…Products, that’s what! Agencies are taking some of their services and developing products that can be presented to clients and prospects.
Many of these products are based on general agency services, but have been branded and packaged.
For example, one agency has taken their ability to put together information about a client’s competitors and developed a report they call “Landscape™ – Your company’s 10 top competitors, fully analyzed.” They sell it for $5,000+.
Another has done the same thing for Target Audience analysis. They call it “Bullseye™ – Your company’s primary and secondary target audience – who they are, what they like, what they don’t like, etc.”
Your agency should think about creating products like this.
By productizing some of your services, such as research, brand development, strategic marketing planning and marketing communications plan development, you set your agency apart from others who may not have similar products.
You do this very simply by taking the service, developing a brand and packaging it in a way that makes it attractive to clients and prospects. Ideally, you should examine your processes and break them into steps or phases, detailing what happens at each stage. This will help you to explain—and sell—the products to clients.
Then, make a call and go and sell some services. You’ll be glad you did, and your agency will be much more profitable.
A funny thing about this… Clients who don’t feel they need to pay the agency a monthly fee for research, planning, etc, are far more interested in paying the agency a fee for a branded deliverable. You’ll laugh all the way to the bank.
According to a December 2011/January 2012 study from BtoB Magazine, the online marketing tactic that is best at generating leads is email. That’s the view of 60 percent of B2B marketers, as reported by eMarketer. In comparison, just 48 percent of agencies identified email as the top lead generator.
We already discussed why email is so well regarded in our Jan/Feb issue of Second Wind Magazine (Email and Social – The New Marketing Team). We also noted the growing trend toward integrating social media marketing with email to both capture leads through social channels and build social momentum and sharing via email. It’s the agency’s function to ensure that cross-channel integration is a part of client marketing. Marketers are getting better at integration, but many still “silo” marketing functions and fail to increase effectiveness through social-email integration.
As you work with clients who want to increase leads, guide them toward email best practices, smart integration tactics and good analytics. The tools are there, but we’re still learning how to bring them into sync.
Read eMarketer’s coverage here or learn more about the BtoB study here.
One of the primary success factors relating to new business in 2012 will be selling with “insight.” You see, most quality prospects out there just don’t care about you or your agency. They may be already engaged with another agency, or they may not be confident that your agency is qualified to help them. Whatever their reasons may be, the hard fact is they don’t want to engage.
To combat this, smart agencies have historically worked to gain insights about prospects to be used in quest of a meeting, developing a proposal and of course, serving the account. Agencies use these insights to open a dialog, in the hopes of making a connection and progressing on to landing a job or account.
Now what we are hearing is that smart agencies are following all of their best prospects on Facebook, company blogs, Twitter, etc. This practice is yielding those relational “nuggets” needed to start a trust-based relationship.
Of course, following prospects is just the beginning. When the agency finds something of interest, their job is to go deeper, get some more insights, then make the call and begin to share these valuable insights with the prospect.
Is this worth a try? It’s tough enough to get some interest started. Try following and selling with insights.
gravesadvertising asked: What is the best practices for reducing errors when you have multiple versions of revisions... Still in search of the perfect PROOFING checklist/form that helps with dealing with multiple versions of changes.
Hello GravesAdvertising! I posed your question to our proofreaders and here are their words of wisdom:
1. When it comes to proofing, more eyeballs are always better. Try to have a minimum of 2 people (in addition to the originator and client) proofreading anything of significance. Three to four people…even better.
2. Stage the process. If it’s long and detailed, have a formal first proof, and a formal final proof.
3. If possible, table it for a day between proofs. You’ll catch more items when you’re taking a fresh look.
4. Look it up, look it up, and yes, look it up. With all of the online tools and dictionaries today, there’s no excuse for winging it.
5. Don’t forget to look at your titles, headers and footers.
6. Remember, when in doubt, it’s better to “re-proof” than to endure a re-proof from your client/end user!
Hope this helps. In addition, we do have a proofreading checklist on the Second Wind site you may find useful. Good luck!
An agency in the West is working to become a fully creative entity instead of simply having a creative department.
One of the ways they facilitate this is to post all of their ongoing work in several key, high traffic areas of the agency. The work posted consists mostly of color comps, but could also be storyboards or even scripts.
