Why Do Agencies Not Want to Connect?

On occasion I conduct agency searches for clients.  I did the Jenny Craig and Villeroy & Boch reviews among others and am currently engaged in another search.

What I have found during my reviews is that many agencies make it very difficult to connect with them by e mail.  Often I am doing my research after telephone hours and am checking out potential prospects sites.  At the beginning of the review my task is to find candidates quickly usually because the clients are having a problem and that is why they have hired me.  I want to connect with agencies quickly and easily.

When I go to the majority of advertising agency, public relations agencies and digital agencies sites alike, the contact info on their sites are e mails like info@ or contact@.

I have sent e mails to those email addresses and rarely hear back from the agency.

I think that agencies often do this because they do not want to get resumes from people in transition and that is short sighted and a mistake.  More on that later.

The worst contact method is asking somebody to fill out a contact form with the nature of the request.  What is the size of my budget?  Are you really serious? Rarely are these responded to when I complete them. 

As a review consultant I am incentivized to find agencies so I persevere.

The majority of clients do reviews on their own.  I wonder if they have as much tenacity as I do.

Smart agencies make it easy to connect with.

They provide the name and phone number of the New Business person with a hyperlinked e mail.

They make it easy to connect with and follow up quickly.  My record is 7 minutes.

If you want to manage communications flow with the outside world you can add e mails like jobs@agency, inquiries@agency.  This will insure that the right e mail goes to the right people.

I also find that in the majority of cases I have to follow up with a call to the person mentioned on the site instead of hearing from them first.  Sorry to say but that is the truth.

If you want to learn more about how to improve your agencies New Business process check out my CD on my site www.hankblank.com called “Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business.”  Great advice on how to get your agency invited to the dance.

Hank Blank’s Guide To Holiday Networking

I present on networking to many companies and organizations across the country.

Wanted to offer some tips on successful networking during the holiday season.

This is the time where a little Christmas networking cheer can lead to a happy and successful New Year.

The power of networking is well known. Seventy five percent of all business comes from networking. How often have complete strangers called you and said that they would like to do business with you. Seventy percent of all jobs come from networking. Many jobs aren’t even posted anywhere.

Many people succumb to the pressures of too many things to do during the holidays and let their networking lag. I believe that the holidays are an ideal time to network especially in these challenging economic times. There are more events during the holidays and it is very easy to fill up your calendar with a variety of networking events. Many events combine a number of networking groups into one event providing even more opportunity.

One key benefit of holiday networking is that more senior decision makers come out during this time of the year. For many it is their annual event. You can get to interact with the C Suite.

The events are also entirely social events versus educational events so they are all about mingling, meeting new people and networking.

During the holidays networking events often involve a charity so they are a great time about building your social currency by supporting the community outreach during this time of the year.

The majority of events also involve a significant other. You may be a lousy networker but your significant other may be great at it so there are more touch points for you to develop. People are more social, more receptive and more gregarious.

However, holiday time is not the time to pitch yourself to perfect strangers. Avoid becoming Mr or Ms Martini person and pitching your services and asking for the order. This isn’t the time to hand out your resume.

You should come to the event with 25 cards in your hand and a pen to write down notes about what is personally important to the people you meet. They will provide you with ideas for your follow up. If you don’t follow up you might as well throw their cards away.

This holiday season is also a great time to be grateful. You may not have enough work, you may be in transition but you still have many gifts and opportunities surrounding you. The future will materialize if you are grateful.

If you are aggressive about networking and fill your calendar this holiday season you will launch yourself into a successful 2010.

Hank Blank’s Guide to Successful Holiday Networking is available on my site at a special holiday price. Check it out at www.hankblank.com

Happy Holidays.

How Social Media has changed advertising agencies sandbox

As we all know social media and social networking has changed the communications landscape to a great degree. Certainly brand communications and advertising has changed from a monologue where the advertiser was crafting the brand message to a dialogue where the consumer is now part of the communications engagement.

Social media has also changed the advertising and public relations sandboxes. Until very recently the duties and responsibilities of agencies were quite distinct. Agencies did ads and PR firms did public relations. Now the sandboxes have blurred and gone away.

So who should implement social media and social networking for clients? Should it be your public relations firm, your advertising agency, your digital agency or should you do it yourself?

