Discipline: It Belongs in Your Agency
This is a guest post from Josh Wood (@ruckusmarketing), founder and CEO of Ruckus.
Healthy client relationships develop when you match curated client experiences with disciplined internal processes for deadlines and account management. These relationships, based on business principles, will weather occasional storms and deliver on the ultimate goal: revenue for both your agency and clients.
Read MoreBuild or Buy: Which Is Right for Your Agency?
This is a guest post by Doug Austin, senior vice president of growth and innovation for Marlin Network.
Growth is hard work. It’s something that takes time, planning and strong leadership.
When it’s time for your agency to start looking for new ways to grow, there are usually two options: build a new division or acquire another shop. But there are a few things to consider before you determine how to best expand your agency network.
Read MoreMarketing Agencies and Startups: Q&A with Brent Beshore, adventur.es
Brent Beshore (@brentbeshore) is the owner and CEO of adventur.es. Ranking #28 on the 2011 Inc. 500, his company provides equity investments, marketing resources, strategic planning and operations management to communications-based companies. Brent is also a regular columnist on Forbes and a venture partner at Gen Y Capital.
In this Insider Series, he discusses business lessons learned, funding and succession planning advice, and tips for working with startups.
Read More10 Ways to Establish Order in Your Advertising Agency
It’s no secret: Most advertising agency owners come from inside the advertising industry. Naturally, they’re very good account executives, copywriters or art directors, but they’re not always seasoned businesspeople.
Like most creative people, they’re not interested in restrictive, formulaic systems and processes to guide workflow, even though they’re necessary. Unfortunately, this misstep can singlehandedly create chaos in a busy advertising agency.
Read MoreTips for Building a Marketing Agency Advisory Board
An advisory board is an informal group of individuals assembled to provide strategic council to your organization. It differs from a board of directors in that members have no decision-making capabilities; they exist simply to provide outside advice and support as you grow your business.
Because it often brings added knowledge, experience or connections to the table, an advisory board is an extremely valuable asset at all stages of your agency’s growth and development.
Read MorePublishers as Content Marketing Agencies
Some publishers see this growth of content marketing as a golden opportunity—a way to add revenue streams and make up for decreases in ad spend. Their built-in distribution networks and staff of expert copywriters make them viable contenders to existing marketing and content agencies.
As Andrew Davis (@TPLDrew) explained in a recent Insider Series: “These publishers are masterful content creators, and they are able to charge a premium for the services they offer by leveraging their market research, existing distribution platforms, and even the talent from their editorial teams.”
Read MoreAgency New Business Growth in 2013 Will Only Be as Good as the Effort
In our latest RSW/US survey of 168 agency principals and 101 marketing executives, agencies stated that they fully expect 2013 to be a stronger year for agency new business. In fact, 61.7% of all agency principals surveyed believe that 2013 new business opportunities will improve relative to 2012 — and this is coming off a year where 48% believed that 2012 was better than 2011.
This is certainly great news for agencies, if they put the effort into finding and winning new business.
Read MoreAgile Marketing Campaigns: The Future of Client Services
I believe agile principles are going to greatly influence the future of how marketing agencies position, plan and execute client services. For instance, if each marketing project (or epic as they are known in the software world) is tied to measurable goals, a set timeframe and an owner, then performance can be tracked incrementally, on a regular basis. This enables incredibly fluid campaigns tied to metrics and accountability.
Read More4 Reasons Why Agencies Shouldn't Overlook Social Media Training as a Service Offering
The digital marketing industry is booming. And luckily for digital agencies, brands are allocating more and more dollars to online marketing. Forrester predicts that social media spending by U.S. companies will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 26% from 2011 to 2016. All of this growth—this shift from traditional to digital—is going to continue to disrupt the way agencies service clients. Agencies that can socialize brands beyond a campaign have a bright future, and the key to it is ongoing client training.
Read MoreIntegrated Marketing: Think Holistically About PR, Search, Social and Content
Public relations, search marketing, content marketing and social media have traditionally been practiced as separate disciplines. That needs to change. With the rise of modern technologies, new ways of browsing the web and evolving customer behavior, great marketing encompasses all of these channels.
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