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How agencies should use content to attract prospects

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 the focus of an article I wrote for The Agency Post before the holidays. Agencies are, by their very nature, superb story tellers.  And they have an incredible depth of knowledge when it comes to marketing strategy, their own agency's niches, etc.  I get the whole "we're too busy doing it for our clients to do it for ourselves excuse" but honestly -- that needs to stop. In theory, agencies should be perfectly structured to create content so intriguing that people never want to leave the conversation. But the reality is most agencies practice a conservative approach with their content management strategy because they are paranoid about sharing anything of genuine value. They fear their competition might see it or that they might turn away potential clients because of what is posted. They’re also afraid that if they give knowledge away for free, the reader might never become a client. This is why most agencies are still just curating content or talking about their business, which of course means they’re not inspiring anyone. They are simply restating their company slogan or biography to exhaustion. If what you have to offer is high quality and helpful to the client, he or she will come back. Today, the model for professional services new business efforts is -- you give first.  Share something of value.  Demonstrate your expertise.  Show me you know your [...]

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Resolve to collaborate more in 2013: Agency Networks work

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 Ad Club meeting or some other event that involved agencies from the area -- you had to take it off site.  When I asked why the rule exists I was told, "what if they walked by and saw some of our work for a client.  They could go after our clients." I thought it was a bit paranoid back then, even though I was professionally wet behind the ears. Now, 30 years later, I think it was ridiculous.  If your relationship with your client is so tenuous that you're at that sort of risk -- then you're going to lose that client in a hurry no matter who knows you're working together.  While that agency's policy was an extreme, it was very representative of the attitude most agencies have about their competition -- other agencies.  They are the enemy.  We must keep them at arm's length. I've always had the opposite attitude.  If our work is good and our relationship rock solid -- no one can steal that client away.  Which means we should be free to enjoy the benefits of connecting and collaborating with the talented and smart people who are drawn to agency work - even if they work for our biggest competition. That's probably what drew me to AMR and the agency networks from the beginning.  The idea that I could sit around a table with 11 [...]

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One page business plan template for agencies

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 plan template for agencies.  Everyone can fill out a single page, right? I'm not going to preach the reasons why planning matters.  You know why.  You preach it every day. Instead, let me tell you a little bit about the plan template and how you can use it to grow your agency in 2013.  I designed the template to accomplish a few goals. You need to grow your agency holistically -- rather than focusing on just one or two problem areas. You need to do more than just identify some goals.  I want you to flesh out the first few steps of actually getting started. Every goal has obstacles.  This template will help you identify those right up front. You shouldn't forget the less sexy aspects of the business like systems as you do your planning. You can either work through this planning on your own, with your leadership team or depending on the size of your agency, with your entire team.  While the end goal is to have a map for the upcoming year, one of the big benefits of putting together a plan is the process itself.  These are the kinds of conversations you don't have very often.  Listen carefully and closely to what your employees have to say.  You might gain much more than you bargained for when you use this one page business plan template for [...]

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How to make time to work on the 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 --  how to make time to work on the business. Agency owners need strategic planning tips in order to make time to work on their businesses. Every agency owner knows the way to more profits, more success and ultimately, more satisfaction is to invest the time to not only serve your clients but to work ON your business.  To think strategically about how to improve what's already working, fix what's not and plan for the next zig or zag you need to make. But, as I meet with agency owners from all over North America -- I find that most of them really struggle with this.  Are you wondering how to make time to work on your business? Here are five strategic planning tips that will get you focused on YOUR business and not everyone else’s. Re-think your relationship with email: Email is like crack cocaine for most agency owners.  Between their laptops, tablets and smart phones, they are checking email several times an hour, feeling this burning sense of urgency to answer within seconds of receiving the latest.  If you want to find time to work on the business, you'll need to tame your email addiction. Here's the reality.  If a client or staff members needs you, they will probably send an email first.  But if they don't get a quick reply -- what do you think they'll do next?  Right [...]

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The One-Time-Only Rule (OTO)

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 the client and he/she has signed off, you can move to the next step. Inevitably, somewhere along the way, there will be changes which impact the budget, the amount of time/effort put into the work, potentially out of pocket costs like printing, and the delivery timeframe. The only way -- let me repeat that -- the only way to maintain the same level of profit that you budgeted for at the outset is to create a change order request. If the client wants to change the work, you need to prepare a change order that is the authorization to modify the budget (and potentially the timeline)  for the change/work. Once the work is approved, going back and re-doing the work is a billable situation. Imagine that you are remodeling your bathroom. The original plan that you signed calls for one sink. After you see the single-sink you decide you’d really like two sinks. Does the contractor say, “Hey! No problem. We’ll get right at that and put in the second sink”? Well, partially correct. He will agree to make the change, but you’re going to have to pay additional dollars to take out the new-old single sink and install a new countertop with two sinks. And, you can bet your life on it, a good contractor will have you sign for the additional work and funds required before he resumes [...]

