7-17-14 RSW/US Agency New Business Tools 2014 Survey Report Webinar
In the “RSW/US-Mirren 2014 New Business Tools Webinar,” RSW/US Director of Business Development Lee McKnight Jr. digs into report results and provides comparisons, perspective and insight into nine new business tool categories agencies are using for new business. Lee also delves deeper into the report’s findings, providing you a roadmap for the best and most effective tool choices available for agency new business.
More specifically, the following questions are answered:
• What tools are agencies using and why?
• What changes have occurred in usage compared to last year's survey?
• What new tools are your peers using that may benefit your new business efforts?
• If resources are limited (and they usually are) what are the top 3-5 tools we recommend.
View the webinar here: http://www.rswus.com/resources/webinars
9. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
MORE ACCURATE
PROSPECT DATA
“A database of marketers that can
guarantee more accuracy than 20% as
far as marketing leadership at
corporations; news and creative
product, also that accurately
represents current agency
relationships” –Agency Survey Participant
WHAT YOU WANT FROM THE FUTURE
11. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
MAKING CURRENT TOOLS MORE
TAILORED TO AGENCY NEEDS (OR
JUST EASIER TO USE)
“An easy-to-use tracking database for hosting all
pertinent client and prospect information - an
“Apple-like” version of Salesforce.”-Agency Survey
Participant
WHAT YOU WANT FROM THE FUTURE
12. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Most Prevalent theme= Integration/Aggregation Of
New Business Information/Process Within Agency
“Lead tracking, resource management, project tracking -
somewhere between Salesforce (too robust) and Excel
(too simplistic, not online)”-Agency Survey Participant
WHAT YOU WANT FROM THE FUTURE
19. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
1. Social Media
2. CRM Software
3. Research Services
4. Prospect Contact/List Building
Services
5. SEO Tools
6. Email/Auto-Responder Services
7. Social Media Monitoring Tools
8. Marketing Automation/Inbound
Marketing Platforms
9. Project Management/Collaboration
Tools
9 Categories in order of most-used new business tools by
agencies
26. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“As long as we have
directed our efforts
accordingly for the
right social media
channel, we have
seen great success in
new biz leads through
social media.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #1: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
31. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Why aren’t you using:
In Q4 of 2013, the site averaged 60 million
unique visitors a month and 215 million page
views. SlideShare is among the top 120
most-visited Web sites in the world.
15 Mind-Blowing Stats About SlideShare
TOOL #1: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
40. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“I am a team of 1, so I
find it difficult to make
time to keep up with
my lead management
in Salesforce.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #2: CRM
41. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“… cumbersome and
not built for our
industry - I need
something more
intuitive to how an
agency cultivates
business and allows
for collaboration.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #2: CRM
50. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
A few reasons why Agency principals say research
services are effective:
Clients/prospects love research.
"They support the development and rationale of our
strategic thinking as well as elevate our insight and
knowledge of that category, consumer and brands.”
“We use our research services to monitor trends,
companies’ current campaigns and upcoming needs, and
conduct research on prospective clients, their competitors
and overall product categories to get smart in advance of
a pitch or prospecting outreach effort.”
TOOL #3: RESEARCH SERVICES
51. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
The flip side:
• Data isn't granular enough
• Limited information available
on regional prospects
“Often they aren’t fast or
specific enough, never
provides an aha moment to
win business. Either too late or
irrelevant to our domain
expertise.” Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #3: RESEARCH SERVICES
58. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“Building a large list to send mass,
unsolicited emails to, doesn’t seem to be
as effective as more targeted,
personalized outreach. This takes more
time and effort of course, but ultimately
seems to be more successful (and
doesn’t seem like an impersonal SPAM
attack).”
Agency Survey Participant
they’re just not using lists at all.
TOOL #4: LIST BUILDING
63. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
SEO isn't just about getting the
technical details of search-engine
friendly web development
correct. It’s also about marketing.
This is perhaps the most important
concept to grasp about the
functionality of search engines. You
can build a perfect website, but its
content can remain invisible to
search engines unless you promote
it.*
*Moz.com
beginner’s
guide
TOOL #5: SEO
66. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“We often are told by
prospects that they
found us by doing a
Google search.
