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A B2B Marketing Evolution is Imminent and it’s Powered by Insight, writes gyro MD

Steve McCarron

Business-to-business marketers have it tough. To be a successful agency partner, we need to understand the challenges of B2B and then set-up accordingly in order to really add value, writes Steve McCarron, managing director of gyro Manchester.

First, we must consider the many intricacies of today’s B2B marketplace.

B2B clients operate in a world of products and services which are far more complex and diverse than many consumer categories. These businesses often depend on accessing hard to define and difficult to reach target audiences, which invariably means seeking out alternatives to off-the-shelf intelligence sources such as Mintel or TGI.  Furthermore, decision-making will often take place over longer time periods, involving high-stake judgment calls which impact on business success, putting the decision-maker’s own reputation and career prospects on the line.  Often, multiple stakeholders will also need to be cajoled and brought on-board. It’s a far cry from impulse buying a packet of crisps at your local corner shop.

In short, B2B marketers operate in a world of complexity and challenge that makes it difficult to influence decision making effectively.  Any B2B marketing agency worth its salt must self-optimise in order to deliver in this complicated and ever-evolving world.

At gyro, we have developed our proposition around four key tasks which we believe are critical in order to enable B2B marketers to navigate this complexity.

1.Engage. We need an audience to pay attention to, and feel good about, our client’s brand. This requires  creating an emotional connection. At gyro, we do this through creating humanly relevant ideas.

2. Activate.  We must identify smart media choices which kick-start action or the discovery process.

3. Convert. Ultimately, we need to deliver a sale. This will depend on maximising performance and optimisation.

4. Retain. Finally, we need to create advocacy and repeat purchase.

Not only must these four tasks be built into any B2B marketing strategy, they must also work together in a seamless and integrated way. We believe that a B2B marketing agency wanting to achieve all this must have the right capabilities, products and services at its disposal.

However, there is also a catch.  In order to achieve this, you need to have data and insight front and centre.  If you don’t have the right data and insight, you’ll focus on the wrong people, at the wrong time in the wrong way.

 

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Targeting the audience opportunity; understanding the complexity of the customer journey; establishing the right process; managing all stakeholders; ensuring all decisions are the right decisions made at the right time; and staying with the customer on their journey all depend on identifying the right data to extract the best insight.

The acquisition by gyro, the world’s first full-service global agency dedicated exclusively to B2B marketing, of B2B International, the world’s leading specialist B2B market research agency, is a critical step.

With B2B International now at the heart of our business, gyro will be able to offer the best humanly-relevant ideas as part of a suite of strategic solutions powered by thought leadership, and a steady stream of technological innovation within a powerful new end-to-end B2B research and analytics proposition.

Our evolution is not only significant for us but also for all agencies servicing B2B clients, because it raises the bar.

At a time when B2B marketing is reaching new levels of sophistication, client expectations have never been higher. Moving forward, every B2B marketing agency must now ensure it optimises both the art and science of its own products and services in order to deliver the world-leading insight-led creative communications B2B clients need for success.  Ultimately, this will depend on the quality of data and insight which sit at the core.

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