Thought provoking piece and one you should read if you’re an agency principal. I don’t agree fully with every point, but well worth a look. There should be 16 risks however, and commenter Mark nails it:

I'm somewhat surprised that you don't have a bullet on new business. It's something most agencies are not good at. They tend to rely on Organic growth via referrals and old clients leaving for new jobs. That's all well and good but in an economy like today, with competition being as fierce as it is, don't you think agency principal's need to develop a proactive outreach strategy that helps align their agency strengths with the perceived needs and challenges of Corporate America?

How NOT to be The Social Media Guru: It's a tough time to be a 'social media guru'. Despite the rise of social media in general, there's a lot of skepticism when it comes to high-paid consultants who claim to have mastered it. From where I sit, that skepticism only seems to grow by the day.-Patricio Robles, Econsultancy

RSW Comment: This is a great piece, and while it’s aimed towards those who consult or make a living via social media, it lays out some excellent strategy on what to avoid when engaging in social media. The video is also extremely funny and has ruffled some feathers as well. (Be forewarned however, a lot of cursing, definitely NSFW.)

Agencies & Social Media-Eye of the Beholder? (Continuing thoughts on the RSW/US-Second Wind: Agency New Business Survey)

Comments on the Adweek piece focusing on our survey have been passionate and lengthy, and one deserves further attention. Jason Miletsky is the CEO of communications agency PFS Marketwyse. He left a comment as to whether or not agencies that don't practice social media for themselves can still claim to be social media experts and sell those services to their clients.

Further, earlier this week he was in the process of a micro debate (no more than 200 words) on the getperspectives site, with the subject being To be social media experts, must agencies practice what they preach?

As Jason pointed out in his comment on our Adweek article, “interesting timing.” I jumped over to the micro debate (link below) and Jason’s response to the subject fell in the “not necessarily” category, while Nicole Krug’s fell in the “absolutely” category. (Nicole is an online marketing & social media consultant.) Both make excellent points-I’ll lay out each proposition and then tell you where I fall.

Jason’s opening salvo:

Chances are you’ve never seen a TV commercial for an advertising agency, because ad agencies don’t use that medium to promote themselves. It’s not the most effective way for them to reach their target market. But that hasn’t prevented millions of brands from trusting agencies to develop effective TV spots.

And his parting thoughts:

The mark of a good agency is the ability to match strategy with need. Every client, audience and goal is different, and cookie-cutters simply don’t work in marketing. Using any tool, including social media, simply because it’s a service that they sell doesn’t demonstrate that the agency “gets” it – it simply demonstrates what they don’t get: customization based on need.

And now Nicole’s opening thought:

“Social is like sex. It’s fun to talk about and read about, but you can’t truly comprehend unless you do it.”

Forrester’s CEO George Colony makes my point pretty succinctly: if you are not engaging in social media, you just don’t “get it.” Thus I have a hard time believing an agency that doesn’t engage in any kind of social media can call themselves an expert and provide the best possible advice for their clients.

And in closing (partially condensed by me):

The very nature of being involved in a social community means that you are willing to engage with that community, share ideas and learn from the members. . . Social media presents a new frontier for marketers; one with its own set of challenges and unique rules. Interaction is the driving force of social networks, and if you don’t practice that, how can you preach it?

Good points made by Jason and Nicole, but three reasons why I ultimately have to side with Nicole:


1) Jason makes an excellent point with the television analogy, but the flaw in that logic, in my opinion, is a matter of personal control and immediacy involving the medium. An individual in an agency who’s helped develop effective TV spots can’t then turn around and create the actual spot, in a few minutes or seconds, by him or herself, the way one can engage in social media.

2) More importantly, there is the matter of client perception. (Hence the name of this post.) An agency who doesn’t engage in social media may very well be able to create an engaging and effective social media plan, but due to the very nature of social media, i.e., it’s relative ease in taking part, a potential client who hears an agency claim to be expert at social media has to take pause if the agency isn’t practicing what they preach. Right or wrong, it’s most likely the reality.

3) On a personal level, I just happen to agree with Nicole, that social media is just that-social, and with this particular medium, you’ve got to be engaged in order to offer counsel.

Obviously the low cost of entry doesn’t make you expert at social media, far from it, but perception counts for a lot. In my opinion, it almost becomes a moot point whether an agency who doesn’t practice social media can develop an effective social media campaign; if they aren’t taking part in the social experiment, clients may not give them a second look anyway.

Micro Debate/getperspectives site here

Lest we not forget about the NBM: Still the tenure of a CMO

In our recent survey on agency new business, there has been a lot of attention given to the fact that agencies aren’t walking the talk when it comes to social media.  The big story as you may have seen, is agencies are selling social media to their clients, but they aren’t doing a very good job of doing it themselves. There’s been a lot of good dialogue generated, particularly in some of the posts after the AdWeek article featured the survey results.

Another story, overshadowed by the social media news, is one related to the success rates of agency new business managers.

Similar to last year, the lifespan of a new business manager rivals that of the average CMO. CMO’s are lasting about 18 months…new business managers…slightly longer.

