This is a guest post by Christine Olivas, CEO of No Single Individual (formerly Co Conspirators), an all-women, all-freelance firm that provides integrated strategy teams to agencies of all sizes. Throughout her career, Christine has worked in agencies, as an in-house marketing executive, and as a marketing strategy consultant. Here’s her take on why freelancers should consider partnering with agencies.

Today’s freelancers have access to more opportunities, tools, and resources than ever, especially when it comes to finding prospective clients. Independent contractors looking to secure new projects can turn to a myriad of online marketplaces, collectives and Slack or Discord channels.

Advertising and marketing agencies are an often overlooked source of revenue, especially for newer freelancers. They are a great fit, though, as their structure and client expectations mean that they constantly need the sharpest talent, wherever it comes from.

The keys to a successful partnership with agencies include knowing how to find opportunities, ensuring your rates work with their model, aligning your services to theirs, adapting to their ways of working, and helping them smartly and effectively service their clients.

Keep reading to learn more about this win-win partnership!

Why Partner with Agencies

Advertising and marketing agencies are everywhere. In fact, as of 2023, there are over 88,000 agencies in the U.S. alone {source}. While some agencies have a broad focus (these are often called “full service” or “integrated” agencies), others have a niche focus, whether it’s on a specific industry (e.g., healthcare or cannabis) or a specific marketing service (e.g., social media or paid advertising).

Because agencies typically have long-term relationships with their clients, (which can range from growing startups to Fortune 500 companies), they are committed to certain staffing levels. This means that they have to ensure that key functions (e.g., strategy, creative, client services) on a particular account are fully staffed. This helps them meet client contractual obligations – and opens up significant opportunities for freelancers if there are insufficient full-time team members to perform a function.

Today’s agency clients also expect a certain level of innovation and creativity. Whether they’re looking for a campaign to launch a new brand or a workshop to develop new products, they need best-in-class thinking, project management and creative ideas. To feed their appetite for top talent, agencies will often turn to freelancers who specialize in an area–or will simply bring new thinking to the table.

These are just a few of the reasons why freelancers looking to grow their book of business should seek out projects with agencies of all sizes.

How to Partner with Agencies

Know Where to Look for Opportunities

To find agencies that are seeking freelancers, you can peruse job boards (simply select “contract” for the type of opportunity), search LinkedIn (try the keywords “agency freelance” or “agency gig alert,” or connect with the person responsible for sourcing freelance talent. To find that person, you’ll need to vary titles by size of organization. As an example,at smaller shops a C-level executive may hire freelancers, at larger global firms there will often be a dedicated Head of Resourcing.

Another useful strategy is to reach out to agencies who are hiring for full-time roles. While they will eventually find the right fit for those positions, their postings indicate that there is an urgent account need and may be a way into starting a conversation about what you can offer.

Finally, you can also consider finding and joining various Slack and discord communities that connect freelancers with agency opportunities.

Adjust Your Rates Accordingly

If you’re used to partnering directly with companies or nonprofits, you may be used to charging project or “fixed fee” rates. While agencies sometimes have fixed fee projects, they typically leverage an hour or day rate model, meaning that they compensate contractors based on the time they spend on a given project or client. How best to arrive at your date rate? Take a previous project where you were very fairly compensated and divide the total fees you received by the estimated number of days you spent on it. And always offer a range (e.g., $x/day – $x/day) so you don’t undercut yourself!

Finally, if you’re looking to find standard day rates, there are some resources out there, including Yuno Juno’s report (UK) and Harlow’s freelance rates cheat sheet.

Align Your Services with Theirs

One thing that often deters freelancers from contacting agencies is how specific the titles can be. (“Behavioral Activation Specialist,” anyone?). But don’t let a little industry jargon deter you! Many of these titles have parallels to jobs and functions outside of the agency sphere. For example, a Behavioral Activation Specialist is someone who recommends ideas for influencing audience behavior through events, experiences and campaigns.

See? You got this!

Adapt to Their Ways of Working

There’s no denying that most agencies work at a breakneck pace. They’re in the business of servicing clients, and the demands and requests they get never stop coming. If you can demonstrate that you are good at juggling multiple requests and managing feedback from a variety of stakeholders, you’ll have a clear competitive advantage!

Help Them Service Their Clients

Last but not least, remember that what keeps agencies up at night is the same as what might keep you up at night. They also worry about how to acquire, satisfy and engage clients. Show that you work hard to keep your customers happy, and they’ll have peace of mind that you’ll help them do the same!