For over eight years I’ve prescribed creating a niche blog for agency new business and have helped create over 200 personal blogs for agency principals.
A personal blog can provide small to midsize agency owners with a perfect platform to create positioning of expertise and appeal to a very specific target audience. It’s like a fishing expedition. You fish for a specific fish with a particular bait, you fish away from the boat (the agency’s website) so you don’t scare off the fish.
Recently, a client won a significant national account through their niche blog, www.thestorestarters.com. This small agency has been awarded the business of helping to launch 22 new stores for Burlington Coat Factory this year. This is what a niche blog can do for your agency.
Two primary reasons why I recommend a personal blog:
Clients want to work with PEOPLE that they know trust and like. As agencies grow the more faceless they become. Agencies need to find ways to personalize their brand to help stand out from their competition. Plus, social media is all about PEOPLE connecting with other PEOPLE.
Clients are looking for EXPERTISE and not the agencies that check all of the boxes to indicate they may have some marketing experience in a particular category. Agency owners need to identify their area of expertise, own it and communicate it.
The reasons I advocate using the agency owner(s):
They are the ones less likely to leave. Also, the owner of a small to midsize agency is always an important part of any new business. It’s natural for them to take the lead in this effort.
Agency owners play a huge role in establishing the culture and chemistry for their agencies. An agency’s chemistry also plays a big part in winning new business.
Social media is all about people. People want to work with other people that they know, trust and like. It’s hard to socialize brick-and-mortor. Agency owners should become the face of the agency.
If you really want a blog to provide new business opportunities, you must pick a niche and be the expert on that.
By going narrow-niche, your blog gains a single purpose and brings a focal point around a central theme. It will also help provide focus in developing your content for a specific target audience. It will become the cornerstone for building an online community of prospects.
The benefits of creating a niche blog and targeted content:
Allows an agency to be more narrowly niched without the risk since this blog lives offsite. It creates no confusion with current clients or prospective clients who are outside your niche.
As a small agency, like Sheehy + Associates, it makes it possible to land some really big clients.
It provides a better focus for new business. For possibly the first time as an agency owner, you’ll have a very specific and identifiable target audience.
You can easily maintain top-of-mind awareness 24/7 without relying on interruption tactics, such as cold calling.
It will pre-qualify your prospects. Chemistry plays an important part in new business. You wont appeal to everyone, but for those that you do, it will be a very strong appeal.
The battle for new business has moved online. That’s the place to do your best networking. Even offline networks are enhanced through your online networking potential.
Experts write. Gaining a positioning of expertise will allow you to win more business without having to pitch for it.
You build relationships with prospects whom you’ve never had the first conversation. When they engage with you, you’ll find the conversation is much further down the road than a cold or warm call conversation. You skip the dating process and move straight to the altar.
Content is the fuel for creating a perpetual pipeline of new business leads. It also fuels your knowledge and professional enrichment. It’s your personalized continuing education program. You’ll assimilate much more knowledge through your writing and you’ll become much more articulate.
A greater market area, with the potential for national and international new business opportunities. You’ll also give companies that are located outside of your market a reason to want to do business with you.
When you gain a positioning of expertise, you have the ability to charge a higher premium for your services. You’ll also be able to work with fewer clients and those that are a better match for your agency.
The battle for new business has moved online. Instead of chasing business, it’s now more important to be found. Social media fueled by a content marketing platform will provide you with inbound leads.
Here are some examples of agency principals who are doing it well:
Scott Kuhn and Dave Carter, Sheehy + Associates, Louisville, KY: The Store Starters, Marketing Resources for Great Grand Openings
Jeff Fromm, the Barkley agency, Kansas City, MO: Millennial Marketing
Chris Ray, the Ramey agency, Jackson, MS: Upward Home, Marketing for High End Home Brands
Bob Williams, Burns Entertainment, Chicago, IL: The Brand Agent, Building brands through celebrities, music and sports
Park Howell, Park&CO, Phoenix, NV: The Power of Storytelling
Stephanie Holland, Holland + Holland, Birmingham, AL: She-conomy, A Guys Guide to Marketing to Women
John McDougall, McDougall Interactive, Boston, MA: Authority Marketing, Position Yourself As An Expert
John Sonnhalter, the SONNHALTER agency, Cleveland, OH: Tradesmen Insights, Marketing to the Professional Tradesmen
Douglas Burdett, Artillery Marketing, Norfolk, VA: Fire Support, Aerospace and Defense Marketing
Jason Parks and Stephanie Parker, the Barkley agency, Kansas City, MO: QSR Insights, Bite-sized Insights for QSR and Fast Casual
Jaci Russo, Russo Branding, New Orleans, LA: Pin Point for Health, Branding for the Greater Good
Kristi Bridges, the Sawtooth Group, Red Bank, NJ: Health Craze, Marketing Healthy Food to Families
Ron Trilling, Media Dynamics, Milwaukee, WI: Learning Lines, Development Resources for eLearning
Steve Parker, Jr. and Jeff Adelson-Yan, Media Wing, Charleston, SC: Asking Smarter Questions, Data-Driven Marketing & Business Intelligence
Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Willms, the Suburbia Agency, British Columbia, CA: Shopportunity, Resources for Creating Traffic and Sales for Shopping Centers
If you have other examples, please share them in the comment section below.
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