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While social media continues to grow as a consumer marketing tool, most agencies have yet to appreciate the impact it can have on their own self-promotion and new business efforts. That was the focus of a recent 4A’s seminar entitled “Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media” from new business guru Michael Gass.
His key insight?
80% of decision makers say they found their vendor, not the other way around. As Michael explained, creating a blog with a distinctive point of view is critical today for new business success. Agency websites can continue to serve as online brochures, but a well-positioned blog can be a powerful outbound attractor.
Michael outlined several best practices for creating a successful blog, including these 10 essential first steps:
Have a clear objective. Are you trying to attract new customers to your e-commerce site? Building a following for a new product? Building a database of customer email addresses? Spell it out.
Identify your target audience. The better you can define and narrow your audience, the more successful your blog will be. For example: My target is U.S. leisure marketing pros.
Compose a descriptor statement: A subtitle that states emphatically what your blog is about (i.e. Your expert guide to finding local deals on designer fashions). The more specific the better.
Create a unique title for your blog. It’s helpful if you can tie in the title with a URL that you own. Copyblogger.com says make it: readable, pronounceable, memorable, unique and concise.
Buy the URL associated with your blog title, instead of having a WordPress.com, Typepad.com or Blogspot.com URL. That way if you move your site, you get to keep your audience.
Identify the key words that you want to dominate in Google Search. Consistently include your key words in your post titles, and in the copy of your post.
Start with a simple blogging platform that you can easily switch from in the future. Michael Gass suggests WordPress.com.
Make your blog easy to navigate. Use top posts, categories, tags, and such. Install a search widget that is included in your blog’s sidebar and located above the fold.
Use the inverted pyramid style of writing like a newspaper reporter. Lead with the conclusion and use bullet points, short paragraphs, and an average of 350 to 450 words.
Set a goal for writing 50 posts within 30 days. This will help you to develop your research, resourcing, writing and publishing skills. The discipline of writing the first 50 will help you later.
For lots of other useful ways to leverage social media for agency self-promotion, visit Michael Gass’ blog, Fuel Lines.
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