Proposify logo Proposify logo
  • Product
    • Product OverviewProposify is the all-in-one platform that makes every deal a closed deal.
    • IntegrationsChoose from hundreds of third-party tools to connect with
    • Document AutomationAccelerate your sales cycle by sending professional, on-brand documents.
    • Interactive QuotesCreate interactive and error-free quotes that will quickly seal the deal.
    • Contract ManagementMark up and sign on any type of contracts, quotes, and agreements.
    • E-Signatures & PaymentsGet all your sales documents legally locked down right within Proposify.
  • Solutions
    • Roles
      • Sales
      • Marketing
      • IT/Operations
    • Industries
      • Agencies and Consulting
      • IT and Software
      • Landscaping and Janitorial
      • Construction and Restoration

    Want help from the experts?

    We offer bespoke training and custom template design to get you up and running faster.

    Learn more
  • Templates
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • LEARN
    • Case Studies
    • Self-Guided Tour
    • Webinars
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • SUPPORT
    • Help Center
    • Getting Started
    • Product updates
    • API Docs
    • Refer a Friend

    State of Proposals 2025 Report

    We’ve dug deep into our data and extracted the information that sales and marketing leaders can use to make their proposals better and boost their business.

    Read the Report
  • Log in
  • Book a demo
  • Sign Up Free
  • Product
    • Product OverviewProposify is the all-in-one platform that makes every deal a closed deal.
    • IntegrationsChoose from hundreds of third-party tools to connect with
    • Document AutomationAccelerate your sales cycle by sending professional, on-brand documents.
    • Interactive QuotesCreate interactive and error-free quotes that will quickly seal the deal.
    • Contract ManagementMark up and sign on any type of contracts, quotes, and agreements.
    • E-Signatures & PaymentsGet all your sales documents legally locked down right within Proposify.
  • Solutions
    • Roles
      • Sales
      • Marketing
      • IT/Operations
    • Industries
      • Agencies and Consulting
      • IT and Software
      • Landscaping and Janitorial
      • Construction and Restoration
  • Templates
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • LEARN
    • Case Studies
    • Self-Guided Tour
    • Webinars
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • SUPPORT
    • Help Center
    • Getting Started
    • Product updates
    • API Docs
    • Refer a Friend
  • Log in
  • Book a demo
  • Sign Up Free
Proposify Blog
    • Sales
    • Proposals
    • Business
    • Tools
    • Product
    • Marketing
  • Sales
7 min read

How Targeted Should Digital Marketing be to Attract Agency Clients?

November 17, 2016
Last updated on October 1, 2024
Steven Aguiar Steven Aguiar
  • Share
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Copy

    Digital marketing is hard. And so is lead generation. Here are three distinct frameworks for you to think about how your agency’s positioning, content, and distribution strategy can work together to target the best new clients.

    Let’s backtrack for a minute.

    Long before you sent over that sales proposal to a new client, they came across your agency through search, social, or some other digital channel. They clicked through to your site because you produced a piece of content that was relevant to their business.

    They made their way to your agency’s homepage and, finally, discovered that you offer a service addressing one of their specific business needs. Just like that, you’ve got a new client in the pipeline.

    Don’t you wish it was that easy?

    The reality is, digital marketing is hard. There are literally hundreds of tactics peddled across marketing blogs every day that agency owners hope will be the missing element of their lead generation strategy.

    This blog post isn’t trying to do that.

    No SEO hacks, social cheat codes, or email optimization tips. Instead, we’ll provide three distinct frameworks for you to think about how your agency’s positioning, content, and distribution strategy can work together to target the best new clients.

    First things first. Your agency’s positioning is the foundation of your marketing plan. It defines your company’s service offering and the target clients you are trying to reach.

    Do you specialize in one service or offer many? Are you willing to work with clients across many verticals or just one? Are your target accounts small businesses or corporations? Do you have an ideal client criteria, or have you gone as far as naming the companies you want to work with?

    As we’ll explore below, these questions inform not just your positioning, but also your content and distribution strategies.

    Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 4.22.54 PM

    Intent-Based Targeting

    Service Offering: Highly commoditized, like graphic design or social media management

    Number of Target Accounts: Thousands

    Lifetime Value of a Customer: Four figures

    Intent-based targeting aims to attract a large number of non-targeted prospects. In other words, you know what your target audience and ideal client looks like, but you haven’t gone so as far as listing specific companies you’d like to work with. If your agency offers an in-demand, highly commoditized service that could be helpful to thousands of potential clients, this level of targeting is right for you.

    Because your agency offers a service that’s relevant across industries and verticals, your content strategy, and the content you produce, should appeal to a similarly broad audience. If you offer a highly specific white paper or webinar on your site for example, you might confuse or turn off some visitors who would actually be a good fit. Your content needs to cast a wide net to reach your target client.

