3 Takeaways Ep19 – Traditional Blogging Alternatives To Help You Drive Agency New Business

Welcome to “3 Takeaways”, Traditional Blogging Alternatives To Help You Drive Agency New Business.

Let’s start out with a stat from “Social Media Today” (and an infographic I’ll link to in the video description): Websites with blogs get 55% more traffic.

Content creation will help you get more new business.  You know it and you’re probably tired of hearing it. Understandable. Another stat, from our 2018 Thought Leader Report: 42% of agencies tell us they either place little marketing behind their lead gen efforts, or don’t do lead gen or marketing at all.

That’s a lot, but it’s not surprising: time is at a premium, everyone’s wearing a lot of hats, and content is a complete time suck. Nevertheless, you have to do it, in some shape or form, to diversify and grow your client base. But creating content doesn’t always mean writing weekly blog posts. So for your 3 takeaways today, here are alternatives to traditional blogging, to make your process easier.

Your first takeaway is: Consider Instagram. Hold on! Before you stop watching because you know all about Instagram, consider a few things.  1) A great majority of your prospects are on that platform. 2) Whatever you post there, you can post on other platforms, like LinkedIn, either directly, or by posting the same content and caption and 3) it suits agencies well, even if you’re not a creative agency. Because I know many of you are thinking, we’re not a creative agency, so we don’t have that visual “Ad” to post.

I would posit that agencies really aren’t using Instagram as well as they could be for new business.  Sure, if you’re one of the big agencies, you can post that new brilliant creative with a one line caption and you’re good to go.  But I’m speaking to you, small to mid-sized agencies.  Yes you can post creative, if that’s who you are, but do more real-life, in-the process, posts about your agency work, at all the different stages.  Could be actual images of your team, or could be images of the process on whiteboards or desks-what’s key, is turning them into ongoing mini case studies.  Don’t just caption, “doing great B2B work for a client”, or “really crushing it”-instead, concisely describe what type of work it is, for what type of client it is (as specific as you can get at that point), what stage you’re in, and how it will help solve a particular business challenge for that client.  Tell a short, ongoing story of what you’re doing through images and demonstration of the work.  You’re showing your expertise, telling a story, ultimately providing a case study and humanizing the agency all at once.  And again, you could post each of these on your blog as well.

Takeaway Two: Simplify your content process

Specifically when it comes to actual blogging. We had a client who, once a week, would take an article specific to their vertical and the first part of every post would be a paragraph synopsis of the main points. And the remaining 2-3 paragraphs would be their take on it, based on their expertise in the sector and specific knowledge of the challenges inherent to the vertical.

Not rocket science, but agencies don’t tend to stick with a content strategy.  It worked for our client and it was, and is, a great way to get started, or restarted, without having to spend time creating original posts ongoing. And it provides a snapshot of your thinking and knowledge-exactly what your prospects want to see.

It also gets you in the habit of writing, where you might eventually create original posts. Or not. Regardless, take the plunge.  Start with a post like the above every 2 weeks. I think you’ll find, providing your perspective in short bursts is actually enjoyable-you’ll look forward to doing it.

And your third takeaway: Consider video

Now this one I know is not for everyone, and may seem daunting. It is an initial investment up front for equipment, if that doesn’t exist, but-you can do some pretty amazing things with your phone these days, in terms of quality. And post-production software is getting consistently less expensive.

We can speak from experience: it works.  We’re 19 episodes in the can in this video series, and I can point directly to three clients who have come on board because of it.

Yes, it takes time, as we do our best to stick to a release every 2 weeks or so.  I can tell you though, writing a script tends to be easier than a post, at least in my opinion.  There was an initial learning curve and we’re still learning a lot, but once you get into a repeatable rhythm, it gets more manageable. And a simple Google search will provide voluminous stats on why you should have a video strategy. And Like Instagram, these videos can become your blog posts.

And I’ll leave you with 2 bonus takeaways, to reinforce why you have to create some kind of content: the first: not a lot of your agency peers are doing it. And because of that, it gives you an immediate strategic new business advantage. It also shows your prospects you walk your own walk.

And your second bonus takeaway: Some of your agency peers ARE doing it, and they’re taking business that could be yours. Either way-jump in that pool now.

I'm the VP of Sales at RSW/US. We specialize in working with services firms to help drive and close new business-if you need help with that, email me at lee@rswus.com. What I actually do: drive sales efforts to bring ad agencies and services firms on board with RSW, create content around successful new business tactics and help drive RSW/US marketing objectives, including social media channels, blog content, webinars, video and speaking engagements. Dig it.