Creative Agency Secrets

Reading about another marketer’s top tips on how to provoke a response from a prospect from your first contact (also called Cold Calling).

I have generally foudn this to be really helpful in my own business development work.  I am one of hte (probably sad) people who enjoys making cold calls.  One of the reasons I like it is that I am reasonably successful. 

My cold approaches may be by phone or email or letter.  But what makes them distinctive is that I always follow up and my messaging is designed to be short and very memorable.  And occasionally cheeky(!)

• Plan the method of your approach what step follows
• Write all the collateral and script guides
• Work out a clear record keeping system (database, spreadsheet, paper trail)
• Be diligent and persistent

I will post up some of my cold letters for you to have a look at.

I met Andy Howells at the Open coffee morning last week.  We talked about the Sirolli Institute and their Enterprise Facilitation method which is very similar to the ‘bottom up’ development method that I experienced while working with AKRSP in Pakistan in 1986.

Andy told me about Kiva.  They have a fine business model - asking rich people like us to contribute a small sum that hey will aggregate and lend to third world individuals who need loans to improve their businesses and lives.

Read this page about the default rate (repayments over98%) and the number of days it takes to get a loan funded (1.01 days average).

Insult  Incompetence added.

From the previous post… just got an email from Brand Republic using one of the contact addresses from its website

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

      ’brand.republic@haymarket.com.’ on 24/10/2007 09:43
            501 <brand.republic@haymarket.com.>: domain missing or malformed

What to do next.
I am not going to campaign this - it makes me weary.  Haymarket is lousy at marketing itself. 

Proof.

For yourselves - just check the contact addresses work on your website.

A recurring theme in my blog posts.  This time the criminal is Haymarket, the principal publications owner for our industry.

For some reason, trying to read Charlie Hoult and Rory Sutherland’s blogs on the Brand Republic Site this morning… Apparently my login is no longer valid.
Curious.
My print subscription still arrives.

Then it says send a password reminder…. not working either my email is not recognised.

Recognising there’s an issue coming up the site suggests

This email address is not currently registered with Brand Republic.  Please check you have typed it correctly

This is bollocks as I’ve been online on BR for years.  Same email address, same password.
No link to an email for the mythical administrator, no link to a contacts page, no apparent means of contacting.  GRRR

on Contacts page I get a long list of people (mostly in ad sales) NONE of which are administrators for everything.

I am tempted to email Rufus Olins, the Managing director of Haymarket Brand Media

I came across this list in Amazon "Marketing and Branding Books you can actually read".

Although Peter Fisk’s is strong on theory and weak on actualy practical applicability, I’d recommend it for the high-brow.

Some of the others are new to me…. time to go shopping!

This just cracks me up.  and to crown it all, my Mother was there only about 5 days earlier… shame she missed the show.

Following my meeting with Adriana a couple of weeks ago, I have started to see VRM coming up in others’ blogs.  JP has some fantastic points here.

and I wrote a comment to follow

Matteo, you are right that the advertising industry faces a huge challenge and will splinter off, in my view, so that this ‘new world’ of positive, permission-based communication runs parallel with the old world of mass advertising.

What is curious and doesn’t seem to have bene mentioned yet, is the fact that brands *should* only want to advertise to people with money.

This will be the main discriminating factor.  The old-style advertising and direct marketing will increasingly have money-less audiences and those with money will protect themselves digitally and start to strike the sort of ‘bargains’ that you and JP describe.

Roll on the new future!

PS I used to work for Don Peppers, the man who coined the phrase 1to1 marketing.  His first book was the 1tot Future.  I think it’s here.  Now.  Finally!

At a meeting yesterday, I was told about an exciting interview that in-house has done with Don.  It’ll be released as a series of 3 minute videos on their site shortly.  What I want to see is whether his views have moved on since 2000.  And whether he has actually *done* any of the smart things he talks about.  I note that he doesn’t seem to have joined in the blogging conversation, and surely, Cluetrain should have been part of the development of the 1to1 business model….. but I fear it hasn’t / isn’t.

Well, thanks to the lovely Janice Cable, I was there.  The debate was hosted in BT’s sumptuous auditorium in their City Business Centre.  Great gig.

Three speakers followed by a formal debate. 
Take-outs from the speakers

Hugh McLeod - Social media is about meaning.
1 - Social Objects are key.  people socialise around objects, church, clothes, technology a.k.a. "sharing devices"
2 - It is cheap and easy
3 - Hyperlinks subvert hierarchies - you can bypass traditional structures.

JP Rangaswami - Enterprise software has 4 pillars

• Search
• Subscribe
• Fulfilment
• Converse

Facebook is this plus community.that’s why it works. 

Chad Wollen - Facebook is putting together all the components to make a marketplace = the Social Graph.  This social graph of value to users provides not much systematic value to advertisers.  There’s a trade-off between keeping it controlled and closed c.f. AOL until recently and opening it up and accepting that spam will happen.

Hugh - This is a ‘political bargain’ the open or closed system.  It’s a compromise

JP - we recognise that the world today does not allow monopoly rents
BT is experimenting using Facebook for knowledge management and internal communication.. it has a group of over 6000 employees online and is the third largest enterprise group.

