b2bmarketing.net
evolution of the
marketing agency
Technology and the
A B2B Marketing
Whitepaper
Published February 2013
Sponsored by:
2 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net
Back in 1975, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, observed the
performance of personal computers was doubling every 18 months. This
so-called ‘Moore’s Law’ has provided, during our lifetimes, the foundation
for one of the most signi?cant and rapid developments in human history:
the digital revolution.
By 2013, this digital revolution has transformed the way B2B marketers
use technology and many marketers and their agencies are struggling to
make sense of it all. In this paper we o?er a way forward.
Key ?ndings include:
•
Budgetary pressure and the emergence of social media channels,
combined with changing buyer behaviours, have forced marketers
to look for new ways to reach business buyers.
•
Marketing automation technologies allow them to deliver timely,
relevant content to buyers and deliver quality leads to sales, all
on a large scale.
•
Too few marketers have the skills or knowledge to maximise the
return on these platforms and so increasingly they will rely on
their agencies to provide a fully managed service. This requires
agencies to adapt their propositions, services, and internal
skillsets.
•
The pace of change continues to accelerate and failure to adapt
to this rapidly changing reality will be damaging for marketers
and their agencies alike.
The digital revolution
In the early years of the 21st century, we saw a shift towards digital
technology and communications mechanisms. More and more users
shifted to cloud computing, Google’s pre-eminence was established and
both personal and business users became accustomed to using vast
quantities of computing power at a standardised, scalable cost.
At the time, for many B2B marketers, this seemed like a dizzyingly
rapid transformation, but seen in retrospect and compared to what
has taken place since 2008, it now looks like a fairly gentle migration.
It is the e?ects of 2008-9 global ?nancial crisis, coupled with the
“Budgetary pressure and the
emergence of social media
channels, combined with
changing buyer behaviours,
have forced marketers to
look for new ways to reach
business buyers”
Adapt or die: the evolution
of the marketing agency
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
3
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“[Marketing automation has
become the platform on
which B2B marketers can
tether the potential of social
media to existing channels
and deliver the results and
accountability on restricted
budgets their boards
demand from them”
emergence of social media platforms, that has truly revolutionised the
way B2B marketers use technology.
During 2008-9, it was hard to have a conversation with a B2B marketer
that did not involve a discussion of how much their budgets had been
cut. For the most part they remain under signi?cant pressure to generate
a return and demonstrate the relevance of their activities.
Indeed, according to B2B Marketing’s 2012 Marcomms Agencies
Benchmarking Report, by far the greatest challenge facing B2B marketing
agencies is downwards pressure on clients’ budgets. Fifty-six per cent
of the 50 agencies surveyed cited this issue. Five years ago, this was
far less of a problem for agencies than where to ?nd quality sta? (now
only an issue for 6 per cent), but now it really is the burning issue of
the moment: marketers need to produce and demonstrate a return
on investment.
At the same time a host of new technologies have created new
opportunities for those B2B marketers. Four years ago Forrester ran its
?rst Social Technographics For B2B Technology Buyers Survey, and found
a general scepticism shared among marketing executives regarding the
value of social media for B2B customer engagement and its impact on
the sales pipeline.
It repeated the exercise in 2012 among more than 6000 US and EMEA
business technology decision-makers of various levels of seniority, roles,
and industries and found a transformation in attitudes: more than 80 per
cent of business technology buyers in the US and more than 75 per cent
in EMEA now use social media for work purposes.
Marketing automation: the ‘must-have’ technology
The ?nal piece of the jigsaw has been the rise of marketing automation.
Not so long ago marketing automation was synonymous with plaguing
people with email spam. However, in just a few years, marketing
automation has become widely accepted by B2B marketers as a must-
have sophisticated process of nurturing, scoring and then contacting
prospects when they want to hear from you. It has become the platform
on which B2B marketers can tether the potential of social media to existing
channels and deliver the results and accountability on restricted budgets
their boards demand from them.
