We spend a lot of time sending print and digital promotional materials to potential clients. Despite the preponderance of social media, I'd say that 90% of new business comes from print promos. When we make these, we typically do not expect a response straight away - sure, we send to companies that we know are either hiring or considering outsourcing, but our expectation is that the recipient will hang on to the piece either to refer to in a time of need, or because what we send is a nice, high-quality print piece that is (fingers crossed) harder to just toss in the trash due to its perceived value. Response rate is probably around 1-3%, maybe higher when we target potential clients in similar industries to our long-term partners.

However, coming first place every time in getting in front of potential new partners is word of mouth. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear that clients have either recommended us or just talked positively about our work and approach with their peers. It's the type of marketing that literally can't be bought. The trick is to keep your clients talking about you without 1) the reason for talking about you being they are pissed off, and 2) making sure they don't assume that you have taken on as much as you can already, and that your time is 100% booked. That second point is a fine balance to maintain - how do you tell your current client partner that you value them above all, but also let them know that you would love to have a second (or third, or fourth) client of equal or greater size, and that they - the OG client - would not see a dip in performance?

On this topic, one of our main selling points is built-in redundancy. We are not a one-person shop. Besides Shelley and I, we have several others who work with us on a long-term basis in various roles, from photographers, to illustrators, writers, editors, and other graphic designers. It's never just one person touching the work - the client might have just one point of contact, but they can rest assured that if one of us goes to jail (for being too good at design), there will be another set of hands familiar with the work, and ready to take over. All of this stream of consciousness is to basically say, just like with any competent company in a similar field, we are always ready and excited to take on new work.