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Looking Ahead into the Future of Business for Agencies

As agency leaders, we’re as good as our last idea. So we’re always on the lookout for fresh thinking and emerging trends to take to our clients. But how do we do that in today’s overloaded information age where there is never enough time and so many other distractions? And how can we look into the future of business as it relates to the agency space? “Open your eyes, get out of your comfort zone, and learn about the world around you.” These are the words of wisdom from my podcast guest, Rohit Bhargava.   Rohit is a non-obvious trend curator and an expert in helping brands and leaders be more influential. He helps agencies re-think their role when it comes to what they're supposed to be doing for their customers. In his mind, it all comes down to understanding a customer's true business need, rather than what they think they’re asking for. It’s looking around, being curious and finding the non-obvious in the everyday.    Some highlights of our conversation include: Working as a solopreneur vs. working in an agency Rohit’s trend report that started as a blog post Habits for being a trend spotter Big trends for 2016 What lies ahead for the future of business for agencies VR: How Virtual Reality can become important to agencies Data overload: what will happen when all the data available to different parties eventually gets pooled together? Understanding your clients’ true needs and becoming their true partner Architecting an Innovation Day to open up your clients’ wallets How to teach trend-creating thinking to employees coming out of college Rohit Bhargava is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of five books on topics as wide ranging as [...]

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The Evolution of Digital Marketing in the Agency Space with Nick Westergaard

A lot of agencies are still trying to figure out how to wrap their arms around digital since the evolution of digital marketing - what it means, how they deliver the benefits of it to their clients, what parts of digital to embrace internally and what parts to outsource. My podcast guest Nick Westergaard has been down that road already and has blazed a trail for the rest of us to follow.   Nick’s agency transformed from a very traditional ad agency (Westergaard Agency) to the digital powerhouse they are today -- Brand Driven Digital. They saw the writing on the wall with the evolution of digital marketing and decided to jump in with both feet and make some big changes to keep moving their agency moving forward. They even went so far as to launch a live, in-person annual event called the Social Brand Forum to bring all things digital to the Midwest. Nick and I explore all the ways that you too can look outside your box and move your agency forward in the digital space with: How Nick took his traditional agency and transitioned it to becoming a digital powerhouse The evolution of digital marketing versus traditional marketing in the agency space The differences and similarities between traditional and digital marketing and why they really aren’t all that different Social Brand Forum: Brand Driven Digital’s yearly live event The business strategy behind having a live event Why you should get out and attend events The importance of prioritizing your agency as a client Why experimentation is so important for your agency’s success Nick Westergaard is a strategist, speaker, author, and educator. He is the chief brand strategist at Brand Driven Digital, where [...]

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Digital Media Buying, Programmatic Buying & Real-Time Bidding Best Practices with Jay Friedman

If you’ve been in the agency business for any length of time you know that nothing is static in our world. But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a constant state of change like our industry is in now. Many of these evolutionary changes in our business surround digital media buying, programmatic buying, and real-time bidding in the digital paid media space.  These things are no longer an option anymore; they are a necessity. This is a topic that I know you’re hungry to learn more about, so, in this podcast, Jay Friedman and I talk about the ways agencies can use these tools to effectively market themselves and reach their target audiences in the digital media space. In this podcast, Jay will help you make sense of this changing environment by showing you: how programmatic buying flips the status quo by asking the questions that really matter when starting out what it takes to get started and build momentum how you can get the results you want when starting in the digital media space the steps he recommends agencies take to effectively use programmatic buying and digital media for success how agencies can become more educated and find the right partners to effectively market themselves in the digital media space. ways agencies can utilize programmatic buying for better accuracy in targeting to their audiences. Jay Friedman is a nationally recognized and accomplished digital media expert, speaker, writer and author. Jay has been with the Goodway Group for the past 10 years in their digital division.  You'll find him often at some top industry conferences, writing for lead industry publications and websites. He's even written some books. Some of his latest books are the 7th [...]

