Winning New Business in 2026: Thoughts for Independent Media & Creative Agencies to Start the Year in a Strong Position.
- richardturner6
- Dec 15, 2025
- 5 min read
As the calendar year winds down, the instinct is often to coast into the festive season. But for independent media and creative agencies, the end of the year isn't just a finish line - it's the most critical moment to set the trajectory for the next 12 months - and chances are, you’re feeling a familiar mix of optimism and fatigue.
Optimism because there are opportunities out there - brands still need smart thinking, effective media, and strong creative partnerships.
Fatigue because winning those opportunities feels harder than ever. Longer sales cycles. More agencies pitching. Tighter margins. Validating that an opportunity is real and winnable.
As we look ahead to 2026, one thing is clear: strong new business outcomes won’t happen by accident. For independent agencies in particular, success will come from being intentional, focused, and realistic about where to invest time and energy.
The New Business Reality
Running an independent agency brings freedom, flexibility, and the ability to genuinely care about clients. It also brings some very real growth challenges.
Most independents are still founder-led or partner-led when it comes to new business. That means the same people responsible for delivering work, managing teams, and retaining clients are also relied on to:
Identify new prospects
Build relationships
Respond to RFPs
Pitch and close
Follow up consistently
The result? New business becomes reactive.
It ramps up when things feel quiet and disappears when delivery gets busy. Pipelines look healthy one month and empty the next and layer on top of that a crowded agency landscape - where clients are flooded with outreach and procurement teams shortlist the “usual suspects” - it’s no wonder many independents feel stuck in a cycle of stop-start growth.
The agencies that will start 2026 with real momentum are those that have built a solid new business strategy and have focused on a repeatable, disciplined system.
5 Critical Areas Independent Agencies Should Focus On for 2026.
1. Sharpen Your Positioning (Let Go of Being “Everything”)
If your agency sounds like it can do anything for anyone, prospects will struggle to remember you - let alone choose you. This isn’t about narrowing opportunity; it’s about becoming easier to shortlist.
What you can do now:
Analyse the last 12–18 months: Identify clients where you have had success, quick closes, strong outcomes. Look for patterns—industry, growth stage, budget ranges, channel mix.
Be clear about the types of clients where you do your best work (category, size, maturity)
Define 1–2 core problems you solve better than most agencies - think hard about this, use this to build out your USPs and positioning statement - Excellence in Customer Service is NOT a USP when pitching for new business!
Update your website and credentials to reflect this focus
Be prepared to adapt your credentials to fit the client, industry, opportunity - far too many agencies have one creds deck (often 20 - 40 pages) that they share without any real thought about who it is going to, what they should take out, leave in and customise - prepare a page on specific industry thoughts and observations.
2. Build a Realistic, Qualified Target List
Spray-and-pray outreach doesn’t work - especially for independents without scale.
What you can do now:
Create a target list of 50–100 companies that genuinely fit your sweet spot.
Map who influences agency decisions (CMO, Head of Marketing, Brand, Procurement)
Prioritise companies showing signs of change: growth, new leadership, brand repositioning, media review cycles
Knowing who you don't want to work is also important, saving immense time, focuses your pitch strategy, and ultimately boosts profitability. List the last three projects/clients that drained your team's energy, eroded margins, or diverted you from your core expertise. Document their common traits (e.g., industry, budget size, procurement process, decision-maker process). Factor this into your outreach strategy.
3. Commit to Consistent Relationship-Building (Not Just Pitching)
Most agencies only show up when they want something. Clients notice.
Strong pipelines are built months, sometimes years, before a brief appears!
What you can do now:
Lock in your new business cadence: 90 minutes weekly for outreach, 60 minutes for follow-ups, 45 minutes for content sharing. Protect these blocks like client time.
Focus on conversations, not credentials dumps.
Track interactions so relationships don’t rely on memory alone.
Identify 3 complementary partners (think partner referrals and community visibility - shortcut cold-start credibility).
Evaluate member organisations - often low cost entry to partner membership to carry credibility and access people and companies within your target audience.
Be active consistently.
4. Use Thought Leadership Strategically, Not Performatively
Posting for the sake of posting won’t drive growth. Strategic visibility will.
You don’t need to go viral. You need to be credible to the right people.
What you can do now:
Share informed opinions on media, creative effectiveness, or category-specific challenges.
Focus on LinkedIn as a relationship platform, not a broadcast channel.
Tie content back to the problems your ideal clients are trying to solve.
5. Separate New Business from Delivery Wherever Possible
This is the hardest, and most important, shift.
Without separation, new business will always lose to urgent client demands.
What you can do now:
Acknowledge that new business requires dedicated time and capability.
Don't assume it will “fit in” around client work.
Put structure, accountability, and process around lead generation.
Where Fractional Lead Generation Fits
For many independent agencies, hiring a full-time new business lead isn’t realistic, and outsourcing to generic lead generation providers can be costly without ROI, often missing the nuance of agency growth.
This is where fractional lead generation can make sense.
A fractional approach gives you senior-level new business expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire. It brings structure, consistency, and external perspective - while still integrating closely with your agency’s positioning, tone, and ambitions.
Done well, fractional lead generation supports:
Clear targeting and prioritisation
Consistent outreach and follow-up
Relationship nurturing over time
A healthier, more predictable pipeline
Most importantly, it frees agency leaders to focus on what they do best - delivering great work - without sacrificing growth.
Final Thought - Setting Up 2026 for Momentum, Not Panic
The agencies that thrive in 2026 won’t be the loudest or the biggest. They’ll be the ones that made deliberate decisions about focus, positioning, and how they approach new business.
If your goal is to start 2026 with conversations already in motion - rather than scrambling for leads - now is the time to put the foundations in place, and whether you build those foundations internally or with fractional support, the key is the same: treat new business as a strategic function, not a response to a quiet or sticky patch, or a sudden revenue gap.
Here’s to entering 2026 with clarity, confidence, and a strong new business plan in place to get you one step ahead of the competition.
And if you do feel that you can't do it all yourself, and would benefit from a conversation with someone that has been in Media for 20 years driving new business and growth, click the link below to check out how a fractional approach can deliver that dedicated focus without the financial burden of a traditional hire.
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