Then, over the course of the next day or two, the entire agency staff (not just the creative department) is able to view and make suggestions right on the posted work. They take a marker and add comments, admire the work, contribute changes, or perhaps even reject the work.
This has been very successful.
First, the agency staff now has a better grasp on the clients: what makes the clients tick, and what is happening in the clients lives and businesses. Everyone feels more connected.
But, the real, and tangible benefit of this has been the great ideas that have come from people in the agency who don’t normally have a chance to contribute creatively.
The agency owner told me that on a recent ad for a large dental practice, the accounting clerk provided a suggestion about fresh breath, how much more attractive it makes a person, and how this is linked to relationships. This young lady somehow linked love and dental hygiene, and started the agency’s creatives on a very consumer friendly path.
Making your agency “fully” creative can make your agency a more cohesive “unit” and help your people get closer to your clients… you should try this.
by Tony Mikes
I’ve taken some time to write about Steve Jobs. He was very important in my life. He helped me to be much more productive; he gave my creatives the tools to move to the next level of art production; and he forever endeared himself to me by allowing an old rock & roll fool to have his whole collection of hard-worn albums and CD’s all in one convenient place. Those were all important things.
But, he gave me pleasure in one more very important way.
He gave me hope—hope that the world could be more orderly, and most of all a more beautiful and elegant place.
Apple’s design was very important to the success of their products. Certainly, one could buy all the functionality needed in a Dell or HP, and for a lot less money. But, and this is a big but, you couldn’t be “slightly cooler than the next guy” unless you had an Apple product.
One writer describes the elegance that Jobs brought to the marketplace as “secular grace.” If grace is that beautiful gift from God to mankind, then Apple products were blessed with secular grace for their gift of beauty to users.
Ernie Perich, who runs a very creative agency in Ann Arbor, once said that he understood that advertising needed to be strategic, on target, and all that stuff. “We do this,” he told me. “All of our stuff makes sense, but what we offer beyond the on-target strategy is great design.”
“To us,” he went on, “great design is a gift we give our clients. It comes as part of our service and is never an add-on.”
Steve Jobs gave us a number of gifts in the products his company brought forth, including functionality, completeness, and efficiency. But the greatest gift was beauty, and the hope and grace that surround it.
So long, Steve.
mikaelpohjonen asked: Hi! With regards to the financial reporting post - in the cost of sales: is the labor costs included (the hours worked)?
Generally speaking in the agency business the labor is not a part of the cost of sales. All payroll is below the AGI (gross profit) line and treated as an operating expense.
Clients are beginning to push back on agency commissions and mark-ups. This leaves agencies with only one form of compensation: fees. There’s nothing wrong with fees for projects or retainers, but they limit an agency’s capacity for leverage, growth and extra profits.
In the old days agencies made money in three ways: fees, commissions and mark-ups. These enabled agencies to have pretty good leverage. In contrast, it’s much more difficult to make a lot of money when you have to work an hour to get paid for an hour.
The newest concept in fee billing is for agencies to offer clients a risk/reward basis for compensation. The agency offers a discount on its normal full-price billing rate to gain an ascending bonus from the client, based on performance metrics agreed upon by the agency and clients. In some cases, the agency does not have to offer the discount in order for the client to offer a bonus for performance.
Several tips:
Many agencies lump their billing together for the purpose of their financial statements by simply listing “billings.” Our advice is to separate categories.
For example, if you have media billings, list them separately. Creative billings, the same, digital billings, likewise. Take a look at the example below.
Make sure if you categorize your billings, you do the same with outside direct costs. For example:
Breaking out all of these categories allows you to make sure the agency is getting a fair margin in each billing or sales category. It’s one thing to look at the agency’s AGI (AGI= total agency billings minus direct outside costs) to see if the margins are acceptable but if you can do the AGI calculation on a category by category basis, you can see where you stand in each of the agency’s billings categories – allowing you to make corrections before things get out of hand.
“Help! The interns outnumber the staff!” I heard this (pretty funny) comment from a creative director at one of our Second Wind member agencies…but he did not mean it in the pejorative sense. The agency is looking to become a major creative force over the next few years. They have a very engaged owner and a very credible creative director. They also have a strong base staff of account people and creatives who, by and large, share the “creative agency” philosophy.
