You worked in a traditional agency – how did they view biz dev?

They didn’t really have it – they were reliant on the traditional networks of the founders. The growth was dependent on that and referrals. Some limited efforts to do DM pieces and promotions.

Is that normal?

Yes I think in a lot of cases – agencies are built that way. We did research in 2010 into PR agencies only a small % were blogging. They were trying to provide social media services but weren’t doing it wll for themselves.

Agencies tend to come last and that’s why they haven’t done good biz dev work. Take care of your own needs after everything else. I find that messaging and websites are often outdated and they rely on reputation and networks and RFPs for new business.

In the book you liken your business plan to a football field – Why?

I tend to see everything in a sports metaphor. Whether we are bringing in entry level talent (the draft) versus free agency. When I was trying to figure out how to explain to clients how the [online] market was evolving and how these strategies were integrated and they rely on each other, I tried a Venn diagram and in my mind I started thinking about watching

Drive Charts – showing progression down the field 10-20 yard line. This was an analogy – we have to do each of the phases systematically to eventually get to the end zone or the goal. I also wanted to represent different things at once – audiences (stadium) the brand (a place).  See Paul’s diagram here.

Inbound Marketing Gameplan

How do you manage the agency website internally?

One of the senior consultants is also the agency’s marketing manager and is also the blog editor. In most cases her role is to keep the editorial calendar up to date and the team of the writers – we try to do 1-2 per week.  We also have a premium content strategy – the book started as a 2010 e book; we did “The marketers guide to web design”. We also have plans to do premium content which isn’t paid for but is just high quality. Gated content = lead form to access.

How does she report and on what?

Same as clients – traffic, organic, lead generation, blog subscriber base, social media and how engaged – followers and likes we have.  We do a monthly scorecard – pull the data out of GA and Hubspot and create a spreadsheet thta shows core numbers, assess it and 3 takeaweays – highlights, learning snad what we’ll do next month.

Tomorrow, read Part 2 of the interview with Paul.

In the meantime, why not buy the book [affiliate link] it’s in hardback or Kindle editions.

Now there is a bit of sadness from the early-adopters like Adriana and Hugh that the intimacy of the early years has bone.  And the hugely hyped when they change their habits.

But surely, when a medium goes mainstream it's bound to change.  There are so many tools available now that just weren't here in 2006 when I started writing.

I just moved my rowing blog onto a WP platform and a new URL, Scullfast .  Gonna have to work hard to redirect the RSS juice, I know that.  But I also know that Google finds mentions by and about me within about 40 minutes of them going live online.  So, those who really want to find me, will.

And so now that blogging is officially happening for more people more of the time, I still think its frequency of update determines to a great degree the amount of traction you can get and what your readers will be getting out of it. 

I read so many Agencies' blogs that have ancient date stamps.It's really embarrassing to me – I advocate using blogs for biz dev but with the proviso that you must look after them (feed them regularly – like children and pets).

So come on – be honest with yourselves. If you are going to blog make the commitment work.  If not.  Take it down.

It's not pretty otherwise.