The #1 marketing goal for any agency or consultant

One of the best calls we ever got from a client went a little like this:

“So our fiscal year ends in a month, and if I need to spend my entire annual design budget or they’ll reduce it for next year. Can you send me a proposal for a $50K project? It can be literally anything, I just need to use up the money.”

This was a particularly funny example, but it illustrates a larger point: there’s almost always some specific reason that clients are looking for an agency or consultant like you.

I like to call it the “inciting incident,” which is a term from film-making that describes the moment the story kicks off- for example, in Star Wars, when Luke sees the hologram message from Princess Leia and his boring life on the farm is over forever:

When it comes to agencies and consultants, it’s usually your (potential) client being thrown into a new, uncertain situation:

• They’re in a new job: they just got hired as the VP of Marketing, realized their current agency sucks, and they need a new one

• They have a new boss: they just went through a reorg, they have a new boss, and the boss wants to shake things up

• A “come to jesus” moment: a bad quarter, they got dropped by a big distributor, had to do layoffs, etc etc.

You can’t predict when that’s going to happen, so your job is to be the first person they call/email/DM/etc when the “inciting incident” happens. When they think “Sh*t, who do I know that does ________,” your name should go in that blank.

For example, here’s a few of the names on my short list and how I think of them:

• High-end SEO: Omniscient

• Conversion rate optimization: Shiva Manjunath

• Nonprofit branding/marketing: Cosmic

• etc etc

There’s nothing magical about this - it’s just about showing up consistently, reminding them that you exist and making sure that they know exactly what you do (notice how specific my list is?).

If you’re thinking “that sounds a lot like brand marketing,” you would be right!

Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble spend billions a year on things like TV and print ads that don’t directly convert: so that next time you’re at Target and you need soda or toothpaste, you’ll think of Coke and Crest instead of Pepsi or Colgate.

You’re not selling toothpaste so you don’t need to spend $2 billion on TV ads, but if you apply that same line of thinking to your business and you might find some interesting ideas.

Yes, you should be posting on LinkedIn (and possibly Twitter, IG, etc). But what are the less obvious ways you can build your brand to be top of mind?

For example I went to University of Cincinnati, which has one of the top design programs in the country— and my old agency had several designers who were also adjunct faculty at UC.

Because the program was so strong, A-list companies in the area like Procter & Gamble, Macys, Kroger, etc would hunt for new talent at the end-of-quarter exhibitions where students showed their projects.

And who was there to chat with them, show off the best student work, and talk shop? Our designers.

That was itself a great way to remind them we exist and that we’re at the core of the design community, but it also gave us a great reason to follow up with them:

Us: “Hey [client] - Chris said he saw you at the UC show last week. Just thought I’d say hi and see what’s new on your end.”

Them: “Oh hey! Great timing for you to reach out, because I actually have a project you could help us with… [insert story about their inciting event].”

I’m not saying you should go teach at your local college (unless you also happen to run a design agency in Cincinnati, in which case it’s probably a good idea!).

My point is that you never really know when they’ll need you, or what the circumstances will be.

And you can’t force it.

You just want to be the first person they think of when it happens - and the way you do that is by persistently, consistently showing up.

Marketing is a PROCESS, not a one-time event.

PS - If you like my emails, pick some time on my calendar to say hi. It’s not a pitch, I just like getting to know new people who are doing cool things: https://calendly.com/finnmckenty/letstalk