We find that
updating and
keeping track of our
SEO performance is
one of the top ways
that we can generate
awareness of and
interest in our
agency.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #5: SEO
67. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“84% say knowing the ultimate
impact of pages and content in terms
of traffic, conversions, and revenue
is now more important.”
Marketing Profs: The State of SEO in 2014
TOOL #5: SEO
68. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“Only 50% say
measuring the
business impact of
keywords is more
important in 2014,
again perhaps
reflecting keywords'
changing role in SEO.”
Marketing Profs: The State of SEO
in 2014
TOOL #5: SEO
69. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“85% of respondents
say taking a
page/content-based
approach to SEO is
more important in 2014
than it was in 2013.”
Marketing Profs: The State of SEO in
2014
TOOL #5: SEO
70. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“Mostly it is about the time it
takes to work on our business
versus our clients. Classic case
of Cobbler’s children.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #5: SEO
74. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
• They are easy to track
• They are customizable
• They are easy to use
use are very effective, primarily because:
72% of agency executives (vs. 55% in 2013)say the platforms they
TOOL #6: EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
75. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Several takeaways for agencies here:
1) Agencies have obviously taken note of
the somewhat crowded playing field and
explored more options than in 2013.
TOOL #6: EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
77. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
2) As one agency
survey
respondent
pointed out,
“Depends mostly
on the content,
not the service
provider.”
TOOL #6: EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
78. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
One last point to consider:
“The tracking/reporting as to what devices
emails are opened on, which areas are
being clicked on, survey responses, etc., all
provide valuable data that optimizes
relevancy in iterative communications...”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #6: EMAIL/AUTO-RESPONDER
83. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Oddly, with over
half of agencies
using these tools,
61% find them not
effective. (58% in
2013)
NEW BUSINESS TOOLS: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE
TOOL #7:SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING TOOLS
84. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“They really don’t offer a very comprehensive,
insightful dashboard.”
“… again, due to level of activity on social media
(Facebook, Twitter, etc.), effectiveness is minimal...”
TOOL #7:SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING TOOLS
89. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
The biggest surprise comes from
agency opinions of overall
effectiveness.
Last year only 43% of agencies
surveyed found their inbound
platforms effective, versus 85%
this year, a huge jump.
TOOL #8:INBOUND MARKETING PLATFORMS
90. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Agencies are still becoming acclimated to inbound
platforms and the best way to fully integrate them
into their agency new business structure.
TOOL #8:INBOUND MARKETING PLATFORMS
91. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“Most agencies are still trying to do this with
wordpress + hootsuite + seomoz + constant
contact + marketo + google analytics +
yesware.
Those are all great tools, but they don’t talk
to one another, they each have their own
learning curve, constant syncing of data
and lists, don’t provide instant insights into
what’s working and what’s not.”
-Peter Caputa, VP of Sales at HubSpot
TOOL #8:INBOUND MARKETING PLATFORMS
97. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Comments were, as expected,
mixed.
“Clients like to know we use
something, anything. As long it
means keeping their projects
on track and on time.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #9: PROJECT MANAGEMENT/COLLABORATION
98. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
Similar to inbound CRM, agencies
continue to look for that “best”
platform.
“We are constantly in search of a
better solution.”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #9: PROJECT MANAGEMENT/COLLABORATION
99. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
“Basecamp helps us stay organized with
workflow, individual assignments and deadlines
during an active pitch. Advantage
helps us to organize and manage our new
business jobs and track costs. We separate our
new business jobs into two categories (new vs.
organic growth), and within those four sub-
categories (pitch, prospecting, externalization and
newbiz operations).”
Agency Survey Participant
TOOL #9: PROJECT MANAGEMENT/COLLABORATION
102. lee@rswus.com @rswus #agencynewbusiness
1. A targeted list-20 a month
2. A targeted content strategy-1 blog post
a week
3. One social media channel-LinkedIn
4. A CRM to keep track
5. An automated email provider
YOUR 5 KEY TOOLS AND WHY