Time and time again, we are brought into situations where agencies have tried new business managers and have failed. Let’s examine the whys:

1. Too many responsibilities. Agency principals see a body, have a task and divert the attention of the new business manager so they can’t stay focused on generating leads and getting great meetings for the agency;

2. Wrong skill set. Here’s a quote from an agency principal I recently reached out to, to re-introduce myself after meeting with him a couple years ago: “I remember you well. You were the (accurate) predictor of our (then) sales rep’s impending demise….ha!".  I’ve seen too many agencies try and hire the ex-healthcare sales guy or the ex-print production sales guy without regard for their real understanding of the agency business…and more importantly the marketing business. And it’s one thing to be able to sell, but it’s another thing to be able to operate on a phone, on email, via the mail in a persistent, compelling and value-added way;

3. No methodology. No consistency. Good sales people are probably a bit ADD, so absent a good, well-grounded methodology, your new business manager is going to have a hard time keeping organized and focused on staying with prospects. They might do well with 10-20 “Priority A” prospects, but numbers are part of what impacts the effectiveness of a program. If you can’t get your numbers up and you can’t manage those numbers with consistency, you’ll get nowhere;

4. No value. “Set up useless meetings” is one of the top reasons agency principals note as the reason why new business managers fail. What seems to happen is new business managers get desperate, and they just start pushing…without regard for bringing value to the prospect’s life. If all you do is “pound your chest and tell the world how great you are”, all you’ll end up with is “meet and greets”. We operate on a 110% principle of “value-add”. Everything we push out to prospects on behalf of our clients is about helping the prospect – either by giving them information that can help them, help themselves (kind of like I’m doing here) – or by giving them insight into how what we do (I’m speaking as an agency) can get them to a better place – which in and of its own right is a value-added offering. So keep the value and know what your new business manager is pushing out.

I could go on for hours about the things that need to be done to create a strong and effective program internally. Happy to talk to anyone about it…or send you a proposal so you can look at how we set it up in the proposal, and you can then use the framework of what exists in our proposal to set your own system up inside. While we are happy to follow a string of bad new business manager hires, we are happier when agencies as a whole succeed as it is good for the industry and our community at large. Call if you have any questions.

RSW/US/Second Wind: Agency New Business Survey-Initial Responses

We’re continuing to look at the results of our most recent new business survey we co-sponsored with Second Wind and wanted to take a look at some of the responses so far, specifically those referring to agency social media use. We’ll start with a mention from @robleavitt via Twitter:

“@RSWUS - nice work on the agency survey with Second Wind - distressing but important to see”

Adweek ran an article on the survey titled Agencies Slow to Harness Social Media, beginning the piece with the following:

Most agencies have a presence on social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, but infrequently use them to market themselves or pursue client prospects, according to a new survey from RSW/US and Second Wind.

And then continued:

The survey, which was conducted last month, provides yet another illustration of agencies not practicing what they preach to clients for the marketing of brands. This "cobbler's son" syndrome is also evident in everything from Flash-heavy, information-poor agency Web sites to shops neglecting to buy sponsored links to their names on Google.

On Monday morning, UK based Tamar agency via Henry Ellis had some interesting insights on their blog, with the post Are marketing agencies practising what they preach?

According to the research, the most common social media ‘element’ that agencies are using is a LinkedIn account, closely followed by Facebook and Twitter. Just over 50% said they have a company blog, and a mere 17% are using Flickr. As some of the later questions show, I suspect that the LinkedIn stat may be a bit misleading – if my suspicions are correct, the person filling in the survey on behalf of their agency may sometimes have classed their own LinkedIn account as enough to tick the “yes” box. . . just ‘having’ these presences doesn’t mean they are necessarily being used at all, or used well!

And continued:

. . .almost two thirds of respondees claimed they blogged once a month or less – not a recipe for an engaging blog, I’m sure you’ll agree. Even if the agency has 10 other inhouse blog authors, once a month doesn’t really seem very impressive.

And finally:

In the interests of fairness, it’s worth once again acknowledging that these surveys are always dependent on the person who fills it in being the one who does all these activities, but whichever way you look at it, these answers would seem to imply that most marketing agencies aren’t really practicing what they preach.

Some definitive themes emerging from responses to-date. We’re extremely pleased that our survey results have reached so many outlets, blogs and Twitter feeds and wanted to present some of the chatter “out there” regarding the survey. We’ll continue to follow it and post our take on the results later this week.

Click here to download our survey

Adweek Piece here

Tamar piece here

Second Wind site here

RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for November 16, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:



How is social media being used to generate new business? We’re proud to release our latest new business survey, along with our survey partner, Second Wind. We’re seeing some interesting feedback already about the telling results regarding agencies and frequency of social media use. We’ll be donating the blog this week to the survey and its results.-RSW/US & Second Wind

Hundreds of Facebook groups hijacked: Facebook groups are under attack. But the attackers say they come in peace and insist they want only to highlight a flaw in the way Facebook handles group administration. Don Reisinger, Webware

RSW Comment: With social media still in its infancy, we’re going to continue to see incidents like this pop up. Hopefully Facebook jumps on this quickly.

Why Digital Agencies Are Indeed Ready to Lead: Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop -- with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren't ready to lead. Jacques-Herve Roubert, Digital Next

RSW Comment: The inevitable answer to last week’s post espousing the opposite and this post may be even more contentious, in terms of response via comments. The debate rages on.