Forrester’s B2B Marketers Must Better Prepare For Marketing Automation
report puts it this way: “For companies serving buyers that make high-
consideration purchases, from medical equipment to advertising services,
marketers need to communicate with potential buyers at every stage
of their problem-solving cycle, providing them with information that is
targeted to their needs, role, intent, and interest level. To manage this
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
4
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“[Agencies] face pressure to
become more digitally
focused, demonstrating ROI
to their clients, and
matching the pace and
volume of output that their
competitors manage”
depth of engagement at scale requires marketing automation.”
That was back in April 2011. If it was true then, it is even more so today.
It is not only budget levels and available technology that have changed;
buyer behaviour has also changed. Most importantly, buyers no longer
wait for salespeople to approach them – they do their own research, and
arrive at a salesperson already armed with information and questions.
The challenge for marketers is to provide them with well-timed content
that educates and inspires.
The upshot is marketers are racing to understand and use marketing
automation. A year ago in its B2B Marketing Trends And Predictions For
2012 report, Forrester wrote, “The con?uence of several factors will cause
automation technology to tip in 2012. Our surveys show that 19 per cent
of B2B organisations are planning to implement marketing automation in
2012, and another 17 per cent are expanding their usage.”
It continued, “Why? Price tags have come down due to intense
competition; user interfaces have greatly improved in the past year;
sales force automation has reached a saturation point, and companies
want to get more from it; and dismal results from cold calling and
unsolicited emails are pushing marketing and sales teams to adopt a lead
nurturing approach.”
A changed role for agencies
It is not only marketers who need to adapt to the fast-changing landscape
– their agencies need to keep up too. They face pressure to become
more digitally focused, demonstrating ROI to their clients, and ultimately
matching the pace and volume of output that their competitors manage.
So, the role of the B2B marketing agency is changing in three key ways:
•
They are now less focussed around the creative product or
proposition, and more around these new technologies.
•
Their work is less seasonal and event driven, and more focused
on helping clients deliver a constant and consistent presence
through various channels, including ‘always-on’ social media.
•
They have an increased focus on delivering detailed data to
marketers. This is not merely email click-through rates or the
number of event attendees; it is also the amount of revenue
generated and even predictions of future revenue generated
for given actions. Agencies are increasingly talking business
metrics rather than marketing metrics. This is a profound shift.
It a?ects not only how agencies operate, but also how they are
judged by existing and potential customers. In its Interactive
Marketing Agency Evaluation Framework report, Sirius Decisions
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
5
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“Marketers go into
automation projects thinking
they can use their existing
content to power lead
nurturing campaigns but
discover their content
consists mainly of
brochures, whitepapers and
press releases”
proposed ?ve criteria by which marketers should evaluate their
agencies: strategy, creative, demand generation, social media
and reporting.
Thirty years ago, marketers sought only creative from their agencies. By
the 1990s, they might have looked for strategic input and clear reporting.
It is only recently they have expected their agencies to get involved in
demand generation or to provide sophisticated reporting, and of course
social media is a very recent innovation.
The new B2B marketing agency: rising to
the challenge
As client demands change so the agency must itself change. So what
does the roadmap for this change look like?
1. Positioning
Too many B2B marketers invest in marketing automation to solve a
tactical issue, but lack the technological expertise to realise the full
strategic potential of their investment. The tendency of vendors to
hype their systems as being ‘simple to set up and run’ exacerbates
the problem.
Some marketers become disillusioned with marketing automation, but
many look externally for support. Agencies that can o?er a comprehensive
managed service – running marketing automation platforms independently
with little input, and delivering regular, comprehensive reports – are the
ones clients will increasingly select.
2. Services
The automation of marketing programmes is about the rapid, large-scale
delivery of appropriate content to relevant decision-makers. It relies on
a large amount of quality content, but as Forrester noted, “Marketers go
into automation projects thinking that they can use their existing content
to power lead nurturing campaigns but discover that their content
consists mainly of product brochures, technical whitepapers, and press
releases. If they only push this type of content out in campaigns, they
push their audiences away, since business buyers have a low tolerance
for commercial messages.”
