How to sell to Heads of Marketing at Agencies companies
Heads of Marketing at agencies prioritize client retention rates, which directly influence their agency's growth. They respond to outreach that provides insights into improving client engagement or showcases innovative marketing strategies that have worked in similar agencies. Understanding their need for creative solutions that enhance client relationships is crucial.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 558 agencies company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high client turnover
- ineffective campaign strategies
- limited creative resources
- pressure to deliver measurable results
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent client wins
Research agency case studies or press releases to find recent client wins or campaigns that have been launched. Use this information to tailor your outreach, highlighting how your solution can build on their recent successes and further enhance their client retention.
- 02
Analyze their service offerings
Dive into the agency's website and social media to understand their core services and any gaps. Mention specific services they offer and suggest how your solution can complement or enhance these offerings, making it relevant to their current business model.
- 03
Monitor industry trends
Stay updated on marketing trends and challenges that agencies face, such as shifts in digital marketing or changes in consumer behavior. Reference these trends in your outreach to demonstrate your understanding of the market landscape they operate in.
- 04
Leverage client feedback
Look for client testimonials or feedback shared publicly by the agency. Use this information to address potential pain points in your outreach, positioning your solution as a way to improve areas where they may be receiving criticism.
- 05
Connect during peak planning seasons
Reach out during peak planning seasons, such as Q1 when campaigns are being strategized. This timing aligns with their need for innovative ideas and solutions, increasing the likelihood of engagement as they seek to optimize their marketing strategies.
Can agencies companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 558 agencies companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 16.8% of 1–10-person companies against 55.4% of the largest — 39 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost client retention rates
- Innovative strategies for agencies
- Enhance your campaign effectiveness
Questions
- Why do Heads of Marketing at agencies ignore sales emails?
- Heads of Marketing often ignore sales emails due to a high volume of irrelevant outreach. They prioritize messages that directly address their specific challenges, such as client retention or campaign effectiveness, and often overlook generic pitches that do not resonate with their immediate needs.
- What challenges do Heads of Marketing face in agencies?
- Heads of Marketing in agencies frequently deal with high client turnover, the need for innovative campaign strategies, and pressure to show measurable results. These challenges require them to constantly adapt and seek solutions that can enhance their service offerings and client satisfaction.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to marketing heads?
- To stand out, tailor your outreach by referencing specific campaigns or client successes relevant to the agency. Highlight insights or solutions that can directly address their pain points, such as improving client engagement or streamlining their creative processes.
- What is the best way to approach a Head of Marketing at an agency?
- The best approach is to provide value upfront. Start by sharing insights on industry trends or case studies that align with the agency's goals. Establish credibility by showcasing your understanding of their challenges and offering tailored solutions that can help them achieve better results.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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