Looking back now I’m not so sure.  It’s 15 years since I graduated (can it be, really?) and I’ve spent most of that decade and a half working in design, understanding how design can influence the way people think and act – often without us even being aware of it.

So, when I saw that Leeds Art Gallery recently held an exhibition of the flyers used by Back to Basics over the club’s 20-year history it got me thinking.

Called Excess All Areas, the exhibition profiled the 1000 or so flyers produced by the club’s promoter, Dave Beer, and designer Nic Gundill, and it made me wonder if I really did pick that club because of the music, the punters and the door policy. Maybe it was the flyers that drew me in, that gave visual expression to a set of values that resonated with me, or that promised an experience I wanted.

I’m not a designer of course. I find new business opportunities for design agencies, but that involves talking day in, day out to marketers who are all hoping design convey those values and experiences about their brands. It’s a concept that continually fascinates me, and remembering those flyers brought home to me just what a powerful communication technique design can be.

Now I’m wondering what else design has led me to do without me even being aware of it….

The staff at St Mungo's receiving the presents....

This year we collected presents for St Mungo’s homeless shelter in Endell Street in the West End. We were really impressed with the response and dropped 55 presents off for the residents to open on Christmas Day. It was great to meet them all and we’ll definitely be helping out again next Christmas.

For instance, if you do a lot of work with PR agencies, at the very least, subscribe to the PR Week daily updates (which are surprisingly very good by the way!). Like most B2B magazines, they’ll send you a daily email highlighting the latest news. This helps you know what is going on in your most important sectors, and enables you to have knowledgeable conversations with your current clients about problems they may be facing or potential opportunities, showing them how your finger is on the pulse of their industry.

But more importantly, for my role especially, it provides new leads and potential new business. Perhaps things are changing in that industry and it gives you the opportunity for selling a new product to your current clients, up-selling on what you currently provide. Maybe their competitors are up to something new that your client doesn’t currently have, but you could supply. You can then approach them proactively with new ideas. It will also highlight new leads. Companies (and therefore potential new clients) that you hadn’t heard of before, but can now approach and tell them about all the great things you have done in their sector. Companies and organisations that are undergoing change, such as mergers, acquisitions, new CEO’s with a plan to shake things up, new companies themselves, new marketing and brand managers/directors. Even keeping an eye out for people you know moving to new companies where they could potentially become new clients or clients again.

And as the way we consume media has changed, and we now “snack” rather than sit down for a full 3 page article, it has made it much easier to keep up to date with news without having to devote too much precious time to it. But doing it will make you look great to your current clients and may even help you win new clients. Time well spent in my opinion!

1.       Choose your exhibition carefully. Is it the market leading exhibition for the sector you’re looking at? If you have any international markets you would like to look at then it’s a great way to meet international marketing directors that you’d usually have to take a flight to meet.

2.       Go on the right day. Usually, if it’s a consumer exhibition it’s good idea to avoid going on a weekend. With B2B exhibitions the first day is usually too busy for the Marketing Directors to have time to see you, but the second day is less busy and so you should have more success. The numbers tend to trail off after day two so it’s good to get in then. The more there are around, the more chance you have of speaking to them.

3.       Create a list of companies you would like to meet and find out the marketing directors names.

4.       Call the marketing directors you need to meet beforehand to see if they can put a time in their diary to meet up with you. You never know, you might get a couple in the diary before you go along.

5.       You probably won’t be able to arrange to see most people on your list in advance. Try your luck by going to the stands and asking to meet them, or at least find out when they’ll be around and go back later. You can meet up with a lot of potential clients this way and find out their plans for the future.

6.       Take plenty of business cards to give to people you meet, and also to leave behind for the ones you didn’t get chance to see.

7.       You can always approach a few stands that look interesting when you’re there but aren’t on your list. Just have a quick look at Google on your phone to track down the marketing directors details, and go and introduce yourself.

8.       Follow up on the phone after the exhibition has finished. Call the people you spoke to and those you didn’t. A quick call mentioning that you met them or tried to meet them at the exhibition, is always worth doing as it often starts a dialogue that can lead them becoming new client.

1. Make a list of clients that you used to work with, but currently don’t, perhaps over the last 5 years. Discount any that you definitely wouldn’t want to work with again, and any that perhaps might not want to work with you again for whatever reason. I find these things seem more manageable, and a lot less daunting when actually written down and you can see how many there are and are able to tick them off as you go along.