Sam Sethi - Facebook is an aggregating lifestream. 
Poking someone on Facebook is a social gesture.  It’s like primates grooming each other(!)

i spoke later to Sam and he has some fantastic ideas on where some of these ‘possible futures’ may take us.  I am going to check out his APML workgroup later on…. watch this space.

There was a good debate and some useful discussion but I was mainly looking for take-outs on how businesses can use Facebook.

5 learnings
1 - open up your system and embrace the opportunity in Facebook.  Let staff use it, recognise your employment as part of their lives
2 - Trust your staff not to ‘waste’ time online in Facebook.  Get their ideas about how to use its features to further your business needs.  If BT is trying it out for internal communication and knowledge management, what can you do?
3 - Trust the Facebook privacy statements.  Most of the attendees had fully open profiles and many said they would accept a friend request from their boss (JP has an open door policy and so this is an extension of his normal way of working).  Read the privacy pages and see how detailed you can go with permissions e.g. tagging in photos - you can refuse to allow this.
4 - Look at the possibilities in the advertising.  Now they’ve opened up the opportunity for improved targeting for ad serving, it definitely is something I’m going to try out.  Graduate recruiters are now regularly checking Facebook for candidates both as ‘background’ and to see who else they know
5 - Watch for the un-sexy apps.  There are some neat ones e.g. enabling reading spreadsheets online.  Filter the bad or faddish (zombies) and find those that work for your needs. 

Following my post about the Angels Den investment club and my reservations about the business name and model.  It seems that my fears were partly valid.

I was called by Struan Johnston who has paid £99 and a is considering a further £400 to get his plan reviewed.  He posted a comment on the original blog post (see link above) and gave me a call.

Struan is concerned that this is a scam because there are no phone numbers to contact the organisation.  We spoke for a while and I have offered this blog as a forum for people concerned about the organisation to let us know about their experiences.

As luck would have it (ha ha) I met Bill Morrow at the Telegraph Business Club’s one day seminar a week earlier.  His contact details were in the literature and I reproduce them below - and they are on the original blog post so anyone needing follow-up go call / email him and Lois Cook his co-founder.

here is the text of the email I sent to Bill and Lois about my concerns and contact from Struan (he was cc and so should read it himself shortly).

Dear Lois and
Bill

I was at the Daily
Telegraph event two weeks ago where Bill was speaking / networking.  Following
that, and a posting that I made on my blog earlier (21^st August)
about the Angels Den service, I got a question written on my blog about you and
I have been unable to answer it.

Follow the link to see my
post and the question from Struan

Johnston

I think this shows up some
possible communication “holes” in your messaging and it suggests that there may
be some negative observations circulating around the blogosphere.  In Bill’s
profile from the Daily Telegraph Business Club handout it says “We are making a
lot of noise in The Press, come and see why.” 

Clearly you need to enable
more direct communication in a two-way manner with prospective angels and
businesses – somehow Mr Johnston fell through the gap.  He thought he got an
automated reply complimenting him on his business proposition and saying you’d
be back to him.  But he’s heard nothing.  For a
while.

If you want to ‘set the
record straight’ I would be happy to publish your reply on the
blog.

Best
wishes, Rebecca Caroe

Reading Adriana’s post on "Thin Air PR", thanks for the hint, Leo.  I was struck by the strength of feeling about the possible end of the business model whereby brands pay an agency to lobby the media on their behalf in order to generate column inches of written material.

What is public relations anyway?  The means by which brands try to get themselves talked about in the media.  And extended into events (experiential), lobbying MPs (public affairs), print media (media or press relations), public speaking (public relations).

Now let me digress into a real dead end…. what is the real definition of Public Relations?

Barrons says Form of communication that is primarily directed toward gaining public understanding and acceptance. It tends to deal with issues rather than specifically with products or services. Public relations uses publicity that does not necessitate payment in a wide variety of media and is often placed as news or items of public interest. Because public relations communications are placed in this manner, they offer a legitimacy that advertising does not have, since advertising is publicity that is paid for.
Management Help says
Public relations includes ongoing activities to ensure the overall company
has a strong public image. Public relations activities include
helping the public to understand the company and its products.
Often, public relations are conducted through the media, that
is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc.
The PRCA trade body says Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you.  Public
relations aims to earn understanding and support, and influence opinion
and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and
maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and
its publics.
[although I prefer the other PRCA - Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association]

So lots to validate the service and professionalise the relationship that a brand has with its audiences.

Cut through the polite-speak and it’s clear that when brands can have direct conversations with audiences in a meaningful environment, maybe the middle man gets cut.

As I said in reply to Adriana’s post, there are times when a middle-man is a valid, rational response to a business situation and using a PR agency is a great resource and worth paying for.  I wrote

BUT there is a time and a place for a rational use of an outsider to, in your phrase, send a proxy to the party. 

And that is when you don’t have the manpower yourself. There is a
nice way to use outsiders to help you plan your public profile and help
execute it through ‘events’ where audiences can experience the brand
first hand and announcements to the printed media e.g. stock exchange
statements, annual reports, product recalls.

Where the questions remain are in the areas of ‘lobbying’ where
brands use PR agencies to sell in a story and try and get journalists
to try their product and write about it.

The honest way to deal with this practice is for the printed article [for the journalist] to include a reference sources list that includes the name of the PR
agency. It creates an honesty measure and also provides a clear link
back to the source of the information.