Your agency web site can be a new business magnet!
Flash Report @ AgencyFinder – January 15, 2009
CONTENTS:
1. Your agency web site can be a new business magnet!
2. Each new business lead is precious.
3. New business tools – add them to your toolbox.
4. Clients always search for free – but they’re not free to abuse our agencies …
5. How about fresh, upbeat, provocative essays for ’09?
YOUR AGENCY WEB SITE CAN BE A NEW BUSINESS MAGNET!
Your website can and should draw clients like a fire attracts moths. But when our staff consultants check out agency candidate websites before the clients do (to remove those not fully qualified), I’m dismayed at the “disconnect” that exists about “category experience.” Yet when you ask a client for their first selection criteria for agency credentials, they’ll tell you “experience in our business.”
Most agency websites have a Client tab. There you find current client names or logos. You’re lucky if you recognize more than a few. Some are hyperlinked, but with limited time and a long list of
“first-cut” agencies, clients don’t want to poke and ponder. It takes precious time to identify the business category of an unfamiliar client name, and a website visit doesn’t always help. The typical Client Tab offers little to indicate the agency’s category experience nor does it do justice to clients long-gone.
Clients, their names and logos will come and go, but Category Experience is forever. Be sure you have a Category Experience Tab. Feel free to pull and post from our database fields (click here).
EACH NEW BUSINESS LEAD IS PRECIOUS
If you’re like the majority and want every opportunity you can get, when you began the new year Monday, everything associated with new business needed to count.
FYI, on average, about half the clients that register go forward and have us manage their agency or pr firm search. The other half tell us they already have some “recommended” agencies (thank God for such a quality resource …) or they elect not to return our calls and emails.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t “professionally” jump on their bones though, so in those cases, we’re going to distribute that contact information, along with whatever we have on their agency requirements – and do so for free (no strings attached) to qualified and/or nearby agencies. That goes for any agency already paid at the $500 level or those already fully fee-paid. Tell them AgencyFinder sent you, but show them no mercy!
NEW BUSINESS TOOLS – ADD THEM TO YOUR TOOLBOX
New business is like anything else; it’s a process and you need tools and techniques to do it correctly. We’ve assembled some fundamental items and information you should find helpful in your task (click here).
Finally, add this invigorating fuel to your new business engine. A colleague in London sent us a lovely, inspiring PowerPoint presentation. Find it at Meet the Team; then below the photo array click on An Upbeat Look at 2009.
CLIENTS ALWAYS SEARCH FOR FREE – BUT THEY’RE NOT FREE TO ABUSE OUR AGENCIES …
Sales professionals advise “remove barriers to the sale,” so we’ve always offered our service to advertisers for free. We want to accommodate all “qualified” clients, but free doesn’t mean at the expense of any agency.
And AgencyFinder is only free when subject to defined exceptions. I urge you to read our Terms and Conditions for Clients.
Clients are told that AgencyFinder is a step-by-step “consulting process” they’ll use to find and hire plus it’s a database of pre-screened, qualified advertising and public relations firms. More than that, we’re not a “list broker” or “list source.” An early-stage client email advises: “It’s important to make another distinction – clients that want just a “list” and plan a hiring process that deviates substantially from our model should find candidates at flat-file agency directories such as Adweek and Redbooks, or by Googling and then managing on their own.”
We’re much, much more than most people think … HOW ABOUT FRESH, UPBEAT, PROVOCATIVE ESSAYS FOR ’09?
Check your essays; you might find that this new economy calls for a fresh perspective and a different viewpoint.
You can make changes anytime, so how about an inventory of text options for each essay and then test them; rotate them. Remember, in new business, birds of a feather want to flock together. Do what you can to help alleviate the fear component that will surely guide and control marketing decisions for some time to come.
Sincerely,
Charles G. Meyst, Chairman/CEO
Business Partnering International, Ltd.
Vantage Place, 4327 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060
Voice: 804.346.1812
