I've just been reading the April 2014 issue of Chief Content Officer magazine, and this month's editorial from editor, Joe Pulizzi, struck me as something important for agencies to consider when approaching clients or prospects.
His editorial references that wonderful George Carlin stand-up routine about "stuff". We spend our lives collecting "stuff". A house is a place to keep your "stuff" so you can go out and buy more "stuff". We buy bigger houses so we can collect more "stuff".
I have had several clients ask me recently to help them develop content, but none of them had a formal (or even informal) strategy for that content. They wanted to produce more content because they need fresh ideas and more "stuff".
As Joe discusses in his editorial, when the web came along, companies filled their website with "stuff". And the thought was "the more stuff we can put on the website, the more chance we have to sell the stuff we have".
And before long, companies found new ways to talk about their stuff, through blogs, white papers, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. They put out a lot of "stuff", without a clear plan on how to organize and use it to provide real information or value for their customers. It's mostly about their "stuff" and why you should buy it.
Nine in 10 companies budget for and create content, but the majority have no documented strategy for why they are creating all that content stuff.
It seems to me that this is where agencies could provide a great service to clients. If we can help them move away from creating, publishing and sharing for the sake of the stuff, and focus on content that supports their strategy, we can perform a real service. To our clients,and to their customers.
We all know that good branding begins with a strategy. Why in the world wouldn't we have a documented plan for creating content? If we can help our clients to plan and produce creative content that informs and entertains their target audience, and provides a real service to that audience, we can be heroes.
And maybe create a little less stuff in the process.
In case you don't remember that Geoge Carlin routine, here it is. I miss that guy.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Six Tips for Building a Better New Business Prospect List
Interestingly, I have gotten two calls in the past week from agencies asking for advice on prospecting. Both are facing similar situations of being a smaller niche player within a larger organization, and were seeking advice on how to be more effective in their prospecting efforts.
I started by discussing a basic re-definition of the role agencies can play to differentiate themselves. Many clients today are simply overwhelmed by the increasing complexity and fast pace of change. They know they need to be doing more things like social media, mobile marketing, content marketing, SEO/SEM, etc., but they need help in figuring out how to manage their marketing programs. The winning agencies today are ones that can help their clients sort through and identify where to focus their efforts. And then, give them the insights and solutions to build a bridge between their product or service and their customers.
The challenge many agencies face are to develop a prospect list to pursue. In addition to the basics of understanding your strengths and weaknesses, here are six tips I gave to those agencies on how to develop that list:
1. Focus on business categories to identify insights and work the category, not the individual company. Insights don't just happen, they take work. So my advice is to identify a category to pursue, and then work multiple clients within that category. That way, you can scale the effort you make to understand issues, trends, and pain points within a category.
2. Become known as a thought leader in the category you want to develop. I am a big believer in the power of white papers, but other tools like developing a blog on that topic and guest blogging are also helpful, Try to establish a relationship with a trade publication or local newspaper columnist to write articles, or comment as an industry expert to gain some notoriety as a category expert.
3. Get noticed - develop a research study and/or write a speech and present to business audiences. A tried and true PR tactic has always been to develop a survey and then publish it to gain notice. A few years ago, I developed a presentation on customer service and titled it "Seven Ways to Piss Off a Client". I'm sure the unique focus of the title helped, but it was based on findings from a study I did on why clients fall out of love with their agency and eventually fire them. Even though the speech was written specifically from an ad agency viewpoint, the principles held true for any service business, and I gave that speech to more than twenty-five ad clubs, but also to Kiwanis and other business associations around the South.
4. Get involved - volunteer for a leadership position in a marketing or local business association. A great way to add to your awareness as well as your expertise in a particular category is to get involved with local business clubs and associations. When I moved to Seattle a few years ago, I did not know anyone in the business community. Now, as president of the Puget Sound American Marketing Association, I am visible as a host for our events, write and edit the association blog, and am building awareness for me and my consulting company. And, I'm getting calls for new business projects.
