What's Working at Small to Mid-size Ad Agencies

Submit Ask Us Anything

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Event Promotion

Marketers are investing in, and using social media aspromotional channels before, during and after events, according to “The Viral Impact of Events: Extending andAmplifying Event Reach with Social Media,” a September 2014 study byFreemanXP and Event Marketing Institute, reported Emarketer.

Increasing pre-event awareness was the leading reason marketers use social, with nine in ten marketers citing this goal. Driving attendance, providing event details and building engagement within brand communities were the next-most-cited uses. Facebook was deemed the most effective pre-promotion tool, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn.

During events, effective channels were Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with marketers focusing on sharing content and photos, promoting specific events and schedules, and boosting awareness of announcements and contests. Measuring experience and gathering feedback were also important.

Post-event, marketers used social channels to highlight event activities and leverage influencers. Again, Facebook was the most effective channel, with YouTube second for sharing videos and clips, and Twitter third.

Agencies should note that while B2B marketers have reservations about social media as a general marketing tool, there is strong C-suite support for social media event promotion. Interactive product developer Regalix reported that marketers ranked social as the second most effective channel for event promotion, on a par with websites, so be prepared to measure for effectiveness.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Web Customization

Marketers have long understood that personalized messages can grab target audiences more effectively than mass marketing. Direct marketers used this tactic for years. When the Internet was added to the media mix, the promise of personalization on the fly became a real possibility. And over the past few years, marketers have begun to move beyond personalized messaging to customized options that speak more intimately to individual users. User choices help them to discover pages, content and services that traditional web navigation might have concealed, and users can more quickly locate things they love. The Barbican issued a challenge to digital startups for ideas that would help audiences engage with and explore the site in non-linear ways. A trial entry page on the website for Britain’s Barbican arts and culture complex asks “How do you feel?” Users click buttons suggesting emotional states such as “dazzling,” “epic,” and “reflective,” and are then shown sample events and exhibits to match. The “sentiment search tool” was developed by digital consultancy The Product Factory, using words pulled from social media comments of actual audience attendees. If users like the tool, it may be added to the site permanently. Such tests can introduce existing users to new experiences and expand audience reach by attracting new users and visitors through custom options. A recommendation engine is a fantastic way to “move more product,” whether you sell books (see Amazon) or want bigger audiences for live events. The key is in mining audience behavior for insights and turning those insights into useful—and fun—tools to enhance user experience.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Website Referrals

Getting website traffic is the primary goal of all search marketing and optimization efforts. But while paid search marketing is still a thing, it’s organic search that is driving the most website traffic, according to new data from BrightEdge, an organic search and content marketing specialist (learn more at emarketer.com). For business service firms especially, organic search dominates worldwide site referrals, at 73 percent of total referrals as of mid-year 2014. Display, email and referred search came in a distant second at 19 percent for the category. Across all industries, organic search accounts for around 50 percent of site traffic. This means content marketing efforts and good site optimization, supported by other strategies, are essential tools for all businesses—including agencies. As you plan web projects for clients, be sure to include these strategies, and keep tabs on how they are working. And don’t neglect your own organic search efforts.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Creativity: Pen and Notepad Creativity May Enhance Creative Thinking

The old idea of producing fabulous creative concepts by sketching on a paper napkin may not be such a design stereotype as you think. Do our brains work differently when we write with pen and paper than when we type on a keyboard? Current research hints this may be the case. University of Washington psychologist Virginia Berninger looked at what happens in the brain when children print, write cursive, or type, and found that when composing text by hand, her subjects “not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas.” There may even be a difference between printing and cursive writing (something many schools are dispensing with altogether). “When these [older] children were asked to come up with ideas for a composition, the ones with better handwriting exhibited greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory — and increased overall activation in the reading and writing [neural] networks.” If the very act of putting pen to paper can enhance idea generation, maybe it should be a best practice in creative businesses to ask our idea generators to start with “old school” tools. Words or images drawn on a page may still be the best route to great ideas.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working: Little Data

