Many businesses in Australia and abroad fail to build a long-lasting relationship with a B2B marketing company. The reason given for this by most business owners is that they couldn’t find a B2B marketing company that understood the pains and struggles they’ve already had to deal with. Do you know why most businesses in Australia and abroad are unable to build a long-lasting relationship with a B2B marketing company?
The key to avoiding marketing misalignment issues and building long-lasting relationships is proper communication. You need to keep in mind that B2B marketing is all about ‘partnership’ and you need to do your part to make the relationship work. When it comes to communication, one of the most important things that you can do to build a long-lasting relationship with a B2B marketing company is being clear about what you want from the execution of the B2B marketing campaign. How can you do that? The best thing businesses can do to make their B2B campaigns successful is asking the B2B marketing company relevant questions. So, what are the relevant questions that you should be asking?
6 Questions Before Executing your B2B Campaign
1. Do You Have Relevant Industry Experience?
A B2B marketing company with experience of working for companies in your industry is more likely to know the ins and outs of your trade. By evaluating the experience of the marketing company, in your industry, you can minimize the risk of failure. A B2B marketing company will be able to understand your marketing needs faster and better if it’s familiar with the value propositions, the language and keywords, and the customer behaviour relevant to your business.
Whether it has relevant industry experience or not, the B2B marketing company you choose should understand the intricacies of your business. Moreover, they must have the ability to develop the required skills quickly. If you don’t ensure the above, you’re going to have a mediocre B2B campaign at best.
2. Will You Listen and Try New Things
Before hiring a marketing company for B2B campaigns, ask yourself if you will listen to the company you hire and be open to trying new things. Now, this doesn’t mean that you implement every idea proposed by the marketing company your hire or adhere to everything they say. Rather, it means thinking about whether or not you’re willing to try something that’s different from what you’ve always done. If you aren’t then there’s no point of wasting your money on hiring someone to implement your ideas. Here is a reason to be open to listening new things: about 50% of the Australian B2B researchers are millennials. As the B2B marketing company your hire is likely to have ideas that help you specifically target Australian millennials, being open to what they have to say is in your business’s own interest.
3. What’s Your Communication Style?
Before hiring a marketing company to execute your B2B campaign, you need to determine your communication style. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, communication style means how you communicate i.e. through emails, over the phone, scheduled meetings etc. Once you’ve determined your communication style, find a marketing company that’s a good fit. This means finding a company that has experience in the same communication style as you. When the marketing company you hire has the same communication style as you, maintaining a working relationship becomes easy.
4. Can You Determine If We Are Focusing on The Right Target Audience?
One of the most important things that you need to know before executing a B2B marketing campaign is who you’re talking to or targeting. It is important that the company you hire for the campaign is able to give you a data-driven answer about whether you’re focusing on the right target audience. Also, find out about the segmentation practices of the company and how they plan to identify the sub groups in your target audience.
5. How Well Can You Help Your Marketing Partner Meet Deadlines?
To do their jobs and meet deadlines, every marketing company needs certain things. A lot of information is required to run successful B2B campaigns. Since the marketing company is running the B2B campaign for you, it is your responsibility to provide insights, answer questions, review material as it’s developed and give approvals in a timely manner to ensure that your marketing partner meets deadlines. So, before executing a B2B campaign, determine your ability to do things within specified time.
6. What Do You Expect Your Marketing Partner to Do?
When a business expects services that their marketing partner does not offer, problems start to occur. Not every marketing company does everything. So, determine what you expect your marketing partner to do and what they can offer you. In short, before executing B2B campaigns, ensure that you have the people and tools required to get everything you expect to get from them.