Business development for agencies = any strategy designed to increase the agency's growth and revenue. Some examples here include networking, producing content, and building brand awareness.
In today's environment, effective business development plans aren’t just about chasing new leads — they’re about building a predictable growth system. The most successful agencies combine creative relationship-building with data-driven outreach, automation, and continuous optimization.
This guide walks you through our best practices for agencies to build a strong business development strategy. We cover:
- Strategic foundations of agency business development
- 14 best practices to create predictable pipelines
- Tools to streamline outreach, track opportunities, and grow existing clients
First, let’s explain the difference between business development, marketing, and sales, and how they’re all interconnected.
Business Development vs. Marketing vs. Sales: What’s the Difference?
Business development, marketing, and sales are often used interchangeably, but they are distinct functions that work together:
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Business development (BD) focuses on growth and generating new ideas to improve the business and build long-lasting client relationships.
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Marketing builds awareness and strategically positions your agency to generate inbound leads and increase sales.
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Sales closes deals and ensures contracts and agreements move forward.
Modern business development includes marketing, partnerships, client retention, and even optimizing project delivery — every touchpoint that fuels agency growth. Ultimately, these three roles are closely intertwined and mutually dependent for success.
Pro tip: Consider mapping the full-funnel agency growth process from awareness to engagement, conversion, retention, and expansion. This will help your team understand each function's role in the overall process.
14 Best Practices for Agency Business Development
1. Define your expertise
We’ve talked about expertise and specialization in the past. While most agency leaders will readily admit that it’s important, many keep putting it off on their “to-do” list.
It’s time to adapt. Traditional advantages are gone. Local clients are now being courted by remote agencies worldwide. Today, expertise is your real differentiator.
Specialization matters for two critical reasons:
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Talent retention: According to a recent survey, the "nature of the work" and "opportunity to learn" are the biggest reasons for employee engagement. Deep expertise creates meaningful work and learning opportunities that retain your best people.
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Client acquisition: Why should any client pick a mediocre "full-stack" agency when they can hire true experts? Clients face competitive pressure too — they need deep expertise, not generic advice.
Take this further by defining your ideal client profiles and audience segments. Positioning workshops, competitor matrices, and value proposition canvases help clarify where your agency's expertise truly stands — the more specific your focus, the stronger your business development results will be.
Our article on agency positioning is a good starting point for this quest.
2. Make business development an active pursuit
Referrals remain the primary source of leads for agencies. While nothing beats a strong referral for conversion rates, referrals don't scale. More importantly, they take all agency (pun intended) away from you. Instead of being proactive about lead generation, you end up waiting for someone to contact you.
The solution here is twofold:
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Adopt a proactive approach to business development. Use email, social media, seminars — anything you'd do for your clients — to get in front of new prospects.
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Zero in on your dream clients and use account-based marketing (ABM) to turn them into leads.
Business development can't be "something you sometimes do" — it's a core part of your regular work activities. Ideally, you'd have dedicated personnel, but even without that, you'd engage in some business development every day.
Send emails to prospects. Publish and promote content. Establish yourself in search engines.
Your goal should be to spread out, be seen, and be heard. This should permeate throughout your agency’s culture.
Everyone — from creatives to account managers — should be involved in BD. Encourage sharing insights on social media platforms like LinkedIn, recognize employees who generate leads or referrals, and integrate BD responsibilities into performance reviews. Track activity, formalize responsibilities, and measure outcomes to maintain a healthy pipeline.
This transforms business development from a “hope and pray” activity into a predictable and measurable process.
3. Great business development starts with great content
Every time you actively create content, you establish a channel that can passively generate new business opportunities.
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A top-ranked blog post can earn you a steady stream of leads years after it went live.
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A viral Instagram story can reach millions of people you never even intended to target.
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A great YouTube video can introduce your brand to entirely new audience segments.
Of course, content creation to win engagement isn’t anything new — you already do this for your clients. What has changed is the nature of this content.
Since the pandemic, many small businesses have been compelled to transition to online operations. While they have deep local expertise, they're often clueless about digital marketing efforts and how to advertise their services online.
This audience needs content tailored to help them navigate the internet — they're still in the “Awareness” phase. Focus your content roadmap on the basics and guide them through beginner topics. Your goal should be to help them see new leads, not just bump up engagement metrics.
Use content marketing to educate, solve problems, and showcase your agency's unique capabilities. Then you can repurpose content across channels, share in newsletters, and use social media to amplify your reach.