In many ways I could argue that it should be your public relations firm. They are the ones skilled at writing an electronically optimized news release with key words hyperlinked to help their client’s organic SEO. Then the public relations firm repurposes the release on the client’s Facebook fan page and tweets out the release with a link to the posting on the internet.

Most public relations agencies are adept at implementing video releases so repurposing a video release on YouTube should pose no great obstacle to them.

Now If I asked an agency copywriter to write me an electronically optimized news release their eyes would glaze over. At the same time if a public relations person told me they could write a radio commercial or TV spot, I would laugh.

One of the social media experts that I follow is Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital. I know Edelman as a public relations agency and not an advertising agency. And where do I read Steve’s Rubel columns? In Advertising Age. Yes the sandboxes have blown away.

So who should handle your social media and networking programs? Your advertising agency? Your public relations firm? Your digital agency? Well I argue that it should be the smartest resource. Whichever firm is the most skilled and well versed in social media.

Many times I see many firms in all three practices who are posers.

They announce that they are engaged in social media and handing social media for current and prospective clients yet they have no presence on any of the social networks, their social media has no organic presence when you search for them.

I am just a consultant, yet I routinely have many more Linkedin connections and Twitter followers than most agencies, public relations or digital agencies that reach out to me. My Google presence dominates theirs and they are companies with numerous employees. So I say partner with the smartest resource that demonstrates their capability by their presence in this new communications platform and medium.

Why not just do it yourself you might ask? I have talked to many clients who are doing it on their own. It’s simple they say. All it takes is time. But time does cost money.

Most clients’ marketing departments are lean these days and their social media networking efforts are often an added responsibility for some selected individual in addition to the other work they may be doing. This limits their robustness and their participation because they just don’t have the time.

The other mistake that they make is that they don’t have a strategy. They are just doing it without any set messaging strategy. There are limited metrics and no benchmarks to judge those metrics.

Many companies aren’t doing too much in the social media space because it is too politically hard so they aren’t capitalizing upon the many opportunities that social media offers. In larger companies, implementing social media may involve the legal department, customer service as well as marketing and getting everybody together to craft a social media program may not be what marketing wants to champion right now.

That is why you need an outside source to help you with your strategy, help you with your band width and keep you smart. Social media is changing so rapidly that you need as many good resources as you can afford to use.

So the sand has shifted but the shifting sands have also provided opportunities for growth, innovation and change which marketing is supposed to embrace. Happy tweeting.

Hank Blank runs a marketing services consultancy company based in Laguna Niguel, CA. His core competencies include advertising, public relations, interactive and personal and social networking. He also conducts agency reviews aligning clients with the correct resources for their needs. He speaks on Networking and New Business Development across the country.

He can be reached at hank@hankblank.com or www.hankblank.com

Benefits of Networking

Hope you are all well.

 

Going to be posting a couple of blogs on the benefits of networking.

 

There are a number of them.

 

Financial currency.  Networking makes you smarter.  Networking saves you time and makes you more productive.  Networking provides you with social currency and networking is career insurance.

 

Let’s start with the first one.  Financial currency.

 

Why network?

 

Networking leads to a revenue stream.  Call it financial currency.  Most people understand that.

 

Your network equates to your net worth.  I know that because as a consultant I create a job for myself each and every day through my network and by expanding it constantly.

 

The opposite of networking is not working.

 

Most people know the expression of it’s not what you know it’s who you know.

 

I don’t like it very much because it often smacks of nepotism but it has some truth.

 

However effective networking is a game of singles and not grand slams and most people are too impatient.  They want the quick fix.  People are two impatient and it doesn’t work that way.

 

You have to plant the seeds and the bounty will follow.

 

It takes time to build an effective network and earn the trust of your contacts.

 

The best approach to effective networking is a philosophy of following the premise that you get more from your network by asking for less and doing more for others.

 

More about that soon.

 

Take care.

 

Hank

 

www.hankblank.com

Speaking to IOWA AMA Chapter

Hope you are all well.
Speaking to the Iowa AMA Chapter on August 12th on Networking Your Way to New Business.
Here is the link about the topics I cover.

http://amaiowa.com/program.asp?id=24

Love speaking to groups if you have some ideas in that area.
Take care.
Hank

Just released my New CD called “Networking Your Way to New Business.”