LinkedIn works with Twitter, and vice versa: Today we’re announcing a partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter – and new features that we think are going to make both Twitter and LinkedIn more powerful for you. The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing-Allen Blue, Linkedin Blog

RSW Comment: A great new feature on LinkedIn that didn’t seem to get much publicity. Fairly self-explanatory; interestingly, the first few comments internally at RSW/US were “Wow, it looks like Facebook,” which I’m sure is no coincidence.

Walk This Way

Some of the best ideas for posts come from the agencies we talk to every day. Case in point, this week I was discussing agency specialization, prospect qualification and agencies being able to “walk the walk.”

As the story goes, this agency had several strong in-house disciplines but digital was not one of them. Luckily, they’d been able to partner with another local agency when needed and could provide quality digital work along with their other services. The agency at the time had an internal new business development person and she often included digital as a service in her initial new business pitch.

On this occasion, the new business person met with success and set up a face-to-face meeting in town. As in the past, she mentioned digital as an offering but then failed to qualify the prospect properly. She found out a small sliver of information, but as you’ll see, not enough to be successful. One other piece you need to know: when digital was a necessary piece of the puzzle, this agency typically asked their digital partner to come along so they could speak intelligently across all necessary disciplines. As you may have already guessed-no partner along on this pitch.

As it turns out, digital was about 80% of what the prospect was looking for, and as the agency principal put it,” they were standing there with their pants down.” They didn’t get the business. Since then, they’ve been gun shy as to how to present themselves and weren’t really sure what the best course was-using a more specialized approach or a more general approach.

That’s an age-old argument, but the short answer is there has to be a balance-if you ask yourselves the hard questions about who you really are as an agency and then go to market passionate and focused about who you are, you’re a long way toward success. Of course, the bigger point is that all this could have been avoided with better prospect qualification and time spent up front.

You’re not going to get the prospect’s entire plan in that first call, but you’ve to get as much detail as you can. If you do so in a respectful way, ask questions and listen, you should be able to get what you need for a successful initial meeting.

RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for November 9, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:

Will Social Media Consultants Practice What They Preach? In the past eighteen months, most companies have come to accept social media as an inescapable part of their marketing and communications. And most stop right there. Social media's just another way to message, advertise and market. Only a few brands have embraced it as a conversational tool with the power to transform their businesses.-Alexandra Samuel, Conversation Starter

RSW Comment: A call for more transparency from social media experts. Interesting point, although I think there’s a lot more transparency out there than the author indicates.

Why Digital Agencies Aren't Ready to Lead: Any conversation about digital marketing these days includes at least one mention that traditional agencies just "don't get it." While this may be correct, what's equally true is that digital agencies are not ready to take the lead.-Ana Andjelic, Digital Next

RSW Comment: Wow, this post stirred up a lot of vitriol-and agreement, to be fair. In a nutshell, Ana argues that digital agencies, generally, don't know the business of marketing like traditional agencies. You’ll want to read the comments underneath this one.

How to be a star employee on social media: When it comes time for hiring managers, managers within your company, or business partners to find out about you and your work, social media is the first place people go. Famously, we Google the name and the fun begins. Much has been made of the boss firing the employee after the employee disses the boss on Facebook along with many other examples. But what if you wanted to represent yourself as the star employee you are right now? How would you do that through social media?-Scot Herrick, cuberules.com

RSW Comment: Smart primer on how to take best advantage of social media in the workplace.

Are Top B2B Agencies Worth Following on Twitter?: With Twitter lists continuing to roll out to users (currently at 25%, expected for all users soon), everyone wants to create lists of valuable followers. We have already written about leveraging Twitter Lists for success, but what about using them to listen to industry thought leaders. This is an important part of the community of Twitter and connecting to others in your niche or industry.-Jeffrey L. Cohen, Social Media B2B

RSW Comment: Jeffrey puts forth that “most top B2B agencies are not worth following on Twitter at this time because they do not provide enough compelling content.” Curious if he’s right.

Planning for Prospecting

I assume you establish year long plans for your clients.

You need to do the same for yourself.

We are in the begining stages of planning for all of our agency client programs. Something we started three years ago. Prior to this, we wouldn't think as strategically and wouldn't operate with enough long-term focus to build the best possible program for our clients.

Now we can see past our noses and plan appropriately. Now we can set up a roadmap that the agency principal and we can agree on - and follow it throughout the year. Now we can more objectively take a look at our programs and determine what's working well and what needs to be improved.

You need to do the same for yourself.

Ask yourself what do you want to achieve in 2010. Not just numbers, but what do you want to accomplish?

-Elevate my perceived expertise

-Broaden my appeal into new sectors

-Increase the numbers of high visibility clients in the portfolio

-Better diversify the portfolio

-Strengthen our perceived client service offering

-Increase our perception of being a value-added player

These are just a small sampling of the kinds of things we consider for our client programs.

If you have a new business manager on staff, tell them to do the same. If it's you doing the prospecting, ask yourself these questions.

The bottom line is lay out some objectives beyond the numbers and create a plan to achieve them. If it's "elevating my perceived expertise", consider things like speaking engagements, or writing and emailing to prospects some thought pieces, hosting a webinar on a relevant topic. If it's diversifying your portfolio, look at your client list and decide where you can best leverage expertise - and objectively decide what is realistic from a prospecting standpoint (e.g. size of prospect, geography, etc.).