    So, with innumerable potential clients out there, how do you isolate the ones that need your services?

    target clients that need your services

    Intent-based targeting relies heavily on inbound marketing channels, namely organic SEO and Google AdWords, which allow you to promote the right message (your solution) at the right moment (when prospects are actively researching solutions to a problem). 

    Inbound marketing is the most scalable way to bring in high-value leads when there are thousands of potential prospects.

    List-Based Targeting

    Service Offering: Somewhat specialized, like inbound marketing for nonprofits or mobile game design

    Number of Target Accounts: Hundreds

    Lifetime Value of a Customer: Five figures

    If your agency offers a somewhat specialized service that would appeal to hundreds of different prospects rather than thousands, list-based targeting is for you. Because the number of target accounts you’d like to work with is more manageable, you can create a list that allows you to reach these higher-value clients more directly.

    To start, you need to create that list of target accounts. Once you’ve considered and put together the ideal criteria for your clients, you can research companies that fit the bill using tools like LinkedIn, Datanyze, Crunchbase, BuiltWith, and Mattermark.

    Your list will provide a good foundation. However, a list of companies alone won’t get you very far. In order to execute a list-based strategy, you need to build out a lead database that includes the contact information for the stakeholders you want to reach at each company.

    The good news: there are platforms like LeadGenius and LeanData that can help you do that. Just feed them your ideal client criteria and they will come back with crystal-clear lead data.

    For those of you on a leaner budget, outsourcing lead generation to a freelancer on Upwork is a popular alternative. Persist IQ’s guide to using virtual workers for lead generation is a good place to start.

    The content you produce for a list-based targeting campaign must be designed for personas and pain points that appear frequently within your listed accounts. By producing more specialized content, you’ll appeal to and connect more quickly with your targeted audience.

    On the distribution side, your lead database becomes a huge asset when you run highly targeted campaigns. With tools like Facebook’s Custom Audiences, Twitter’s Tailored Audiences, Google Adwords Customer Match, and AdRoll’s CRM retargeting, you can promote content exclusively to your target accounts. 

    This way, you eliminate wasteful spending and get your message in front of the right audience quickly.

    Account-Based Targeting

    Service Offering: Very specialized, like C-level staffing for Fortune 100 companies

    Number of Target Accounts: Tens

    Lifetime Value of a Customer: Six figures

    Does your agency offer a highly specialized service that would appeal only to dozens of different companies? If so, account-based targeting is for you.

    Like with list-based targeting, account-based targeting requires you to name your target accounts and put together an associated lead database. What’s the main difference? In a list-based targeting campaign, you’re going after just a few key decision makers at a target account. With account-based targeting, you want to go after as many decision makers as possible.

    An account-based approach acknowledges that there are many stakeholders involved in a big-time purchasing decision. In 2015, CEB discovered that an average of 5.4 people are required to formally sign off on a new purchase for their company.

    Engagio, founded by account-based marketing pioneer and Marketo founder Jon Miller, cited this number to be as high as 17. The bigger the deal, the more stakeholders you’re going to have to turn into internal champions of your agency.

    When it comes to executing an account-based campaign, it’s essential to produce, design, and deliver content—in the form of case studies, research reports, white papers, and even web design—with a specific company in mind.

    On the distribution side, account-based targeting is very similar to list-based targeting. Platform-native tools like Custom Audiences are critical. On LinkedIn, you can even go as far as running ad campaigns against people who work at individual companies. New tools like Vendemore, DemandBase and Terminus are robust options for scaling an account-based campaign.

    Of course, crafting a campaign for a target market of one is a serious investment of time, resources, and money, but the payoff can be huge.

    According to DemandBase, account-based marketing campaigns have a 75% higher close rate and 26% higher deal size. If you run a highly-specialized agency, or are going after big accounts exclusively, check out the 26 account-based marketing resources to learn more about the tactics behind this level of targeting.

    A Process Emerges

    Now that we’ve gone through the three main targeting strategies, you might have noticed a process emerging:

    1. Ensure you have a strong understanding of your agency’s positioning, both in respect to the services you offer and the clients you’re going after.
    2. Produce content that fits your ideal client personas, whether broad or very specific.
    3. Choose the distribution channels that will get you in front of your ideal clients as quickly and efficiently as possible.

    With your positioning, content, and distribution working in harmony, benefits beyond digital marketing success will permeate your company.

    First, your sales team will be happy to be involved in determining your ideal client criteria and, in the case of list- or account-based targeting, they’ll be able to name accounts they want to go after before the marketing process even begins.