4. Don’t stop developing your existing business
We get it — acquiring new clients is exhilarating. Turning a cold prospect into a high-quality, revenue-generating client is exciting and greatly rewarding.
Yet, for most agencies, the bulk of new revenue comes from growing existing clients. It's substantially easier to expand existing clients than to win new ones — they already know and trust you.
Growing an existing business requires two things:
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Deep knowledge of the client's business and core industry
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An expanding portfolio of products and services to sell to these clients
You should be actively scouting new opportunities for your clients. They may be falling behind on social media. Their content strategy may be outdated. They may need a thorough rebranding to compete more effectively.
Your account managers should thoroughly understand the client's business and their point of contact. If you don't know what metrics matter to your contact, you can't pitch them ideas that improve those metrics.
At the agency level, constantly improve and expand your expertise, especially in related areas. An SEO agency without content capabilities leaves money on the table. Social media agencies without in-house video creation will miss opportunities.
Track client satisfaction, implement regular check-ins, and systematically identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling to enhance customer loyalty. CRM or project management platforms ensure nothing slips through the cracks (more on these tools below).
5. Think like your customers
To connect with someone, you need to speak their language fluently. You must start by understanding their pain points.
Ask yourself: "Why are my customers choosing this solution? What are they really trying to accomplish?"
Use social proof meaningfully. For example, case studies, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes content showcase your processes, building credibility and trust.
You should also map customer journeys and personas. The more deeply you understand your clients' challenges, goals, and behaviors, the more tailored your messaging and offerings can be — improving conversion rates and client retention.
6. Focus on developing your brand’s personality
When someone types “marketing agency” into Google search, they are swamped with thousands of options (many of which are likely to come before your own). So how do you stand out?
Define your brand archetype and consistently follow through. Are you upbeat and energetic or serious and understated? Do you include humor in your messaging, or would that undermine your brand?
Instead of being “another agency,” you become “the agency with the funky sense of humor” or “the elegant, strategic partner.”
Extend this to all client touchpoints: website copy, email campaigns, social media, proposal decks, and even the tone of client meetings. A consistent brand personality fosters recognition and trust over time.
7. Follow up persistently (but strategically)
It’s very rare to convert a prospective client after just one touchpoint. Your first couple of attempts to engage with a client might even be totally ignored. The trick is not to become disheartened, but to remain persistent.
Obviously, there is a fine line between being persistent and being annoying, but research shows it can take up to eight touchpoints before a prospect even looks at you.
A touchpoint can be anything that involves direct communication between you and the prospect, such as an email, a voicemail, or even a social media interaction. Use a cadence that mixes channels and provides value — not just “checking in” but sharing insights, articles, or relevant industry updates. This keeps you top of mind and demonstrates your expertise.
8. Build a brand community
Building a community is building trust. Having followers brings more followers, and being well-connected lends you credibility.
Networking events are great for building your brand’s community, as are newsletters, podcasts, and social media groups. Beyond reach, this allows you to showcase your thought leadership, attract talent, and engage potential clients in a low-pressure environment.
Communities can also serve as a listening post for client needs, competitor insights, and emerging trends. Encourage dialogue, invite collaboration, and nurture relationships consistently.
9. Don’t let opportunities for referrals slip through the cracks
We discussed earlier the importance of not relying too heavily on referrals for business. Referrals do have a place, though, and the perfect time to ask a client for one is when you’ve just completed a project or service for them. At this point, their satisfaction with you is at its peak, and their praise is fresh.
Use this moment to ask for at least one referral. Word of mouth is extremely powerful, especially in an industry crowded with agencies. Systematize your referral requests and follow up — track them to ensure no opportunity is missed.
10. Build a measurable business development pipeline
Up to this point, we’ve focused on the fundamentals of attracting and retaining clients. Now, it’s time to examine the next layer: creating measurable pipelines, aligning business development with your delivery capacity, and leveraging technology to amplify your results.
A robust business development process requires a clear, measurable pipeline. Track prospects, lead stages, expected revenue, and conversion rates. This turns intuition into data-driven decision-making.
Create dashboards that allow leadership and account managers to see pipeline health at a glance. Metrics such as lead velocity, proposal-to-win ratio, and revenue forecast accuracy help identify bottlenecks and improve BD effectiveness over time.
11. Align business development with delivery capacity
Winning new clients is great, but winning clients your agency cannot deliver for is a recipe for disaster. Map your sales capacity against delivery resources to ensure you’re bringing in the right volume and type of work.