While it might be tough in these difficult times to think long-term, it's necessary - now, more than ever to put some beyond the nose and beyond the here and now perspective to your business. Call us if you need some free advice.

Prime Real Estate-Don’t Waste It

I was very appreciative of an email I received this week from an agency we aren’t currently working with, asking our opinion on an urgent opportunity.

They had the chance to advertise in a particular section of their regional business journal, a prime full-page spot that a competitor had held for a decade. Given the readership statistics she was aware of and her agency’s need to expand, she felt, intuitively, it was the right move but wanted our opinion.

Let’s say for sake of argument and with the very little detail I’ve laid out, that this is the right move to make. In a situation like this, you can’t just stop with the prime ad placement. Sure, you’ll get some calls (arguably perhaps many calls) but you can’t depend on an ad to do the work for you. Here’s an example of one possible, effective next step:

Make a copy of the ad and send it, along with a personalized letter to targeted prospects within the area. (Could be snail mail, a PDF via email or a digital/social media outreach, depending on the agency and prospect sectors). Tell a brief story about the agency’s experience and (in this case) the desire to support local manufacturers. (We’ve found using the local approach, along with the requisite experience, can be a plus.) Follow that with respectful but consistent follow-up every 2-3 weeks or more, depending on the situation.

Again, just one example of how to capitalize on the ad in this example, certainly there are others. Point is, whether it’s an ad, a direct mail piece you’ve created or a personalized URL, where so many agencies fall short is not consistently activating (as we like to say) or following up on that initial point of contact or opportunity. Then they just become wasted opportunities.

You’re giving up too easily

In my recent daily reads, I came across an insightful post by John K Thompson on the Chief Marketer blog called To Avoid Overload, Engage Your Audience. John begins by pointing out the all-too-many outlets of information available to us.

Too many twisty knots of overloaded information confusion, and not the filters to hand me what I need when I need it. Too many sites, widgets, snippets, tidbits, documents and files, and not nearly enough brain power to do it all by myself…Not enough options for finding what I need, and too much to find. Not enough guidance on how to actually move efficiently through the gold mines of data, and too many gold mines.

Couple this with a comment an agency principal made to our owner Mark Sneider the other day. He said he got exasperated with salespeople who didn’t stay with him after a good initial interaction. I’m paraphrasing a bit, but the comment was essentially, “We had a good meeting and then, as always, I get slammed. The salesperson left a voicemail or two, maybe an email and then he gave up.” Granted, the process is a two-way street but the comment was certainly revealing.

So we have too much information to process and even when we’re interested in a service, it’s exceedingly difficult to act on it as quickly as we’d like; quite an uphill battle for the agency trying to break through to their prospects.

So what’s the solution? It’s the mantra we base our business on: consistency and adding something of value with each reach-out. John writes the following in his post:

. . . remember that it's imperative to personalize our communications with customers and prospects, and to keep them permission based. Anything else becomes merely technology-enabled spam. And your customer will treat it, and your relationship, as such. Which is to say, disposable.

Personalization is, in our world, a natural extension of our value-add philosophy, and if you’re an agency handling your own new business program, it should be yours as well. You should read the entire post (link below); it centers on social media specifically and is good advice, not only in a general sense regarding your prospecting, but also as agencies continue to include social media in their efforts.

John ends with the following apt words:

. . . we must remember the purpose of all of this. And that's to engage our customers in an ongoing dialogue, demonstrating that we truly value them as individuals, and aren't just using all this neat technology to make it merely seem that way.

Read his entire post here.

RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for November 2, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:



Social media needs fewer rockstars, and more rockstar ideas: I'm afraid that too many people are determining who is 'influential' based on how many followers/friends/readers they have. Which is a contributing factor, to be sure, but it's not the end-all-be-all for defining and recognizing people that put forth thoughtful ideas.- Mack Collier, The Viral Garden

RSW Comment: It’s not all about how many followers or readers you have. Mack makes some much-needed points on the idea of the social media “rock star.”


Avoiding email horror stories with video: If you don’t see the video, be sure to click through to the post. The point of the video is critical – adding video to email has a substantial impact on click-through rates (CTR). Cantaloupe clients are seeing 150+% improvements.-Doug Carr, Marketing Tech Blog

RSW Comment: Self explanatory. With platforms like Google Wave, I can see more and more video via email (or Wave, as it were).


6 Blog Add-Ons That Spur Social Media Activity: Want to make it easy for readers to share your great content with their tribes? If so, keep reading as I share six social media add-ons you can effortlessly integrate into your blog today. Your immediate result: much better engagement with your readers. Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner

RSW Comment: Worth checking these free add-ons to help along your social media efforts.


Hey, Brands On Twitter: What Happens To Their Work Account When Your Star Employee Quits: One of your employees becomes the real star of the team, and gets tens of thousands of followers over many months, offering fantastic support and just enough personality to be a hit. He starts getting a lot of attention. Then one day, suddenly, he quits.What now? Twittercism

RSW Comment: Situations like these look to become more commonplace as social media becomes further ingrained into corporate activity. Will be interesting to see how corporate policy evolves to compensate.