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Guaranteeing Your Work Using Predictive Marketing with Stephen Woessner

I know and work with a lot of agency owners who do incredible work for their clients but very few of them are willing to guarantee that work with predictive marketing and write their clients a refund check if it doesn’t deliver the results. Are you willing to guarantee your work? To make that kind of promise — you’d better be ready to bring the goods. In my podcast conversation with Stephen Woessner we dig into how today’s agency needs to understand their client’s need for verifiable and predictive ROI and that the agencies that can deliver on that expectation, can plan on a long and fruitful existence. To build that kind of agency — it takes a brilliant methodology, incredible transparency and more accountability than most agencies have in their processes. But it is possible.  And highly profitable. Stephen and I talk predictive marketing specifics about how agencies can deliver leads and sales for their clients and best of all — get credit for doing so. We get into the nitty gritty of issues like bounce rates and the impact that has on sales and we talk philosophically about recognizing that your clients exist in a holistic ecosystem and their agency had better be able to influence every facet of it. You’ll be taking notes through this one so be prepared. To listen – you can visit the Build A Better Agency site (https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/stephen-woessner/) and grab either the iTunes or Stitcher files or just listen to it from the web. If you’d rather just read the conversation, the transcript is below. If you're going to take the risk of running an agency, shouldn't you get the benefits too? Welcome to Build a Better Agency, [...]

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Essential Business Building Strategies You Need to Grow Your Agency with Jason Falls

As an agency owner, you know that if you're not ready to evolve your agency with business building strategies, you'd better get ready to retire. The agency business is undergoing an incredible metamorphosis and most agency owners are running at full speed to keep up. That's where my conversation with Jason Falls, Senior Vice-President, Digital Strategy at Elasticity and author of several books on social media and email marketing, started. (listen to the podcast here) From there we move to agency hierarchy and structure, the impact of millennials on current day politics and the importance of building strategic alliances. It's a whirlwind hour of debate, stories and a few good laughs.  I think you'll not only enjoy it, but you'll also get some business building strategies you can put into play right away. To listen – you can visit the Build A Better Agency site (https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/jason-falls/) and grab either the iTunes or Stitcher files or just listen to it from the web. If you’d rather just read the conversation, the transcript is below. If you're going to take the risk of running an agency, shouldn't you get the benefits too? Welcome to Build a Better Agency, where we show you how to build an agency that can scale and grow with better clients, invest in employees, and best of all, more money to the bottom line. Bringing his 25 plus years of expertise as both an agency owner and agency consultant to you, please welcome your host, Drew McLellan. Drew: Hey everybody, this is Drew McLellan, and I am really excited to be with you today. As an agency owner, I know all too well the risks we take every day. This podcast is about making sure if we're going to take [...]

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Hey Agency Owner – How’s Your Thought Leadership Strategy?

We work hard to help our agency clients embrace thought leadership as a way to position themselves as a premiere choice among their competitors. Which means we need to walk our talk, eat our own dog food or whatever cliché you'd like to use to prove that it works. We're very grateful that many other publications seek us out to comment on various aspects of the agency business and we're always excited about sharing what we've learned and try to teach. Rather than making you hop all over the web looking for Agency Management Institute's examples of thought leadership -- we thought we'd give you this handy list. As always -- we'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the topics below. Digital Marketer -- 4 Ways to Build a Better Agency with Smarter Hires The Agency Post -- How to Stop Your Client From Shopping Around B2B Marketing -- 5 Ways to Avoid the Last Minute New Business Crunch Washington Post -- Overstaffing Can Break Your Small Business iMedia Connection -- Why You Need to Stop Billing By the Hour Smart Insights -- How Can Agency Account Managers Build Better Client Relationships Marketing Agency Insider -- 10 Ways to Establish Order in Your Advertising Agency HR.com -- When You Should Hire Full Time Staff Digiday -- Time to Retire the Digital Jedi The Agency Post -- Use Content to Tell Your Agency's Story The Agency Post -- Building An Internal Content Strategy for the Long Haul Score.org -- How to Transition from Corporate Thinking to Small Business Thinking CEO.com -- 4 Ways to Compete With the Big Guys Steamfeed -- One Page: The Short, Simple Way to Plan Your Agency's Future Linked2Leadership -- On Leadership, Workshops and Organizational Health Under 30 CEO -- Why Good Writing Matters and 4 Ways to Teach It to Your Team LinkedIn -- Marketers -- Take Digital Out of Your Vocabulary Washington [...]

