Agency Resources:
The resources blog category lists helpful services to advertsising agencies, not specifically oriented toward web strategy.
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I’m honored to have been made an official consultant for the Second Wind Network! Anthony Mikes founded Second to “help smaller and mid-size advertising agencies, design firms and related businesses to be better.” Second Wind has been offering resources, communities, articles, white papers, books, conferences and consulting to agencies for over twenty years. Running an advertising agency or design firm can be particularly challenging. Especially since many owner/principals come at if from creative backgrounds rather than a business backgrounds (like in my case, letter-press printing and wood engraving didn’t exactly prepare me for the intense task of managing a web development company). Second Wind provides a rich environment and excellent resources to make this job a little easier.
Specifically, my role as a consultant for Second Wind is in the web strategy and digital marketing areas. I’ll be answering questions in their online forums. I’ll also post articles and look forward to producing rich content like webinars and white papers on digital marketing, web strategy, search marketing and social media.
I’ll also be offering a special Second Wind network discount for my regular consulting services. So if you’re already a Second Wind member you just got another perk, and if not, you might want to consider signing up!
Blair Enns is upending the new business process for creative service firms all over the world. And he’s doing it from his remote mountain location in the village of Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada. Blair is a frequent speaker and author who advises his clients that the pitch process is no way for creative services to pursue new business. His radical ideas effectively point out the flaws and fallacies of spec creative and the competitive account review process. Most importantly his point of view helps us realize that to the degree clients have a surplus of available alternatives, we’ll never maintain a valuable, sought after service. In other words, tight positioning is critical for agencies to eliminate the surplus of options. His emphasis leads us to refine our offerings and develop expertise that cannot be readily reproduced.
You can find out more about Blair’s valuable services and publications on his site Win Without Pitching.
ReCourses - David Baker has been working with creative service firms as a business management consultant since 1994. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as HOW, AIGA, PRSA, Counselors Academy, and MYOB, and a frequent contributor to industry publication like Critique, CA, HOW, and Creative Business.
I myself, like many people who set out to start an agency or design firm, knew more about art and design than business management and financial measures. But any service business, like an advertising agency, is a business, and it’s not easy to run a successful one. David is a proven business management expert, but his specialized understanding of the creative services industry makes him unique to help agencies and design firms run like the professional firms they ought to be.
I’ve hired David both for Newfangled and to guide me as I established AgencyCritique. This resource post would certainly also fall into the “recommendation” category if his services were specifically oriented to web strategy. Nevertheless ReCourses is a recommended service to any agency that needs help keeping the ship on course.