Is it time to pack it in? (or even more rookie mistakes agencies must avoid to gain more new business)

I wrote a post not too long ago about some rookie mistakes we see agencies making online (like not linking to your blog from your site, no social media buttons on your homepage, etc.). Consider this post something of a part two. A brief list below of online occurrences that, best case, will win you no favors with potential prospects and worst case, may cost you some business.

Your site:

A site these days is, of course, a cost of entry for any agency. Although it’s gotten better, many agency sites are still created to impress other agencies, what with all the fancy flash and look at me uniqueness. Quite frankly, a site that’s straightforward, showcasing who you are, what you do, and the sectors you do it in will strike a better chord. (Not saying they should be boring mind you-sure, have some fun with it as well.)

Start with your home page-the place that represents who you are and is the first point of contact to the outside world, and specifically consider the following:

1) News section-If it was last updated in March of 2006 (which I just came across two days ago), you should take the news section off your site. It just looks bad and better to get rid of it completely.
2) Agency intro copy-Freshen any intro copy at least once a year, preferably more often- If you’ve got copy on the home page, you’ve got to at least tweak it occasionally.
3) Site Design-Keep it fresh and interesting, not saying you need to change it often, but an occasional refresh is always good.

Your Blog:

You redesigned your site at the beginning of ’09 and you launched the agency blog at the same time. You were rolling, and in February even had two posts on the same day (mistake). But now it’s October and those were your last two posts. (Again-I saw this about two days ago as well.) Ask yourself in no uncertain terms, can I recommit to some kind of manageable schedule. If not, ditch the blog. You can always go back when you are ready. Something else to consider: are there other ways to contribute to the blog that you’re willing to entertain? For example, other members of the agency posting on the blog (if it’s only set up currently with the principal blogging), or could you also expand the content you’re willing to blog about to make it easier to come up with posts?

Twitter:

Along with that site re-design and new blog, you also got on Twitter. And 10 months later, you’ve still got that sole, lonely Tweet, “X agency is now on Twitter! Can’t wait to share what we’re all about.” Yes, your sharing certainly has been inspirational. Again, ask yourself about the commitment and if it’s not there, ditch it.

Facebook:

Ditto. If you’re not going to do it, scrap it.

LinkedIn:

Ditto again. Out of all the social media, this is the one with the least amount of excuse. Yes, LinkedIn now has more functionality with SlideShare and adding your blog posts, for example, but for the most part, your actual page is pretty static. You’re not constantly updating like Twitter or Facebook, so would it kill you to update your position in the agency for example?

The above is certainly not exhaustive, but hope it gives you some big-picture perspective as we get closer to 2010. Take a hard look at how prospects see you and get a few folks you trust, both inside and outside the industry to take a look at your online presence as well. It’s work that will pay off in the long run.

An Agency New Business Secret

We talk a lot about consistency of outreach on this blog - and, well, to anyone who will listen in regards to agency new business.

We were speaking with a potential client recently about our services and specifically the need to reach out with value. He wondered aloud what that “something of value” was; that magical thing we often talk about as being key to the outreach effort. "What do you use and how often are you staying in front of them when prospecting?" he asked. A good question and one we’ve been asked before. The answers, in order, are whatever adds value and it depends.

Okay, those really are the answers but I’ll give you something you can actually use. Here are some guidelines:

1) Show your understanding of the category
2) Show your empathy in understanding the prospect’s challenges
3) Provide some type of information they can use or at the very least appreciate in their daily work lives.

And now here’s the secret-as long as it does the three things above and it’s done consistently, it doesn’t really matter what (physically or digitally) you put in front of them. (Because if what you send them hits on all three of the points above, it will by definition provide value to your prospect.)

This is where we find agencies get hung up in their internal new business efforts. They put in the sweat equity to begin their new business process, and then when it comes time to follow up with those cold or warm prospects, they don’t know what to do next. So typically what happens-they send an email asking for the business and hope for the best and then wait 3 weeks and send the same email again (literally).

What you send doesn’t have to be solid gold every time you reach out. New business is hard work and you don’t have time to come up with something mind-blowing with every single reach out. But if you’ve targeted your prospects smartly within a category of your expertise, or related expertise, you already know what the prospect’s challenges are generally. You can then pick something to put in front of them that shows you really do understand their challenges. Ideally it’s something from inside the agency: a blog post, white paper, recent speaking engagement, new work you can share, etc, or at the very least, a relevant industry-specific article.

That’s what I mean when I say it doesn’t matter what you send, the prospect will appreciate and remember the consistent effort. (If it really does add value.) Keep the accompanying messaging respectful as well, don’t shove the agency or firm down their throat. And in regards to how often, it really does depend on the situation, but a good rule of thumb if you haven’t made initial contact with the prospect is every 3 to 4 weeks.

This is a process, no two ways about it, but if you can keep it consistent and value-added, your pipeline will stay full and you will win more new business.

RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for October 26, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:



Proposals Aren’t Persuasion: Ah, the new business proposal… the bane of most ad agency principals’ business lives. Don’t you just loathe having to assemble that tedious document for prospects? RFPs are especially onerous, with all of their nit-picking requirements that must be met to the letter, and the soul-draining format that prevents your injecting any degree of agency brand personality into the pitch. - Deborah Budd, Second Wind

RSW Comment: Proposals can be a necessary evil but Deborah provides some thoughtful insight into making the process work for agencies


Will the Transparency of Our Lives Damn Us or Legitimize Us: I'm all for living my life transparently. I think that by broadcasting what interests me, what I do and whom I talk to, I create a system of checks and balances. I hear a lot of tips for how to manage your online presence, limit what you broadcast and control who sees what. But honestly, I don't do many things that I would be embarrassed to show anyone. Maybe if more people felt the same way, then there would be fewer actions to hide and it may force people to do more that they're proud of.-Advertising Age, Gen Next blog-Alex Kniess

RSW Comment: Ah, those old Facebook posts will come back to haunt you, won’t they? As with anything else in life, it’s about balance and knowing where to draw the line. Remember, once online, always online.

Why are PR people so afraid of social media?: Social Media, and the online outreach that surrounds it, has the potential to be the best thing that’s ever happened to public relations. So why is it that so many pr people are so recalcitrant? It is so discouraging to me to hear my fellow p.r. professionals discount or downplay the impact of social media on our profession. Vest Advertising blog, Susan Gosselin

RSW Comment: PR stands to be a driving force for social media and Susan’s post provides and then refutes the top complaints PR people typically have regarding the industry.


Google Analytics Now More Powerful, Flexible And Intelligent: Today, we're announcing a new set of Google Analytics features which builds on last year's enterprise-class feature launch. Some add more power to existing capabilities. Others provide new flexibility to further customize and adapt Google Analytics according to the needs of your enterprise. Finally, we'll introduce Analytics Intelligence. Resist the temptation to skip ahead. We wouldn't want you to miss anything. Google Analytics Blog

RSW Comment: Yes, straight from Goggle’s blog, but we still find too many agencies investing in social media/digital but not putting any kind of effort into tracking it. Ideally, this helps keep you up-to-date.

You’re here to help, not to sell

I read a great post on Mike Myatt’s N2Growth blog titled Stop Selling and Add Value recently and wanted to share it. I know the title of my post is a bit kumbaya, but it’s the way we (at RSW/US) represent and reach out on behalf of our clients and if you’re handling new business internally, it’s how you should be pursuing new business as well.

Before I throw in my two cents on how Mike’s post relates to agency new business, here are some key points from his post:

Trust me when I tell you that your prospects and customers have heard it all before. They can see the worn-out, old school closes coming a mile away. They can sniff antiquated selling strategies, and will immediately tune out on presentations not deemed relevant. If your sales force is still FAB-selling, spin-selling, soft-selling or using any number of outdated, one size fits all selling methodologies, your sales are suffering whether you realize it or not.

Frankly, most people I know would rather talk to a knowledgeable customer service person over a sales rep any day of the week. The reason for this should be obvious…The perception is that a customer service professional is providing information and helping them meet their needs. A sales person is trying to sell them something.

Call me crazy, but I don’t want to talk to someone who wants to manage my account, develop my business, or engineer my sale. I want to communicate with someone who wants to service my needs or solve my problems.

As you can see from the above, Mike’s post is focused more on selling a product, but it can be applied directly to agency new business as well. The key, of course, is being able to position your agency appropriately so that you have the opportunity help them meet their needs. That of course is the hardest part.

Sure, you want an internal new business person that has something of the hunter mentality, but she/he also needs to have a healthy dose of the farmer mentality as well. If you shove your agency down their throat with every call, you’ll get nowhere-and 100 calls a day won’t get you anywhere either if you aren’t asking questions AND listening to the answers. Mike sums it up well with this statement:

The reality is that until I know that you care more about meeting my needs than yours, you’ll remain on the outside looking in. By the way, in order to understand my needs you have to actually know something about me.

Prospecting words to live by.

Click here for Mike’s full post.

RSW/US-Agency New Business Link Roundup for October 20, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:



Twitter Lists Makes Following Easier and Organized: It hasn't reached everyone yet, but a number of Twitter users are seeing "Lists" appear in their web view, allowing them to group together who they're following into common groups and follow other users' batch lists in one click.-Lifehacker

RSW Comment: Much needed functionality, but don’t know how I feel about others being able to see the list as well.


Click NY: death of the creative department?:One of the highlights of yesterday's Click NY conference was a panel discussing the future of the ad industry, which threw up the prospect of the end of the agency creative department. Do ad agencies need creative departments? It may sound like sacrilege but, stop and think for a moment. Campaigns are becoming increasingly complex, requiring a range of skills that one agency cannot hope to have completely covered in-house and certainly not by the best exponents all the time.-Creative Review Blog, Patrick Burgoyne

RSW Comment: Certainly the industry is changing, but is this the future? Some particularly insightful comments after the piece.


Stop Selling and Add Value: What I’m about to espouse will cause many an eyebrow to furrow and jaw to drop…I truly believe that the practice of sales as a business discipline has become at best ineffective, and in many cases flat out obsolete. You see, good business practices are not static.-N2Growth Blog-Mike Myatt

RSW Comment: Excellent sales piece and well worth the entire read.