2. Then cleanse your list. Many of your old contacts will have moved onto different roles or different companies, so direct lines and email addresses may well have changed. LinkedIn is hugely useful for this, but a straightforward Google search will often uncover a lot of valuable information as well. If they have moved onto a new company, this is a good thing as it might open up a whole new client for you. But it is definitely still worthwhile contacting the old company as well. Your knowledge of them might prove to be valuable, or your work looked back on longingly and missed.

3. Now go about contacting them by telephone. Obviously we are a new business agency that predominantly uses the telephone to contact people. There are many benefits to this direct approach, but the most important here are gathering information and making it harder for them to ignore you. You can ask them lots of questions about what they are up to, and any current challenges. This often leads to things that you might be able to help with. But I think it is very important for you to be seen to be taking a real interest in them. Not just any business they may be able to through your way. You can always say that it’s been a while since you’ve talked, and you’re just touching base to see how everything is going and what they are up to. Hopefully they’ll ask you what you’re up to in return, and you can talk briefly about all the great projects you’ve been working on, the benefits these have brought to your clients and see if they ever do anything like them. It might just prompt something that they hadn’t thought of before that you could help them with.

4. Use email and LinkedIn. While an email may perhaps solicit a response, it is too easy for it to be looked at, the client to think how nice it is that you got back in touch, but keep putting off replying until they have more time, which then never happens. Email is better than nothing, but will usually not open the same doors as a proper conversation. It is the same with connecting with them on LinkedIn. It is a good thing to do after you have spoken with them and had a proper catch up though.

5. Work your way through the list until all the companies and individuals can have a nice big tick against them. Have a cup of tea and pat yourself on the back. The hard work you have just done could lead to “new business” from old client companies, individuals or even referrals from both. And hopefully speaking with people you know isn’t as difficult as cold calling, so the whole process hasn’t been too arduous. Now, try and stay in touch with them on a more regular basis and the next time you come to carry this process out, it will be a lot easier.

Old clients know you, your company, your skills and expertise, so the door should be partially ajar already. They just need to remember you and how you could help them and they could well be clients again!

7. The crucial point when choosing subjects for a press release is to consider what is going to interest the readers of the publications where you would like your press releases to be used. Many agencies will produce press releases that focus solely on what the company is doing. Journalists won’t be interested in your news, but they will be interested in what this all means for their readers.

8. Send your press releases in the body of an email with an enticing subject line. Try to give as much specific detail as possible, use clear and simple language, no jargon, and double check for any basic errors in spelling and grammar. Follow this up with a call after a couple of days to check it’s arrived and ask whether it was of interest. Hopefully it will have caught the attention of some journalists, or at the very least, they’ll have you as a contact for the future to be a spokesperson on that subject.

9. Get hold of editorial schedules for the publications you’re targeting. Most publications will produce an editorial calendar far in advance. It will give details of the subjects they’re covering in that issue, so you should be able to use these to tailor your press releases to the subjects they’re writing about. If they’re not available online they should send them to you if you call.

10. Support a charity – associating yourself with a charity can be a great way to get yourself noticed, and of course at the same time supporting a worthwhile cause. Again, just publicising that you’re supporting the charity probably won’t work as you need to position it from an angle that will interest readers. Telling journalists what you’re doing again from a point of view that would interest their readers is a good way to get coverage. Picking a charity your business has some affinity with is a good start. For example if you have homeless people living in your area then a homeless charity could be an obvious choice (we support St Mungo’s – www.mungos.org). Tell journalists what you’re doing and maybe invite them in to see the effects of your work. This needs to be a long term relationship and not something that will be rewarded for a one off. Eventually journalists will pay attention to a business that has helped a charity for years without recognition. Hopefully this will be a mutually beneficial relationship that the charity will gain a lot from.

1. Get to know your media. Have a think about who you would like to reach with your marketing messages, and then develop a list of the media they would read, listen to and watch.

2. Once you have your list of media to target, find out who the journalists are within those media. Look online and phone the receptions, but develop a list of names, phone numbers and email addresses of the journalists you’d like to reach. It’s worth getting the names of editors, news editors, and feature editors/writers at the titles you’re looking at. If you put fifteen minutes aside every day to find out this information, you’ll be well on your way to developing a media database where you can keep a record of all of these people and your interactions with them.

