Scott Greggory

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Working in an agency can be a demanding yet highly rewarding career choice. As professionals navigate this fast-paced and ever-changing industry, they learn important career lessons along the way that not only help them become more successful in their current roles but can also be applied in future endeavors. The members of Forbes Agency Council have learned significant lessons that shape their approaches to growing their business and their careers. Below, 15 members each share a lesson that has stuck with them and why it has been key to their long-term success in the field

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Blogging has become an essential component of many companies’ content marketing strategies, providing a platform to showcase their expertise and engage with their target audience. However, launching a successful branded blog can be a daunting task, especially for companies new to the world of content creation. Many members of Forbes Agency Council have helped clients launch company blogs and some have even launched their own blogs. In doing so, they’ve learned some key strategies for success. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to improve an existing blog, the insights 15 members share below can help you achieve your blogging goals and drive meaningful results for your business.

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Given their ever-increasing popularity among consumers, podcasts offer a great way for businesses to reach people in their target markets with content that can help improve their brand awareness, recall and reputation. Of course, proper planning is essential in launching a podcast to ensure it will be effective in meeting the brand’s goals for it.  From not staying on-brand or marketing it well enough to pushing out content at an inconsistent cadence, there are many ways a brand can falter when trying to create a podcast. Here, 16 members of Forbes Agency Council share their No. 1 tips to create a successful branded podcast.

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Businesses must make the most of accolades, but websites showing exclusively positive reviews of a company’s products, services or customer experience could come across as suspicious to consumers. The voice of the happy customer deserves to be heard, and companies have earned those kudos, but allowing consumers to also view constructive feedback and acknowledging areas that need improvement can also help businesses build trust. Is there a way to share both glowing reviews and less-than-stellar feedback from customers in an honest way that actually burnishes a company’s name for being authentic and truthful, ultimately benefiting its brand reputation? Members of Forbes Agency Council pondered that same question, and you can read their insightful responses below.

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The inbound method of marketing involves creating and distributing content that your target audience values, along with a strong call to action that will prompt them to click, read, subscribe or take another step further into your sales and marketing funnel. If a prospective customer opens an email from your company that promises to provide insights or information they want or need, and instead sees a soft sales pitch, your efforts can backfire. No one wants to be sold to when they’re simply seeking information to help them solve their problems; it turns their hunt for useful knowledge into a game of scratching companies off their list of potential solutions for being too transactional. To avoid coming across as salesy in your content, losing the trust of interested prospects and leading them to back out of your marketing funnel, check out the tips from the members of Forbes Agency Council below.

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Creating a blog to highlight your brand is a great way to achieve multiple objectives at once. With a well-conceived, well-executed company blog, you not only can draw potential customers who are seeking information about your industry or the type of service or product you offer to your site, but you can also position your brand as an authority and thought leader in your space. Once people have discovered how valuable your blog is, you may find it serving as one of your main sources of lead generation. Before launching your blog, though, there are some key points to be aware of that will help ensure it achieves your strategic goals for writing it. Here, 14 members of Forbes Agency Council share the advice they would suggest if one of their clients came to them for help in building a blog that showcases their brand and drives traffic and leads.

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Newsletters have been around for centuries, their popularity fluctuating with the state of the media as times change. While a company newsletter might seem like a marketing artifact of the past to some people, newsletters continue to be a great option for communicators who wish to control both the narrative around their organization and how it is distributed. Smart brands know that an engaging email newsletter can help them connect with today’s consumers more easily and for less cost than many other modern methods of outreach. The members of Forbes Agency Council understand the immense value of company newsletters that are conceived and executed well, and below they outline 16 important things a brand can achieve with one.

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Thanks to limitations posed by the Covid-19 outbreak, marketers weren’t able to have in-person meetings, host special events or execute real-time, live activations last year, which is one reason why consumers consistently found their inboxes flooded with brands reaching out to them digitally. While the worst of the pandemic may be behind us, email marketing is still booming in 2021 because businesses are still seeing solid returns on their investments in it. Aside from leveraging the latest trends in personalization and interactivity, however, marketers need to also be aware of certain standards of quality and value that today’s consumers expect brands to uphold when sending content their way. To ensure the most essential aspects of a marketing email are accurate, of high quality and effective at inspiring recipients to open the communication, read it and take action, see the advice from 13 experts from Forbes Agency Council below, where they discuss specific elements of any marketing email that must be double-checked before hitting send.

