In reading your response to DJ and as a BUSINESS DEVELOPER I find it inspiring to learn how highly you value expertise and how vital you feel this is, if a truly holistic agency service is required to deliver measurable success for clients.

It seems to me the “recruitment challenge” you refer to is indeed testing, as EFFECTIVE JUDGEMENT in this area will REWARD YOU with not only an agency that is highly attractive to prospective clients, it will also ensure managing such a capable collective team is efficient, allowing you to concentrate on BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS. No one wants the hassle of ego!

What would it mean to you to find a NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR able to carry this collective message by creating meaningful strategic discussions between prospect and agency?

My TOP TIPS for accelerating profit? 1) Use a proven salesperson. Expertise in selling is crucial not a history within your industry (a good salesman will impress you with the working knowledge he will have developed between invitation to.. and attendance at interview) 2) You can call him a BDM or Account Director or Business Director but make sure he is a salesperson.

Of course I have many more top tips but I am sure you have spotted my objective here. I have forwarded my CV to you today. When you call me you will find me smiling, but focused.

John
Linkedin http://uk.linkedin.com/in/johncharleswoodley
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that are made in his subject, and how to avoid them - Werner Karl Heisenberg

I don’t think agencies have a choice but to think holistically for their clients, and I share your enthusiasm for bringing customer psychology into the realms of online marketing.

CPA currency and technophobic marketers made the early commercial internet a playground for spammers, and prevented traditional marketers from bringing their expertise to bear. Real customer insight was forgotten, and a numbers based culture focussed on click-throughs, unique users and keywords prevailed. As a result, the internet hasn’t been particularly engaging, at least not in the way that it can be.

I think we are turning a corner, and customers are now making their way back to heart of digital strategy design. SEO, PPC, Conversions, Email, Social Media, Analytics, Affiliates, Copy, design, will remain as silos unless they are unified by a holistic strategy, and the unifying element is of course the customer……..enter traditional marketing and psychology.

But as DJ says, this holistic approach brings challenges for an agency. I have been wrestling with these challenges for some time now and have discovered the following:

- You also need lots of experts (recruitment challenge) to work together (collaborative workflow planning challenge). For example at Propellernet we need Linda to set the brand success vision and customer KPI’s, Gary to develop a sense of who the target customers are, what they want, and how much they are worth to the brand, we need SEO people like Dave and PPC people like Eshe to raise brand awareness to drive more customers to the site, we need copywriters such as Annelies and conversion specialists like Stu to turn customer consideration into commitment, and we need online PR people like Stella to channel customer goodwill into loyalty and social media advocacy. We need everyone to work on their specialist part of the jigsaw, and be ever mindful of where their work fits into the bigger picture.

- The next challenge is to help our clients realise that if we are developing the full customer journey, a great deal more resource is required. We have solved this challenge by introducing a new model which clearly demonstrates the revenue associated with carrying our work at each customer stage, so any budget is signed off against a clear return.

Our mission……The full online journey optimised around the customer, with clear financial control for our clients over budgets and forecasting. As one customer recently said “It’s like a dream”. Our mission at Propellernet is turning this dream into a reality. Very challenging, but then all worthwhile things normally are.

Jack

“Persuasion, Emotion & Trust” - (c) HFI - are the new frontiers of e-commerce user experience. (See also books by Robert Caldini “Influence”, Stanley Milgram “Obedience to Authority” Barry Schwartz “The Paradox of Choice” and Joshua Porter “Designing for the Social Web”.)

It is mightily exciting (and a huge relief!) to be able to talk about psychology when it comes to marketing and selling online. It illustrates we have reached a certain milestone in online strategy and tactics.

However to have competencies here as well as with the old ones of usability (get these checkout obstacles out of my way!) — AND add on all the competencies of getting good traffic to your site AND getting people to find the suitable content / product AND getting them to check out / email it to someone / link to it / pick up the phone and call you AND measuring it all meaningfully…

It’s getting tricky for mere mortals to keep up, let alone prioritise what is *actually important*.

Do you think agencies will start thinking a bit more holistically about this issue for clients?

DJ