Coordinate closely with account managers, production teams, and project managers to ensure your BD strategy prioritizes clients whose needs align with your agency’s expertise and capacity — quality over quantity wins in long-term profitability.
12. Leverage strategic partnerships
Don't go it alone. Strategic partnerships with complementary agencies or service providers can open new markets, fill capability gaps, and create referral networks.
Look for partners whose services complement rather than compete with yours. For example, a web design agency might partner with a copywriting firm, or a branding agency with a development shop.
13. Measure and optimize continuously
Business development is not static. Regularly review results, test new approaches, and optimize your strategies:
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Audit your content performance
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Track lead source ROI
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Adjust messaging and outreach cadence
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Conduct a win/loss analysis on proposals
A “measure-learn-optimize” mindset allows agencies to adapt to changing markets and client needs, ensuring long-term success.
14. Leverage technology to scale your business development efforts
Finally, modern BD requires the right tools:
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CRM systems for pipeline management
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Marketing automation to nurture campaigns
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Analytics dashboards for visibility across sales, marketing, and delivery
Integrating tools like Workamajig can align BD, project management, and operations — giving your agency a unified view of clients, opportunities, and resource allocation. Technology enables scaling BD without losing personalization or quality.
Speaking of technologies to assist in business development efforts…
How Workamajig’s All-in-One Agency Management System Supports Long-Term, Sustainable Growth
Workamajig is a comprehensive agency management system built with everything you need to manage operations under one roof. It enables you to develop cohesive and organized processes, align work with client expectations, and effectively scale business development.
We’ve worked with agencies at all stages of growth, from small agency owners seeking that extra boost to hit the ground running to enterprises looking to level up continually.
Our Toolkit
Our toolkit includes everything from client intake tools to project management, resource planning, and in-depth analytics tools. Let’s take you through it.
For a more in-depth walkthrough, please request a free demo with our team.
First, our CRM enables you to manage your pipeline and track new opportunities.
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It connects with your website’s contact form (or you can integrate a separate CRM, such as HubSpot) to pull in all new leads. It organizes leads in a central dashboard where sales teams can see who’s interested in your agency’s services and who it makes sense to qualify.
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Sales teams can convert qualified leads into opportunities and manage them through each stage of the sales funnel. Our Opportunities dashboard lets you track prospects, all of the details, and expected revenue in one place. Managers can easily see what’s in the pipeline and gauge pipeline health.
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After winning new opportunities, sales representatives can convert them into new projects. Our system saves all details and attachments from sales conversations so project managers can get up to speed on expectations and timelines.
The CRM also includes account and client management tools that let you centralize all client and prospect information, including communication history, key contacts, and relationship notes.
It also assists with planning targeted outreach campaigns, personalized follow-ups, and upselling and cross-selling, enabling more customer-centric strategies to help you improve relationships and generate new revenue from your existing clientele.
Next, our project and resource management tools let you:
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View your current queue, gauge capacity, determine realistic timelines for new work, and coordinate new project plans.
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Plan resource requirements for new work and ensure new projects align with your team’s skillset and overall agency capabilities.
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Keep all involved project team members informed about new work and their individual responsibilities.
You can use these tools for client work as well as internal initiatives and business development campaigns.
Our system also includes advanced, real-time project monitoring, featuring both time tracking and profitability reporting.
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Our system shows you where projects stand against estimated timelines and budgets — and sends alerts about projects or campaigns at risk of overruns.
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Native time tracking lets project teams record hours spent on specific tasks and project activities, calculating labor costs against estimates as users submit their time.
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Profitability reports show you expected profits as projects progress. Showing initial profitability and updated numbers as you move along — you can see if profitability starts to waver and make proactive decisions to see the most ROI from your work.
Workamajig also includes a set of creative collaboration tools (commenting, tagging, file sharing, side-by-side file comparisons, version history, and more) to streamline internal communication and stakeholder collaboration. Managers can grant external access to these collaboration tools so clients can join discussions and see how work evolves.
Our system also includes a wide range of reporting tools to measure your agency’s health in various ways. These include:
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Sales performance reports: Win/Loss Analysis, Quarterly Performance Comparisons, and Sales Rep Activity Summaries. You can also create custom reports using various CRM-related datasets (e.g., Company, Contact, Opportunity, Activity data).
