Content marketing is all the rage but most of it is just packaging. Frankly -- agencies have been using content marketing for decades for their clients. It's not new. But what I think is new is the idea that agencies should use content to attract prospects for themselves. This type of content management strategy was [...]
A personal development network is a great way to grow as an agency owner and employee, and your agency will succeed because of it. Back in the early days of my agency career, I worked for a shop that would not allow employees from other agencies into our building. So if you were hosting an [...]
Every good agency is big on planning for their clients. They facilitate strategic plans, they build marketing plans and they guide clients through the process of developing a digital strategy that can be woven into their overall communications plan. But agencies stink at planning for themselves. Which is why I created a one page business [...]
Every agency owner knows that they need to devote more time and attention to their business but they're so busy helping clients with THEIR business, it's tough to carve out the time to take care of your own. Any time I chat with an agency owner, they admit they struggle with the same issue -- [...]
I have never met an agency owner who believes they don't leave money on the table when it comes to a change order request. No agency is great at change orders and most -- are abismal. You have to get a mindset when you are working with changes. When the work has been approved by [...]
Be honest agency owner, you know that your account executive team is great. But sometimes they struggle when it comes to actual sales. Enter our account executive sales training workshop. 67% of an agency's new business revenue comes from existing clients (on average). The people who are (or sadly -- are not) going to bring [...]
Every business has a sales life cycle and communications agencies (whether you're an ad agency, digital, PR, etc.) are no exception. It used to be pretty straightforward -- you either chased after a prospect or met them at some networking event or got a referral but the face to face happened early on. Today, an [...]
A non-compete agreement form is like fire insurance. It's a sickening feeling to see the smoldering ruins of your just-burned house, and wish you'd bought the insurance policy. The time to create your non-compete agreement is before you get burned. There's a widespread belief among the advertising agencies that we meet in our workshops and [...]
A couple weeks ago, I spent two days leading a workshop for account executives. In AMR's AE Bootcamps -- we talk a lot about how an AE is basically running a division of the agency and is responsible for the financial health of their division. Our goal is to help AEs realize that they have [...]
How do you track billable time in an agency, and how many hours should ad agency employees work? This is a question that comes up all the time in my work with agencies. The expectation in terms of a work week ranges from 37.5 hours a week to 50 hours a week although most agencies [...]
