Pitching is part of any digital marketing agency's DNA, it’s even in the DNA of our CEO Toby Oddy, who has years of experience in the iGaming and entertainment industry. At Digital Fuel, identifying new clients and pitching our services to them is key to our success and growth, it is an art-form that Toby has developed over time. We’re also members of the IPA and adhere to key principles stated in their Good Pitch guide. We wanted to pick Toby’s brains and ask him how he approaches pitching and aligning our services to the needs of potential clients.
Where are you looking for new business and what are the criteria for a potential client?
We source new business within the iGaming, esports, entertainment and leisure sectors. In terms of criteria, we prefer to get business in regulated markets, but will consider gray markets and have quite a bit of experience building an audience and improving conversions in those markets. We also prefer to work with clients in the sectors we have experience in, we feel the client gets the best possible experience and ultimately, the best results.
What’s your approach in understanding the client's needs and goals?
We look for a company that has a good understanding of what they want to achieve and the basic ability to execute market campaigns. We’re only as good as the teams we work with, we pride ourselves on our ability to integrate with existing teams and agencies. The fact find is arguably the most important part of this process, are we right for you and are you right for us. We will of course help business to identify their business objectives and turn them into SMART goals.
What are the stages you go through when pitching for new clients?
- kick off with the discovery call aka the chemistry meeting. This is an opportunity to get to know the customer to see if we could be a good fit for your business.
- Then we arrange an in depth call about their goals, marketing channels and meet key internal stakeholders.
- We then prepare a business plan for them pulling in experience from relevant members of the team and include some insight/quick wins for them so they can gauge our ability and make a more informed decision.
- They sign and we start helping them to achieve their goals.
What’s the best strategy for expressing the agency’s personality vs selling the services?
Expressing the personality of our company is very important. We encourage open thinking from our clients and our team. Our services are fairly synonymous with digital agencies. The key is to showcase our team, experience, talents and that we’re a good fit. This is why demonstrating our personality is arguably more important.
Chemistry meetings? Is it something you do, find it useful?
We start off with chemistry meetings as we need to be able to work with our clients and vice versa. We prefer to deal with knowledgeable clients, understanding their capabilities is imperative. We fill the gaps in the customer knowledge, if they have no biddable experience we will push that service.
What are the most important things a good presentation should include?
A good presentation should demonstrate our capabilities, a clear understanding of our clients requirements, should be easy to read and easier to understand, it should include actions, insight and a media plan (generally between 12 months - 3 years depending on data with their business)
How do you choose the right pitch team, if any or the case?
It comes down to what the clients' needs are. We have new business managers, who put together a pitch team with the respective members of the team to attend to pitch - our experts talk to the client, not just client services.
No more than 4 people in a pitch - it can be overwhelming otherwise, we don’t like to clutter the meeting.
How do you prepare for a pitch day?
- Getting into the right mindset
- Double check what your doing
- Equipment check
- We role play the pitch / like a script
Thanks for that insight, Toby!
If you’d like to talk to us about your marketing requirements, please get in touch. We'd love to help you achieve those goals!