    Your creative team will also feel confident that the sales and marketing teams are going after high-quality work. Best of all, you’ll be able to navigate the sea of marketing blogs with a keen eye for tactics that are relevant to your agency.

    Slow down, take a step back, and think about which level of targeting is right for you.

    Steven Aguiar
    Steven Aguiar

    Subscribe via Email

    Related Posts

    How to Write a Marketing Proposal That Wins Clients
    Sales 10 min read May 13, 2025
    How to Write a Marketing Proposal That Wins Clients A well-crafted marketing proposal can be the difference between winning a lucrative client and losing to the competition. Whether you're creating a …
    Read Post
    What Your Client Wants (What They Really, Really Want)
    Tools 9 min read March 15, 2016
    What Your Client Wants (What They Really, Really Want) You may think your agency specializes in digital marketing or web design, but what you actually specialize in is making your clients happy. And while …
    Read Post
    Proposify logo
    • Platform
      • Proposal Automation
      • Quoting
      • Contract Management
      • E-Signatures & Forms
      • Integrations
      • API
      • Security
      • Our Professional Services
    • Solutions
      • Sales
      • Marketing
      • IT/Operations
    • Resources
      • Blog
      • Templates
      • Webinars
      • Books & Guides
      • Knowledge Base
      • AI Proposal Generator
    • Company
      • About
      • Diversity
      • Careers
      • Customers
    ©2025 Proposify Inc. All rights reserved.
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Status
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Instagram

    Basic

    Start free trial

    Team

    Start free trial

    Business

    Book a demo

    Brand customization

    Unlimited templates

    All accounts allow unlimited templates.

    Content library

    Create and share templates, sections, and images that can be pulled into documents.

    Embed images & videos

    Images can be uploaded directly, videos can be embedded from external sources like YouTube, Vidyard, and Wistia

    Custom domain

    You can map your domain so prospects visit something like proposals.yourdomain.com and don't see "proposify" in the URL

    Content authoring

    Basic Team Business
    Online signatures

    All plans allow you to get documents legally e-signed

    Interactive quoting

    Allow prospects to alter the quantity or optional add-ons

    Client input forms

    Capture information from prospects by adding form inputs to your documents.

    Document Sends

    You can create unlimited documents but some plans limit how many you can send per month.

    info

    5 sends / mo

    Unlimited

    Unlimited

    Collaborator seats

    Collaborators are users who only have access to specific proposals, and can edit or approve, but not create or send.

    info

    1 collab seat included

    3 collab seats included

    5 collab seats included

    Visibility

    Basic Team Business
    Notifications & metrics

    Get notified by email and see when prospects are viewing your document.

    PDF export

    Generate a PDF from any document that matches the digital version.

    Reports

    Get a full exportable table of all your documents with filtering.

    Integrations & API

    Basic Team Business
    Payments

    Connect your Stripe account and get paid in full or partially when your proposal gets signed.

    Integrations

    Integrate with popular CRMs, invoicing, and project management tools.

    Automations

    Set up automations using pre-built connectors or customize using the workflow builder

    Single sign-on (SSO)

    Our SSO works with identity providers like Salesforce, Okta, and Azure

    Salesforce integration

    Use our managed package and optionally SSO so reps work right within Salesforce

    $9/user/mo

    Aspire integration

    Import contacts and field data from Aspire into documents in Proposify

    $9/user/mo

    Process & control

    Basic Team Business
    Custom fields & variables

    Create your own fields you can use internally that get replaced in custom variables within a document.

    Auto reminders

    You can automatically remind prospects who haven't yet opened your document in daily intervals.

    Roles & permissions

    Lock down what users can and can't do by role. Pages and individual page elements can be locked.

    Approval workflows

    Create conditions that if met will trigger an approval from a manager (by deal size and discount size).

    Workspaces

    Great for multi-unit businesses like franchises. Enables businesses to have completely separate instances that admins can manage.

    API Access

    Integrate with external systems, or enhance customization, our API provides the tools you need to succeed.

    Customer Success

    Basic Team Business
    Email & chat support

    Our team is here to provide their fabulous support Monday - Thursday 8 AM - 8 PM EST and on Fridays 8 AM - 4 PM EST.

    Phone & Zoom support

    Sometimes the written word isn't enough and our team will hop on a call to show you how to accomplish something in Proposify.

    Success manager

    Your own dedicated CSM who will onboard you and meet with you periodically to ensure you're getting maximum value from Proposify.

    Premium integration support

    Our team of experts can perform advanced troubleshooting and even set up zaps and automations to get the job done.

    Custom template design

    Our in-house designers will design an on-brand, professional proposal template to your satisfaction.

    info
    Learn more Learn more Learn more

    Subscribe via email