5. Become an active participant on social media - LinkedIn groups are great for this. A great way to establish awareness and build a reputation for you and your company is to become an active participant in social media. I write for two blogs, but I also comment regularly on other blogs. I often start conversations on one of my LinkedIn groups, and always link to an article or blog post (not always my own, by the way). A great way to build followers is to curate industry articles and post or re-tweet them. My only caution here is to make sure you are providing legitimate information, and not just plugging yourself or your company.
6. Re-purpose your speech or research content - Slideshare, LinkedIn, blog posts, commenting on other blogs. Is great content really great if no one reads it? Make sure they do by re-purposing as many ways as you can. If you develop a presentation,you can take that same material and post it on Slideshare, link to a blog post. re-write as a white paper or Tweet with a link. Be sure to use keywords in the title to improve your SEO, because anything that is published can be found by somebody at some point. I still get comments and questions on pieces I wrote years ago.
Now go out there and get some new business!
I started by discussing a basic re-definition of the role agencies can play to differentiate themselves. Many clients today are simply overwhelmed by the increasing complexity and fast pace of change. They know they need to be doing more things like social media, mobile marketing, content marketing, SEO/SEM, etc., but they need help in figuring out how to manage their marketing programs. The winning agencies today are ones that can help their clients sort through and identify where to focus their efforts. And then, give them the insights and solutions to build a bridge between their product or service and their customers.
The challenge many agencies face are to develop a prospect list to pursue. In addition to the basics of understanding your strengths and weaknesses, here are six tips I gave to those agencies on how to develop that list:
1. Focus on business categories to identify insights and work the category, not the individual company. Insights don't just happen, they take work. So my advice is to identify a category to pursue, and then work multiple clients within that category. That way, you can scale the effort you make to understand issues, trends, and pain points within a category.
2. Become known as a thought leader in the category you want to develop. I am a big believer in the power of white papers, but other tools like developing a blog on that topic and guest blogging are also helpful, Try to establish a relationship with a trade publication or local newspaper columnist to write articles, or comment as an industry expert to gain some notoriety as a category expert.
3. Get noticed - develop a research study and/or write a speech and present to business audiences. A tried and true PR tactic has always been to develop a survey and then publish it to gain notice. A few years ago, I developed a presentation on customer service and titled it "Seven Ways to Piss Off a Client". I'm sure the unique focus of the title helped, but it was based on findings from a study I did on why clients fall out of love with their agency and eventually fire them. Even though the speech was written specifically from an ad agency viewpoint, the principles held true for any service business, and I gave that speech to more than twenty-five ad clubs, but also to Kiwanis and other business associations around the South.
4. Get involved - volunteer for a leadership position in a marketing or local business association. A great way to add to your awareness as well as your expertise in a particular category is to get involved with local business clubs and associations. When I moved to Seattle a few years ago, I did not know anyone in the business community. Now, as president of the Puget Sound American Marketing Association, I am visible as a host for our events, write and edit the association blog, and am building awareness for me and my consulting company. And, I'm getting calls for new business projects.
5. Become an active participant on social media - LinkedIn groups are great for this. A great way to establish awareness and build a reputation for you and your company is to become an active participant in social media. I write for two blogs, but I also comment regularly on other blogs. I often start conversations on one of my LinkedIn groups, and always link to an article or blog post (not always my own, by the way). A great way to build followers is to curate industry articles and post or re-tweet them. My only caution here is to make sure you are providing legitimate information, and not just plugging yourself or your company.
6. Re-purpose your speech or research content - Slideshare, LinkedIn, blog posts, commenting on other blogs. Is great content really great if no one reads it? Make sure they do by re-purposing as many ways as you can. If you develop a presentation,you can take that same material and post it on Slideshare, link to a blog post. re-write as a white paper or Tweet with a link. Be sure to use keywords in the title to improve your SEO, because anything that is published can be found by somebody at some point. I still get comments and questions on pieces I wrote years ago.
Now go out there and get some new business!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)