When you first start your company you likely handled everything in house with a tight knit group of people. For the most part, new, small companies don’t have much need for a variety of departments or large teams. More often than not, everyone has a hand in at least a few different areas, each person helping out as needed with marketing, sales, business development, and even HR.
When you first start your company you likely handled everything in house with a tight knit group of people. For the most part, new, small companies don’t have much need for a variety of departments or large teams. More often than not, everyone has a hand in at least a few different areas, each person helping out as needed with marketing, sales, business development, and even HR.
As companies grow, however, team members become more specialized, and they coalesce into departments to fulfill certain functions. On the other hand, the company may choose to outsource certain activities to fulfill those roles without the extra cost and time required to hire additional team members.
The question for your B2B company becomes not only what departments are necessary for the business to succeed, but which ones should be outsourced and which ones should be kept in house. When it comes to marketing and advertising specifically, is it worth it to pay another company to handle this critical task for you?
The short answer is, “yes”.
Do you need a B2B advertising agency?
You might be asking yourself, what does a B2B marketing agency even do? You know your customers; can’t you just do all your advertising yourself? The answer is not always and not always very effectively.
In recent years, marketing has become a science. No longer are B2B advertisers simply providing clients with graphics and catchy tag lines. With the advent and growth of the internet, nearly everything has become measurable, and you can more easily see correlation, causation, and exactly what your marketing dollars are getting you.
A good B2B advertising agency can help you answer these questions:
• Who are your target customers?
• How do you find them?
• What’s the best way to contact them?
• How often should you contact them?
• What are they most interested in purchasing?
• What is the reason they should come to you for the products and service you offer?
More than just help you answer those questions, however, an agency has the knowledge and experience to know where best to spend your advertising budget. They understand what is effective and what is not and can show you a clear line from the money you invest in marketing and the ROI you get back.
Your job is to focus on selling your product or offering your service. It’s the agency’s job to connect you with customers searching for that product or service. To have a comprehensive marketing plan in place that produces real results, you need to have the services of the best B2B marketing agency at your disposal.
Strategies to quick start your B2B marketing plan
A B2B advertising agency handles the leg work and should effectively become your marketing team. But how do you find the right one? Here are some tips for choosing the right agency for your business and questions to ask them.
Ensure effective research strategies
Ask about the quality of data, methods and processes used in their market research. Customer satisfaction surveys are an important way to receive detailed insights from your customers and their needs, so that you can fulfill them more easily. For instance, surveys should be concise, easy to complete, and conducted by phone to ensure the questions were understood and answered by the right person. With these results, you can reach out to prospects with more effective messaging and improve your offerings and outcomes.
Do your own research
It’s important to find a B2B marketing agency that has experience working in your industry. They will be far better suited to fulfill your needs, because they will have a better understanding of your business. You won’t have to educate them on the ins and outs of the industry, so they can get to work immediately growing and improving your customer base.
Check reviews and references
A good B2B agency will have a paper trail of their success. Look for online reviews and customer feedback to gain insights into their process, customer service, and experience. In addition to online reviews, it is important to check references offline as well. If they list existing or past clients on their website, reach out to them to ask about their experience.
Ask for plans and outcomes
Each business has different charges for specific services. Find out what an agency charges and compare to others you’ve looked at that offer similar services. As you begin to work with a company, ensure the results you are receiving are worth the money you’re investing. Don’t look at superficial metrics like clicks and views, look at your sales. Are your sales increasing or not and by how much?
Choose the B2B marketing agency that best fits your needs
B2B marketing is about building, developing, and nurturing relationships. It’s not just about how many eyeballs you can get, but attracting the right people to your business. Time is money, and a good agency knows how to bring customers to your business, so you can focus on what you do best: providing the highest quality product or service possible.
16600