The Ad Agency Sea of Sameness-How To Steer Clear-3 Takeaways, Episode 92
When it comes to positioning and messaging, firms are often stuck in the ad agency sea of sameness, and it’s typically because they’re so busy taking care of clients, they don’t take a step back to survey their peers, and their competition, to see how differentiated they really are (or aren’t).
So in this episode we’re talking 3 building blocks that make up the foundation of your agency new business program, and a visual guide to help you get there.
Welcome to “3 Takeaways”, your agency new business video series where we focus on one new business category and give you three takeaways to help improve your new business program.
Biggest business development challenge for you firm, show of hands, who knows it?
It’s the struggle to stand out in a sea of similar firms. to stand out in the ad agency sea of sameness .
Two members of our RSW/US Marcom team, Steve Taggart and Bailey Kocent, created an ebook called RSW Tune-ups, a visual guide to driving more new business for ad agencies.
We’re starting by releasing individual agency new business one-pagers, which you can download below, along with about 12 links, when you click through, to related content we’ve created-it’s the good stuff.
This first one-pager covers building awareness, focusing on three business development building blocks.
First one is Positioning, and here’s your first takeaway:
Advertising agencies all do the same thing.
If you follow us at RSW, you may have heard me say this, don’t think it’s ever been an actual takeaway.
But is it true? No.
But it is the way your prospects view your firm, until they don’t-you show them otherwise.
Always remember that.
Sure, agencies do a lot of the same things, but you have to be very clear about what makes your firm different, in terms of the way you help and make your clients successful.
The second building block from our one-pager is case studies.
And your second takeaway:
Create a case study template you can easily update.
That may seem way too basic, but I know many of you watching are about 6 case studies behind because they’re a pain in the ass to create.
And agencies are seemingly always reinventing the wheel with case studies, quite frankly.
You should revisit a couple of times a year, in terms of older case studies, but create a concise template to make it as easy as possible to create new case studies.
The third building block is outreach.
And your last takeaway:
Revisit your process every quarter.
You know, if it ain’t broke and all, but one thing I want you to think about-
What’s your new business mix, how is it coming in?
If it’s 50% organic growth and 40% referrals-neither of those are sustainable in the long run-as I’ve said before, both are necessary, and if that’s working, by all means, run with it, but neither are truly dependable.
One thing we all know about this industry-clients leave, eventually.
You’ve got to mix in some outbound in there.
Download your visual guides here:
Business Development Challenges For Ad Agencies: Building Awareness
Business Development Challenges For Ad Agencies-Targeting The Right Prospects
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If you’re looking for a more effective business development strategy, email Lee McKnight Jr., VP of Sales at RSW/US at lee@rswus.com.
Learn more about our outsourced business development programs here.
Learn more about our process here.
