We’ve all been there – sent a message and you’re not sure if they have read it, ignored it or whether it’s not arrived. How do you politely write a follow up message that provokes action?
One of my cardinal rules in new business development is to remember this one thing
The prospect does not owe you their business – but they do owe you an answer.
So with that in mind, let’s set the scene.
You have invested time and effort in sending a crafted message or proposal over to a prospect – how do you follow up so that you don’t annoy them, what timeframes are appropriate, how can you ensure you are remembered – but not as a nagging irritant?
Why do prospects not answer?
There are many reasons but the main ones are
your offer is not of interest, and not compelling enough to warrant a reply
they are too busy doing other things
The first tends to relate to SEO companies sending spammy offers by email; the second is the one we need to laser in on – because it does not mean your offer is not of interest, it’s just not as pressing as other things at this time.
The aim of your follow up email is to filter out which one applies to you.
Writing Follow-up emails to prospects
Rule number 1 – keep it short.
Whatever you say, enable the reader to glance at two or three sentences and get your full message.
This is not an opportunity to add to your earlier email content so don’t be tempted to re-iterate your pitch.
Rule number 2 – communicate the bare minimum
Remember we are trying to find out whether they are interested or not.
If they are interested – it could just be the timing is wrong… so your ultimate answer is ‘possibly’, in this case.
The message needs to say who you are; why you are chasing and a reminder of the services.
I always start with a summary of the situation in the email subject line. So even if they don’t open it, they can see the context.
So, now to the body – here are three possible sentences for you to copy
Thank you very much for your time meeting yesterday. The actions agreed were…..
We discussed your objective of ………….The topics worthy of more investigation are………..
As agreed we sent you a proposal and could you confirm that you’ve received it?
Rule number 3 – write with grace and if you can, humour
Nagging may work with your spouse or children, but I think it’s bad behaviour in business. You want to set the tone for your future relationship here and so getting off on the right foot is key.
Use phrases like “My recollection was….” or “I think we agreed that you would do….” So that you are reminding them without sounding hectoring.
Rule number 4 – give the recipient an easy get-out
Even if they don’t give you business today, you don’t want the prospect to write off your company as inappropriate for future projects. And so thinking about how you can enable them to quit with grace is a good tactic.
Try this one where we were passed from the CEO to the Marketing Director
I waited on X and then emailed him directly. Is it possible he doesn’t know what we discussed and that you, suggested we meet?
Don’t want to push if this is inappropriate, so could you give me some advice?
See that last line? Asking for advice is a great way for you to put the boot onto the other foot – get them to advise you on how to pitch their colleague. I love this and use it quite a lot. They know their firm and the characters better than you do.
Rule number 5 plan one, last, follow up after this one
The final, final thing to do is to then write a last message telling them that you won’t bother them again if they don’t reply but you would like them to confirm that they aren’t interested at this time.
This then allows them to write back saying ‘no’. And for you to thank them and say that you’ll stay in touch. This way the conversation ends and closes off the dialogue and you’ve got an answer rather than just a nothing void.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2013-02-12 10:00:002019-08-13 15:08:16New business development copywriting - writing a chasing email
Here’s a great guide to how to find the best digital agency for your business brand needs.
Getting an organisation who matches your needs and is able to deliver to your brief takes time and careful analysis. Get yourself all the information you need in order to find the best agency and then you have to brief them well.
Writing an awesome creative brief is a challenge and one we can help you out with – even if we’re not doing the work for you. Getting the language and the articulation of your requirements correct will shortcut the selection process of finding the best digital marketing team for your needs.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2013-01-23 10:00:002020-01-24 01:44:26Hire the right digital marketing agency - a guide
Persuading people to join your mailing list is probably the most important first step in new business development tactics. A mailing list is a valuable asset for your business. The people who give up their time to join your list WANT to know what you do. They are interested in your business.
The right offer drives more sign ups
Copywriting for new business is a particular skill. You need to be able to put forward the right offer in a manner and tone of voice that makes the biz dev copy persuade the reader to take the action you want.
