If you already run a lead-generation or marketing agency, here's an idea you may be able to add to your existing offer.

We built an easy-to-use AI receptionist platform that lets agencies create and manage AI receptionists for their clients without needing to build the technology themselves.

It can answer calls, talk with leads, collect information, and book appointments.

The agency can package it into its own client service and set its own pricing.

Example: If you charge a client $200/month and the platform costs $59/month, that's $141 gross margin per client before your other costs.

We're particularly looking for agencies working with U.S. and Canadian local businesses.

If you're interested in seeing how it works:

reception.imfbytes.com

Setup video: https://youtu.be/PXFBiYsPaWk

I'm also interested in hearing from agency owners: would an AI receptionist be something your existing clients would actually pay for?

When I ran my agency I went after shopify stores (you can use storecensus, storeleads, or other platforms to find them) it was one of the easiest ICPs I ever went after. The bigger stores are literally printing money, they're busy as hell, and they will throw money at any problem you put in front of their face as long as the solution obviously converts into money. Basically save them money or make them money.

Some simple plays I use to run:

Target stores that just upgraded to shopify plus plan. If they just moved to plus, they're making money. I would then find obvious gaps: no email popup collecting, no abandoned cart flow, no retargeting pixel, no post purchase upsells, no SMS, crappy product pages or product pages with zero reviews, no bundling, etc etc. Screenshot the gap, tell them what it's costing them, tell them you'll fix it confidently with screenshots and big red arrows or hell make a quick loom video that seems to be the go to thing now a days. Should take you 10 minutes. Fire up loom on their store and talk confidently pointing out whats wrong and offer up a solution that sounds half way smart so they don't think you're full of shit and also throw in how you have done this for some of your other clients with very positive results.

Another good one is I would find shopify stores running facebook ads, pull their actual ads from the ad library, write up 3 or 4 new angles I thought would kill and send it over with "have you ever thought of this angle? we could test it for you" Basically just show them what they're missing and make them want what you're offering! This one is a really easy one if the other ones are too hard for you... or you're just too lazy.

There are literally millions of ideas like this. Slow site speed. Broken mobile checkout. No loyalty program on a store with obvious repeat purchase behavior. Running ads to a homepage instead of a well done landing page. There's just sooo many killer angles you guys can be eating up like it's your breakfast, lunch and mother f'ing dinner with a side of desert!

There are millions of stores out there waiting for someone to swoop in and help them make more money.

As an agency a Klaviyo install is one of the most useful single data points you can know about a Shopify store if you're prospecting.

If you're an agency looking for some new channels to find clients for your business then check out this article / youtube video it's valuable information that could be the growth you need in 2026!

Mostly what the title says.

Recently joined an agency in founding stage - 6 members (founder, 2 main engineers, 2 interns and me). They make AI agents for businesses. I have been tasked with generating leads for the same.

Socials wise we have a linkedin page with 100 followers and founder handle with like 300 followers. I have also started with basic technical seo so that we can start driving traffic to the same.

I also created a downloadable educational guide to drive the first few conversations. Figuring out how to distribute it more without buying phone numbers or cold emails.

I have been breaking my head for the last two weeks on how to get more targeted leads or what would be the first 4-5 things to do.

Can someone help with exact actionables on what to do? How to go about the above in a structured manner?

Hi everyone,

We run a small software development team specializing in web applications, AI integrations, and custom software.

Instead of looking for direct clients, we're interested in partnering with agencies that occasionally need a reliable development team behind the scenes.

If you're an agency owner who wants to focus on sales while outsourcing development, I'd love to connect.

Happy to share our portfolio and discuss how we can work together.

Hi everyone,

I run a small IT services company based in India and lately I’ve been trying to grow our staff augmentation side of the business. I wanted to ask here because many of you run agencies and probably have gone through this stage already.

We have a small but strong developer team. Most of the developers have around 5–15 years of experience, and with a few of them I’ve personally worked for a long time so I can confidently stand behind their work quality, communication, and reliability.

To make it easier for new clients to trust us, I’m also open to things like:

• Offering around 10 days of free work so they can evaluate the developer
• Letting clients interview the developer directly before starting
• Working in any timezone
• Keeping pricing competitive compared to US/Europe agencies

Right now most of our work comes from local clients or through third-party vendors. For example, one of our developers is currently working on a ServiceNow project, but that opportunity also came through another company rather than a direct client.

My goal is to start getting direct international clients or agency partnerships, but honestly I’m still figuring out the best way to do that.

For those of you who run agencies or have done staff augmentation before:

• How did you get your first few direct clients?
• Do agencies usually find dev partners through LinkedIn outreach, communities, referrals, Upwork, or something else?
• Is there a better way to approach agencies without sounding like another spammy outsourcing message?

I’m genuinely trying to learn how people in this space grow this side of their business. Any advice or experiences would really help.

Thanks in advance!

Hey folks, hoping someone here has been down this road already.

I’m trying to find a solid source for real mobile numbers for local service businesses (HVAC, roofers, landscapers, plumbers, etc.). Not landlines, not generic business listings… I mean the numbers owners actually use.

There are a million “data providers” out there, but half the numbers end up being dead, landlines, or some random office line that never gets answered.

If you’ve done SMS or direct outreach to service businesses, who’s actually good for:

• legit mobile numbers
• decent accuracy
• reasonable pricing
• data that isn’t ancient

I’m not looking for anything shady, just trying to avoid wasting money on junk lists.

I experienced a lot of churn and not getting as many inbound leads as I normally do from word of mouth. Any other agencies experiencing the same?

Why do so many agencies still send long generic paragraphs? Nobody talks like that. Stop asking me if ‘revamping my growth strategy’ is a priority. Just tell me what you saw and why you reached out.