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Building a strong brand helps a company make an impression on consumers—ideally, a positive one that leads to increased awareness, recall and loyalty. In addition to your brand's story and visual elements such as colors and logos, the voice you use to communicate across all channels also needs to be congruent with your company’s stated values, vision and purpose.  By employing a consistent brand voice, your company can build a reputation, gain recognition within your industry and community and stand out among competitors. Once consumers recognize your brand voice, they can relate to it, which further cultivates a sense of loyalty. To learn how to create a brand voice that both appeals to your current customers and attracts prospects who may have never heard of your company before, see the expert tips the members of Forbes Agency Council share below.

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Delivering a quality customer experience is one of the most important aspects of running a business. As successful marketers know, providing valuable products and services and being available for questions and concerns are important factors, but not the whole equation when it comes to giving customers an all-around excellent experience. To really stand out among your competitors, you’ll want to go even further above and beyond for your customers than they might be expecting, adding value at every touch point. Below, 15 experts from Forbes Agency Council share their favorite ways of surprising and delighting prospects and customers. Try their tips to deepen your customer relationships.

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A primary function of a business website is to attract new customers. As such, it’s crucial for companies to ensure that their websites represent them in the best possible light and appeal to their target audience. However, business owners may not always know how to make a site attractive to users, especially if they’re not well-versed in UX or web design. Fortunately, a little effort in this area can go a long way in improving how consumers experience your brand online. Below, the members of Forbes Agency Council share 16 simple changes that can make your business website and your brand more appealing to potential customers.

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From developing community partnerships to earning word-of-mouth support, implementing a localized marketing strategy can help boost visibility and build a loyal customer base. However, this task can be difficult if a business serves a larger market, has a broad customer base or operates in multiple geographic locations. Fortunately, you don’t have to be local to give your marketing efforts a local touch and focus. To help, 15 members of Forbes Agency Council share how you can make your advertising more “local,” no matter how wide and varied your audience may be.

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Sticking to a marketing budget is one important way of ensuring an agency’s long-term success. Going over this budget, especially unexpectedly, can strain your processes and resources. On the other hand, finding you have a surplus in the marketing budget offers greater opportunity and flexibility moving forward. If your agency has extra funds to spare in its marketing budget, you’ll want to use that money wisely. To help, members of Forbes Agency Council shared 15 smart ways to invest your surplus marketing budget to generate maximum returns.

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With the fast pace of the ad industry, it can be challenging to schedule time for agency bonding experiences. However, research has shown that companies that invest in team-building activities tend to have more cohesive personnel that work better on group projects. In this industry, teamwork is not a suggestion. It's a requirement. For an agency to properly harness its staff's creativity, team members must learn to trust and depend on each other. What better time to encourage this bonding than over the summer? These 12 professionals from Forbes Agency Council suggest potential team-building exercises that are ideal for agencies to promote more teamwork between its employees, even during the current pandemic.

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Press releases are a vital part of a company's communication strategy. Despite their importance, many businesses make mistakes when it comes to creating or issuing these messages. Sharing news through a press release is a fine line to walk. The content within it must be informative, but at the same time, it should also be newsworthy, and have an easygoing tone. Writing press releases is a skill that many people like to think they have, but the reality is that it’s harder than it looks. Here, 14 contributors to Forbes Agency Council explore some of the biggest mistakes they encounter with clients when it comes to creating and releasing their press releases.

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A website is more than just a portal to a product or a service. It gets the user interested in what the business has to offer, and it tells a story about a brand. Like other marketing material, a website, its colors and design principles should align with the goals and values of the business it represents. If the webmaster designs the website poorly, it might end up driving customers away from your site instead of converting them to customers. To help businesses understand what elements of web design work and which do not, 13 members of Forbes Agency Council share their expert opinions and some of the key design principles any company should keep in mind.

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Tell your story and remind consumers that there are people behind your brand.