New business agency blog

There are various statistics around new business development depending on who you are and your target audience, but some ring true in most cases and certainly in the marketing services universe. The key one being:

· 25% of leads are short term and 75% long term

It was recently reported by the BPI Network that within the professional services arena, “80% of generated leads are never followed up on, dropped or mishandled”. Whilst our clients live within the marketing world, for clients entering into a relationship with Alchemis, I would say that this figure is pretty accurate and is a key reason that a dedicated new business resource is essential to manage any lead pipeline and indeed why clients engage in a campaign with us.

Failure to nurture leads is a cardinal sin of new business and the frustrating element is that everyone we speak to knows it. Time is the biggest barrier and it seems this will only grow as agencies tighten their belts and streamline their operations. This is why at Alchemis, we insist on driving the follow up/nurturing process and it is why we have continued to help our clients convert business in what has been another tough year. Many of our 2010 client wins have been from initial appointments generated in 2009.

This is not just a case of nurturing leads over the long term, but following up shortly after a meeting to accurately gauge interest and genuine opportunity. Just yesterday morning I sat in a meeting with a client, who dismissed a meeting as “unlikely to lead to anything in the short-term”. After agreeing a quick call would be appropriate that afternoon, a brief has now been received.

Of course this is an exception, but it is by no means an isolated incident. 80% of people have been keen to see what your agency can offer. Don’t let them go cold if there is no immediate brief.

Reading my copy of Metro this morning whilst crushed between commuters on the central line I was very interested to learn that researchers have discovered that a voucher or free gift triggers an emotional response as powerful as physical arousal!

Now admittedly these researchers were commissioned by the Institute of Promotional Marketing, but they were people of science nonetheless – from the University of Westminster – and they used the iMotions system which tracks pupil dilation and movement to gauge emotional response, which sounds pretty impressive to me.

One example cited said that a Marmite promotion which offered a free Horrid Henry audio-book resulted in scores of up to 5.8 out of ten. Put into context, erotic images usually trigger scores of between five and seven whilst ten is the equivalent of severe trauma.

I seem to remember reading somewhere before that chocolate can have a similar effect on the brain too.

Anyway, all this got me thinking: if brands can generate higher sales because consumers like being aroused by freebies in the same way that they like being aroused by erotic images surely the most successful campaigns would be those giving away free porn.

I can just see the Sun headlines now: “Hospitals at crisis point as trauma toll rises from Cadbury’s filth flick giveaway.”

Anyone remember those geeky sci-fi role-playing books of the eighties?

You know the ones where the story follows a single direction for the first few pages and then the reader is faced with two or three options of how to progress the plot – turn to page 82 to fight the dragon; turn to page 54 to run away; turn to page 41 to use your magic invisibility potion and sneak past undetected?

Well the latest Tippex campaign should have fans of those books frothing at the mouth as they raise the bar with their offering. Why limit yourself to two or three choices? Type ANYTHING you like to progress the plot and watch in astonishment as it unfolds on screen before your very eyes.

OK, admittedly the “story” of the advert and any outcome is less than a minute long and it took me about six attempts before I found some verbs that the ad couldn’t deliver, but even then it gave a humorous take on the standard “Error #404” bad request message.

The way this has been made, the relevance to the product and the subsequent coverage it has achieved has made it an instant hit – and surely it will pave the way for hundreds of other brands to launch similar campaigns.

Unfortunately though, I still can’t think that I’d actually have much use for Tippex these days.