Content planning, creation and management is a growth area for
agencies, and many of them are building capability in unfamiliar areas
such as: communication planning; social monitoring and troubleshooting;
measurement and analytics; and reporting.
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
6
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“A startling 13 per cent of
marketers only produce
random acts of marketing
with very little strategy. This
is not outsiders criticising
marketers, it is their own
assessments of their levels
of sophistication”
3. Skills
Typically, agencies have hired creatives who provide the sparks that
bring client strategies to life, and account handlers with communication
skills to bridge the gap between those ideas and strategies.
However, this is fast changing and we now see a new breed of agency
developing or recruiting new skills, focused around technology and data,
rather than creative and communications.
Tomorrow’s point of competitive di?erence
If Moore’s Law continues to hold true then we can expect to see technology
having an ever greater impact on marketers and their agencies, and the
automation landscape evolving even faster. To give just one example of
what lies ahead, Marketo has recently released its Programme Exchange
tool, on which marketers can share campaigns. Other marketers can take
the campaign structure, insert their own content and produce work for
their clients even faster and at lower cost than before. These cost savings
can create competitive advantage for agencies, allowing them to reduce
their fees, or go directly onto the bottom line in terms of increased pro?ts.
There is a great opportunity here for those agencies who act now.
Whether it is marketing automation, revenue performance management,
or another one of the terms used to describe this high volume, low cost,
closely targeted delivery of relevant and timely content, there seems little
doubt it is the future for the B2B marketing agency. But surprisingly few
on either side of the client/agency divide seem to have realised this.
B2B Marketing’s June 2012 Revenue Performance Management Report
revealed only nine per cent of marketers are very familiar with, and
regularly use, the term revenue performance management. Thirty-two
per cent had never heard of it and 28 per cent had heard of it but didn’t
understand what it means.
The same report revealed only 20 per cent of marketers e?iciently
design, execute, measure and reuse optimised programmes across
multiple channels. Forty-three per cent have a strategy but say it requires
a lot of manual e?ort. A startling 13 per cent only produce random acts
of marketing with very little strategy. Bearing in mind this is not outsiders
criticising these marketers – it is their own assessments of their levels
of sophistication – it is clear there is much to improve.
Many marketers remain stuck in the dark ages, and rely on agencies to
help them emerge from it. The marketers who fail to do so will soon ?nd
their brands, companies or job are marginalised. As a necessary e?ect
of this, the agencies that embrace this new technology now will soon
?nd themselves in possession of a point-of-di?erence that few potential
clients will be able to resist.
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
7
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“Many marketers remain
stuck in the dark ages, and
rely on agencies to help
them emerge from it”
Six questions to ask your vendor
It is one thing for a B2B marketing agency to decide to invest in a
marketing automation platform, it is quite another for that agency
to select the right platform. If you are considering making this
investment here are six questions for you to ask vendors:
1. How credible are you?
•
What do analysts, such as Gartner and Forrester, say
about you?
•
What case studies of similar organisations to mine can
you o?er me?
•
Which customers can I approach for references?
2. How frequently is your software updated?
•
What percentage of your revenue do you reinvest in
development?
3. How many languages does your platform support?
•
Will I be able to run my regional campaigns?
4 . What support do you o?er around installation, training and
support?
•
What community-based support is available?
5. What ?nancial packages are available?
6. What innovations do you have planned for the future?
B2B Marketing is the comprehensive information resource for B2B
marketers. Its mission is to provide practitioners with the information
they need to perform better and achieve more, whatever sector of the
B2B space they are operating in.
Launched in 2004 as B2B Marketing magazine, it has since evolved into
a multi-faceted resource, delivering a broad range of content in a variety
of di?erent forms and formats.