Why Email No Longer Rules. . .: Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over. In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine.-WSJ

RSW Comment: Overall, some sound points about how we communicate and how it’s changing, but email’s not going anywhere for a while, at least, in my opinion.

Consistency is next to Godliness (when it comes to agency new business)

We talk to agencies every day, both client and prospect, and lately have engaged in a few surprising conversations with agency principals. These principals conveyed they’ve had a pretty good run lately handling new business internally. They’ve created a memorable direct mail piece, have dedicated themselves to social media or made more time to reach out, either in-person or on the phone.

All encouraging, and while, let’s be honest, we’d love to have them as RSW/US clients, timing is everything, and we’re very happy to hear about healthy agencies as of late. What was surprising about these conversations however was the similarity in how each principal ended the internal efforts conversation.

Each of them stated they hoped to get to the point where they had enough new business coming in from their current efforts that they could take a break.

Insert red flag here.

You probably know what I’m going to say-this will come back to haunt them. It’s commendable that the effort got started, but you can’t “take a break.” Not saying you should be chained to your desk either, but even taking a month or two off will set back your efforts, sometimes dramatically.

In the short run, these agencies may see no detrimental effects if in fact their initial efforts, combined with their existing clients, keep them busy, but ultimately their pipeline will be empty and they might also find themselves with an uncomfortable amount of business coming from a sole client.

So if you’re giving it a go internally, ensure you’re taking these steps:

- Make your prospecting list manageable (in monthly chunks)
- Target your prospects appropriately
- Do a little homework prior to reaching out
- Always follow up.

No, it’s not easy and yes, it will take time, but as the title of the post suggests, ‘Consistency is next to Godliness” when it comes to agency new business.

Social Media is oh, so sexy-but here’s another reason why you shouldn’t rely too heavily on it for new business

“According to a new survey of 1,400 CIOs of companies with 100 or more employees, 54% now completely block employees from accessing social networking sites at work.” This is taken from the Mashable site, from a piece written by Adam Ostrow and, per the title of this post, reaffirmed that agencies can’t rely on social media alone when going after new business.



I don’t know that any agency really is relying solely on social media, but it’s just so sexy right now. It’s tempting to focus on your Twitter feed, LinkIn connections or Facebook page to the exclusion of other methods. But you shouldn’t do that. The stat from the Mashable piece reinforces that yet again. Talk about drastically cutting down your prospect pool, if this is correct, over 50% of your prospects may be out of reach via social media channels. (Playing devil’s advocate, the survey was taken by CIO’s about their employees, so your higher-level targets within a given organization ideally/probably aren’t also taken out of the social media loop.)

Still, it’s a trend that’s probably not going away soon and it certainly doesn’t make your prospecting efforts any easier. So a few days later, I saw an effective post on the Telesales Magic site titled Ten Cold Calling Mistakes-How to Avoid Them. Let me get this out of the way quickly however; RSW/US is not a telemarketing firm, nor do we advocate those principles: the shotgun approach, dialing for dollars, a boiler-room mentality, etc. And we don’t embrace or practice “cold-calling” because that also is not effective.

We do, however, advocate a mix of mediums, and personal phone calls provide a sizeable proportion of our success in helping agencies close more new business. So the below ten tips (abbreviated by me to their bullets) are strong reminders of 10 mistakes to avoid in every step of a prospect call.

1) Not following the schedule.
2) You are calling at the wrong time of the day.
3) Being unpleasant to the person who answers the phone.
4) Talking to the wrong person.
5) Trying to “get” something.
6) Not keeping it short and detailed.
7) No script on hand.
8) No product knowledge.
9) No preparation for performance.
10) No follow up

In regards to agency new business, the only correction I would make is number seven. I understand the sentiment-you need to be able to guide the conversation effectively, but never rely on a script as you can’t predict how or where a call will go. That’s not to say we don’t advocate having facts or figures handy if you’re engaged in inside sales, but you can’t let your calls be scripted.

So those of you engaged in your firm’s new business efforts, make sure you have a proper balance of outreach mediums, and however you’re ultimately reaching out-you’ve got to add value, period.

Adam's Mashable piece here.

Ten Cold Calling Mistakes piece here.

RSW/US -Agency New Business Link Roundup for October 12, 2009

Because there’s more great stuff out there than anyone can possibly get to, we thought we’d point you to some of the noteworthy pieces from last week:


Blogging’s 11 Big Payoffs: The purpose of blogging in general, is usually to establish and/or support an existing brand with an understanding of how that brand generates revenue. This week, as promised, I'm getting into the real payoffs. Why does it make sense to spend hours of time each month, writing content, then giving it away for free and if that's not enough, even more hours marketing that free content to make sure people will know it's there?-Maisha Walker’s The Internet Strategist from Inc.com

RSW Comment: Why do you spend hours blogging-read on.

Damage Control: Social Media Reversals: Corporations continue to get blindsided by social media –which of course, is just a representation of underlying customer or product issues that should be fixed. Companies respond in three ways: 1) Ignore it and do nothing at their own peril, 2) Are responsive but not necessarily in control 3) Assert themselves and be proactive –even during a crises. The following three examples highlight companies being proactive in the third effort –and analyzes their end result.- Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Blog

RSW Comment: Critical examples of corporate social media programs and what lessons you can learn.