Forget Big Data; smaller and mid-sized agencies need to get creative with “Little Data.” This article from Strategy+Business (Booz & Company) touts the use of “little data,” or pieces of intelligence that can add to new insights. Many companies and businesses cannot afford the investment in technology, personnel and time to fully utilize “big data” techniques to improve strategy and marketing. But that does not mean they should abandon all data. Instead, says author David Meer of Booz & Company, companies should find ways to exploit the data they can gather, and use that to build responses to problems, identify new markets, better serve existing markets, and move the sales needle up. This is a great focus area for smaller agencies. It ties back to guerrilla research and the kinds of proactive data gathering smaller agencies have been doing for years. Meer offered a case in point: a beverage manufacturer who wanted to improve sales to bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. The firm was unable to use big data techniques to learn more about these markets, and couldn’t find good syndicated data. Instead, the company did some observational research (feet on the street), from which they developed an algorithm to break out segments based on certain characteristics. Then they involved their salespeople to help classify target businesses according to the algorithm. With a working list, they created product assortments, pricing and marketing programs for each classification. A pilot program in two markets demonstrated enough sales lift and share penetration to roll out the effort nationally. Now, imagine your agency leading such an effort. Think about how impressed the client would be if you were able to deliver this kind of smart, savvy, data-centered program. Look carefully at client wants and needs, and think about how smart use of available data, or guerrilla data-gathering techniques, might make you a hero in your clients’ eyes.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Small Agency Recruiting

A new Gallup 50-state poll reveals that a sizable number of Americans would very much like to move to another state from their present locations. Illinois residents show the highest percentage who want to move (50%), but residents of Connecticut* (49%) and Maryland (47%) are also ready to pack their suitcases. In fact, much of the Mid-Atlantic region has a strong desire to try their luck elsewhere. People who least want to leave their current states live in Texas, Maine, Oregon, Montana and New Hampshire, with a large swath of reasonably content Americans living between the Great Lakes and the Rockies. What does this have to do with recruiting talent to your agency? A large percentage (31%) of those expressing a desire to move cite work or business-related reasons. And many states showing a high number of people desiring to move have high jobless rates, high costs of living, or high taxes. These quality of life and quality of opportunity issues can be turned to recruiting advantage. As you start looking to hire new talent, you may want to take a look at Gallup’s map and target ads to regions where the desire to move is high. Emphasize quality of life in your area as you talk to candidates. Be sure to tout growth opportunities if you find a good candidate who needs an extra nudge to pull up roots. Finally, if the job is one that can be performed remotely, be open to having a candidate work from where they are—some candidates may have difficulty selling up to move to a new state because of uncertain housing markets. If you need help recruiting, call Second Wind’s Right Fit Recruiting specialists, Tony and Jeremy. We can do a lot of the legwork in finding and screening recruits.  

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Small Business Web Development

Two new studies reflect a disconnect between small businesses wanting to upgrade their web presence, and their failure to pursue mobile web strategies. eMarketer shared a report from j2 Global that found 40 percent of US small businesses were planning to upgrade spending on company websites in 2014. However, 70 percent of SMBs do not have mobile-optimized websites, according to Thrive Analytics. Meanwhile, eMarketer’s new report, “Desktop Search 2014: Marketers Find a Balance with Mobile,” notes that mobile search is increasingly influencing consumers early on the purchase path, requiring a shift in planning by marketers and businesses to try to accommodate mobile search activities. This means agencies can help small business clients adapt web strategies to capture desktop, tablet and mobile users. That translates to increased need for responsive web design. Agencies should aim to incorporate responsive design in web development through hiring responsive web designers and programmers; or look for interactive partners who can bring responsive design to agency clients.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working In Agency Inbound Marketing?

Our friends at RSW/US, the agency search and new business developers, recently shared their latest survey, 2014 RSW/US Ad Agency New Business, New Year Outlook Report.  RSW asked marketers and agencies about inbound marketing as an agency new business tool, and found that 76 percent of agencies post to an agency blog. More than 55 percent of marketers/agencies do post once a week on average, but over 40 percent manage to post just once a month. Even among agencies that regularly do inbound, only 42 percent consider it an effective tactic for generating new business leads; and under 30 percent use an inbound marketing program (Hubspot, Marketo, etc.) to manage inbound/outbound efforts.

Meanwhile, marketers admit they don’t read agency blogs very often. Among those who do turn to agency blogs, 61 percent seek industry/category-specific information and insights, and 28 percent are looking for agency perspectives on trends. And how do marketers most often find out about new marketing agencies? Through referrals from their networks, friends and contacts (47.89%), or through traditional calls and emails (32.39%). 

There are several takeaways for agencies in this data. 

DO regularly blog and promote your posts.

DO target specific niche markets or industries with your inbound efforts.

DO ask for email sign-up, and promote targeted content to your list.

DO reach out to your list to learn more about interests and needs, qualify prospects and select companies and contacts worth pursuing.

DON’T stop using inbound. Those referrals are coming from somewhere—maybe from others who are reading, and sharing your content. Plus, prospects may be reading your posts, but may not be quite ready to act.