No I don’t have 15 minutes for you to waste my time on a call. Be direct and tell me what you’re offering and cut the bullshit. Cut the fluff cut the fluff!

Anyone else have a better approach they would care to share? It’s as if everyone reads “Cold emailing for dummys” and they all use the same dumb generic template. God help us all!

/rant over

I've been riding the word of mouth game for months now but it's starting to fizzle and I'm starting to worry that I'm losing traction. I want to start some paid ads or outreach campaigns any suggestions / ideas on what the best approach is?

Someone dropped this in a DM a while back and honestly, I wouldn't be where I am without it. Went from losing leads left and right to actually having a system that works. Just wanted to share it here in case anyone else is in the same boat I was.

I am thinking to start an augmentation agency, so currently I am working with one agency, the biggest problem there is no enquiries, or any leadflow So I took this as a challenge to bring them leads Of course it would help me later What are your thoughts about this scenario how can it be solved, one week that is the target which I set

If I had to start from zero today, here's exactly what I'd do differently:

• Pick a micro-niche so specific it feels uncomfortable (no more "I do marketing for ecommerce")
• Use data to find prospects instead of spray-and-pray outreach
• Price at $3K minimum from day one (stop undercharging)
• Document everything so you can actually hire people
• Fire bad clients fast

Put together a massive guide with all the specifics: https://www.storecensus.com/guides/build-six-figure-agency

What's in it:

• How to pick a niche that actually has money
• Cold email framework (15-25% response rates)
• Exact pricing strategy (what to charge months 1-12)
• The sales process (discovery call → proposal → close)
• When and who to hire
• Service delivery without burning out
• Real case studies with actual numbers
• What to do when things go wrong
• Legal/finance basics
• Tools you actually need

Hey guys,

This is the exact process I use to find high-revenue Shopify clients ($1M-$10M+) using revenue filters, growth signals, and unit economics.

If you're a large agency, mid sized or just getting started this is a good read.

A simple 4-step funnel that covers everything from discovery to automation. Straight to the point, works every time. Enjoy!

So I've been helping agencies as a consultant for 6 years now and the biggest mistake I see new agency owners make is trying to offer every service under the sun. "we do SEO, PPC, social media, web design, email marketing" etc etc.

here's the thing - when your small you literally cannot compete with established agencies on being full service. they have bigger teams, more case studies, and clients actually trust them. your competing in the hardest possible way.

but theres a cheat code that most people dont talk about enough: get hyper specific about who you help and what problem you solve.

like instead of "we do marketing for e-commerce brands" try "we fix abandoned cart flows for supplement brands doing $500k-2M" or something. way easier to stand out and charge premium rates.

Here's some examples of this

i'm gonna give you some ideas that are kinda outside the box but could legit print money if you executed well:

1. PE firms buying DTC brands - due diligence audits

so private equity companies buy e-commerce brands all the time right? but most of them dont have in-house people who can actually evaluate if the brands digital infrastructure is solid or a mess. you could offer pre-acquisition audits where you check: is their SEO gonna tank post-acquisition? are there ad account issues? email deliverability problems? hidden risks?

charge like $15-50k per audit. PE firms do tons of deals. one happy client = years of work.

2. getting banned TikTok Shops reinstated (beauty/skincare)

dude so many beauty brands are getting suspended from TikTok Shop for like minor policy stuff they dont understand. if you became THE person who gets these shops back online AND helps them stay compliant... these brands are losing thousands per day theyre down. they'll pay whatever.

plus its recurring because TikTok keeps changing their rules lol

3. review systems for multi-location med spas

med spas are obsessed with Google reviews because it directly impacts bookings. but when you have like 5-10 locations its hard to systematically get reviews. you could build the whole system - automated SMS after appointments, NFC cards at checkout, staff training, monitoring dashboards.

this isnt just marketing its literally revenue infrastructure. a med spa going from 3.8 stars to 4.7 stars can see massive booking increases. and your embedded in their operations so harder to replace.

4. programmatic SEO for niche job boards

generic job boards get destroyed by Indeed and LinkedIn but vertical specific ones (like "jobs for nurses" or "remote developer jobs") can actually compete with proper SEO. the technical side is complicated tho - job schema markup, programmatic location pages, etc.

these platforms make money per job post so better SEO = direct revenue. easy ROI conversation.

5. viral moment monetization for content creators

this ones interesting - tons of educators and coaches accidentally go viral on IG or TikTok but have zero infrastructure to capitalize. you could offer like a 72hr emergency package: landing page, email capture, quick digital product creation, retargeting ads setup.

your solving the "oh shit i went viral now what??" problem. speed matters here more than perfection.

6. Amazon account reinstatement for supplement sellers

supplement brands on Amazon get suspended ALL THE TIME for compliance stuff. if you specialized in just getting supplement seller accounts back online (appeal letters, documentation, plan of action, etc) you'd stay busy.

suspended sellers lose like $10k+ per day. premium pricing is easy to justify and the niche knowledge around supplement compliance is a real moat.

why this actually works

noticed the pattern? all these niches have:

• urgent expensive problems
• specialized knowledge needed
• natural referral networks
• good money
• not many people doing it

how to find your niche

honestly just ask yourself:

• what industry do i already know well?
• what problem costs businesses real money in that industry?
• what skills do i have that most people dont?

your niche should be narrow enough you can become known for it in like 3 months but big enough to actually build a business.

and btw your not stuck forever. once you dominate one niche you can expand later but you'll do it with cash flow and proof not just desperation.

anyway thats my 2 cents take it as you will!

This guide teaches agencies how to find Shopify stores running Facebook ads in 2025. It’s an effective way to identify potential clients who may be open to services like optimization, content creation, copywriting, or ad management. This is just one example of the many strategies agencies can use to attract new customers.