3 Essential Steps: Awareness, Understanding Trust
Ad agency business development is easy. The first thing to do is make your future clients aware of your agency. “Yes. I’ve heard of that agency,” says the CMO. “Didn’t they do the main hall takeover at CES? Aren’t they the ones who do the random satirical LinkedIn posts; So You Want to be a Marketing Superstar?” Creating awareness is a critical first step. It’s the only way your future client can find you on the web, ask for an initial capabilities review, invite you to their pitch, or request a bid on an upcoming launch if they don’t know you? You need awareness. But, what you really need is Awareness Understanding and Trust.
Not only do your prospects have to be aware of your agency, but that awareness has to be fashioned around what they need or want to solve. Easy, right? “I remember reading about them and how they helped a challenger brand overtake the incumbents,” the VP of Brand Advertising recalled. “I need to do that in my category.” Creating awareness with understanding is vital; otherwise, that VP won’t connect your agency with the challenge she needs to solve. She has to know your agency and what it does specific to her needs to take the next step.
Awareness and understanding alone may not be enough to stand apart from all the agencies being considered in a search. The understanding part begins to differentiate the agency, but today’s overstressed marketers don’t have the time to sort through hundreds of choices. They need to trust that your agency is a legitimate solution. And that’s another easy step. “I can see from their work that they understand my customer,” a Director of Marketing admitted. “Our brand will look right at home with the quality of their creative. Our CEO will feel we are in good company with their other clients. I can trust they will know what we need and deliver it.”
Generalizing, these are a marketer’s first thoughts when searching for a new agency. Regardless of what triggered the need, poor performance, lack of capabilities, or me-too ideas, they must know you, understand what you do, and trust you can fit their need even to consider your agency. Of course, this is way oversimplified, but it establishes the beginning framework for successful ad agency business development. Once you move to the consideration stage, much more must be done, but that’s for a different post. The focus is maximizing your agency’s new business efforts on these three steps.
Awareness
Classic marketing 101. The first part of awareness is knowing your audience. For ad agencies, that’s pretty simple–marketing decision-makers. But wait, the devil is in the details. We typically segment our audience by industry, company size, marketing budget, services needed, and other characteristics. Once we narrow our audience to the finest criteria, we can define how best to reach these people and what to say to them that will be relevant, meaningful, and unignorable.
Suppose we assume your cold prospecting audience has never heard of your agency and regularly gets bombarded by other agency missives. That is the reality today. Your outreach will have to be creative, relevant, and memorable. It is also going to have to be repetitive. Let’s assume your audience consists of marketers who currently need to change agencies, about 5%. Another 30% plan to change or hire a new agency in the next 6 – 12 months. Another 30% plan to change next year, 12 – 24 months. The remaining won’t change agencies or don’t care because they are looking for a new job.
To build awareness and understanding, for that matter, you’ll need to target the 5% differently than the 60%. However, it’s unlikely you will know who that 5% is. You should reach out immediately if you know anyone in the 5% “in-market” segment. Look for mutual LinkedIn connections to make an introduction. Ask partners, vendors, and colleagues if anyone knows the “in-market” prospects you know. The best way to get their attention is from a referral. Otherwise, use a combination of email, LinkedIn messages, and phone calls. At a minimum, each will increase the frequency of your brand mention. At best, they will read your messages or listen to your voicemail.
Another effective tactic is an overnight delivery. You can customize an agency overview or other more creative platform that references things relevant and specific to what the prospect is looking for, examples of work that solves the challenges the prospect might be dealing with, or a collection of thought leadership addressing challenges in the prospect’s market. Include links to your website. Send it over with a humorous note that makes the case for a meeting. Call immediately after the package is delivered to capitalize on the surprise.
You have time to build awareness, understanding, and trust for the longer-term prospects. A regular outreach cadence sharing information about the agency and work is a nice foundation. Keep it informational, not salesy. Stick to a regular schedule to build familiarity. Share higher-value content in addition to cases and leadership spotlights. Proprietary or third-party research, internal marketplace analysis, external expert market coverage, and agency thought leadership are all potential higher-value content. The goal is to get on their list or to the top when their need arises.
Understanding
The “show me you know me” quip. As you grow awareness and introduce your agency, you want to do so in a way that will make the prospect feel like you know them, their business, their customer, their challenges, and real solutions that perform. The key is to be specific enough to show genuine understanding without being presumptuous. Segment by industry so you can demonstrate knowledge of their industry challenges (not generic marketing problems) and show that you’ve thought deeply about that industry’s audience and competitive landscape.