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Hey agency owner – New research reveals that CMOs don’t want just you

Agency Management Institute has partnered with Audience Audit (a firm that does custom attitudinal segmentation research) and Luth Research (Provided the audience research panel) to talk to CMOs and business owners across the US about how they feel about and make decisions about their work with agencies. This research provided great data on new business trends that are prevalent in the agency industry.It's a "look under the hood” of what truly motivates marketing agency partnership decisions and their longevity. It’s quantitative insight at what they are thinking and the results were fascinating.Agencies usually look at marketing decision-makers and their organizations from a demographic perspective but we found that their attitudes are much more relevant than their demographics when it comes to the roles they want their agencies to play, how they find and choose the agencies they work with, and the aspects of agencies they find most valuable (and most frustrating).Our new business trends research opened our eyes to a ton of insights about where CMOs' heads are at.  The results revealed 3 key audience segments:“Looking for Love” (29% of respondents) segment value agencies as a critical partner for business success.For this group, agencies are a key participant in strategic planning efforts, a trusted source of new ideas and insights about marketing trends, and a tactical partner across a wide range of marketing services and expertise.They feel it’s important to develop a long-term relationship with an agency, and expect that if their agency doesn’t have an answer they’ll know where to find it.“Playing the Field” (38% of respondents) segment sees hiring a marketing or advertising agency as a necessary evil to gain specialized expertise.They prefer to work with subject matter experts, and feel it’s important to change agencies periodically even if they’re doing [...]

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Hey agency owner — Should PR be part of your mix?

I work with over 200 agencies a year and the ones who are really crushing their AGI goals are the ones who have blended digital and PR into their shops. The addition of PR into a traditional ad shop (even one who has made the leap to digital) brings all kinds of new revenue opportunities to your agency. Traditional PR and media placements, media training etc. Digital PR -- everything from guest blogging to securing back links Content marketing -- creating content, curating content, thought leadership Crisis communications planning and prep Reputation management I get it -- you’ve established yourself as an advertising agency. You have a list of devoted clients. Your work has earned you numerous industry awards and the respect and admiration of your peers. So why should you consider branching out into PR? I asked Nancy Marshall -- Maine's PR Maven, who is co-leading AMI's Build a PR Department Inside Your Agency workshop this November 6th and 7th to share her thoughts on how adding PR to your shop would add value.  Here's what she said. Here are five ways PR will improve your entire agency: You will be able to generate a bigger and better ROI for your clients. Let’s face it, advertising and PR work best when used together, reaching for the same goal. It will create an additional revenue stream for your agency. You will now be able to pitch prospects seeking PR services exclusively, representing an entirely new pool of potential clients for your agency. You can also upsell PR services to your existing clients. PR will add value to your client relationships. Current and prospective clients will like the fact that they can work with one agency to meet [...]

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Hey agency owner – are you finding the agency of record model a thing of the past?

As the marketing world changes, so does what the client thinks they need.  It used to be that agencies could handle print, broadcast and PR of even a big brand easily. Now, those brands are turning to several agencies to handle specific parts of their business.  These agency teams break down areas like mobile, digital, experiential marketing, and social media, as well as the traditional marketing avenues.  Each member of the team takes on a specific function. Forbes asked me to write about this new world agencies find themselves in and the pressure to specialize. There may be advantages to the client in this new world, but there are also potential pitfalls for both agency and brand.  Effective collaboration is the key, but often hard to achieve. If you’ve had this experience with a bigger brand and now find yourself in an agency team of record, how have you adjusted your process to accommodate the communication and collaboration necessary?  What challenges have you faced?  I want to hear your experiences…

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Where do you get your intelligence?

One of the biggest challenges for agency leaders today is stay on top of the trends, shifts and ever-shifting landscape so they can help their clients stay plugged in.  It's tough to find reliable sources that aren't either so well known they don't provide an edge or are so far out there that they're too speculative. For many agencies, Ad-ology's Marketing Forecast is a key source that provides that edge.  If you're not familiar with them...check out this month's Marketing Forecast. [youtube]http://youtu.be/vQtCNZRGgkw   If you find that useful -- check out their YouTube channel with over 100 videos.

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