AGENCY NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT, HANK BLANK, RELEASES NEW “NETWORKING YOUR WAY TO NEW BUSINESS” CD

 

Networking Expert offers tips on how to develop a relationship based New Business program

 

Laguna Niguel, CA, June 23rd, 2009- Hank Blank is an agency New Business development consultant helping advertising, public relations and interactive agencies effectively win more new business.  Hank has a unique perspective on the New Business process because he also serves as an agency review consultant and has completed searches for companies such as Jenny Craig and Villeroy & Boch.

 

Networking is Hank’s primary New Business tool.  “I’ve been using networking as my method of expanding my business for years and now have put my learning and speaking material into a new 72 minute audio CD called “Networking Your Way to New Business,” said Blank.

 

Hank has spoken on “Networking Your Way to New Business” to companies such as Volvo, Sole Technology, and countless organizations and associations across the country.

 

“Networking is a very powerful tool. Seventy five percent of all business deals come from networking.  The phenomenal growth of social networking sites such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter attests to the power of networking, yet most people have no clue on how to effectively network.  They miss the opportunity to capture the power of networking,” said Blank.

 

“Social networks are great tools but they are all contact and low touch.  You have to supplement them with an effective personal networking plan to achieve new business success,” said Blank.

 

Many agencies prefer to send boxes to strangers saying they would be perfect for them rather than developing a relationship based New Business Development program.  Too many people act like “Mr. or Ms. Martini Person” when networking. They too quickly asking for the order thus alienating themselves immediately.
“As an agency owner in a highly competitive market I have found great value in Hank Blank’s approach to Networking Your Way to New Business.  I would recommend it as a guidebook and success formula for ongoing agency survival and success for any agency size from small to large,” said Eric Morley, Principal, Blue C Advertising in Newport Beach, CA.

Hank Blank’s Tips On How to Build A Successful Creative Freelance Career

HANK BLANK’S TIPS ON HOW TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL FREELANCE CAREER

1. Creating a job for you is a full time occupation. Building your career in isolation sending e mails to people telling them you would “Love to Work with you,” is a low probably approach. You need to have an aggressive Networking Strategy and be out there. You need community.

Networking in person is much more productive. You foster a broader, far deeper exchange with more touch points when you meet in person with people. Community interaction stimulates a better dialogue than an e mail.

You should attempt to have 5 networking meetings a day. If you do you will end up having three meetings a day with cancellations and changes to your schedule.

You can build a very large network very quickly if you are dedicated to networking.

If you have 3 meetings a day and get 2 contacts to follow up with from each person you will gain 30 contacts a week, 120 in a month and over 1400 in a year. How would your life change if you met one new person a day? A lot I would surmise.

2. Expand your networking circle from your local AFF Chapter. Attend meeting in LA, OC and San Diego to expand your reach. Each of these markets has many smaller agencies that can’t afford to hire an additional creative person but they do hire freelancers.

3. Broaden your networking circle to related marketing oriented groups such as PRSA, IABC, BMA, AMA, HPRMA and others. You can find a complete list of networking events throughout Southern CA by checking out www.meetingsandmixers.com

Also attend events such as Orange County Forum, UCI Distinguished Lecturer’s Series, and Economic Forecasting events. There won’t be a lot of creative people there but lots of people of influence and connections.

4. Improve your Interactive Creative Skills. Traditional advertising is becoming a dinosaur. The growth is in the Interactive area and many companies in those industries won’t hire a traditional creative person and train them when they can find practitioners well versed in new media.

5. Improve your Strategic Skills and Knowledge. A creative person with great strategic and problem solving has always been a unique asset and is highly sought out. Become current on today’s marketing trends in all areas by subscribing to all the daily newsletters available on www.mediapost.com and it is free.

6. Broaden your Social Network. The most business oriented Social Networking site is www.linkedin.com. You can add what you do in an area called Service Providers.

You can find contacts on Linkedin. It is a very robust tool. Make sure your profile is complete; ask for endorsements from previous clients and associates. Make sure a hyperlink of your Linkedin profile is part of your salutation. When prospects ask for references you won’t have to scramble and you can just send them a link to your Linkedin profile.

A strong Linkedin page will also show up on Google when people search for you.

7. Write a blog. It is easy to do on www.wordpress.com. If I can do it so can you. Write a weekly column on your favorite ads, consumer trends and what you see out there. A blog will also help improve your Google presence.

8. Spread the word. Distribute news that you learn about that might be right for you to your network or on Twitter. If you are known as a giver then you will receive a positive return. Just be patient.

