When you think about marketing agencies, you probably picture large advertising companies in New York or Chicago that serve the marketing needs of massive corporations. While this is certainly true for some marketing companies, the reality is that there are business-to-business marketing agencies that serve the needs of companies of various sizes.
A B2B marketing company does more than advertising. They focus on all aspects of marketing, ensuring that companies present themselves well in the market. Whether a company is large or small, its marketing is all about how a business brands itself, the quality of its services, how services are offered, how it reaches its target audience and decision-makers, etc. And business-to-business marketing is quite different from business-to-consumer marketing. That’s why it’s important to choose a marketing company that has experience with B2B clients and has a track record with companies of your size.
If you want to improve your marketing or grow your business, it doesn’t matter whether you have 50 employees or 50,0000 employees – companies of all sizes, including SMBs can benefit from hiring a B2B marketing agency.
Reasons You’d Need to Hire a B2B Agency
You may be thinking to yourself, “my company has a marketing person (or a marketing team). Why would I need to hire a B2B agency to handle marketing tasks?”
There are many skills required when it comes to effective B2B marketing including strategy, branding, messaging, copywriting, design, digital marketing, content creation, social media, search engine optimization and more.
It is very challenging to find one person or even a small team of people who have all the skills necessary to develop strategies that generate ROI. You might find someone who is good at two or three aspects, but even that can be a challenge. Even if you find people who know a little bit about everything, do you really want to settle for so-so design or just ok copywriting?
When you work with a B2B agency, they have cultivated a team of experts in every aspect of marketing and those people get to know your business so they can help you effectively present yourself to your target audience. Also, you only pay for the services and expertise you need when you need it – and you won’t be paying for it if you don’t need it.
Even if you have a marketing employee or team, a marketing agency can supplement their efforts and can be leaned on when the business needs to leverage specific strategies or tactics that can’t be handled in-house.
Benefits of Working with a B2B Digital Marketing Agency
Businesses of every size need clear marketing strategies in order to reach their target audience. Success in marketing isn’t an accident and it doesn’t happen at the snap of your fingers or the click of a mouse. It takes time, resources and planning.
If your company doesn’t have the time, bandwidth or expertise for things like content marketing, email campaigns, search engine optimization, social media advertising, direct marketing, etc., it’s worth it to consider the benefits of hiring a B2B marketing agency.
Marketing Agencies Have Resources
Do you have an efficient means of developing (and following through with) content calendars? How are your email campaigns truly performing? Do you have access to tools that can help you analyze data from each of your marketing efforts to know what’s working and what isn’t?
One of the benefits of working with a B2B digital marketing agency is that they have resources that many businesses do not. Marketing technology is always evolving, and it can be difficult for SMBs to keep pace with that change.
In addition to a team of experts, a B2B marketing agency also has access to the tools that make marketing more efficient and effective. They can develop strategies, implement those strategies, track engagement and performance, and help you understand what’s truly working for your business.
You Can Control Costs With An Outside B2B Marketing Firm
One of the biggest misconceptions about working with a B2B marketing agency is that it is too expensive. Could a small business afford a massive company based on Madison Avenue? Probably not. However, they can afford a B2B digital marketing agency or full-service agency that specializes in small and medium businesses.
The misconception about the cost of a marketing agency tends to come from an inaccurate comparison. Business owners often use the base salary of an in-house marketing employee and break it down to an hourly rate. Then they take that hourly rate and compare it to the hourly rate of the marketing agency and conclude that an employee is cheaper.
However, that comparison is apples and oranges.
It’s necessary to account for the true cost of hiring and retaining an employee, and when calculating hourly costs for an employee you must figure in payroll taxes, health insurance, retirement plan matches, paid time off, and other aspects that increase that hourly rate. When you add in the cost to recruit and train and onboard, the costs climb even higher.
It’s also important to remember that you pay in-house employees every single day. However, you only pay your B2B marketing agency for the services they provide at the time they provide them. If it only takes them five hours to complete something, you’re only paying for those five hours of the marketing agency’s time.
Even if you put a digital marketing company on a monthly retainer, if you break down the true costs, it will almost always be far cheaper than paying in-house employees every month.
Marketing Companies Have Depth of Knowledge
As previously noted, no one person is an expert in all areas of offline and digital marketing. Even if they are pretty good at a few aspects of B2B marketing, no one can be a master of all aspects.
When you partner with a B2B marketing agency, you connect with a team of people who specialize in specific areas of marketing. A good, full-service agency that works with small and medium-sized businesses will have people on the team who specialize in aspects of both inbound and outbound marketing which are equally important to help SMBs grow.
An outside marketing firm gives you access to expert strategies, copy and content writers, social media experts, search engine optimization professionals, graphic designers, web developers and more. If your business does not have the resources to hire experts in each of these areas, it is well worth the investment to partner with a B2B marketing agency.
B2B Marketing Services are Scalable
If you have an in-house marketer or team, they have limited capacity when it comes to output. If you need more from them, you must hire more full-time employees. And conversely, if you end up needing far less, you have to let someone go.
But a B2B marketing firm allows you to scale your marketing efforts up or down as needed exactly when you need to do it. Marketing companies have full teams on hand that can be deployed immediately if your business requires a more robust strategy.
And those teams are already experts. If, for example, you wanted to start advertising on Facebook, you’d have to train someone in-house to learn how to do it. Whereas if you work with a marketing company, you just tell them what you need, and their experts get cracking on it. A good B2B agency will adapt quickly to your needs and help you with your goals as you grow.
B2B Agencies Can Demonstrate ROI
Marketing may be affordable, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap. However, it is an investment. But many SMBs don’t know how to calculate the ROI of their marketing efforts, so they tend to see it as merely a cost.
The return that a B2B marketing company generates will vary depending on a variety of factors, but email marketing, for example, has an average return of $40 for each dollar spent. SEO averages a $22 return for every dollar spent. Whatever their return, the company can and should be able to show ROI.
Marketing is about helping a business grow by allowing them to reach new customers and strengthening relationships with existing customers. A B2B marketing agency isn’t an expense, it is an investment that compounds over time. Those agencies know that if they don’t generate returns for an SMB, that they will lose the business, so it is in their best interest to help every client achieve their goals.
Improve Your Marketing Today
It is not easy to market effectively, especially when you and your team have so many other priorities to focus on. However, without marketing, your company can not grow. And the beauty of B2B marketing is that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.
If your business understands the need to market but you don’t have the time, resources, tools or expertise to develop effective strategies in-house, BARQAR marketing can help. Leverage our expertise to take your business to the next level and improve your brand presence, audience reach and generate ROI. Contact us today to learn more about the ways we can help you grow.
