I’ll set the scene: Your agency is a finalist in an important pitch. You’ve got a presentation filled with ideas- In fact, it’s overflowing. You’ve got too much you want to say and not enough time to say it. Of greater concern, you’re not sure how compelling it is at all. Your team worked like dogs getting their sections ready, and the work is good, but when woven together, the presentation feels a little Frankenstein-esque. You take a break, leave the war room, and go for a walk to ruminate. Before you know it, you’re thinking about why you got into this business in the first place. You were planning on writing that novel and then… You think, "Whatever. I can still write that novel someday. But for now, there’s nothing better than witnessing how a germ of a creative idea can transform a business." Each day, you embrace the joys and sorrows of running an agency. Yes, joys and sorrows, because every single challenge you’ve met on the way has taught you something. Each frustrating problem you overcame shaped your values! Then you think about the client whose business you want to win. You think about the challenges they’re facing. You recognize their anxiety. They’ve got some big choices to make. Some are safe; others are riskier. That’s where you come in. And you realize that at the heart of the disjointed pitch deck pinned up on the war room wall is an idea so bold it could transform this client’s business. It’s not without its risks, of course. You’ve done the work dozens of times before—and often with stunning results. It’s why you’re in this business. It’s why you built this agency in the first [...]

Most clients hate feeling pressured to pay for services — even those they desperately need. After more than 30 years in the agency world, I’ve learned that it’s much easier to turn a friendly, low-pressure connection into a client than it is to hard sell a prospect. Prospective clients don’t go around advertising their desire to get acquainted, though. The agency must usually make the first move — that’s where content collaboration comes in. Content that puts the spotlight on a client is an effective way to make genuine connections that frequently lead to sales. To adopt a collaborative mindset and leverage client-focused content, agencies may need to rethink how they approach the creative process and audience engagement. In this piece that I contributed to Forbes.com, I discuss methods of collaborating within your network and ways in which you can form business relationships that are mutually beneficial. Tell me, how have some of your best business collaborations formed and what did you do to initiate the opportunity?  

If you want to get an MBA from the streets, learn how to run an advertising agency. If you don’t know me, I’m Arsham Mirshah, one of two co-founders of WebMechanix. We’re coming up on 10 years in business. In that time, I’ve grown a thriving, nearly-50 employee digital marketing agency (with equal help from my co-founder, Chris Mechanic). WebMechanix has grown from an idea in a townhouse to one of the top-ranked agencies in the DC/MD/VA area according to Clutch.co and other directories. Along the way, I’ve learned running an agency might very well be the hardest business to run. With that, comes countless business lessons. Here are ten of the most important lessons in entrepreneurship, one for each year of business. Discipline One of my biggest discoveries as a CFO is that you must establish a rigid, recurring routine. For me, a strict routine means knowing: Every Tuesday, we get and process checks and update Account Receivables. Every Wednesday, we do collections. Every Thursday, we look at collections, see who is overdue, and tell the marketing team to stop working on tasks for those who are overdue. Every Friday, we look at cash flow and expenses, so we can print checks based on the cash available. Every week, I know what to do every single day, and I do the same tasks. I don’t care if there’s a tornado or hurricane, we do what we planned to do based on the schedule we established. It’s why I stress the importance of having a routine. Discipline also translates to evaluating reports. I look at the Profit & Loss statement at least once a week. If there’s a spike, I find out what went wrong [...]

Whether you’re just getting started as a speaker or you have lots of speaking experience, it’s helpful to understand the tactics and strategies of the speaking world and what you need to do to get onto the stage more frequently to boost exposure for you and your agency. Many people are unaware that the vast majority of speaking engagements are not paid engagements. How can this be, you ask? Why would anyone give up their time and provide an audience with useful knowledge and not get paid for it? While some meeting organizers are sometimes willing to pay for a longer format than a 45-60-minute presentation, such as a workshop, it’s important to keep in mind that most events have a policy of not paying speakers other than the keynote speaker and possibly one or two featured speakers. It would be unaffordable for them to do otherwise. Further, most speakers and panelists are not interested in speaking as an income source. Rather, subject matter experts are usually trying to grow a non-speaking business, such as an agency or some other professional services firm. They look to speaking as a great way to create or boost awareness for their business and personal brand, so doing free gigs is a good business strategy. Speaking is also a great way to demonstrate thought leadership. Let’s focus primarily on unpaid speaking engagements and how to obtain those gigs. Speaking is a great way to expose your expertise to prospective customers and clients. Conferences, seminars and forums held by independent event organizers, associations, and professional and industry trade groups all offer the opportunity to reach your target customers. Furthermore, speaking often results in the attainment of business, by providing increased [...]

What is thought leadership in marketing? Thought leadership is one of the hottest trends in marketing, but it may also be one of the oldest tactics in the book. Today, informed consumers want to know everything about the brands they support. Sadly, many marketing teams take that as a license to churn out generic thought leadership that does little to show audiences why they should care. But it’s the team’s responsibility to create meaningful content: its members must cultivate thought leadership strategies that forge real connections with audiences. In this article that I contributed to SpinSucks.com, I discuss the value of intentional thought leadership content creation and the value of follower loyalty. If you want to leverage thought leadership content but have struggled to do so in the past, don’t get discouraged. Continue reading and I’ll outline the most important ideals to cling to when mapping out your way forward. If you’re looking to learn more at an in-person event covering topics similar to “what is thought leadership in marketing?”, sign up for our Money Matters workshop. If you’re already an AMI member - register for our money matters workshop with your discount here.  Not a member? Learn more here.  

Long gone are the days when agency business development was just the combination of a prospect database, an automated direct mail program and a tenacious new business “Hawk.” Ask most anyone today charged with reeling in client prospects how they do it and they speak to the vast array of present options. All said, all things work or nothing seems to work from within the choices now on the table. Consider the obvious.  Your agency has a website with as much SEO as your IT staffers swear they know. By hook, crook or accident your site is getting traffic. Do you know what kind and by whom? Three services that can help answer that question are www.kickfire.com, www.clickback.com and www.leadforensics.com.  But they all suffer the same drawback – they can’t identify precisely who the visitor was because that’s against the “rules.” However, those programs do have value. Those prospect visits are gold in the making. Let me introduce 5 easy agency hacks for new business development that spring from those visits. Contact Us Tab An unofficial and unscientific survey suggests that more than 50% of agency websites fail to identify where they are – as in city, street, State, then zip, phone, fax and email. The ruinous but narrow minority resort to fill-in-the-blanks forms – “tell us visitor who you are, where you are, and then adding insult to injury, tell us what you want!” Client visitors know the Worldwide Internet is “worldwide” and most know where they want their new agency to be. If you were selling an “item” maybe China is acceptable, but as a service, they want close if not closer. Golden rule – show them where you are and how to get in touch in proud glorious detail. Team Tab [...]

At many small businesses in America, health insurance costs are second only to payroll. As a longtime agency owner, I’ve gone through all the typical frustrations of employee healthcare planning. Most providers make it seem like business owners have little control over benefits packages: We can either sit tight and hope our premiums don’t spike every year, or we can look for another provider with nearly identical prices and policies. In this article I contributed to Score.org, I provide tips that will not make healthcare cheap for your small business, but they will help you trim the fat without sacrificing your employees’ well-being. Work with your agent and fiduciary partner to discover more options that could help you save.