The content that leaves the strongest impact doesn’t detail a product’s every bell and whistle. Instead, it makes us feel something: happy, relieved, sad, angry, scared, etc. In this piece I recently contributed to SpinSucks.com I discuss how to use emotional theory to inspire a connection to your brand.
I read a statistic once about the frequency of floral deliveries in relation to the length of the relationship and as you might imagine, the longer the relationship had been around, the less often flowers got sent. It was an old article in Psychology Today and the point of the article was that in the mind of the sender, because he/she had been sending flowers for so long and because the relationship was stable — they viewed the flowers as less significant. Interestingly — from the recipient’s side of things, the exact opposite is true. The longer the relationship had been around and the less turbulent it was, the more the flowers meant because they were sent from the heart with no agenda other than to express the sender’s affection. The fact that they are frivolous and serve no functional purpose was part of the significance, from the receiver’s point of view. The article went on to talk about how during the courtship, gestures like sending flowers is almost expected. But once you’re an old married couple (I am paraphrasing) they’re more special because it’s not expected anymore. A few years ago, in one of our Agency Edge research projects, we identified that one of the triggers for a client to start being susceptible to another agency’s advances is because they feel like we don’t appreciate them anymore. We take the relationship for granted. When we were chasing after them — they got all of our time and attention. And we did it for free! But in many cases, they don’t feel our desire or love for them as much anymore. We don’t send flowers or write them love sonnets like we did in the [...]
Right now, many agencies struggle with the same serious problem. This issue can drag down profitability, lower employee engagement, and harm the reputation of the offending company, and in many cases, the biggest offenders are agency leaders. Unfortunately for clients and teams, some agency leaders struggle to keep their promises. We might be busy — and we usually have valid excuses — but those excuses don’t change the facts. Every time we fail to deliver something on time or on budget, whether it’s for an internal client or an external one, we erode a bit of the trust in ourselves and in our business. And we set an example that can destroy an agency’s reputation, ability to grow, and profits. Mot agencies (and agency owners) deal with this issue at some point. I know I have — as have many of the other owners we’ve worked with over the years. You can change yourself and your agency’s culture, but to do so, you have to start taking accountability seriously. Saying it matters is lovely. Demonstrating it matters is when your team will actually take notice. If it’s time for you to revitalize accountability inside your agency, an article I wrote for Forbes may hold some tips worth considering. But it starts with recognizing that it’s not okay just because you’re the boss. In fact, it should be less okay because we’re the boss. This was originally published in the weekly AMI newsletter. To subscribe, click here.
Like it or not, our clients expect us to be ahead of the curve. They’re counting on us to keep learning and evolving our services to keep up with the constant motion that our industry (and culture) is experiencing. How are you and your agency doing that? An interesting way to assess if your agency is staying current is to evaluate your offerings. Ask yourself these questions: What product/package or service are we offering clients today that we didn’t offer a year ago? How have we refined/improved some of the products/packages and services that we did offer a year ago? Have we evaluated them to make sure they’re still on point? Where has our knowledge base increased in terms of audience, sales, technology, or marketing trends? If we got called to provide a speaker for a conference called “Where marketing is going” who would we send and what would they say? Who in our shop is learning something new and how are they transferring that knowledge to the rest of the team? What’s next in terms of my own learning (topic, method of learning, etc.) I’m hoping your answers pleased you. If you struggled to answer some of these questions or don’t like the answers, then maybe it’s time to examine your agency’s commitment to lifelong learning. How are you communicating to your team that you expect them to keep growing and learning? How are you supporting that effort, not just financially, but also in terms of setting the example, teaching what you know/learn, celebrating people’s growth, etc. One of the aspects of our business that I love the most is that we get to keep learning. We need to know so much about our [...]
This is a topic you have to handle with care. People's views on vaccines can vary as well as their unique healthcare situations. In this piece I recently contributed to Mediapost.com I discuss how to create a vaccine policy for your agency and why it is important to be thoughtful about the parameters you put in place for your agency because employees and clients will likely have questions.
The pandemic wasn't the first time agency owners and advertising leaders "rented" talent. The 2008 recession forced many businesses to outsource advertising work. In this piece I recently contributed to MediaPost.com I discuss how by leveraging the abilities of outsourced partners, agencies can cover skill gaps while making better use of full-time employees.
COVID-19 forced HR professionals to adapt to a new business landscape. Now that we're entering a post-pandemic world, HR must evolve again. In this piece I recently contributed to TalentCulture.com I discuss the new responsibilities of HR to revisit their cultures and policies, helping them understand the importance of prioritizing diversity and inclusion, flexibility, and employee mental health.
They say that the only thing we fear more than public speaking is death -- but the process doesn't have to be that stress-inducing. In this piece I recently contributed to Entrepreneur.com I discuss how you can strategically approach landing paid or free speaking engagements and bolstering your thought leadership.
We all know it’s easier to sell to someone who knows and trusts us. In fact, it’s essential. We can either try to create that sense of connection and trust during the sales process or it can already exist long before the sales dance begins. I have seen many agencies build their entire biz dev strategy around the latter — creating opportunities for getting to know and collaborate with prospects and then initiating the sales conversation once that collaboration has build the foundation of the relationship. One of the methods for creating this pre-sales bond is by inviting your prospects to co-create content with you. Whether it is being a guest on your podcast, featuring them in an article you are writing, interviewing them for a book or some other way of putting the spotlight on them — it works. Forbes asked me to write about some best practices when it comes to collaborative content and I’m hoping you find it useful if you are thinking about deploying this strategy. By the way — this is also a brilliant strategy to help clients adopt as well. Practice on yourself, demonstrate how it works, and then create a program for them using the same methodology. It’s a very sustainable way to generate fees for the agency and new relationships/sales for your client! This was originally published in the weekly AMI newsletter. To subscribe, click here.
As an agency management consultant, I frequently ask agency owners what goals they’ve set for their businesses. Without exception, the first — and often only — goal they cite is more revenue. Unfortunately, revenue is a vanity metric. Bringing in more money might make you feel good, but it doesn’t always indicate meaningful growth. If you’re only monitoring and measuring revenue, you’re doing yourself a disservice. In this piece I recently contributed to Forbes.com I discuss how setting other growth goals is the key to moving forward and determining success.
