You can’t do everything yourself, no matter how much you might want to. That’s why many B2B brands work with freelancers, agencies and other outsourced talent to augment their internal skillsets without needing to take on a full-time hire.
It can be hard to decide who to work with, and as a general rule of thumb it’s a good idea to put out a request for proposal (RFP) to a handful of agencies and to make a judgement based on what they present to you.
Agencies work in all sorts of different ways, with some billing per hour and others billing per project. Some are challenger brands and others are more conservative. Some specialise and some are generalists. The key is to know what you want before you start the search – so that you’re not disappointed when you make a hire.
Still, you’ll need somewhere to start, and so we’ve done the hard work for you. Here are two innovative marketing agencies that specialise in boosting B2B brands.
MLT Creative
MLT Creative proudly proclaims that they’re “100% focused on B2B marketing”, and they put a lot of time into accentuating the subtle differences between B2B and B2C. They know from experience what works and what doesn’t in the B2B arena, and they apply that to clients like Proudfoot, SecureWorks and Virtual Incentives.
One of the interesting things about MLT is that they offer it all, from content marketing and digital campaigns to branding and positioning and crafting killer B2B websites. It’s certainly true that in B2B marketing, arguably even more so than in B2C, you need a comprehensive marketing strategy that covers all touch points.
Better still, they have dozens of free downloads available as part of their B2B Resource Center, as well as plenty of tips and how-tos in their Ideas@Work blog. When you’re starting to work with an agency, you need to be sure that they know what they’re doing. MLT wears their knowledge out on their sleeve, and they’ll have you convinced in no time.
Find out more about MLT Creative.
Kintsugi
Kintsugi is headquartered in Australia, but don’t let that fool you – they have international experience and their Australian heritage could actually be a part of what makes them stand out. Kintsugi has attitude, proudly proclaiming that they “don’t muck around” with buzz words, games and jargon.
Part of this is down to the influence of Téa Smith, the company’s MD and self-proclaimed “helper of people, fixer of problems, rapscallion, unicorn and Batman”. Smith has been “doing web stuff” for over 20 years, and her multidisciplinary team is on hand to guide B2B marketers through from idea to execution.
One of the interesting things about Kintsugi is where their name comes from. It’s the term for the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by gluing it back together and sprinkling gold dust over the breaks. That’s exactly how Kintsugi approaches problems for their clients – they don’t build websites or deploy campaigns, they take a look at their marketing as a whole and glue it all together. Not a bad choice at all if something’s wrong and you don’t know how to fix it.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.