With the release of our 2020 New Year Outlook Report, we wanted to create a PDF that gives you a quick view of the top takeaways from the report, hence the RSW/US 2020 New Year Outlook Survey Report Companion.

This companion to our report provides a top 10 of the top-level takeaways from our report.

A bit of background on the report itself:

Senior-level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives completed the 2020 RSW/US New Year Outlook survey during December, 2019.

The purpose of the survey was to glean insights relative to marketer and agency perspective as each headed into 2020.

Topics explored include “biggest challenges facing marketing agencies” as seen through the eyes of marketers and agencies, topics related to spending and investment expectations, the growth of specialty agencies, the growth of in-house agencies, and the ever-increasing importance of data and analytics.

We created this companion piece after requests for a piece like it from thought leaders and agencies interested in a quick synopsis of the key takeaways.  Ideally, our RSW/US 2020 New Year Outlook Survey Report Companion is helpful in that regard.

In our third and final mini-infographic highlighting key takeaways from our 2018 RSW/US-Mirren New Business Tools Report, we focus on the tools agencies are using for prospect business intelligence.

This was a new category for us in 2018 and the results underlined a positive trend we saw throughout the report:

Agencies are taking more time to research and experiment with new business tools.

We talk about this throughout our 2018 new business tools webinar, not only are agencies telling us they’re putting more times toward the research, but they’re also looking beyond the top 5 tools in each category and exploring tools that aren’t necessarily in the spotlight.

And as our infographic points out, for the first time in our six years of this report, agencies are showing that they’re getting creative.  While not literally “new”, it’s encouraging to read agencies listing investor relations, investor call transcripts and stakeholder interviews as ways to give them an edge in new business.

New business is hard enough to drive on a daily basis, so this higher level of research and experimentation is a trend we hope will continue throughout 2018.

This is the first of three mini-infographics we’ve created to highlight key takeaways from our 2018 RSW/US-Mirren 2018 New business Tools Report.

It’s based on a question from our original survey:

What most impacts your consideration of new business tools?

Per our report:

Effectiveness or an ability to provide a direct impact was ranked as the most important consideration (78%).

Following in close proximity were efficiency, or an ability to improve new business productivity (62%), and ease of implementation and use (55%).

Surprisingly, customer service (11%) and integration with existing software & systems (14%) was not important enough to make the cut with the vast majority of respondents.

As tight as client budgets can be, and as important as profit margins are, agencies are making a definitive statement here: we need tools that provide not only a direct impact, but are effective, efficient and easy to use, and we’re willing to pay for tools that can do that.

A direct quote from an agency in our report sums this up well:

“(We want) a simple and reliable, no frills contact management software program.”

Even more interesting is customer service coming in so low as impacting the decision to invest in new tools, second to last!

I suspect that percentage is higher in reality, but, again, it shows the level of frustration and/or driving desire agencies have for simple, but effective tools.

Two more infographics to come in the next few weeks.

You can also download our tools report here.

We are RSW/US, the Nation’s leading outsourced business development firm expert in driving closed business through multiple channels for small to mid-sized agencies, PR firms and firms in the marketing space, and this is our visual resume.

Our background includes fourteen years solely focused on driving new business for agencies and marketing services firms.

In our first several years as a company, we worked predominantly with full-service agencies across the country to secure qualified meetings for clients with right-fit prospects.

Since then, while our focus is still on acquiring qualified meetings for agencies of all types across the country, two things have changed.

First, the firms we work with are much more varied and include traditional agencies, PR, design, production, data, and media, to name a few.

Secondly, our main goal shifted, and is centered on getting clients closer to close, and it’s paid off with more closed business.

We also re-organized and solidified our client-facing teams, resulting in an offering that includes:

• Consulting on positioning and marketing for your agency;
• Skilled and experienced (average 15-20 years) new business directors who use multiple channels to drive value and break through;
• A list team that provides the most-targeted and cleanest prospecting lists in the industry; and
• A marketing team that serves as an extension of your new business efforts.

We’re confident we can work as part of your team to help you drive and close more business and hope our visual resume will provide you more information about us.

Please call or email our VP of Sales, Lee McKnight Jr. (lee@rswus.com/513-559-3111) if you’d like to learn more.

Our 2017 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report Infographic contains stats and data from our 2017 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report.

We focus on the disparity between agencies looking to the future, strategically embracing technological trends and advances, and those agencies moving at a glacial pace in terms of technology and investment in their business.

Those agencies strategically embracing change will have a competitive advantage, while those that don’t risk becoming an anachronism