B2B MarketingFinding the right B2B Marketing Agency

Finding An Agency• Finding the right agency is crucial for any business involved in B2B

marketing. It can take time to find an agency that is the right fit for your business or sector. However, investing this time to find the right company and the right people can lead to long term rewards. It’s critical that when choosing an agency that you invest this time throughout the process in order to find the marketing agency.

• If you decide just to go with the first agency you meet, then this may lead to problems down the line and you may not get the results that you want first time. Although choosing an agency requires investment in time up front, choosing the wrong agency can have all sorts of costs. For example, you may have end a contract early which may lead to financial penalties. In the end it will also affect the bottom line and this is a major reason for finding the right agency first time around.

Ensure Agencies Understand Your Niche• The first and key step in choosing a B2B marketing agency is that they

know your niche or have experience in your sector. An agency needs to fully understand the industry you are targeting and the people in it.

• A good place to start is look at their previous experience and who they currently work with. Every agency will have a track record and set of case studies to speak about in their pitch and these should be in line with the sector your company is targeting. This will give you a very good indication of whether or the not the agency is the right fit.

• It is very difficult for a B2B marketing agency to break into a new sector and you do not want to be running the risk on their behalf. This could be very costly if they simply do not have the knowledge or understanding of your sector. Most agencies specialise in one sector and offer specific services such as B2B technology marketing services or B2B digital marketing, so make sure you pick someone for your sector.

What Are Their Tactics?• Furthermore the agency needs to understand not just the sector,

but also the people in it and what tactics they respond to and their purchasing habits. The agency needs to have a deep understanding of the prospects you are targeting and what motivates them. If this is not present, then you should look at interviewing a more suitable agency. You will also need to consider how strategic the agency is in terms of understanding channels and brands and the buying habits of procurement departments.

Finding The Right People• People are what make up every

organisation and in B2B marketing this is a very important factor when choosing the right agency. It’s critical that when choosing an agency that you look at the senior management of the agency and how they interact with staff.

• Are the staff motived in the right way? Remember that they will be contacting organisations on your behalf, so it’s important to understand that they staff there are happy, motivated and hence productive in what they do.

Know Your Agencies Staff• You will also need to look at how they deal with external elements

and whether or not the staff are senior enough and have the right level of knowledge to interact and communicate with senior staff in external companies. Oftentimes what will happen is that an agency will win a project and all of the communication with external companies is left to the less senior members of the team and hence this is why many campaigns fail, in particular telemarketing campaigns.

• It is essential you know the people who will be working on your campaign to ensure that they have the right level of experience for the campaign. After all they will be contacting senior people in large corporations on your behalf.

• Whichever agency you decide to choose, make sure that it is not a rushed decision because you are unhappy with your current agency, this will lead to problems further down the line. The decision needs to be an informed one, if you are to get the kind of returns you are looking for.

Find Your Agency By:

• Researching lots of different agencies.• Find out how they operate.• Get to know their experiences• Make sure they understand your sector

and business area well.• Get to know them and make them a part

of your team.• Find out their approach to seeking you

new business clients.• Find out who they have worked with

before and their clients.• Test them out, if you don’t like them or do

not get on well, then find someone who you do work well with.