The words included require these elements:
an offer
a reason
some exclusivity
Case study texts for newsletter sign up
First, Chris Garrett gives away e books – he’s updated these since I first saw them but the offer is still 2 ebooks, he varies them.
Expert copy writing for newsletter sign ups
And from BlueGlass marketing at the bottom of a blog post an offer of insider information. Good use of italics and bold and three strong offers.
Persuasive newsletter sign-up copy
Want to make your newsletter list grow?
Get our experts working on your offer so we can make an irresistible offer to your site visitors.
They will want to sign up and get closer to your business. And that’s step one on the road to a pipeline full of new business leads coming to your business.
Read more articles on Step 1 of the new business development process with Creative Agency Secrets.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2013-01-09 10:00:002020-01-24 01:44:25Newsletter sign up offers: Expert new business development copywriting
Trade show stands are a strong component of most technology B2B marketing programmes and they are a great place to sweep up new leads for your service.
Our client, FeedBlitz, briefed Creative Agency Secrets to deliver collateral, case studies and a slide deck for their stand at the New Media Expo NMX in Las Vegas, formerly called BlogWorld.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2013-01-08 10:00:002020-01-24 01:44:25Trade show B2B marketing tactics - selling tech to the masses
You have read everything on our Resources page haven’t you?
Readers, you are in biz dev, you want leads for your business and you need to get contact details of key personnel in target organisations: Have you read the B2B Lead Generation slidedeck? It’s linked right there on the Resources page – top of the list.
Today we add in more goodness to that research process.
How to find contact details for someone outside your network
This is a fabulous process from Andy Foote’s blog.
LinkedIn makes money by limiting search. One of the most annoying restrictions is being unable to see Last Names on LinkedIn searches. Fortunately Google to the rescue. Here are step by step instructions on getting full name Profiles.
(1) Start the search in People. My example: “hr manager accenture”
(2) “Mary F” is the prospect but I need her Last Name. – Linked in will only show a limited profile because she’s outside my network. But it does say that she is an Outsourcing Manager at Accenture
(3) Copy “Outsourcing HR Manager at Accenture Toronto Canada Area” into Google and click on the search icon.
(4) Bingo! Click on the Google Search result and you find the full name Profile (of Mary Frank).
How cool is that?
Read Andy’s full blog post of 5 Exceedingly clever LinkedIn hacks
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2012-12-11 09:42:442022-12-19 11:57:00How to find contact details on Linked In outside your network
Wests New Zealand is a Dunedin based manufacturer of Cordials and Soft drinks. Wests have been producing beverages since 1876 and are currently in the process of spicing up their branding. This includes the purchase of a new bottling machine that allows them to customise their bottles.
Creative Agency Secrets spoke with them to discuss ways they can improve their marketing efforts using the Wests NZ Facebook page.
Facebook marketing goals
Their goals for Facebook include increasing their followers and developing more consistent levels of engagement.
By improving their Facebook marketing they also hope to maximise the potential that this new bottling machine will create. They want to achieve this by generating excitement and anticipation amongst their customers before the new bottles come into circulation.
Because of the investment required for the new bottling machine, they are looking to be as cost efficient as possible with their marketing campaign.
By leveraging their already established Wests NZ Facebook presence they will be able to achieve these objectives with minimal costs.
Wests had already created a solid foundation of Facebook fans, but found that they had reached a standstill. They weren’t gaining new followers and they weren’t consistently keeping their reach and engagement at high levels.
Creative Agency Secrets recommends Building Social Engagement
We gave them some recommendations on how they could go about improving these statistics, which can also be used for their promotion of their new bottling machine:
Regular posting to help stabilise reach and engagement of their Facebook fans.
Utilising and 80/20 rule when thinking about posts. 80% are aiming to build engagement and the other 20% are marketing their own products and specials.
Be active on other group pages (mainly by sharing and liking posts) that are in their product or geographical area. This is to get visitors to these pages to also visit the Wests page.
Would you like to know what ideas we have for your business?