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Resource utilization reports: Measure resource usage by project, service, client, department, and more. You can also compare billable vs. nonbillable hours as well as utilization vs. realization (with billable summary reports and hourly realization rates) to shift more of your team’s time toward profitable or growth-driving work.
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Financial reports: Measure profits and losses by project, campaign, or client; review project budget analyses; keep tabs on cash projections; rely on accurate revenue forecasting; create key metrics monitors; and build custom reports with the metrics most important to your agency’s growth goals.
With Workamajig, you can get immediate insight into every facet of your business. These tools help agencies operate smarter, sell strategically, and scale confidently — turning business development from a guessing game into a structured, sustainable growth engine.
Take a sneak peek at Workamajig below:
Case Studies
Check out some of our clients’ case studies below:
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Since Lavidge began using Workamajig 20 years ago, it has expanded from 25 employees to 70 and increased its revenue from $2 million to a whopping $40 million.
“The most important thing that Workamajig has done for us is give us visibility into division, clients, and projects. Without visibility, you cannot grow, you cannot monitor, and there’s nothing you can do to improve. Workamajig has been able to scale with us through acquisitions, through down times, through everything over the last 20 years.” - Sandra Torre, Executive Vice President and CFO of Lavidge.
Read the full case study here.
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Before Workamajig, JPL — one of the Mid-Atlantic's largest integrated marketing agencies — was growing, but doing so a little blindly. They made business decisions without the correct data.
“Workamajig pulls data from every department into simple reports that enable us to justify our business decisions. Straight numbers when it comes to things like profitability let us take a hard look at what we’re doing and how we’re working with clients,” - Bob Wolfe, Lead Project Accountant at JPL.
Read JPL’s case study here.
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Armed with data-driven insights, Tom and the rest of the Toolbox A-Team have the knowledge they need to drive ongoing growth. As their team expands and they take on larger projects, Workamajig continues to help them work smarter and stay profitable.
“I compared our first five years with Workamajig to our most recent five years. During that time, revenue increased by 18% — a nice, steady growth. But what’s amazing is that profitability increased 937%. It tells me that we weren’t very profitable at first and now we’re using our time more efficiently.” - Tom Campbell, Owner and Creative Director of Toolbox Creative.
Read Toolbox Creative’s full case study here.
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Before Mingruve began using Workamajig, their data and communication were all over the place. They couldn't maximize their resources and budgets, as a significant amount of time (that could have been billable) was wasted on poor information sharing and communication. Now, Mindgruve has expanded in a way that “would not have been possible without Workamajig.”
“Workamajig makes my life much easier as a project manager. I can go into the tool, set up my client, set up my project schedule and budget, and run many different reports in various ways to get the data I need to manage my projects effectively. Another huge benefit of working with Workamajig has been the flexibility of the platform; it has really given us the ability to quickly scale and get people onboarded to the system. We've expanded into more countries, and without the feature of having multi-company and multi-currencies, I really don't know how we would have been able to expand the way that we did.” - Natalie Linnastruth, VP of Project Management at Mindgruve.
See Mindgruve’s case study here.
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Before Workamajig, 2 Fish Co. had cobbled together a solution from different software services. They had separate tools for managing invoicing, estimating, financials, and project workflows. But as 2 Fish Co. continued to grow, the solution became untenable. Relying on multiple pieces of software that didn’t speak to each other meant spending hundreds of hours on duplicate data entry.
“We track the full client journey — prospect to proposal conversion, projects and estimating, and time tracking for that whole life cycle. Workamajig helps drive behavior; it’s valuable to know how much money we spent on acquisition vs. how long it took to make that money back. Getting granular gives us a sense of what we’re good at and what we spend the most time on. It helps us point our services in the right direction. But what’s really valuable is seeing that even if you’re profitable on a per-project basis, you’re actually losing money year-over-year on certain client relationships. That has helped us identify behaviors that prevent us from being profitable,” - Scott Millen, Managing Partner and Creative Principal at 2 Fish Co.
Read 2 Fish Co.’s case study here.
Getting Started with Workamajig
Ready to learn more about how Workamajig’s whole gamut of features can transform your agency operations and scalability? Request a free demo with our team here.
After you get started, our team works closely with you to configure Workamajig to meet your needs and business goals. You’re assigned a dedicated account manager who will discuss your current processes, game plan setup, and walk you through training so you can hit the ground running.
Packages are based on team size, and pricing is per user, starting at $49/user/month.
Get started with Workamajig today!
Originally published February 9, 2022.
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