AHAA 2009 Vegas: Consultation the key to “Growing Your Media Agency in the Current Economic Environment“
I don’t know all the challenges facing y’all (isn’t that a great word…lol), but I did attend a very relevant panel about growth at last month’s AHAA meeting in Vegas that really drove home an important point: growing your business as a media buyer in 2009 (and beyond) is more than just “buying the media.”
As many of the great people I spoke with agreed, to grow your business today you need to be more of a consultant than just a media buyer. Now, I come from the DRTV world — media buyers in my industry have to be consultants. They partner with the fulfillment houses, merchant processing companies, production companies, call centers, and all the consulting firms. They are assistants in the decision-making process, and count on the aforementioned companies to provide the information that media buyers need to perform… and get the referrals they need to grow their business.
I have consulted in DRTV for almost 15 years in the U.S. Market and 3 years ago built this small 20-seat call center to service the U.S. Hispanic market. Today we are at over 500 seats, we’re taking around 70,000 calls a week, and servicing 60% or so of all U.S. Hispanic DRTV calls. There is no end in sight to our growth. My point here is that 100% of our growth has come from our relationships with media buyers. We didn’t spend a dollar on advertising or on the promotion of our business. We did the right job in being a partner, a consultant, and an advisor to the media companies. We grew the campaigns, and thus, everyone we touch is able to enjoy growth.
I really feel that Listen Up Español is the best in the business at what we do. Our results speak for themselves… but without managing Cost Per Order (telemarketing cost) with the media buyer, exploring the cost per call together, working with the media buyer on the call to action for the show, working on the way the continuity works with the fulfillment center, understanding how to make the most of every order… I’m just saying, if the media buyer “just bought media” and the call center “just answered calls,” I’d probably still have 20 seats answering 500 calls a week. But as a consultant to the campaign, I provided detailed reporting and analysis, and worked with all the other people in the puzzle to ensure successful shows.
So one of my key takeaways from AHAA was that if you want to grow your business, “do more.” Next time a client asks you to buy media, ask questions about their goals, make suggestions, introduce relationships that work with you, and for you. If a call center doesn’t want to provide you with the data you need, recommend another call center solution. If a fulfillment house doesn’t have the experience to handle continuity orders, recommend another fulfillment solution. In every aspect of your campaign, make choices that support your growth.
What did you gain from the show? What kind of problems and solutions can we work on together?