DON’T expect inbound alone to get the job done. New business requires an integrated effort, encompassing PR, inbound, outbound, traditional marketing tactics and plain old calling and networking.

Thanks to our friends Mark Sneider and Lee McKnight at RSW/US for sharing their report.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in New Business Opportunities

Four in 10 small companies plan to make marketing and branding a priority in 2014, says a new small business report from online legal services provider Rocket Lawyer. Further, small businesses are generally optimistic about opportunities in the coming year; more than 80 percent expect better performance in 2014 than in 2013. Rocket Lawyer’s semi-annual survey assesses overall sentiment and economic outlook among their small business users across the USA. This makes smaller companies great targets for agency new business efforts. Sectors identified as potential “boom” areas are technology and healthcare, largely due to increased innovation and the Affordable Care Act rollout. Agencies should include selected small businesses on their qualified “A” list of firms to work with. As for all new business pursuit, do your research, know the industry and the firm’s customers, and arrive with ideas and solutions in hand. You can catch the wave of expanding small business optimism if you start now.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in B2B Storytelling

Video is proving to be a very effective pre-sales engagement tool, even in the B2B marketplace. For instance, Emarketer’s new report, B2B Video Marketing: Best Practices for 2014, notes that an astonishing 72 percent of B2B tech buyers research products after viewing relevant B2B videos; 54 percent visit the website or contact vendors for more info; and 46 percent actually purchase products. Another 28 percent add vendors to their “short lists.” Because many B2B business people are sales-focused, they may not be very good at telling their brands’ stories. But, in the online video era, they are aware that good stories are effective in connecting their brands with consumers and prospects to generate leads and queries. Agencies are ideally positioned to be the storytellers for B2B brands. Good scripts, smart direction and editing, and entertaining as well as informative concepts are all skills agencies can bring to the B2B video table. Good storytelling includes knowing what kinds of stories audiences will value—customers and prospects want relevant information. Since customers will be at different points in the consideration process, tell different versions of the same story for different stages of the process. Make your stories believable and authentic; customers want verification a product will work. Combine words, music, imagery and subject matter to be memorable, interesting and build a connection with viewers. Persuasive storytelling is as much about emotion as about having the best sales pitch.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Multi-Channel Campaigns

Today’s clients may focus heavily on digital advertising. It’s arguably more measurable and clients like that transparency. But it’s still extremely important to mix media exposures when doing larger scale campaigns. A recent study by TiVo Research and Analytics, Comcast 360 and customer research company dunnhumby USA explains why.

Research showed that sales lift was highest among audiences who viewed campaign ads on both TV and digital channels, by a margin of 12.4%. Comparatively, TV-only exposures resulted in a lift of 10.4%; digital-only exposures delivered a measly 1.6% sales increase.

eMarketer reported that it is interesting to note there are now three distinct audiences to consider—digital-only users, TV-only viewers, and a growing group that view TV and access digital channels. This latter group comprised nearly four of every ten viewers in the 

study. The bottom line is that TV-only and TV-plus-digital viewers are still far larger than digital-only consumers.

Take a careful look at audience data for your client campaigns, and determine whether digital-only marketing will achieve clients’ marketing objectives. Then work to achieve a media blend that reaches as many audience members as possible… with the right messages to move each audience to action.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Ad Agency Lead Generation

Emarketer reports that, according to a new study from agency search and business development firm RSW/US, the top two tactics for generating leads for advertising agencies are client case studies and content marketing through the agency website. Each tactic was cited by 62.6 percent of respondents. Agency blogs were third (58.2%), just ahead of social media (57.1%). LinkedIn was cited as the most valuable social media leads tool by 46.2 percent of agencies. And for those who do not post news and press releases, note that 50.6 percent say PR efforts continue to deliver leads. Don’t abandon snail mail, either; 41.8 percent said targeted direct mail continues to bring leads to their agencies. Surprisingly, email marketing lead capture is not working for agencies right now; under 30 percent of agency executives said email marketing was an effective lead generator. Employing a good content marketing system that includes email tactics might boost the effectiveness of this method. Agencies should not rely on a single tactic for lead generation. Test multiple routes for reaching targeted, qualified prospects and gathering leads. Keep your new business pipeline active.

