Not every B2B marketing agency is the same. B2B Marketing agencies are an essential part of the B2B Marketing landscape. Without the specialized skills that go into driving B2B sales, the B2B world would be in trouble. There are many different B2B agencies out there, but not all of them are made equally. Here are some of the things you need to know before you choose a B2B agency to help you with your B2B sales.
There are thousands of marketing agencies out there offering their services. But how do you work out which one is right for your business? This can be a difficult decision to make, especially if you are new to the industry. This blog will take you through what you need to know about B2B marketing agencies.
Some B2B marketing agencies have specific areas of expertise. While others offer a full range of services from which you can pick and choose. We are going to look at these different options, exploring the different capabilities, and helping you make an informed decision about how partnering with a marketing agency might be able to help your business grow.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is an umbrella term for services related to driving consumers toward your business. Generally, this involves a content-heavy approach (more on this later) that is defined by adding value to the customer. In effect, by providing expertise and guidance for free, prospective customers will come to you — allowing you to then close a sale.
Why inbound marketing:
Inbound marketing is a strategy defined by the internet. It takes advantage of social media, SEO optimisation and search. Fundamentally, it’s a strategy designed around how people seek out information online in order to draw in prospects. Any digital-first sales and marketing strategy should be designed around an inbound methodology.
What an agency can deliver:
A B2B inbound marketing agency can help you understand the nuances of inbound marketing — assessing the assets you already have, and helping build the resources needed to succeed. Fundamentally, this process will help you better understand your business and customers. Central to an effective inbound strategy is creating “buyer personas” — ideal customer profiles to represent the decision-makers you need to “win over” in order to make a sale. The process of creating an inbound strategy will help align sales and marketing, and clarify business objectives.
Inbound marketing allows you to:
- Generate organic traffic, and convert that traffic into leads
- Create long-term valuable assets
- Align your marketing strategy with online buying patterns
Account-based marketing (ABM)
Where inbound marketing uses a variety of content tools to drive customers to the business, account-based marketing focuses on outreach to specific customers.
Why account-based marketing:
ABM allows you to channel your efforts at specific decision-makers within a targeted potential client. This allows you to tailor your messaging and focus your efforts. You can use the contacts you’ve established in an organisation to expand communication and eventually win a sale. It’s a very useful strategy, particularly when targeting large businesses with a wide range of decision-makers.
What an agency can deliver:
Contracting with a B2B ABM agency that offers account-based marketing provides the benefit of expertise in finding and approaching potential clients. You also gain access to a team dedicated to executing a diligent ABM strategy.
Some agencies specialise in ABM. But most businesses should think of it as one of several tools. Although ABM is traditionally considered separate from inbound, there is crossover. A modern agency will deploy inbound assets, like content, within an ABM strategy — using blogs to connect with specific people both before and after they’ve visited your website. ABM is important for landing big clients, but you shouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
ABM allows you to:
- Focus on growing relationships with decision-makers
- Target your messaging at specific people
- Win big clients
Website design
Most companies understand the power of a website. Like a brick and mortar storefront, a company website is an organisation’s main presence in the digital world. Many potential clients will start their research into a company’s products/services and culture at their site. However, all websites are not equally effective.
Why web design is critical:
Although anyone with a free weekend can build a basic website, only experienced professionals can design an interface that not only looks good, but more importantly is fit for purpose. This means a well thought-out site that will ultimately drive sales leads. You need slick design, an intuitive interface, and SEO optimisation. The homepage design needs to be spot on and the web designer must understand your potential customers and their motivations to purchase.
What an agency can deliver:
Agencies give you access to experts. That means graphic designers, web-developers, copywriters and SEO specialists. Only when all of these elements work together will you maximise your ability to rank, grab the attention of visitors, and grow your business. What’s more, best-practices constantly change. Your website needs to be regularly updated to maintain an edge. An agency can do all of that, or simply fill a hole that your in-house team cannot.
A good website will:
- Represent your brand in a digital-first market
- Improve your organic ranking
- Drive conversions and growth
Sales enablement
In this context, sales enablement refers to a number of activities designed to maximise your sales team’s ability to convert contacts into paying customers. It’s about aligning sales teams with marketing campaigns, and creating a self-supporting system that drives growth.