More Than Half of Employers now Block Twitter, Facebook, MySpace: Can’t check Facebook or Twitter from the office? You’re not alone. In fact, you might be in the majority. According to a new survey of 1,400 CIOs of companies with 100 or more employees, 54% now completely block employees from accessing social networking sites at work. Adam Ostrow at Mashable

RSW Comment: Definitely cuts your prospecting pool from a social media standpoint. Another reason why you can’t rely only on social media for your agency prospecting efforts.

Twitter smack-down: Pizza joint hit with $2 million lawsuit: The Pizza Kitchen . . .just got slapped with a $2 mm libel lawsuit over comments made on Facebook and Twitter. Apparently they retained marketing firm Low and Tritt to help them with advertising and promotions in a tough economy. Business reportedly continued to go down and the restaurant’s owner, Travis Redmon, let the firm go. A disagreement about fees and licensing rights ensued.-Mark Schaefer’s Grow blog

RSW Comment: Well worth the read. Not the first time this has happened, but as the space continues to explode, the way incidents like these are handled becomes intensely important.

Another Clear and Present Social Media Danger

In my last “Danger” post on the AAAA’s blog (August 21,2009), I spoke of the dangers associated with agencies not participating in social media (for themselves) or participating and not keeping current, or activating their social media efforts.

I recently spoke with an agency principal who has met with a lot of success using social media, but a lot of it has to do with two realities: 1) She keeps it current and relevant and consistent in theme; and 2) She activates it. At the end of last year, she and her agency created a Holiday video that she posted on YouTube. She activated it by pushing it out to her prospect list. Soon after its release it became something of a viral phenomenon. It received a large number of hits, and the agency received a large number of inquiries, which in the end translated into new business.

Had prospects checked this agency’s site after receiving the video and seen very little current content, very little social activity, and a site that screamed “I’m only pretending to participate in social media”, she might not have received so many requests.

In the end, the fact that she actively supported her social media program, created a consistent theme, targeted messaging to the right set of prospects in the right places, and activated its mere existence helped her deliver the goods for her agency…and her clients. She understood how to make it work and it paid out handsomely for her.

So now that we’ve talked about the need for you (agency principal) to create and effectively manage your own social/digital programs, let’s now turn the tables a bit and talk about your clients.

Results from a recent RSW/US social/digital media survey (http://rswus.com/surveys/index.php) completed among marketers and agency executives indicates that there is a frighteningly large difference between what agencies believe they are providing marketers in the social/digital space and what marketers believe they are getting from their agencies.

55% of ad agencies and 66% of PR firms state in this survey that they are “very active” (7+ on 10 point scale) supporting their clients with social/digital programs. This compares to only 38% of marketers feeling they are being actively supported.

There is also another concerning difference that exists relative to the degree to which agencies believe they are on the cutting edge of the social/digital space – and the degree to which marketers feel the same way.

Both ad agencies and PR firms rate their social/digital prowess high, with 66% of ad agencies and 78% of PR firms either “somewhat” or “strongly” agreeing that their agency is on the cutting edge.

Unfortunately, marketers don’t feel like they are being given the resources by their marketing services firms to be on the “cutting edge”. Only 44% of marketers believe that they are on the cutting edge of these new mediums, thus they don’t feel like they have been well enabled to maximize their company’s presence in this new space.

Why the differences? Seems that most agencies are offering all the necessary elements (whether they are doing it themselves or not) to help clients do what they need to do in social and digital media – no? They know how to set up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, they know how to make banner ads and videos. Most either can create websites or have the resources externally to help them in this process…so what’s the problem? What aren’t marketers getting what they seem to be craving?

I suspect a lot has to do with the fact that there are agencies out there that simply haven’t started thinking strategically in this space. Based on what we’re seeing when we prospect on behalf of our agency clients, marketers seem to want to take it all to the next level, but don’t know how. They seem to be saying “Facebook and all that stuff is great, but now tell me how can I make it work to build my business?”. They’re asking “How can I integrate it into my total marketing campaign? How do I effectively plan and manage the social/digital space versus just passively letting all this stuff sit there? And am I really managing it in the most strategic, targeted, and cost efficient manner possible?”.

While we’re starting to see a slow, but steady increase in the number of agencies surfacing who are starting to think this way (and agencies appearing who only plan, consult and/or help marketers by shepherding them through the complexities of the social/digital space), there isn’t enough of it going on.

If you’re serious about being a “player” in the social/digital space, are serious about helping your clients stay current, and are serious about helping them maximize the benefits of their efforts, then take a step back. Don’t just think about the “what’s” (what are the tools available), but think about the “how’s”, the “why’s” and the “where’s” relative to carrying social/digital to the next level for your clients. There are plenty of white papers, perspective pieces, and blogs that speak to approaches to carry this to the next level. Here are two agencies that appear to be doing an exceptionally good job at helping clients in this space:

http://www.webliquidgroup.com/
http://www.meadigital.com/

Take a spin through their sites and blogs. There might be some good fodder to help you begin to shape your own customized approach to solving your clients’ challenges. If they aren’t looking for the strategic answers today….you can probably count on the fact that someday soon, they’ll wake up and realize that simply “doing” isn’t good enough…they’ll want to know the “how’s”, “why’s”, and “where’s” of social/digital media.