Get in touch with us for a FREE 20 minute chat on the the phone or Skype.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Creative Agency Secrets Teamhttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgCreative Agency Secrets Team2012-12-07 09:00:002012-12-06 17:16:23Facebook marketing for a drink brand on a small budget
There is sometimes a bit of ‘black box’ magic that seems to happen when a creative brief turns into an executed campaign.
Some would have you believe there’s ‘secret sauce’ but the reality is that expertise and years of experience are the best predictors of what will be a success and what will fail.
Funding appeal by website
I am a Wikipedian Campaign
Take this series of images we found online.
This year, Wikipedia, Row2K and other community funded websites will be running a drive to raise funds. We have supported Jimmy Wales’ appeal last year and we’ll be doing it again this year.
But compare the lovely, sharable images above with the rather bland appeal text which are on the Row2K site. Which would you rather emote and pay out to?
So part of the success depends on creative quality of input.That may be hard to measure, and it’s certainly rarely guaranteed.
But there are inputs that will raise your chances: Starting with using an experienced team for your marketing. Get your agency team members to show you their own work from previous jobs. Ask how they came up with a campaign and what the “signal moment” was when the core creative idea was articulated. It’s not rocket science and it’s rarely a single burst of genius – frequently team work and careful development from an initial concept delivers the goods.
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2012-12-05 17:31:492012-12-05 17:38:02How a creative brand idea becomes a campaign
List.ly is a list building website that allows you to build and curate shareable lists. These are then viewable by others.
People can ‘like’, ‘dislike’, comment or even add items to the list. This results in a list that re-organises items based on their popularity. You can then embed these lists in your website or blog. So, rather than directing traffic to lists you’ve built on Facebook or Twitter, you can keep that traffic on your own site! One of our first principles of marketing: build your own audience on assets you own.
Getting started with List.ly
Creating lists is simple. Go to the list.ly site and click create a ‘new list’, then put in a name and description. Then all thats left is to add your content, simple.
By delving into the advanced options you can also create branding on your list. The advanced options allow you to add tags, a header image and links back to your website. This means that Listly will also help you promote your brand through the header image, and also give you another backlink to your website.
How can brands and agencies use List.ly?
Product FeedBack
There is huge potential for brands to leverage Listly in order to gather customer feedback. Feedback is key in developing new products or making adjustments to existing products. Listly can be leveraged to create feedback, and even to get new insights into what your customers want.
Simply create a list of your products (or even future product ideas) and watch how customers interact with it. They will vote up the products they like, and vote down the products they don’t or they can leave comments.
In addition to this give them the opportunity to contribute their own ideas. If they add something to the list that resonates with your other customers it will climb up the ranks and give you new products/developments to consider. The best part of this is that not only are you getting ideas that your existing customers want and will buy, you’re getting them for FREE!
As a bonus you will also receive alerts from Listly when someone adds an item to your list. So you always know when something is added to your list, as well as who added it. You can also follow other peoples lists. This feature helps you to stay up to date with the how lists you’re following are changing and the new ideas that are being added.
Lists of Tips
Creating an industry specific list of tips allows you to easily find out what content your followers engage with the most. By following what tips people are voting up or down you are able to see what they want to know more about. This allows you to better plan out your blogs to appeal directly to your audience and will help to prevent you wasting time producing content that your audience isn’t interested in.
These ideas only highlight some of the potential that list.ly can offer in terms of content and product development strategies.
Do you have any other strategies? Have you used list.ly? Let us know your thoughts.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Creative Agency Secrets Teamhttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgCreative Agency Secrets Team2012-11-30 10:00:002012-11-30 15:49:48How to use List.ly as a Marketing tool
How’s this for a neat idea? You pitch us in order to win our attention and get your marketing services free by reversing the traditional RFP process. The Brand pitches the Agency.
Well, I’m not offering it just now but Hart is inviting prospects to submit their ideas by 30th November, 2012. could be the best new marketing move you make in 2013.
