Content is a critical tool in every marketing plan, and that includes advertising agencies. Marketers get about 60% through their journey before they make any contact with a potential new agency resource and content is, in large part, what drives them to you. Furthermore, prospects that are interested in your content are far more qualified since they have self-selected. I’ve recently completed research into what marketers do during their clandestine search to better understand how content can intercept and steer them toward my agencies.
Of course, there isn’t a one size fits all answer. If we look at the data, it becomes clear where to spend time and how to prioritize your content approach. Keep in mind that this is just the starting point. Once you get your content efforts going, you then optimize the plan with more of the things that are working and fewer that don’t.
Agency content has only one primary goal – driving more prospects to the agency, the right ones, who genuinely find what you have to offer appealing. There are two dimensions to the content plan; providing content where it matters in their process and sharing the right content to capture interest while they are investigating agency choices. To understand “where,” I asked marketers where they go when they look for a new agency resource.
What are the first things a marketer does when searching for a new ad agency?
85% ask colleagues and friends for recommendations
84% check out agency website content
77% ask Google and other search engines
76% Look at various Advertising and Marketing Trade Press and blogs
71% look at agency social media
50% search LinkedIn profiles
What should your content priorities be? Does your content show up along their journey and put the agency on their list? Let’s look at the numbers.
85% of marketers ask colleagues and friends for agency recommendations
Do you provide simple and easy-to-share content for colleagues and friends to recommend the agency? If 85% of marketers are asking for recommendations; a pdf, promo book, newsletter, or some other kind of promotional content in the hands of your friends might come in handy. No one knows when the ask might come, but if and when it does, you want the referrer to have the latest most updated agency information to pass on.
Make sure you send your friends agency things on a regular basis. New information puts you top of mind and continues to shape their perception and likelihood to recommend. The goal is to bubble up to the surface more frequently so that when someone asks, your content will be handy, easily shared, and accurately communicates the things about the agency that sets you apart. It’s a creative challenge, to be sure. One that agencies solve every day for their clients. Time to do the same for your new business efforts.
84% check out agency website content
One of the first places your prospect goes is your website. They visit to see if the agency satisfies their criteria and is good enough to be contacted. Does your website allow a prospect to quickly and easily answer their initial questions? Does the content on your site quickly and easily answer the questions a marketer is seeking?
Why invest time and resources in your website content now? First, the number of searches on mobile has surpassed desktop. Is your site optimized for mobile? Second, marketers believe the industry has changed more in the past five years than in the previous fifty. If your content doesn’t reflect that change, you risk being seen as out of touch. Third, and most important, your content strategy has changed, and your website must reflect it. If I had to prioritize, site content is the most important first step and the easiest to manage.
77% ask Google and other search engines
I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a marketing executive working for a national brand. She was new to the company and new to the area. She called to ask if my client wanted to participate in an AOR RFP. Surprise! She wasn’t on my list. I asked how she found me. She Googled for an agency with my services and industry experience within a specific geographic range. She went to the website to verify we had what she was looking for. She compiled a list of agencies to call and vet further. If we hadn’t shown up on the first couple of pages, we wouldn’t have made her list.
Content, among other things, is the best way to improve your organic rankings. Unique content, differentiating content, and expert content shows higher in the rankings. Organic and paid search is sophisticated science. If you don’t have that expertise, you should find a resource to help. Let me know if you need a recommendation. Experts in the field will agree that it starts with your content. If you haven’t already, try this; ask a couple of friends who don’t know your agency very well to go search for an agency like yours. After all, 77% of your prospects will do this very thing. See what they come back with. Do the same exercise yourself. Could a marketer even find you?
76% Look in various Advertising and Marketing Trade Press and blogs
Getting your stories placed in the trades is one of the top ways that marketers discover new agencies. But PR, in my experience, is one of the hardest tactics for agencies to do well. That is why so few have any PR activity and even fewer coordinate with their business development strategy. Ideally, you want your content amplified in every possible channel. Your work, your clients, and your case studies are news to your audience. Marketers want to know how others solve their business problems. Your successes are the stories they want to read. It may not be headline news, but it is news.
I highly recommend finding a PR resource to handle agency press, if you don’t have the expertise, and even if you do. Great PR people know how to get your stories placed and how to tell those stories in ways that will be picked up. Some agencies try and handle this themselves and almost as many don’t succeed. Today, there are more outlets than ever before and more demand for good content. It takes relationship-building, perseverance, creativity, and timing. But well worth it given the percentage of marketers who discover agencies through the press. If you need a recommendation for a great PR resource, send me an email.
71% look at agency social media
Much has been written lately about the demise of social media. How many agencies haven’t posted anything recently, or ever? Those that do often feature agency culture, award shows, and the office dog rather than agency promotion. I’ve had many discussions with agency leaders, creative directors, and social media managers about the purpose of social media. If it is important enough for marketers to spend their time with, it better be important for your agency to do so as well.
My survey isn’t statistically projectable, but it is consistent with what I’ve heard from prospects about the role social played in their opinion of the agency. If more than two-thirds look at social media content to better understand the agency, why wouldn’t you make sure to post regularly in support of your business development strategy and to reinforce the right story?
50% search LinkedIn profiles
Linkedin is business content viewed by almost 90% of marketers and a key channel for you. Half say they go on LinkedIn to find more information about an agency. Surprisingly, More than half of agencies don’t use their LinkedIn page or individual profiles in a way that satisfies the prospect’s needs. Your LinkedIn page should contain the same kinds of content your website has. It is essential to keep it fresh and up to date with content that answers the criteria of those searching. LinkedIn’s Pulse blog is another way to be seen and promote the things about the agency that marketers want to know. LinkedIn should be one of your top sources of highly qualified website traffic.
What is the right content?
I asked marketers what it is they want to know about a new agency when they begin their search, and what information do they look for first to determine if an agency is worth further investigation. Again, there isn’t one answer. Each marketer is different, and their interests vary, but there are some key categories of information marketers say they look for first and those should be what your content plan addresses, first. Content that communicates these things, with creativity that is uniquely yours, will go a long way to get you on the list.
85% Industry experience
67% Case studies
40% Audience experience
46% General capabilities
33% Client testimonials
21% Agency culture
0% Social Causes
0% Awards
One of the biggest struggles agencies report in executing a good content strategy is finding the time, resources, and expertise to run a consistent and strategic plan. Ironically, time is the one thing agencies have the most control over. And, there are many great tools and technologies available to help. Minds that are made up are hard to change. But change is necessary if you want to impact business development success.
Think about it this way. When an agency gets a new client, they make the time to service that client. Imagine if you said, welcome aboard! I’m sorry, but I don’t have any time available for you right now. You have to treat yourself as that client by juggling the troops, shifting workload, and reallocating time to get the job done. If business development is a priority, the investment of time, resources, and expertise is a top priority, and this roadmap can focus your time and effort for maximum effectiveness.
Happy Hunting!
I’ve got a lot more ideas about how to execute an agency content strategy for success, and I would enjoy sharing them with you. If you want to talk about your business development program, I’m always open to a conversation. If you like this post, click the thumbs up, so I’ll know, and then sign up for my new business newsletter. Follow me on LinkedIn for daily tips, tricks, and insights. #LetsGrow!
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