9. Promote yourself. Make yourself your client. Many business magazines like OC Metro Business http://www.ocmetro.com/ have social networks where you can add your photo and your services.

10. Embrace Public Relations. You should send out a monthly press release on Business Wire for a very affordable cost.

If you have just completed a major campaign for a client send out a release about it. A 400 word release will only cost $225 and it will be distributed aggressively on the Internet.

If you Google Hank Blank, I own the first five pages, not postings on Google. Why? Because I have treated Hank Blank as a client for years.

11. Get involved with a non-profit and offer your services. There are over 1700 non-profits in Orange County alone and many need your creative services. People involved with non-profits have a lot of social currency as well as financial currency. Your involvement will validate you as you meet new people during your journey and you will be enhancing your character.

About Hank Blank

Hank Blanks provides a variety of Marketing Services. These include advertising, public relations and interactive solutions. He also helps agencies with New Business Development and conducts agency reviews. He conducted the Jenny Craig and Villeroy & Boch reviews.

Hank also speaks on networking often to organizations and companies across the country.

His presentations are called “Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business,” and “Networking Your Way to New Business.” They are available on his website.

Hank Blank’s Linkedin profile is http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/88b/ba5

Invite him into your Linked network.

He is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hankblank

For more information please visit www.hankblank.com or e mail hank@hankblank.com

Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business CD Released

Hank Blank is an advertising agency search consultant.  He has conducted the Jenny Craig review and recently the Villeroy & Boch review.

Based on his experience as a New Business Development person for many agencies combined with his experiences as a review consultant Hank has released a new CD on New Business Development for Agencies.  Hank’s CD is called Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business. 

Hank’s CD outlines how to avoid self destruction in the New Business Process and Win More Accounts.  This CD will help agencies drastically improve their New Business Process.

You will learn how to make your agency more visible, how to get more RFP’s, what to send to prospects, how to make better presentations, avoid grenades, and get to the finals more ofen in your New Business Process.

Hank has also presented a presenation on this topic to various AAF Chapters and received a tremendous response.

His CD is available on his site at www.hankblank.com and you get see the feedback from various AAF Chapters on his Linkedin profile.

How to Get a Job and Make Yourself Fireproof

Here are Hank’s thoughts for these tough economic times on how to get a job and also how to make yourself Fireproof.

 

Here are the simple truths. Networking is the best way to find a job if you are in transition.

Networking is the best way to keep your job if you learn to effectively network internally.

 

Networking is the best way to make yourself Fireproof by starting a consulting career.  If you work for yourself you will generally like your boss and they won’t fire you.

 

Networking is not like learning to ride a bike. You will quickly lose your connections if you aren’t out there. You will be out of touch. You can’t network in your home office looking at your computer. Focusing your job hunt on job openings on company websites and Monster isn’t a high return strategy for finding a job today.  There are jobs out there but they are like needles in a haystack so you have to be in the fields to find them. Finding a job is a full time sales job and most successful sales people are out there and not at their desks.

 

Social networking sites are important tools and resources but not networking. You need personal connection to develop relationships so people will spend their time helping you in your job search.  Strangers aren’t going to do that for you. These are times for personal association, contact and fellowship and not isolation.

 

Although most people in transition have had very successful careers and were well skilled, somehow transition makes them terrible at marketing themselves.  I have seen many people who were great at Marketing a company’s products but ineffective at marketing themselves.

 

Many people in transition don’t know what they are doing when they network. They come to events and try to hand out copies of resumes that they think people will keep and read. Some don’t even come with a pen to take notes. They have no business cards or keep their cards in their wallets like some treasure.  They save money by ordering their business cards on the Internet.   Yes they have saved money but they have commoditized themselves. You are trying to convince employers that you are the right unique individual for that position but your card says you are like everybody else.

 

People often ask for the order too quickly.  They appear too aggressive or desperate in their job search when people want to hire people that are self assured and confident about their capabilities.  Don’t press.  Less is best.

 

Many people have a networking approach that is self focused and rarely focused on how they can help others.  The later will help them grow more and is more of a high return strategy.  You get more by asking for less and trying to do more for others.

 

Many people in transition, especially men, often wear old or casual clothing to networking events. They look like they are in transition. You don’t have to wear a suit but you need to look the part.  Many people have an elevator speech is babble or generic and won’t be memorable.  People need to file away a short mental description about you.  Long descriptions aren’t memorable.

