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Demand Generation

Growth

How to Choose the Right B2B Marketing Agency

How to Choose the Right B2B Marketing Agency

B2B marketing is a different beast than B2C marketing and can be more challenging, even for experienced digital marketing teams. To build successful growth marketing strategies, working with a B2B marketing agency might be the most productive route to take. 

With that said, it’s not a good idea to join efforts with the first agency that shows up on search engine result pages. 

Finding the right agency that will meet a business's unique needs is easier said than done, and this article will discuss how to identify the right B2B marketing agency.

#1. Know Exactly What You Need

Even a rudimentary content marketing strategy (or any strategy, for that matter) requires a good understanding of goals and aims. It’s important that all objectives are made clear before a B2B marketing agency is approached.

When a business knows exactly what they want to achieve, it will be much easier for the agency to develop an effective strategy. 

This doesn’t mean a complete and fully developed digital marketing strategy or paid media campaign needs to be prepared, but the main ideas should already be identified. It’s also a good idea to already know the target market and potential strategic foundations that could work best. 

Having already-planned brand messaging and a fleshed-out brand identity will help the agency better understand the business as well, making the marketing and sales team’s work easier. 

#2. Ask the Agency For Examples of Their Work

Before deciding which marketing agency has made the cut, it’s a great idea to get an understanding of what they can do and how they go about meeting goals. Naturally, no marketing agency can show off all the work they've done, but they should have suitable examples and archives to display their skills and abilities.

Keep in mind that finding the right agency isn’t necessarily about working with one that has done exactly what you need. 

It is highly important that the agency has an understanding of appropriate industry trends (such as the PLG funnel), though. If the team is not up-to-date with what’s going on in your industry, the agency can easily miss the mark with its strategic planning.

#3. Read Their Websites Carefully 

Once you have compiled a list of reliable and interesting marketing agencies, it’s time to see how they created their own website. An easy way to see what a prospective agency is capable of is by taking a look at its own website.

If an agency can’t show examples of how it satisfied existing customers (or previous customers), it might be best to move on to the next agency. Getting a glimpse of previous work allows for an understanding of how an agency can achieve the goals it’s given.

At Matter Made, for example, we offer case studies from many brands — including Dropbox, Productboard, Calm, Loom, and more.

The website should also highlight information such as pricing, customer reviews, and how the teams behind the agency’s success do the things they do. You’ll get an understanding of the agency’s workflow and how that can help with "speed to lead" strategies.

#4. Have a Meeting With Each Agency

Getting together with the marketing agencies and personally meeting every potential agency partner is essential. Although a lot can be learned from the agencies’ websites and brochures, etc, nothing compares to physically meeting the marketing and sales teams you'll be working with.

Allowing a business’ in-house marketing team to meet with the agencies’ team members will help everyone involved to decide if they can work together. A successful digital marketing strategy depends on every person working on it, and if there isn’t harmony, the final results may be lackluster.

Asking questions in person also gives a business the chance to gauge how the agency’s team responds and get a feel for what working with them will be like.

#5. Slowly Weigh Up Your Options As a Team 

When all potential agency partners have been looked at, it’s time to sit back and carefully compare them. It’s important to not rush the decision and think carefully, taking portfolios, track records, skills, and pricing into consideration.

Taking enough time to make this decision can feel somewhat frustrating, but it’s important not to make an emotional or hurried choice. 

Keep in mind your desired marketing campaign — will you use content marketing or social media marketing? How important is search engine optimization to you? Will the agencies be able to achieve the goals you have? How will they do that, and how long will it take them? How will their approach affect your revenue operations? The answers to these questions will help make the final decision easier.

Is Matter Made the Right B2B Marketing Agency For You?

Choosing a B2B marketing agency to work with is more complex than one might expect, and having everyone on the same page about goals and ambitions is important. 

Although working with a good agency can make digital marketing easier, teaming up with the wrong one can cause frustration and waste money as well as time. 

Matter Made’s team of experienced experts could be just what you’re looking for. Interested? 

Let’s talk!

Blog Post

Growth

Demand Generation

Blog Post

5 Reasons You Should Hire a Growth Marketing Agency

Google Trends data shows that searches for "growth marketing" have grown substantially over the past five years. This isn't too surprising — growth marketing is highly scalable, provides a strong Return On Investment (ROI), and helps brands grow sustainably long-term. 

