Future-Proofing Your Agency: Be like a Beaver
Your new business prospects are looking for something to sink their teeth into.
As our series on future-proofing your agency has illustrated, marketers are consolidating agencies, and agencies are intensifying their agency new business efforts.
Amid this increasingly competitive activity, marketers are telling us they receive information from hundreds of agencies who sound a lot alike.
I can easily understand this. At a gathering of about twenty agencies I attended recently, I asked each for their “elevator speech”, and they basically came back all the same: “strategic, great partner, extra mile, fun to work with”.
HOW’S A MARKETER TO CHOOSE?
In addition to differentiation, future-proofing your agency requires strategic content development that will showcase your expertise and thought leadership. And those factors are still only two in the equation for sustained success as an Agency of the Future. The remaining factor is proactive outreach, connecting your content with your contacts with regular frequency.
Our Agency of the Future infographic highlights the traits of the Beaver as a “content creator” along with the fact that 89% of Marketers read agency blog posts.
And if you think further about Beaver behavior, they are truly “ecosystem engineers”. Intent and purpose are behind everything they create. They put available resources to use to create, modify and maintain their habitat.
In the marketing and advertising world, this is exactly what agencies need to do to stand out to their marketing prospects!
To “engineer YOUR ecosystem”:
- Create your point of difference.
- Develop thought leader perspective around your areas of expertise.
- Diligently build a stream of content that showcases your expertise.
- As importantly, proactively reach out to your prospects and make sure your message connects with them.
Intentionally engineer your “ecosystem”. Be a content creator – and broadcaster.
BE THE BEAVER!
Mark Sneider
Mark is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and marketing service industry. Mark started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to earning his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in Marketing and Economics. Prior to starting RSW/US in 2005, Mark was General Manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in Marketing for S.C. Johnson and KAO Brands. Sneider has been invited to speak at numerous Agency events and network conferences domestically and internationally including the 4A’s, Magnet, NAMA, TAAN, and MCAN. Sneider has been featured in prominent industry publications including Adweek, Media Post, e-Marketer, and Forbes. When not working (which often seems like not often), Mark likes to run miles, go to church, and just chill with a hard copy issue of Fast Company.