One thing these folks do differently is to host a large number of interns each year. Of course, many agencies bring in student interns each year or semester to help them leverage their personnel in creative, research, account service and other agency areas. This is not a bad thing. Hosting interns each semester helps the agency AND the interns.
But this member has something different in mind.
In their effort to build a first class creative environment, they scour the art schools for the best talent, then bring them into the agency for a few months, based on semester schedules–but that’s not all. When they find promising people, they make deals with them to work as paid “intern/freelancers” for the rest of their school time.
This group of interns, consisting of both semester students and students who just want to get experience at a highly creative agency sometimes outnumbers the 14-person permanent staff of the agency. All of the interns are art, copy or account-planning oriented, and all report to the creative director. The CD says it’s the most exhilarating thing he’s every done.
“To [consistently] have all of this fresh talent around with ideas galore is just what we need.” he states. “What I am looking for is ideas and new ways of approaching and thinking things through. For that there is nothing better than young, inquisitive minds. I can take care of the editing needed, or eliminate the lunatic fringe. The ideas are king at our agency.”
Smaller agencies employing LOTS of interns to bolster creative? Sound like a plan to me.
I believe there comes a time in the agency “growth curve” where a more centralized system of workflow ceases to be completely effective. Currently, I am consulting with an agency where there are 500 projects open in the agency. That’s a lot of work; certainly too much work for one traffic person—even one with an assistant and great software.
In these cases, in makes sense to do what the big agencies do: create self-contained teams consisting of a full account service staff (account supervisor, account manager and account coordinator); a creative staff including an art director and writer; and a project manager. Each team should take responsibility for a book of business (remember, payroll for any team should be around 50% of AGI, and AGI = total agency billings minus direct outside vendor costs). The team’s book of business may include one client or several clients, but generally the revenue for a team would approach $1,000,000. The team, of course, does its own traffic, estimating, outside vendor negotiations, etc.
This model of agency business also provides more individual attention to the client, helping to build stronger client-agency bonds. Since each team is focused on specific accounts, they will naturally also focus on all the jobs for that account…and prevent smaller jobs from slipping.
You may want to consider instituting this business model, instead of trying to build the perfect total agency traffic and workflow system.
Did you know that it is 4 times more profitable to get more business from a current client than the first year of new new business. That’s a healthy profit margin, and one which many agencies almost seem to ignore, based on how quickly clients get tired of agencies and move on to the next one.
Growing organic business with current clients takes some imagination and a little spunk. Following are two ways.
The more you know, the more your value grows as it relates to your relationship with your clients.
Keep cultivating.
Rather than using PowerPoint when you present to clients, why not try something different?
One agency in the Midwest takes rough flip chart sheets generated during brainstorming sessions and brings them to the presentation. As a part of getting set up, they post these sheets around the room so that both agency and client are immersed in the clients’ world, target audience, competitors, industry information, etc. The agency then uses these information-loaded sheets to show the prospect just how thoroughly the agency has prepared for the meeting.
PowerPoint or Keynote presentations are good, but they limit your ability to produce an engaging and interactive experience for your audience. The 15 Sheeter allows the agency to literally surround the prospect or client with information. There’s no shame in leaning on PowerPoint or Keynote to show the nitty gritty of creative executions, but your goal at a meeting is to leave a lasting impression (something the 15 Sheeter is sure to accomplish.)
You should try this sometime. And if you don’t brainstorm by using flip chart sheets (with self-stick backing) then just create the sheets from your notes.
One of our Second Wind members just informed me that they increased their win ratio by 200% since beginning to incorporate the 15 Sheeter into their presentation process.
Remember, it is critical that, by the end of the presentation, the prospect has confidence in your agency. Your agency needs to show the prospect that you know what you are doing, understand the prospect’s issues, AND can help them solve their marketing issues. Without this in place, your agency cannot win.
The 15 Sheeter goes a long way to help establish your credentials as a “smart” agency.
I have turned this around in my mind again and again. Throughout my career in the agency business, we have all tried to build the best programs for new business. We work on our brand, we build elaborate marketing plans to self promote our agencies, we build prospect lists of “A” prospects and hire new business hunters to call and make meetings. Sometimes this works, but many times it doesn’t. Pro-active new business, in general, at most agencies, is a long-term failure. In fact dismal may be a better word.
