Why you don’t need B2B content marketing… (you need a B2B content marketing agency)

You need digital marketing. You know that.

You get that the world is online - that your next client is too - but content marketing is necessarily an afterthought: you’re busy doing the actual work in the business and have little left over to spend on the business.

Time-poor, you’re focused on delivery - not window dressing. And, frankly, when you've put time into B2B content marketing in the past, did it make any difference? It didn't appear to.

So, cards on the table…

Sporadic tweets; repetitive LinkedIn posts (when your intern remembers on a Friday afternoon); a quickly pulled-together blog... This is, loosely, B2B content marketing.

But it's not good B2B content marketing: it's not strategic and it's unlikely to help you grow.

72% of marketers say that effective content marketing increases engagement and leads, yet 63 % of businesses don't have a documented content strategy.

If this is you, read on for why you've been telling yourself you don't need professional B2B digital marketing… And our tribe’s rationale for why you do.

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1 - Digital marketing is seen as admin

Google processes over 8.5 billion searches every day. How do you ensure your needle in the haystack is the one prospects see?

Forget blind faith: make a plan to get eyes on.

Marketers that proactively plan their marketing are 331% more successful than their peers. Learn from the experts: digital marketing without a strategy is simply white noise.

If you've relegated marketing to a junior, or class it as a ‘tick box’ admin task - frankly, you’re not doing it right. No wonder you've become a bit cynical, or disheartened at the results you've seen.

Admit this truth: digital marketing is more than admin. A good agency lives this fact - and makes it their team’s laser-like focus, feeding energy into your business’ growth from beneath, as you deliver the visible ‘uptop’ goods.

2 - Marketing leads didn't deliver sales

We know that referral leads have a 30% higher conversion rate than any other channel. But your business is exposed if you rely solely on referrals for growth.

Marketing strategies help you reach new leads and generate interest in your business. Turning a lead into a customer takes multiple points of contact: various forms of marketing plus social proof (like recommendations from friends or online reviews.)

Perhaps your previous marketing efforts gave you those cold or even warm leads, but sales didn't close the deal and turn them into customers. If so, remember only 28% of salespeople said marketing was their best lead source.

This reality is not necessarily the 'fault' or failure of marketing - or indeed sales - but more because they aren't working together effectively.

It could be the system that is broken: not your teams.

The reality is that marketing and sales aren't just connected… they're integrated. Or they should be. 60% of global respondents in a LinkedIn survey believed that misalignment between sales and marketing might damage financial performance.

An effective marketing funnel is achievable - only with a healthy and optimally utilised (you guessed it) CRM.

The good news? A great marketing agency can deliver the content marketing to catch your clients' eye, but also help you establish the processes and systems to ensure your sales teams win their hearts and convert them into long-term partners.

In short: the best digital marketing agencies deliver the systems as well as the socials.

(Pssst - this is us! We help clients to deploy CRMs for ‘smarketing’ synergy.)

3 - Your previous agency was outside your business

Of course it was: they were an external partner.

On paper, the agency you employ to run your marketing is not an internal team. They don't attend the Christmas party. They aren’t in your Slack group.

But, in many ways, this siloed thinking can inhibit the evolution of the relationship with your digital marketing partner.

An effective collaboration with a digital marketing agency is based on the need to understand the heartbeat and lifeblood of your business. And the best marketing partners? They live and breathe the business alongside you. Because ultimately, you fail or thrive together.

Rather than seeing your agency as a bolt-on for your business, bring them in, feed them content and change your teams’ thinking towards marketing: they're your allies, not an afterthought.

If you're considering working with a digital marketing agency, ask if they will spend the time getting their hands dirty exploring the depths of your business.

And only work with the ones who care enough to roll up their sleeves.

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4 - Advertising is surely enough

Turn on advertising, and it works. Evidently. The digital advertising industry is now valued at around $200 billion, with Google Ads accounting for 96% of the search-Goliath’s revenue.

But advertising is a blunt instrument and risks annoying prospects. (No shock that a recent survey found that 73% of respondents dislike pop-ups. And we’re with them.)

Irritation aside, throwing money at Google or Facebook will have little enduring impact without being aligned to other content. Bottom line: turn ads off and your reach disappears.

You need content if you want to count long-term.

72 % of marketers say that content marketing increases engagement and leads: not just on socials, but on strategic blog and email campaigns:

• 70 % of organisations list blog content as one of the top five content channels
• And email marketing has a 50 to 100 times higher click-through-rate when compared with Facebook and Twitter

The lesson? Advertising is not enough.

If you’re still in doubt that you need robust content marketing delivered consistently, digest this stat: 95% of buyers buy from someone who gave them content at each stage of the buyer's journey. And although quality marketing materials matter, 65% of sales reps say they can't find content to send to prospects.

Great content marketing is a lot, and we get that.

Take a breath.  

You don't just need B2B content marketing - you need a B2B content marketing strategy. And whether in house, or an external partner, a strategy executed by experts.

We work to deliver top-notch B2B marketing and bring the energy to make our client's tribes thrive.

If you’ve specific questions about how to create momentum around your digital marketing, we’re friendly folk: we’d be keen to hear them.

Get in touch via team@wearewildtribe.com or book a call below:

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