English: (left), Indian academic and a social entrepreneur, speaking to a group of children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
More innovation and promotion from Indian agency, Law and Kenneth who are celebrating their tenth birthday by organising to mentor social entrepreneurs. Now that’s a great way of paying back or paying forward (not sure which is which). Submit your ideas at the Create Project site and read what Founder Anil Nair says about the project
Over the last one year, we have been thinking hard about what we’re doing. We’ve seen ups and downs in the last 10 years of Law & Kenneth, and if at all we’ve created something (besides brands), we’ve created an organisation, of which 300 people and their families are a part. We wondered if this was all we could do.
Ten years ago, when we started off, we were at a certain point. There are many, many people with ideas today that can lead to viable business, and can be ideas around doing business for social good. They also need to be ideas that are innovative in nature. We wanted to build something that would outlive us.
We met Hayden Raw from The Common Room recently and they are also looking at ways to innovate. Hayden told us, he looks to invest a portion of their client fees into kick starting young entrepreneurs.
Is a reverse RFP a gimmick?
Yes, it almost certainly is a promotion, a publicity stunt or a gimmick. But it’s a very valuable one for the winning brand team. Many agencies take on pro bono clients for whom they work for low or no fee – what’s different is using this as part of their own promotion.
We have all whined about a client who was too conservative to buy our ‘great concept’ and so it’s possible by delivering your services under non-traditional fee arrangements, then you have greater leverage to encourage the brand to choose the most risky / creative / far-out communications campaign proposal that you present.
Is that necessarily a bad thing?
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2012-11-26 15:45:052022-12-19 11:57:00Agency uses a 'reverse RFP' to showcase services
New business development copywriting – writing a chasing email
/in Copywriting, Marketing, Pitching /by Rebecca CaroeMessage in a bottle. (Photo credit: elvis_payne)
We’ve all been there – sent a message and you’re not sure if they have read it, ignored it or whether it’s not arrived. How do you politely write a follow up message that provokes action?
One of my cardinal rules in new business development is to remember this one thing
So with that in mind, let’s set the scene.
You have invested time and effort in sending a crafted message or proposal over to a prospect – how do you follow up so that you don’t annoy them, what timeframes are appropriate, how can you ensure you are remembered – but not as a nagging irritant?
Why do prospects not answer?
There are many reasons but the main ones are
The first tends to relate to SEO companies sending spammy offers by email; the second is the one we need to laser in on – because it does not mean your offer is not of interest, it’s just not as pressing as other things at this time.
The aim of your follow up email is to filter out which one applies to you.
Writing Follow-up emails to prospects
Rule number 1 – keep it short.
Whatever you say, enable the reader to glance at two or three sentences and get your full message.
This is not an opportunity to add to your earlier email content so don’t be tempted to re-iterate your pitch.
Rule number 2 – communicate the bare minimum
Remember we are trying to find out whether they are interested or not.
If they are interested – it could just be the timing is wrong… so your ultimate answer is ‘possibly’, in this case.
The message needs to say who you are; why you are chasing and a reminder of the services.
I always start with a summary of the situation in the email subject line. So even if they don’t open it, they can see the context.
Rule number 3 – write with grace and if you can, humour
Nagging may work with your spouse or children, but I think it’s bad behaviour in business. You want to set the tone for your future relationship here and so getting off on the right foot is key.
Use phrases like “My recollection was….” or “I think we agreed that you would do….” So that you are reminding them without sounding hectoring.
Rule number 4 – give the recipient an easy get-out
No related posts.
Hire the right digital marketing agency – a guide
/0 Comments/in Copywriting, Digital media, Email, Metrics, Pitching, Sales, Social Media /by Rebecca CaroeHere’s a great guide to how to find the best digital agency for your business brand needs.
Getting an organisation who matches your needs and is able to deliver to your brief takes time and careful analysis. Get yourself all the information you need in order to find the best agency and then you have to brief them well.
Writing an awesome creative brief is a challenge and one we can help you out with – even if we’re not doing the work for you. Getting the language and the articulation of your requirements correct will shortcut the selection process of finding the best digital marketing team for your needs.
Types of Digital Marketing Agency
Get the report from Search Engine Land – a Buyers guide to Digital Marketing Agencies 2013
No related posts.
