10 Tips to Help Your Agency Win New Business

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by rob

Winning new business is a key element to the success of any agency’s development, whatever discipline you specialise in. Whilst this may come in many shapes and forms, there will always be common themes underpinning the process.
You may just be happy to rely on referrals or repeat business from existing clients; conversely you may have an insatiable appetite for growth through relentless outbound campaigns or a significant investment in SEO. Whatever methods you use (and most agencies will no doubt use a variety), all the points below are relevant to ultimately achieve your goals.

Have A Clear Value Proposition
What makes you so special? It’s a crowded and very competitive market out there, so you need to ensure you have highlighted your strengths, have a concise definition of your services and demonstrate your expertise with relevant case studies. Put some real thought into your USP and emphasise it.

Identify Your Target Audience
Sounds obvious, but make sure you really understand who your ideal clients are. Tailor your approach to their specific needs, pain points, and industry trends.

Build A Strong Portfolio
Keep it relevant and specifically include case studies that illustrate the results you’ve achieved for similar clients. Over time you should have an ever-growing pool of examples you can use to enable you to demonstrate to a prospective client exactly how you can help and why you are the agency they should choose.

Build Relationships
It is a mantra of ours that people buy from people. The agency world and wider marketing industry may have changed hugely over the last few decades, with technology driving ever-more disciplines, but there is nothing like the personal touch. Make sure you proactively network within your industry. Attend events, join associations, use existing connections to generate referrals. Everything helps.

Put Thought Into Your Pitches
Being invited to pitch to a potential client is a significant hurdle to clear, so when you are make sure you have put the groundwork in. Focus on their goals and how your agency can help achieve them. The more background information you have on both the prospect and the company and they work for the better. This enables you to offer solutions tailored to a personal level AND a business level. Some knowledge about their competitors and the industry vertical will also help you address the prospect’s challenges.

Content Marketing
Publishing some thought leadership on your own website and in the wider media through blogs, whitepapers, social media will help share insights and showcase your expertise to help you attract potential clients.

Client References and Reviews
Use positive feedback and testimonials from past clients to build credibility and trust with new prospects. If you’re expecting a brand to give you vast amounts of money to develop a campaign for them, the more validation you can provide from people who have been in their position before and achieved good results, the better.

Consider Strategic Partnerships
Most agencies are not truly a one-stop-shop. You may be an expert in certain disciplines but not others, so it may be worth forming partnerships with complementary businesses that can refer clients or collaborate on certain projects.

Keep up with industry trends
Whether this is emerging technologies in your market, a general awareness of events that are affecting it or anything else, the ability to position your agency as a forward-thinking partner will give you additional credibility.

Don’t be shy to stay in touch
Make sure you follow up potential leads, schedule call backs and establish a sensible contact strategy to keep in touch with your prospects. Tenacity and persistence can pay off, but balance this with the feedback the prospect is giving you about how and when you should keep in touch.

The above tips are by no means exhaustive, but taking them into consideration will always be good practice when running a new business campaign. If you would like to discuss any of your new business challenges, please get in touch.