Upfront Business Development

An insight led approach to establish DMS as a Sector Specialist

‘Upfront really got under the skin of the Charity Sector and the organisations we were targeting. They successfully built up relationships with key contacts at each Charity we wanted to target and carefully nurtured these to keep DMS top of mind at all times. As a direct result of the programme we have now met with a large majority of the UK’s leading Charities and helped add a significant number to our client list.’

Guy Harris  - Managing Director DMS

DMS is a Cheltenham-based full-service direct marketing agency with a wealth of experience across many different market sectors.

The approach – building a reputation

After consultation with Upfront, DMS agreed to a business development strategy aimed at establishing a reputation as a sector specialist. It was decided this was the most effective way to differentiate themselves from larger, better known competitors.

Upfront's strategic plan centred on raising DMS’s profile in the charity sector by creating something relevant and useful for prospective clients. We worked with DMS to track the donor development programmes of many leading charities. The findings were presented to prospects in a variety of reports. They also stimulated a lot interest amongst the press, and the reports are regarded as essential reading for fundraisers.

Using these insights, Upfront delivered a highly targeted new business programme focusing on the UK’s Top 115 charities and not-for-profit organisations.

The outcome – a blazing trail of significant new client acquisitions

As a result of our activity, we have generated 15 major new retained clients including Cats Protection League, Oxfam, RSPB, YMCA, the National Trust, the Prince’s Trust, Leonard Cheshire and Everychild, generating over £5 million of new business.

Other successes include;

• Over the course of five years we have been able to establish DMS as the UK’s top fundraising agency according to Marketing Week, and DMS continues to feature heavily in the fundraising press.
• We have generated meetings with all of the op 100 leading charities and not-for-profit organisations, and recall levels for DMS amongst these currently stands at 96%.
• PR opportunities within both the charity sector and mainstream marketing sector.