3. It’s easier than you think. Trade journals and local media do actually want to hear from businesses in their industry or area. Even the national press relies on PR for much of its content.

4. A good way to start is by emailing everyone in your new media database to introduce yourself and your business. Explain to them who you are, what you do, and how you can be of use to them. All newspapers, trade magazines and TV/radio stations need people with interesting opinions. You can position yourself as the person they go to on your particular type of marketing.

5. If possible, you can arrange to meet up with journalists so they can find out how interesting your opinions are. An offer of lunch is a good way to start. Make it easy for them to contact you for a last minute quote and when they call, be ready to drop everything to get your quote in.

So there you have it. Sounds easy! But how does it really work and how do you actually going about broadening your portfolio? Here I’m going to look at how you to transfer your existing skills into new industry sectors, whilst keeping your core competencies. This should enable your company to grow in a new and interesting direction and increase your revenue.

Let’s say that you have a great creative agency. You have some excellent clients, but most of them tend to be in 1 or 2 specific industry sectors. You have become an expert in these sectors and this has enabled you to pick up new clients in those areas, through referrals and word of mouth. It is a nice position to be in, but having most of your clients in a single industry sector can also have its dangers. (What happens if that sector is hit by a slowdown greater than the overall market? Or the way that sector operates changes radically and you find your services not nearly as in demand as they once were?) Or, more optimistically, you want to grow your agency in a new direction? One of your choosing that offers new challenges and rewards.

The first thing to do is to look at the skills that you have built up. What type of people have you traditionally marketed to? Who else would want to reach these people? For instance, if you have done a lot of different work for solicitors, have you looked at other professional services like accountants or management consultants? If the same sort of people would be purchasing that client’s services, you have something that you can offer them.

But sadly there is more to it than that. You also have to work out why your skills would be relevant. What insights into their market can you offer? Why should they look at an agency that may not have exactly the experience they may have thought they were looking? What would make them want to meet you and find out more? If your experience is not so much of an automatic fit, you have to work harder to show why it is relevant.

Your best bet is to do some research into their market. Go to them proactively with some thoughts and ideas on how you can help them. Use these insights and knowledge, combined with your experiences in a slightly different sector, to give them something that they can’t get elsewhere. Tee yourselves up as experts in their field and they’ll start to realise that what you offer is of value, not just a random push for clients in a new sector. And of course this is when all your hard work pays off.

In this ramble/helpful business advice, I seem to have asked a lot of questions. That’s because what you should do and how you should go about doing it depends so much on your company, the skills you have built up, how they can be transferred and of course what markets you are most experienced in. As the old saying goes, “it is often difficult to see the wood from the trees”. That’s why it pays to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, or get an outsider involved. A fresh pair of eyes can be great at helping to unlock untapped potential.

1. Ending conversations – If you do get stuck talking to one person it’s useful to have a few ideas on how to end a conversation too! Ideally you’ll just be able to bring the conversation to a natural end, shake hands and move away. If this is proving difficult though, you could go and get a glass of water, cup of coffee or snack. Going to the loo or stepping outside for a few moments are good ways to bring a conversation to an end too.
2. Follow up – It’s easy to return to the office and forget about getting in touch with the people you’ve met, or think they’ll get in touch with you. Sending a quick email saying that it was good to meet them is a great way to stay in touch. You could include a weblink, or a pdf of work that could interest them. If there’s no opportunity to work together now then drop them an email or a quick call every month or so. This way you’ll be at the front of their mind when an opportunity to work together does come up.
3. Give your business card out – an up to date business card is essential. If you give your card out and collect others, you’ll soon have a whole network of people who you could possibly work with in the future. Writing notes on the back of cards to remind you more about the people you met can be helpful.
4. Online networking – Are you signed up to and using LinkedIn? It’s a great way to stay in touch with people you meet and also get introduced to other people through your contact’s networks. I find it the easiest way to network and keep people updated with what you’re up to.
5. Try and try again – It does take a bit of courage and practice. Start with an event every couple of weeks. If it doesn’t work out the first time, try again in a new setting. What’s the worst that could happen?