[whatsworking]

What’s (Not) Working in Search Analytics

The big news in search engine marketing this month is a move by Google to encrypt keyword data for organic search. This means that in a very short time, all keyword data will be invisible to marketers, even those using analytics and content marketing tools. HubSpot reports that (Not Provided) Count, a webmaster site tracking the impact of encrypted keywords, estimates over 78 percent of current search keywords are now invisible to anyone trying to collect data. Several online search pros believe this is partly to make it more difficult for outside agencies (take that, NSA) to spy on search activity. Others feel it builds on a trend of driving more users to paid search, i.e., Google AdWords, since search activity will continue to be visible for ads. But for content and website strategies, marketers will have to find detours around this data blocking if they rely on keyword information. HubSpot assembled an initial list of search strategies to help marketers rethink keywords as a metric and tool for tracking content success.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in B2B Marketing

The B2B marketplace has always been a productive and profitable category for smaller and mid-sized ad agencies and marketing firms. However, the recent recession slowed the B2B market considerably. And now that marketers are beginning to loosen budgets, trends indicate dollars are moving increasingly away from traditional ad spending toward greater digital investment. According to a new study from American Business Media, as reported at eMarketer, 45 percent of marketers expect a steady increase in advertising spending in the coming year. About an equal number expect ad spending to remain at current levels. Projected increases will probably go toward digital channels, especially search marketing (45%), mobile marketing (43%), and email marketing (41%). Thirty-two percent said they expected a decrease in print ad spending. Meanwhile, B2B companies rely heavily on face-to-face events, such as trade shows and sponsored events, to build new product and service awareness, and to generate leads. Agencies in the B2B sector need to be aware of trends and consider these as they make recommendations to clients and prospects. Doors are beginning to reopen, and agencies should be prepared to get a foot in by proposing the right media plans.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Purchase Influence

Today’s marketers are deeply interested in how newer media channels influence and guide purchase behavior. But a better understanding of customer preferences is needed to truly discover the tactics that will work best for your clients. A recent study from Economist Intelligence and Lyris indicates there continues to be a gap between the tactics marketers feel influence purchase, and those channels consumers prefer. While marketers persist in believing social and mobile tactics are the new purchase influencers, consumers say they prefer to learn about products through company websites (51%), email (19%), and independent websites (19%). This is true even among younger consumers. Social is seen as a good place to access promotions and coupons. Overall, consumers expressed a marked preference for email (37%) for initial product introduction. Second was product catalogues (35%), and third was personal referrals (33%). Consumers who prefer to learn about products via mobile? A measly 3%. Agencies should strive to help clients learn about customer preferences and build CRM databases. Data will improve client offerings so they serve the right content and offers at the right time and in the right media.

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Agency New Business

Image: Work landing page for The Archer Group These days it seems very difficult to get a meeting with a new prospect. They are in hiding. Some of this is because of the still-weak economy. But it pays to remember that sought-after prospects get calls from agencies each and every day. Nothing seems to move them forward to take a meeting, or, sadly, ever call the agency to ask for a meeting. Here’s a tactic that seems to be working. Create a website landing page with all of your best work. Place that work on the page in a “tiled” fashion (some square, some vertical, some oblong, etc.).  Displaying your work this way makes it look very professional and proactive, and gives an impression of “volume.” Plus, visuals are engaging and incite clicks. As prospects click on each item, they get an explanation and results where available. There are many ways to share “case study” info—pop-ups, rollovers, expanded windows, subpages, and so on. Whatever you do, don’t just show pictures. Explain your thinking, and especially, share your results. Do this and I’ll bet you that people begin to call your agency, rather than you having to “honcho” them into a meeting. Some Second Wind members' examples:

The Archer Group

Glowac+Harris+Madison

Wilson Lass

[whatsworking]

What’s Working in Small Business CRM

As big brands and corporations eagerly test mobile and social marketing, small businesses agree that their websites are most effective at attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. That’s according to a new survey from Constant Contact, which asked 1,305 small businesses and non-profits how different marketing tactics were working for them, reported eMarketer. Small business websites were most effective at both attraction and retention, with 77 percent saying their websites achieved both goals. Sixty-nine percent cited their blogs for dual effectiveness, and sixty percent deemed social marketing as delivering reasonable double results. A favorite customer retention vehicle is email marketing, cited by 45 percent of survey participants; 50 percent said email marketing was also good for attracting new customers. Even better tactics for new customer attraction were daily deals and online ads, said more than 50 percent of respondents. And 79 percent said making sure their websites are mobile-friendly is also essential to new customer marketing. What about social media? Survey respondents disdained social media monitoring for either goal. But social media ads were noted as effective at customer attraction by 45 percent; and for retention by 37 percent. Online ads in general were called effective for new customer attraction by 51 percent of respondents. Yet few businesses have dedicated budgets to executing online and social ad buys. As you work with smaller businesses, study how different tactics work for different marketing goals, and strive to achieve the right mix for each client.