Why sales enablement is important:
Modern customers have more access to information than any other time in history. Even during the most high-pressure sales, consumers can stop and check competitors in only seconds. That places a huge burden on the sales team.
Everything you do needs to be complimentary. You need to generate inbound contacts, be able to qualify and pursue those leads, and of course, deliver sales conversions. Beyond increasing the effectiveness of everything you do, sales enablement improves the ROI of any investment. Your marketing assets become sales assets, and the entire system becomes more effective.
What an agency can deliver:
A good B2B agency will be built around sales enablement strategies. They can help you assess the marketing assets you currently have, craft future campaigns, and grow a culture aligned with this approach.
Sales enablement allows you to:
- Optimise your marketing investments
- Improve sales outcomes
- Create a more aligned culture
Marketing automation
Marketing automation is about using the benefit of modern technology to automate many of the steps related to marketing. Software companies like HubSpot, for example, specialise in a product that enables marketing, sales, and customer service experiences to be more efficient.
Why marketing automation:
Marketing automation makes your campaigns more efficient, and allows for greater personalisation without creating more admin. Marketing automation can help with a number of things, including:
- Website content templates that allow organisations to make changes or additions without the help of a developer. That can be especially helpful for clients who want to create landing pages or an online blog without web developers on staff.
- Real-time data regarding SEO that can be used to create websites and social media content directly relevant to potential customers.
- Real-time data about website visitors that can allow you to create personalised experiences without additional coding.
- Create automated email nurtures that follow up leads with customisable templates and workflows.
What an agency can deliver:
Professional marketing agencies will have the experience and knowledge to select the resources that best fit each company. They can also minimise onboarding time due to existing familiarity with the platform. That means a client company can get its automation up and running in almost no time.
Marketing automation allows you to:
- Increase efficiency
- Increase personalisation
- Easily tackle more technical tasks
Content marketing
Content marketing is the fundamental building block of an inbound marketing strategy. Content can also provide invaluable information for sales teams following either inbound or outbound marketing attempts that result in customer contacts. Any material written on websites, social media, email campaigns, or to existing customers is considered content.
Why content marketing:
“Content” has a number of purposes, including using SEO to drive website traffic, answering frequent consumer questions, and creating loyalty or upsells from existing customers. It drives inbound leads, can be used to justify outbound contact, retargets prospects, and can help shape industry narratives to benefit your brand. It’s also often critical to gathering contact details in order to qualify and pursue leads.
What an agency can deliver:
Content marketing can be challenging to create and requires expertise to plan. B2B content marketing requires even more specific expertise. All content must be aligned with the personas created for potential customers in order to ensure the information is relevant to the audience. An agency can help you develop and plan a content strategy, and then undertake the heavy lifting when it comes to execution.
For many consumers, content is the first contact with the company. Since most people give content only seconds to make an impression, expertise is critical to getting the right outcomes.
Content marketing allows you to:
- Generate organic traffic
- Capture contact details
- Connect with your target audience
- Shape industry narratives
Product launches
Product launches are often the most important moments in the life of a company. Marketing support for a product launch can include an in-depth analysis of the potential customer needs and motivations. During the product development phase, information of this nature can ensure that the eventual product is capable of solving customer problems.
What an agency can deliver:
Marketing agencies can help with the product launch by developing a full market launch strategy. The plan would include launch tasks like customer research, outreach to opinion leaders and media, and developing the brand and messaging. After the launch, marketing experts can tailor content toward a continued product push. They can also take advantage of third-party validators to establish product legitimacy.
Making the right choice
Coordinating a marketing plan is a complicated process for those without expertise. The overall value of using B2B marketing experts is the ability to select the best tools and techniques to accomplish customer goals. Receiving this vital marketing assistance can help customers get back to running the business they love while enjoying the benefits of greater customer leads. That is the power of B2B marketing expertise. If you want to learn more about how to select the right agency, check out our blog — How to Know If You’re Agency-Compatible (And if an Agency is Compatible with You) — or get in touch today.