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Do your AEs bristle at the word sales?

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 in those additional dollars are your account executive team.  They interact with their clients every day.  They propose new work, they know when the client has hit a barrier (and maybe needs some marketing help to leap over it) and they drive that client's activity. Sounds like sales to me.  But if your AEs think and behave more like relationship managers, you're not alone.  When surveyed, agency owners had these frustrations about the people on their account team: Sometimes they behave like they work for the client, not the agency They don't know how to listen for problems we can help solve They don't understand the business of owning or running a business They don't think new business or sales within our existing clients They let the client lead too much Sound familiar?  That's why we developed our Account Service Advanced Training workshop.  We spend two days teaching GOOD account service people how to really help grow their agency's AGI, reputation, new business (both from existing clients and brand new) and their network.  We talk numbers.  We talk strategy.  And we talk sales. When the participants leave the executive sales training workshop, sales is no longer a dirty or scary word.  They come back fired up and excited to stretch their wings. But don't take our word for it.  Here's what some past participants have had to say: “My AE [...]

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Do you know your agency’s sales life cycle?

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 agency's sales cycle is 70+% done before the prospect ever reaches and even has an email interaction with the agency. Every agency needs to map out their sales funnel, understanding that the first three-quarters of it happens prior to contact.  The visual shown here is my agency's (MMG) sales funnel. (If you click here, you can see it full sized). The left side of our sales life cycle shows the prospect's relationship to the agency at the time.  It flows from I've never heard of you to I'm a customer.  The question is how do you move a potential client through the funnel when you don't even know they're out there? You use your content marketing, social media, SEO and active prospecting to capture their fleeting attention and then you begin to serve up content that demonstrates that your expertise could help them achieve their business goals. Once they're paying attention to your smarts, you also need to give them a chance to get to know your agency's culture, values and what it's like to do business with you. Now, they start to like you. That's usually when they actually initiate contact and you have a shot at actively pursuing their account. As you can see by the bottom of the diagram -- you shouldn't leave current clients out of the equation. You need to be re-earning their business every [...]

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Advertising agency non-compete agreements

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 consulting that non-compete agreements are not enforceable. We do all we can to dispel that belief. We're not attorneys so we won't attempt to give you legal advice, other than say a properly written non-compete agreement form required by the agency and signed by the employee is binding upon both parties. Doing so could even save you a fortune on legal fees. Non-compete agreements do not fall under Federal jurisdiction. The covenants are governed by State law. With fifty states there are fifty sets of rules. This means you need to talk to your legal eagles and have them put one together for you that can be upheld in your state courts. You need to have ALL current and new employees sign the non-compete agreement form you and your attorneys have fashioned. Your attorney will tell you that you will probably have to compensate each employee in some way to sign the new agreement.  In my agency, we paid them all $1 -- which we literally handed to them. You may find that it may be simple to include a "section" on non-compete in the employment agreement. But the key is getting signatures on the document -- no matter which document you choose to include your non-compete language. While it's true that you can't prevent someone from making a living, you can prevent them from making a living at your [...]

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How many hours should ad agency employees work?

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 will say 40 in terms of hours worked in a week.  So that gives us a range from 1950 hours a year to 2600 hours a year with most people citing the 2080 hours a year number (40 hours/week).  But given an average of 3 weeks of time off (vacation and sick) and 10 work holidays (which translates to 5 weeks off) that gets you down to 1762.50 (37.5) to 2,350 as a range with 1880 hours a year being the 40 hour work week average. So when you think about how you're going to track billable time, the rule of thumb is that no employee can be billable 100%.  So here’s the best practices expectations by job function: Project Managers/Production Managers — 80% which is 1,504 hours at the 1880 hours in a year model Sr. Account Staff who have more admin/new business responsibilities — 70% which is 1,316 at the 1,880 hours in a year model Account Executives (jr and mid range)  -- 80% which is 1,504 at the 1,880 hours in a year model Creatives (writers and art directors) -- 75% which is 1,410 at the 1,880 hours in a  year model Media — 90% which is 1,692 at the 1,880 hours in a year model   And then you have your admin folks, who if you can get 25% billable time from — that’s great. The [...]

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