Advice on how to choose a marketing agency for a company that targets a B2B customer base
There is simply no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to marketing. As a company owner or marketing executive, you should ensure that the marketing agency you work with can offer you a package or retainer deal that is tailored to your business’s unique needs and long-term objectives. There are a number of specific traits that set the B2B industry apart which should be used to inform marketing strategies for companies within that sector.
These are three of the aspects you should look for when choosing a marketing and advertising agency in Perth.
An understanding of the B2B sales cycle
The sales cycle in the B2B market is significantly longer than in the B2C industry. A number of unique industry characteristics can be attributed to why this is the case. For example, B2B sales tend to amount to significantly bigger figures than in the B2C market. As a B2B company you may be looking to sell year-long service contracts and high-value goods. Clinching the deal therefore normally involves a higher number of decision-makers than in the case of B2C sales.
As such, B2B sales often involve needing to overcome multiple hurdles and navigate substantial red tape in order to convert interest into sales. For this reason, when choosing a marketing agency for a B2B company, you need to ensure that the prospective agency has a full understanding of how the B2B sales funnel works and how to market to clients along each stage of that funnel. Agencies who have this understanding will more than often be able to demonstrate a higher degree of technical expertise than the average B2C marketing company.
Experience with talking to decision makers
Marketing B2B goods and services to other businesses as potential clients is very different to marketing products to individual customers. For this reason, the agency you choose needs to demonstrate strategic insight into how to target specific decision-makers by talking their language in a way that is engaging and persuasive.
This will involve using targeted content and mediums that will engage these decision-makers where they are – this could include specific social media channels like LinkedIn or a strategy that employs the use of ‘cold emails.’ The marketing agency you choose could also be called upon to facilitate and put together presentations targeted at specific businesses, each with their own business model, approach to sales and hierarchical internal structure which your marketing material will need to navigate in order to convert leads into sales.
The ability to craft a powerful marketing message
Ultimately, a marketing agency that specialises in B2B products and services needs to be able to execute campaigns that will convince the relevant decision-makers that what is being proposed to them will improve their own business’s operations. The concerns of B2B decision-makers are therefore vastly different to what consumers consider when making a purchase.
For example, B2B decision-makers will consider metrics such as how the product or service will increase the efficiency of their business, how it will improve productivity or generate sales, as well as how it might assist that company with attracting and retaining the best talent. As marketers, the main message of the campaign needs to talk directly to these business objectives in a way that is clear, succinct and measurable.
The marketing agency you choose to partner with to market your B2B business needs to have industry knowledge that will give you a holistic view of the competitor landscape and the trends that are driving change in the industry at large.
Connect with us and we’ll share our expertise in marketing B2B companies and help you find the best and most effective strategy for your business.