Lead list for a marketing agency: ten real examples

A marketing or creative agency sells to whoever owns the marketing budget and has nobody in-house to spend it on. At a young online brand that is often a co-founder with CMO in their title. At an events company it is the owner, who needs photos and video from every event. The ten rows below came from four real sample requests: ad video and design, Caribbean advertising, event photography and email marketing for online stores. The description quoted here merges them.

What went in

What you sell: outside marketing and creative work, such as ad campaigns, short-form video, product and event photography, graphic design, and email flows and retention.

Who buys it: the founder, CMO or head of marketing at a brand of 5 to 200 people that sells online, or the owner of an events company that needs coverage of every event it runs.

Who doesn't: other agencies, photographers and freelancers, and large brands with their own in-house studios.

What came back

Role	Company	Region	Why it fits
Co-founder and CMO	Direct-to-consumer personal-care brand	India	Runs branding and creative marketing for a brand that sells on social, so it buys ad video, reels and design.
Co-founder and CMO	Men's-health telehealth brand	United States	Finds patients through paid ads, which need a steady supply of video ads and design.
Head of ecommerce	Apparel brand with its own online store	California, US	Owns the direct-to-consumer store, so decides on email flows and retention.
Founder and CMO	Small direct-to-consumer watch brand	California, US	A founder-run online store, where email flows and retention add revenue on top of what it already sells.
Co-founder	Young direct-to-consumer skincare brand	Netherlands	Busy setting up the brand's systems for growth, which is when outsourcing email flows and retention pays off.
Regional director of sales and marketing	International resort group	Florida, US (covers Jamaica)	Holds the marketing budget for the group's large resorts in Jamaica.
Country manager	Tour and excursion operator	Jamaica	Runs the island business, selling excursions to cruise and resort guests, where promotion drives bookings.
Founder and CEO	Corporate events organiser	Spain	Runs client events end to end and hires a photographer and videographer for each one.
CEO	Corporate events and destination-wedding company	Mexico	Runs conventions and weddings, and both need photographers and video.
Founder and CEO	Education events and media company	Ireland	Runs live events for students and promotes them on YouTube, so it needs video from each one.

What made someone fit

Every fit either holds the marketing budget or runs the events that need covering. Four of the ten are a CMO or head of ecommerce who answers for the online store. In the email run, big brands were the most common near miss. At Skims, Harry's, Oscar de la Renta, and footwear brands owned by Columbia or the group behind Havaianas, even a "head of DTC" works next to an in-house CRM or creative team. People in the right company but the wrong job were set aside as well: inventory planners, merchandisers, a supply-chain lead, a finance controller, and an HR director in a resort group's marketing arm. Competitors turned up too: a freelance email studio, a paid-ads agency, growth consultants for online brands, an ecommerce virtual assistant, and a Jamaican media company selling ads. Place names caused their own misses. A run looking for Caribbean businesses found an Australian café chain with "Jamaica" in its name, development-bank staff working on the region, and US brands that do no business there at all. Events staff and coordinators at venues fell short too, since they don't own the company that books the photographer.

Get yours

Describe what you sell and who buys it, and I'll send you ten of your own for free.