Newsletter sign up offers: Expert new business development copywriting
/0 Comments/in Email, Sales /by Rebecca CaroePersuading people to join your mailing list is probably the most important first step in new business development tactics. A mailing list is a valuable asset for your business. The people who give up their time to join your list WANT to know what you do. They are interested in your business.
The right offer drives more sign ups
Copywriting for new business is a particular skill. You need to be able to put forward the right offer in a manner and tone of voice that makes the biz dev copy persuade the reader to take the action you want.
The words included require these elements:
Case study texts for newsletter sign up
First, Chris Garrett gives away e books – he’s updated these since I first saw them but the offer is still 2 ebooks, he varies them.
Expert copy writing for newsletter sign ups
And from BlueGlass marketing at the bottom of a blog post an offer of insider information. Good use of italics and bold and three strong offers.
Persuasive newsletter sign-up copy
Want to make your newsletter list grow?
Get our experts working on your offer so we can make an irresistible offer to your site visitors.
They will want to sign up and get closer to your business. And that’s step one on the road to a pipeline full of new business leads coming to your business.
No related posts.
Trade show B2B marketing tactics – selling tech to the masses
/0 Comments/in B2B, Case Studies, Marketing, Sales /by Rebecca CaroeTrade show stands are a strong component of most technology B2B marketing programmes and they are a great place to sweep up new leads for your service.
Our client, FeedBlitz, briefed Creative Agency Secrets to deliver collateral, case studies and a slide deck for their stand at the New Media Expo NMX in Las Vegas, formerly called BlogWorld.
Take a quick look jay-baer-case-study and erin-chase-case-study
Case study collateral for FeedBlitz Jay Baer
No related posts.
How to find contact details on Linked In outside your network
/1 Comment/in B2B, Lead Generation, Sales /by Rebecca CaroeYou have read everything on our Resources page haven’t you?
Readers, you are in biz dev, you want leads for your business and you need to get contact details of key personnel in target organisations: Have you read the B2B Lead Generation slidedeck? It’s linked right there on the Resources page – top of the list.
Today we add in more goodness to that research process.
How to find contact details for someone outside your network
This is a fabulous process from Andy Foote’s blog.
How cool is that?
Read Andy’s full blog post of 5 Exceedingly clever LinkedIn hacks
No related posts.
Facebook marketing for a drink brand on a small budget
/2 Comments/in B2C, Marketing, Social Media /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamCreative Agency Secrets spoke with them to discuss ways they can improve their marketing efforts using the Wests NZ Facebook page.
Facebook marketing goals
Their goals for Facebook include increasing their followers and developing more consistent levels of engagement.
By improving their Facebook marketing they also hope to maximise the potential that this new bottling machine will create. They want to achieve this by generating excitement and anticipation amongst their customers before the new bottles come into circulation.
Because of the investment required for the new bottling machine, they are looking to be as cost efficient as possible with their marketing campaign.
By leveraging their already established Wests NZ Facebook presence they will be able to achieve these objectives with minimal costs.
Wests had already created a solid foundation of Facebook fans, but found that they had reached a standstill. They weren’t gaining new followers and they weren’t consistently keeping their reach and engagement at high levels.
Creative Agency Secrets recommends Building Social Engagement
We gave them some recommendations on how they could go about improving these statistics, which can also be used for their promotion of their new bottling machine:
Would you like to know what ideas we have for your business?
Get in touch with us for a FREE 20 minute chat on the the phone or Skype.
No related posts.
How a creative brand idea becomes a campaign
/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Marketing, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca CaroeThere is sometimes a bit of ‘black box’ magic that seems to happen when a creative brief turns into an executed campaign.
Some would have you believe there’s ‘secret sauce’ but the reality is that expertise and years of experience are the best predictors of what will be a success and what will fail.
Funding appeal by website
I am a Wikipedian Campaign
Take this series of images we found online.
This year, Wikipedia, Row2K and other community funded websites will be running a drive to raise funds. We have supported Jimmy Wales’ appeal last year and we’ll be doing it again this year.
But compare the lovely, sharable images above with the rather bland appeal text which are on the Row2K site. Which would you rather emote and pay out to?