Mastering growth marketing isn't always easy, so many companies choose to work with a growth marketing agency. This article will shed light on five reasons your brand should hire such an agency. 

#1. They Have Experience With Other Companies at Your Growth Stage

As brands grow, they often face a common set of growing pains related to marketing. For example, startups often lack the marketing bandwidth to run full-fledged campaigns on all digital platforms simultaneously. Or, new ecommerce businesses often struggle to get the engagement snowball rolling (getting your fifth follower is far easier than getting your 150th). 

Growth marketing agencies work with brands over long periods, so they know how to minimize growing pains and steer a brand through the chaos. 

Growth hackers have also implemented a wide range of strategies across many digital platforms, so they know what works and what doesn't. This knowledge is invaluable, as it will help you make smarter marketing choices straight away so you can yield returns quickly. 

Note: Read "How To Build a PLG Funnel Your Sales Team Can Use."

#2. They Can Plan Industry-Specific Long-Term Strategies

Compared to regular marketers, growth marketers view the sales funnel more holistically. Plus, they focus on metrics like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and retention rate over short-term revenue. 

The growth marketing sales funnel stages: awareness, consideration, action, adoption, and expansion and their corresponding lifecycle stages.

As a result, growth marketing strategies are like snowballs — they grow as they gain momentum. Growth marketing is really a long-term approach. 

While a traditional marketing agency can help you design a strategy weeks to months in advance, your growth team will think months to years ahead. Naturally, they can help you design marketing that is sustainable and provides long-term returns. 

Growth hackers are also excellent researchers. They can dive deep into your industry and learn what motivates your customers and how to market to them best. When you hire a growth marketing team, you get a holistic, industry-specific plan. 

#3. They Can Save You Money

The initial investment of hiring a growth hacking marketing agency often makes brand owners and managers nervous. However, if the brand invests wisely, it can spend less on an agency than it would if it tried to run a fully-fledged marketing strategy in-house. 

Growth marketing agencies can also get brands a better ROI. Agencies have a lot of in-house expertise, so they can optimize your marketing budget with smart investments and reduce marketing wastage. 

Research on 1,000 marketers by Rakuten Marketing shows that around 26% of marketing budgets were wasted in 2018, while a 2022 report on 41 companies spending $500,000 to $31 million on marketing estimates marketing wastage is 41%. So wastage is a major concern for many brands. 

#4. They Reduce Your Workload

Growth marketing agencies often employ marketers who specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid media, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, referral marketing, video marketing, and other marketing niches. So, when you work with an agency, you get access to experts without having to expand your in-house marketing team. 

Working with a growth marketing company can also reduce your workload substantially. Marketers can either complete marketing tasks for you or help you automate them. 

You'll know whether you've hired a good agency if they're easy to work with. We recommend looking for an agency that communicates well, provides regular updates, consults you in the decision-making process, and works transparently. 

#5. They Can Help You Become Results-Driven

Growth marketing is generally more adaptive than traditional digital marketing (though that is changing as marketers get better access to marketing data). When they implement a strategy, growth hackers conduct frequent tests and experiments to assess how your audience is responding. Then, they optimize your marketing materials to obtain the best result. 

Naturally, hiring an agency can help you become more results and performance-driven. Performance marketing offers benefits like:

  • Higher ROI
  • More efficient marketing
  • Optimized campaign planning
  • Enhanced forecasting 
  • Faster speed to lead times
  • Greater customer retention

Working with a growth hacking consulting agency also means you don't need to design your marketing analytics infrastructure alone. Many new brands and startups with limited staff and busy schedules often struggle to dedicate time to building this infrastructure, so it's nice to get it off your to-do list.

Note: Read "3 RevOps HubSpot Automations Your Business Needs."

Performance Marketing and Growth Marketing Agencies

Growth marketing can improve your ROI, grow your customer base, and help you achieve rapid and sustainable growth. 

You can see the value of a growth agency by looking at a case study like that of Allocations. Matter Made helped Allocations develop marketing infrastructure and run campaigns on Google, Bing, and LinkedIn. As a result, Allocations increased its pipeline three times in the first 90 days

Want results from growth marketing? Let's talk. 

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