As a more dedicated option, a B2B marketing agency can help you better focus your strategy, as it is often difficult for B2B tech companies to do digital marketing on their own.
For successful in-house B2B tech marketing, it’s best to have a knowledgeable marketing team and, preferably, a chief marketing officer (CMO). Otherwise, trying to deploy marketing tactics on top of day-to-day operations will take attention away from your product and your customers.
This is when you need a B2B marketing agency, only then will you reach your target audience and convert leads into customers. Here we will tell you about the challenges of B2B marketing, why B2B marketing agencies are important, as well as the attributes you should look for in a B2B tech marketing agency, tools and tips.
Why are B2B marketing agencies needed?
B2B marketing addresses the needs of each stakeholder, so it’s not about one or two people making the decisions. It will always be much more likely to work with a large group.
A B2B marketing strategy positions your company with a strong message. A brand makes your product different and makes it clear why it’s the best choice, to do this successfully you need a B2B marketing agency, so you make your B2B buyers want to consume valuable content that you may not have time to create in the formats and channels your buyers prefer.
B2B technology marketing challenges
do you know your buyers’ needs? You don’t talk to a B2B technology buyer who has just found your product or service the same way you talk to a prospect who has seen a demo. You must customize your messages for each stage of the buyer’s journey.
do you know how to connect and engage with prospects? They may be B2B technology buyers, but they are still human. A compelling story at the right touchpoint can capture attention and motivate action.
A B2B marketing agency will make it easier for you to meet those challenges.
What to look for in a B2B technology marketing agency?
The best B2B marketing agencies focus on the entire funnel, not just the bottom. Here are some of the features you should look for in a B2B marketing agency:
Hybrid marketing team
You should have branding professionals who are also experts in lead generation, social media marketing and content strategy.
Hybrid marketers can focus on your B2B company’s reputation while still being involved in daily and weekly goals. They can also use fractional marketing support to perform this function. They should use video, thought leadership and social media to promote brand awareness and qualify prospects.
Balance between brand and demand
Choose an agency that values both B2B branding and demand generation. A brand-based strategy is a long-term play. A demand-driven approach focuses on short-term results.
The B2B marketing team may lean one way or the other at first, depending on their immediate needs. But, in general, they should embrace both approaches to create sustainable digital marketing plans.
Cross-industry curiosity
A B2B technology marketing team should have members from diverse backgrounds. People who have worked in other industries are more innovative. They don’t have the traditional tech marketing model drilled into their heads. Your agency should encourage marketers to learn from other industries. These experiences bring new perspectives that lead to a wide range of ideas.
Audience-focused functions
Look for an agency that gives team members audience-focused roles. For example, leaders can assign B2B technology marketers to vertical and regional roles instead of content and email. Team members will better understand buyer motivation by focusing on an audience rather than a channel.
Learning culture
A good B2B marketing agency should promote a learning culture. The best technology marketing departments encourage people to develop their skills in different directions.
For example, an email marketer may be curious about product marketing, or a content marketer may want to develop branding skills. When team members learn and apply new techniques, the agency benefits, and so does your B2B company.
B2B technology marketing tools
The B2B marketing agency can deploy several tools to help your company stay competitive in the tech industry.
Buzzsumo and Hootsuite are tracking tools that help marketers identify trending topics and create content that is tailored to their target audience.
In addition, your agency can use social listening tools to find out what B2B tech buyers are saying about those topics and about your brand. For example, HubSpot has a social listening tool built into its marketing platform. SocialMention is another option.
Another tool typically uses a content management system (CMS) to publish content and measure success. HubSpot has CMS capabilities, and open source solutions like WordPress and Drupal are also popular systems.
Tools like Buffer or Sprout Social allow a B2B marketing agency to maintain consistency with your social media posts.
Messaging tools like Drift and Intercom allow your B2B marketing agency to nurture leads from your website. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems like HubSpot or Salesforce can track leads and sales.
Google Analytics and Google Data Studio organize data into customizable reports. Your team can use the Google suite to measure return on investment (ROI) and decide whether to make adjustments to the marketing campaign.
Content marketing tips for B2B companies
A great B2B marketing team uses content to explain the value of your product to customers. The B2B marketing agency can execute several steps to create your B2B content marketing strategy.
The team can start by creating buyer personas to understand who they are targeting and what those personas expect to get from your product. Tech marketers gather information on demographics, interests and traits. They also compile lists of targets, pain points and buying habits. This process helps copywriters tailor content to your customers’ needs.
The B2B marketing agency can write long-form content, such as blog posts, white papers and case studies, with personas in mind. These pieces establish your technology company’s authority and provide value to potential customers. Your team can ask for topic ideas and develop their own to focus on a niche and showcase their expertise. Using search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and sharing content on social media helps your team engage your audience.
Since content lives on your website, a B2B tech marketing agency should make sure it’s up to date. They check the loading speed of your site and whether it works well on mobile. Standard pages for an inbound marketing strategy include a landing page, an “About” page, a FAQ page, a contact page and product pages.
Likewise, a B2B marketing agency can add pages if your site does not have enough content.
The B2B marketing agency can invest in email marketing, as it remains one of the best ways to communicate with customers. Email initiatives allow B2B technology marketers to collect data on leads while nurturing and qualifying leads. It is also a great marketing channel to promote content such as blogs.
Marketing automation makes it easy for the agency to send a series of emails and maintain lines of communication.
In addition, a B2B marketing agency must stay on top of trends to produce high-quality content that competes within the technology industry. This approach includes paying attention to information shared by industry leaders and influencers. The agency can also look for recent statistics to make sure your content doesn’t contain outdated data.
B2B SaaS marketing strategies
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) market is one of the fastest growing sectors of the technology industry. B2B marketing agencies can also use specific strategies to help B2B SaaS companies grow their business and stay competitive.
Offering free trials is a great way for B2B SaaS marketers to reach out to potential customers. The cost is minimal. The agency can put the product and support staff in plain sight to see if the customer likes what they see. Even if the user doesn’t subscribe, the team can collect valuable feedback on what worked and what didn’t.
Offering customers rewards for referring other companies is an effective method for attracting B2B SaaS leads. More than 90% of consumers trust personal recommendations over advertisements. Users already enjoy using the software: offering them a discount or free features encourages them to sing the product’s praises.
The B2B SaaS marketing team must make the product registration process easy for customers. Reducing friction is critical, and in this, a B2B marketing agency can help you, as the customer may feel frustrated if they have to jump through several hoops to try the service. Team members should review the registration steps to see if they can reduce anything.
If organic traffic does not generate enough leads, B2B SaaS marketers can run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. The right strategy gets the product to the target audience at the lowest cost per click (CPC). The B2B digital marketing agency must offer a magnetic value proposition, or potential customers will look elsewhere.
The call to action (CTA) for B2B SaaS customers must be clear and direct. Marketers should make the next step obvious and place the CTA where customers can easily click the button. Instead of offering multiple options, it’s better to focus on one action, such as watching a video, reading a blog or following on social media
The agency you choose to market your product should understand the nuances of the B2B technology industry. The team must keep up with changes in technology while remaining patient with the B2B sales process.
Simply put, you need a marketing agency that understands B2B technology.
