How to find clients for a marketing agency: 7 ways that work
Seven ways to find clients for an agency or freelancer, from referrals and partnerships to cold email to businesses found on Google Maps. What works at the start and what it costs.
Agencies usually find clients in seven ways: referrals, partnerships, case studies on social media, marketplace profiles, local communities, ads and direct outreach to businesses. At the start, with no case studies and no budget, referrals and cold email to businesses you can find on Google Maps bring the fastest results. Below is an honest look at each, with pros and cons.
1. Referrals and past clients
The cheapest and warmest channel. Write to everyone you've worked with: former clients, employers, colleagues. Not "looking for work", but something specific: "I'm taking on two ad setup projects for clinics this month. If you know anyone who needs that, an intro would mean a lot."
Downside: it runs dry quickly, and you don't control the flow.
2. Partnerships with related specialists
Web developers, designers, SEO specialists and photographers constantly get requests they don't handle themselves. Agree on mutual referrals or a cut of the deal.
Downside: building that trust takes time.
3. Case studies on social media
Posts with numbers and screenshots on LinkedIn, Instagram or Threads. Not "we're the best", but "here's what we did for a dental clinic in Leeds and what came of it".
Downside: it works after two or three months of regular posting, not in a week.
4. Marketplace profiles
Upwork, Fiverr, Clutch. Good for your first reviews, but the competition and fees are high.
Downside: you compete on price, and the clients belong to the platform, not to you.
5. Local communities and events
Business clubs, founder groups, conferences in your clients' niche. One talk or one useful post in a community often brings more than a month of ads.
Downside: limited scale.
6. Ads
Google Ads and social ads do bring clients, but new agencies often burn the budget: no case studies to convince people and no data to optimize on.
Downside: money up front with no guarantee.
7. Cold email to businesses from Google Maps
The most scalable channel, and one you fully control. The logic is simple:
- Pick a niche and a city. For example, dentists in Manchester or beauty salons in Austin.
- Build a list of businesses. Google Maps shows each company's name, website, phone, rating and reviews.
- Find the email. Usually it's on the company's website: in the footer or on the contact page.
- Write a personal email. One detail about the company plus a short offer. There are templates in cold email templates.
- Follow up three to four days later with those who didn't reply.
By hand, 50 companies take several evenings: open the map, go to the site, find the email, copy it into a spreadsheet. That's where most people give up.
Downside: your email setup has to be right, or messages land in spam. We cover how to avoid that in why emails go to spam.
Where to start in practice
With no case studies and no budget, here's a plan for the first month:
- Week 1. Pick one niche and one city. Tell everyone you know that you're taking projects in that niche.
- Week 2. Collect 100 businesses in that niche, set up your email (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and start with 20–30 emails a day.
- Week 3. Send follow-ups, count replies, rewrite what isn't working.
- Week 4. Turn your first result, even a small one, into a post with numbers.
The narrow niche matters: when you say "we build websites for dentists", people believe you more than "we build websites for everyone". Emails are easier to write too, because businesses in one niche share the same problems.
How to tell a channel works
Track each channel: how much time or money went in, how many conversations came out, how many clients. After a month you'll see where to put your time next. For cold email, look at the reply rate, not opens: mail providers' privacy protection often makes open tracking inaccurate.
You can find businesses in your niche and city and collect their emails and phones with the Vibe Hunters Google Maps scraper: your first 50 leads are free.
FAQ
Where do I find the first clients for an agency with no budget?
Referrals from people you know and former colleagues, partnerships with freelancers in related fields, and cold email to local businesses. None of them needs an ad budget, only time.
How many cold emails does it take to get a client?
It depends on the niche and the offer. Treat the first 100–200 emails as a test: look at the reply rate, change the copy or the segment and repeat.
Which niche should an agency choose?
One where businesses have a marketing budget and a clear result: clinics, dentists, beauty salons, real estate, legal and education services. A narrow niche makes both finding clients and writing emails easier.