Why, you say? Surely we think about it enough? Why isn’t it more successful on a regular basis?
I have a theory.
The best way for an agency to do new business is to have it done by the agency’s owners, leaders, executives, etc. The agency principal is the best person to speak for the agency, to bring forth the passion, AND to be able to aptly respond to queries and questions from the prospect as they come up in real time.
I know this isn’t good news to a lot of agency owners and principals, but time and time again, the most successful new business is started, pitched, presented, closed and delivered by the agency’s principal.
This doesn’t mean that others in the agency can’t play very important new business roles. New business hunters can ferret out the leads, account people can work hard to turn projects into program and grow organic new business and others in the agency can participate in the new business process in any number of ways.
But, there is nothing but disappointment for any agency that doesn’t commit the owners and principals to be deeply involved in new business each and every day.
As an agency principal, perhaps you should think about what your main job is each day – serving the agencies largest account? Creating all that great work? Counting the beans?
I say it just may be the new business process.
Did you know that QR codes have been in existence since 1994? The tiny little squares of data were invented by Denso-Wave as a way to track parts used in car manufacturing. And as with many good ideas, coupled with the skyrocketing adoption of camera-equipped smart phones, QR codes are finally beginning to gain some traction amongst marketers and consumers here in the United States.
I have to admit my own fascination with QR codes increased when I got my iPhone. I happily and enthusiastically scan QR codes wherever I go. Perhaps it’s the fact that you have no idea where they’re going to take you. Will it be a contest? …A coupon? …A game? …A video? …An app? Oh so much potential!
Below are a few examples of QR codes I’ve found particularly interesting. Some have come from our members at Second Wind and some are for mainstream brands like Target and jetBlue. In any event, they all use QR codes in clever and engaging ways:
TARGET-
In this ad for Target’s line of Blue + White inspired décor, the savvy retailer encourages customers to scan a QR code for home styling ideas from HGTV star Sabrina Soto. The code links to a video filled with tips from Sabrina. Target also provides instructions for downloading a scanner as well as a URL (Target.com/Sabrina) for those without a code reader or smartphone.
SMITH & JONES-
Second Wind member smith & jones devised this clever way of showcasing their new work to clients and prospects. In the case of Purple Project #412, s&j designed a calendar for Tufts University. The postcard highlights the challenge facing the agency along with the solution and gives recipients a chance to scan a QR code to win a free calendar (which s&j purchased from their client). Chris Tieri, President of s&j, says that moving forward, the agency “might show a behind-the-scenes on a photo shoot, and/or give an interesting recipe away, or a coupon for a new client. Each time should be different.”
MINI-
If you love MINI’s the way I love MINI’s then the above code is a real treat. To introduce the MINI Countryman, iPhone owners are encouraged to scan the code to download the Virtual MINI app. Use the app to see how the Countryman would look in your driveway, on top of a mountain, or “anywhere else your heart desires.” (You can also download the app directly from iTunes, Facebook, and MINIUSA.COM)
MICROMASS-
Another Second Wind member, MicroMass, designed this fun and engaging holiday card as a way to showcase their QR code creating talents. Recipients of the greeting were encouraged to use their phones to select one of four charities listed. In return MicroMass made a donation in their name. Each QR code was customized to suit the holiday season. A great way to put technology to good use.
JIMMY FALLON-
The combination of late night talk shows and musical guests is nothing new. But the way Jimmy Fallon, pioneer that he is, held up an oversized QR code to introduce his musical guest Tyler, The Creator and Hodgy Beats of Odd Future, is. Viewers scanned the code and were taken to oddfuture.com where there was a music video waiting. Interesting use of a QR code and certainly one of the more mainstream uses I’ve seen.
JETBLUE-
In this example jetBlue takes a fun code-inside-of-a-code approach to promote a getaway contest to St. Pete/Clearwater. It’s a little hard to see here but the large code is comprised of tiny photos of people having fun in the sun. Users can scan the code and land at Jet2TheBeach.com for a chance to enter and win the contest. The use of QR codes to drive consumers to an opt-in site is a good one, but I think the creative on this particular campaign is especially nice.
In addition to showing you a few examples of what I think is working in QR codes I hope this inspires you to undertake a QR project of your own, whether for your agency or a client. In the meantime, happy scanning!