 

This is war and you need to get fit and get your tools ready.  You are going to need more energy.  Reenergize yourself by hitting the gym and becoming more trim. Take Yoga.  Center Yourself. Go clothes shopping and ask a young person for suggestions or take your kids shopping with you.  You need to reinvent yourself. Dump your Dockers. Shed your past. Reinvent yourself. Eat healthy.  Get a new hair cut. Stop watching TV. Become information current. Flush your worry.

 

You need to develop tools whether you want to find a job or if you want to become a consultant.  It is quite clear that the landscape of work has changed forever.  Even if you work for a company it is essential that you have a strong personal brand for now and into the future.  For consulting it is imperative.

 

In this day and age, everybody must have their own personal website. Register your domain name and develop your own website.  Don’t do it yourself. Develop unique business cards. Write a press release positioning you as an expert source in your category. Develop a robust Linkedin Profile with recommendations. Write a memorable elevator speech. Consider Face book and Twitter. If you are looking for a job write a one page Bio with work and life sections.

 

To make yourself Fireproof, start a consulting career.  You didn’t rent your experience, skills or your capabilities from your previous employer.  They came with your brain.  Consulting can invigorate you, improve your sense of self worth and produce valuable income for you.  As Led Zeppelin wrote in Stairway to Heaven, “Yes there are two paths you can take can as life goes by.”  Maybe consulting will make you a Rock star.

 

You can also consult and look for work simultaneously. For many companies, adding head count is problematic. It is lower risk to contract with a consultant and that consulting gig gets you in the door so you can demonstrate your capabilities.

 

Remember is takes patience to develop a successful consulting career.  It can take on average 60 to 90 days to get an engagement.  Use that time to develop the products that you will be selling.  Develop a PowerPoint, write articles, press releases and develop content. 

 

And remember that in this environment you have to double the amount of irons you have in the fire.

 

To learn more about networking check out Hank Blank’s CD on www.hankblank.com

 

If you want Hank to speak on networking to your organization or company, e mail him at hank@hankblank.com

 

Good Luck.

How to Build a Powerful Network in 2009

NETWORKING EXPERT, HANK BLANK, OFFERS TIPS ON HOW TO BUILD A POWERFUL NETWORK IN 2009

Networking Speaker suggests simple but effective tips on how to be a better networker in tough economic times

Laguna Niguel, CA, December 29th- Networking Speaker, Hank Blank, http://www.hankblank.com is well recognized as an expert on building successful careers and business through the power of Networking. Hank Blank has spoken to countless companies, organizations and colleges throughout the country. www.hankblank.com/networkingseminars

Networking is a very powerful and affordable way for an individual to market themselves. Seventy five percent of all jobs are found through networking and 75% of all business deals come from networking yet most people have no clue on how to network.

Hank feels that most people have no clue on how to network. “Most people think that going to a networking event and hanging around the bar with a buddy and talking to people they know is networking and it has got nothing to do with networking. It’s socializing. Networking is engaging and talking to strangers to expand your field of contacts,” said Blank.

The other common pitfalls of networking are showing up without your business cards or keeping one or two in your wallet or pursue instead of your hand. Also not knowing your elevator speech or showing up five minutes before the event or sitting with your friends. All of these diminish your networking effectiveness.

The other pitfall of networking is being Mr Martini Man or Ms Martini Man. That’s the person who is overly aggressive and immediately asking for the order. “They say things like I would love to work with you,” says Blank. “Why would I want to work with strangers?”

“Effective networking is about less of you and more about helping the other people that you meet first. A lot of people think that is counter intuitive or contradictory. My philosophy in my presentation is how to get more by asking for less and doing more for others,” said Blank.

Effective networking isn’t about going to an event as much as a way of life. “People think California is an impersonal place yet I live a Norman Rockwell life because I try to be engaged with people all the time. If you want to be really good at something you have to practice it all the time. You can be another invisible person checking your crackberry at Starbucks or try to connect with the people around you and have a much richer and more connected life,” said Blank.

About Hank Blank and Blank and Associates

Blank and Associates provides a variety of Marketing Services for clients. Hank Blank is a well known networker in Southern California and has spoken to numerous companies and organizations on networking. To have Hank Blank speak to your company or organization on the power of networking or to buy his networking CD at a ridiculously low price of $37 e mail hank@hankblank.com or visit www.hankblank.com