On a more individual basis, reference actual marketing initiatives they’ve launched. Include screenshots of their recent campaigns with helpful observations. Personalize using words that convince them you are talking to them about them rather than a mass generic approach like everyone else. These are a few examples of how you might demonstrate understanding for your prospects.
Another industry-specific idea is to do a competitor analysis they would recognize. “Looking at your competitors’ recent campaigns, we noticed Acme Widgets is heavily targeting the Gen Z demographic you’ve been successful with, but they’re missing the aspirational element that makes your brand distinctive.” This approach allows you to name-drop, identify an industry-wide challenge, and tease a solution. You can use the same example for every industry-specific prospect except Acme.
How about referencing a category leader and the hottest tactic of the year? “Zippy Tip’s recent pivot to video-first content appears to be working well on TikTok, but they are missing an opportunity to adapt that strategy for LinkedIn, where the serious B2B decision-makers spend more time.” Another name drop, an enviable tactic, and an easy-to-implement solution.
For prospect-specific content, “We analyzed your current social media performance and noticed your Instagram content generates 3X more engagement than your Facebook posts, particularly when featuring user testimonials. This suggests your audience responds strongly to authentic customer experiences.” You demonstrate specific expertise and value that can have an immediate impact, you uncover potentially new insights, highlight something their current agency should know, and showcase your proactive nature.
Trust
Developing trust with your prospects requires authenticity, respect, empathy, and value. Most importantly, don’t sell. It’s not about we, we, we. It’s sharing genuine value; otherwise, why would they engage? “I don’t even know this agency, but they gave me three suggestions for my ongoing lead gen campaign that our current agency missed,” exclaimed a frustrated founder. “I’m going to remember them now.”
Share useful industry news, insights, relevant data, or helpful resources without asking for anything in return. Engage as a knowledgeable resource and stand apart from all the other salespersons. “I’m sharing our latest industry report on shifting consumer behavior in the luxury market—we found that sustainability messaging is now driving 37% more engagement than traditional prestige positioning. No strings attached. If you find it useful, I’m happy to discuss the implications for your specific audience segments.”
Reference details about their business challenges that show you’ve done your homework, but frame it as understanding the industry rather than surveilling them. Establish credibility through social proof. Share relevant case studies or testimonials from similar companies they might recognize, especially competitors they respect. “Interesting that you worked with Bazooka. Their recent customer experience improvements haven’t gone unnoticed here,” replied a Chief Digital Officer. “You’re right that we’re dealing with similar data integration challenges, though our situation has some unique complexities. I’m normally hesitant to engage with cold outreach, but given your work with them, I might be willing to hear more about your approach. Can you share any specific metrics or outcomes beyond the percentage increase?” Eureka!
Be transparent about your intentions. Clearly state why you’re reaching out and what you hope to achieve, avoiding any hint of hidden agendas. Respect their time. Be concise in communications. “I appreciate your directness about why you’re reaching out,” replied a tentative Marketing VP. “We are indeed looking at ways to improve our customer retention—though I’m curious how you determined this was a priority for us. Our onboarding process was revamped last quarter, but we’re still not seeing the retention numbers we want. I might be open to a brief conversation if you can share more about the specific approach you mentioned.”
Identify shared connections, experiences, or challenges that create a sense of alignment. Maintain regular but not intrusive contact. Make sure to add value with each interaction. The key to building trust quickly is demonstrating competence while showing authentic interest in their success, not just in making a sale. Your actions must consistently show that you prioritize their needs over your immediate business goals.
Success in agency business development isn’t about “look at me, look at me, look at me” outreach but building meaningful connections through awareness, understanding, and trust. High-growth agencies recognize that prospecting is a marathon, not a sprint. By consistently demonstrating industry knowledge, showing genuine interest in prospects’ challenges, and providing value without immediate expectations, you put your agency on the list, if not at the top, when the timing is right. Remember, the best new business relationships begin long before the pitch.
Happy Prospecting
So, there it is. Easy peasy, right? Well, theoretically, at least. Marketing’s basic building blocks are awareness, understanding, and trust, which is true for almost any business. Why do agencies that do a great job with awareness, understanding, and trust for their clients struggle to do the same for themselves? It has to be one of the great mysteries of our time. I’m here to solve it. Schedule a conversation on my calendar. Follow me on LinkedIn. Subscribe to my newsletter.
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