So part of the success depends on creative quality of input.That may be hard to measure, and it’s certainly rarely guaranteed.
But there are inputs that will raise your chances: Starting with using an experienced team for your marketing. Get your agency team members to show you their own work from previous jobs. Ask how they came up with a campaign and what the “signal moment” was when the core creative idea was articulated. It’s not rocket science and it’s rarely a single burst of genius – frequently team work and careful development from an initial concept delivers the goods.
No related posts.
How to use List.ly as a Marketing tool
/1 Comment/in Blogging, Branding, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamWhat is List.ly?
List.ly is a list building website that allows you to build and curate shareable lists. These are then viewable by others.
People can ‘like’, ‘dislike’, comment or even add items to the list. This results in a list that re-organises items based on their popularity. You can then embed these lists in your website or blog. So, rather than directing traffic to lists you’ve built on Facebook or Twitter, you can keep that traffic on your own site! One of our first principles of marketing: build your own audience on assets you own.
Getting started with List.ly
Creating lists is simple. Go to the list.ly site and click create a ‘new list’, then put in a name and description. Then all thats left is to add your content, simple.
By delving into the advanced options you can also create branding on your list. The advanced options allow you to add tags, a header image and links back to your website. This means that Listly will also help you promote your brand through the header image, and also give you another backlink to your website.
How can brands and agencies use List.ly?
Product FeedBack
There is huge potential for brands to leverage Listly in order to gather customer feedback. Feedback is key in developing new products or making adjustments to existing products. Listly can be leveraged to create feedback, and even to get new insights into what your customers want.
Simply create a list of your products (or even future product ideas) and watch how customers interact with it. They will vote up the products they like, and vote down the products they don’t or they can leave comments.
In addition to this give them the opportunity to contribute their own ideas. If they add something to the list that resonates with your other customers it will climb up the ranks and give you new products/developments to consider. The best part of this is that not only are you getting ideas that your existing customers want and will buy, you’re getting them for FREE!
As a bonus you will also receive alerts from Listly when someone adds an item to your list. So you always know when something is added to your list, as well as who added it. You can also follow other peoples lists. This feature helps you to stay up to date with the how lists you’re following are changing and the new ideas that are being added.
Lists of Tips
Creating an industry specific list of tips allows you to easily find out what content your followers engage with the most. By following what tips people are voting up or down you are able to see what they want to know more about. This allows you to better plan out your blogs to appeal directly to your audience and will help to prevent you wasting time producing content that your audience isn’t interested in.
These ideas only highlight some of the potential that list.ly can offer in terms of content and product development strategies.
Do you have any other strategies? Have you used list.ly? Let us know your thoughts.
No related posts.
Agency uses a ‘reverse RFP’ to showcase services
/2 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Pitching /by Rebecca CaroeHow’s this for a neat idea? You pitch us in order to win our attention and get your marketing services free by reversing the traditional RFP process. The Brand pitches the Agency.
Well, I’m not offering it just now but Hart is inviting prospects to submit their ideas by 30th November, 2012. could be the best new marketing move you make in 2013.
English: (left), Indian academic and a social entrepreneur, speaking to a group of children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
More innovation and promotion from Indian agency, Law and Kenneth who are celebrating their tenth birthday by organising to mentor social entrepreneurs. Now that’s a great way of paying back or paying forward (not sure which is which). Submit your ideas at the Create Project site and read what Founder Anil Nair says about the project
We met Hayden Raw from The Common Room recently and they are also looking at ways to innovate. Hayden told us, he looks to invest a portion of their client fees into kick starting young entrepreneurs.
Is a reverse RFP a gimmick?
Yes, it almost certainly is a promotion, a publicity stunt or a gimmick. But it’s a very valuable one for the winning brand team. Many agencies take on pro bono clients for whom they work for low or no fee – what’s different is using this as part of their own promotion.
We have all whined about a client who was too conservative to buy our ‘great concept’ and so it’s possible by delivering your services under non-traditional fee arrangements, then you have greater leverage to encourage the brand to choose the most risky / creative / far-out communications campaign proposal that you present.
Is that necessarily a bad thing?
No related posts.