"Thanks for joining my network, Tom! I noticed you work for a recruiting agency. Have you heard about the NEW LinkedIn lead generation?? Let us bring recruited prospects to you on auto-pilot. If you would like to receive an infographic on how it works, please let me know and I'll send it your way. I look forward to talking to you in the near future, Tom, and hope you have a great day!" Have you ever received a LinkedIn Message like the one above? Don’t you love when people ask for the sale either as a first or second touch? Arggg. I hate those. People don't realize that you only get one chance to make a LinkedIn impression. But beyond that, it shows that so many people still don't understand the difference between Reaching and Connecting. More importantly, they don't understand how the difference is costing them potential sales. So let's talk about the difference and how it can power up your agency’s biz dev efforts. Reaching vs Connecting With Potential Clients The person who sent me the message above, who must be using his/her fancy pants software, has reached me five times in the last month. But he/she hasn't connected with me even once. Which begs the question, what do you really get when you reach a potential client? Nothing. Sure, you get to check a box in your CRM. You get to report that you reached that client the agency has always wanted to work with at some point. But if you reach them and they don't respond, did you really reach them? Did you make an impression? Did you start moving them down the Propinquity Pathway? I'd argue no. Chances are [...]

If you’ve heard me say it once, you’ve heard me say it 1,000 times — it’s tough to be a generalist out there. In simple terms, it means your competition is everyone from the 16-year-old kid who builds websites, to every freelancer, to 99 designs, to every other agency within your prospect’s knowledge base. I am a firm believer in positioning your agency (see solocast #190 — positioning your agency) and then leaning heavily into those niches. When you have a depth of knowledge in a particular space (industry vertical, audience or problem you solve, or in rare cases — a specialty offering like crisis communications) you can begin to build an authority position. Key to claiming that position of authority is creating content that demonstrates your expertise by teaching your audience what you know. (More on all of that in later newsletters! -- You can subscribe here) But who should be that voice of authority? Many agency owners see that ask as “do I really have to be the one who writes all of the blog posts and finds all of the podcast guests?" or whatever your creation demand is based on the channels you want to build out. That’s not what I’m talking about. Who should be the voice/face of your authority position is not the same question as who should create all the content. But let’s put a pin in that for now. If you are like some agency owners, the idea of being in the spotlight (literally or metaphorically) is pretty unappealing. And you’d like to have one or all of your employees step up into that role. Not an awesome idea. Why? Because like the Coca-Cola logo or PMS red [...]

While print advertising will likely never die and niche magazines continue to make a comeback, the reality is that most of today’s agencies lean heavily on some aspect of digital marketing. Whether you’re a digital native who now manages a digital agency or, like me, you’ve run a traditional agency for 25 years, your organization must learn from and adapt to digital skill sets. When it comes to your agency, how do you determine the best digital route for your business? In this piece I recently contributed to Forbes.com, I’ll give you a crash course on, what I consider to be, the best ways to integrate digital marketing into your business structure. As always, I’m eager to hear your feedback on the topic and how digital marketing has been of benefit to you.

Economists predict that a new recession will strike by 2021. Marketing agencies and departments suffer greatly during tough times, and if this next recession is anything like the last, marketers could be in for a rough couple of years. Fortunately, marketing leaders have plenty of time to prepare themselves—and their teams. As the possibility of recession draws nearer, keep these three marketing employment trends in mind: Employees have more options than ever. Some people assume the war for top talent is only being waged within the tech industry, but smart marketing execs know better. Today’s most talented marketers have plenty of employment options to choose from—freelancing included — which means businesses and agencies must make a compelling case to attract the best and brightest. Agencies have become one of the biggest talent pipelines for in-house teams. Clients who love their agencies often poach talent to cut costs. Some agency owners feel frustrated by their part-time roles as talent trainers, but unfortunately, that trend will continue until the recession arrives in earnest. To combat this, agency leaders must proactively recruit their own top talent. That translates to raises, promotions, and consistent praise and recognition for top performers. Great employees deserve to operate in environments where they feel valued, and if agency owners don’t provide that environment, in-house teams will. Whether you lead an in-house team or an agency, prioritize employee satisfaction to keep your best team members happy. Push them too far (or fail to recognize their value), and another talent-hungry organization will be happy to provide what you didn’t. Employees want to work asynchronously and remotely. Today’s employees think differently about the nature of work. The agency owners and executives of yesteryear wanted all their [...]

In the marketing services industry, CMOs struggle to cross the marketing talent gap and, as a result, turn to performance-driven agency partners. But those partners are struggling to meet the needs of the market.  Agencies are expected to be immersed in marketing technology and well-versed in core disciplines like content marketing, SEO, paid search, social media monitoring and analytics. But many fail to attract, close and service business opportunities because they struggle to hire adequate talent, integrate new technology and address evolving client needs profitably. The result? Companies are taking marketing in-house, reports Mark Schaefer in Harvard Business Review, because agencies fail to evolve their services and skills fast enough to create value. It’s a huge problem for agencies, and one that artificial intelligence can help them address. Artificial intelligence presents a way for agencies to create more value faster, as well as automate, augment and accelerate their operations—improving results for clients and the bottom line.   Automate Consider how much time your team spends on repetitive and administrative tasks, such as drafting social media updates, writing data-driven blog posts, personalizing emails and website copy, managing paid media spend, conducting keyword research and more.  Even with the use of marketing automation software, most of these tasks require significant human involvement, distracting agencies from high-value strategic activities that drive lasting value for clients and the bottom line.  But what if we told you every one of these tasks, and many more, could be done more efficiently using artificial intelligence technology today? Tools like Automated Insights and Narrative Science can write stories at scale from data, vastly reducing the time it takes to write internal reports or external-facing content. A solution like Albert by Adgorithms optimizes paid [...]