Its key products are:
Community: B2B Marketing is a community where you can learn, share and
connect with other marketers to help better achieve your objectives.The
site also holds a huge archive of content focusing on every conceivable
aspect of B2B marketing and includes various opportunities for online
interaction and learning, such as a best practice webcast programme
and an interactive online directory for supplier sourcing.
Magazine: The essential monthly guide to B2B marketing, with a key
focus on best practice guidance, plus monthly features looking at current
trends, regular research and pro?les.
Awards: The showpiece event for brands and practitioners, attracting
over 700 people. Former winners include a host of top-tier B2B brands,
including Amex, Barclays, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, KPMG, Nokia, O2,
Oracle, Orange, SAP, Thomson Reuters, Vauxhall UK, and many more.
Research and reports: A library that houses the best in B2B practice,
in-depth practical guidance and research into speci?c channels or
industry issues.
Training and events: Highly-focused events and training sessions aimed
at helping marketers hear and learn ?rst hand from the experts in order
to hone their skills.
Membership: Become a member and receive all research and reports for
free. You will also receive exclusive invites to members-only networking
events, get discounts on training seminars, workshops and conferences
and receive a subscription to the monthly magazine. There are di?erent
levels of membership available so please call +44 (0) 20 7269 6592 to ?nd
out more.
For more information on any of these products or services go to
b2bmarketing.net or call +44 (0) 20 7438 1370
8 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net
About B2B Marketing
Marketo uniquely provides easy-to-use, powerful and complete marketing
software that propels fast-growing small companies and global
enterprises alike. Marketo® marketing automation and sales e?ectiveness
software – including the world’s ?rst integrated solution for social
marketing automation – streamlines marketing processes, delivers more
campaigns, generates more win-ready leads, and dramatically improves
sales performance. With proven technology, comprehensive services
and expert guidance, Marketo helps thousands of companies around the
world turn marketing from a cost center into a revenue driver.
Known for providing breakthrough innovation and fueling explosive
growth, Marketo was recently named one of “America’s Most Promising
Companies” by Forbes, the #1 Marketing Software Vendor on the INC
500, and the #1 fastest-growing private company of 2011 by the Silicon
Valley Business Journal. In both 2011 and 2012 the company received
the CRM Market Leaders Awards Winner for Marketing Solutions by CRM
Magazine. Salesforce.com customers also honored the company with
two AppExchange Best of ’11 Awards, for Best Marketing Automation
Solution and Best Chatter Exchange.
Marketo and the Marketo logo are trademarks of Marketo, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact details:
Marketo EMEA Ltd.
Cairn House, South County Business Park
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
Freephone UK: 0800.456.1393
Phone: +353.1.242.3000
Marketo, Inc. Headquarters
901 Mariners Island Blvd.
Suite 200 San Mateo, California 94404, USA
US Freephone: +1.877.260.MKTO (6586)
Marketo Australia Pty Ltd
Suite 502, 151 Castlereagh Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Toll Free AU: +61 1800 352 270
9 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net
About Marketo
B2B Marketing
Colonial Buildings
59/61 Hatton Garden
London
EC1N 8LS
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7438 1370
Fax +44 (0) 20 7438 1377
[email protected]
b2bmarketing.net
doc_138315833.pdf
evolution of the
marketing agency
Technology and the
A B2B Marketing
Whitepaper
Published February 2013
Sponsored by:
2 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net
Back in 1975, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, observed the
performance of personal computers was doubling every 18 months. This
so-called ‘Moore’s Law’ has provided, during our lifetimes, the foundation
for one of the most signi?cant and rapid developments in human history:
the digital revolution.
By 2013, this digital revolution has transformed the way B2B marketers
use technology and many marketers and their agencies are struggling to
make sense of it all. In this paper we o?er a way forward.
Key ?ndings include:
•
Budgetary pressure and the emergence of social media channels,
combined with changing buyer behaviours, have forced marketers
to look for new ways to reach business buyers.
•
Marketing automation technologies allow them to deliver timely,
relevant content to buyers and deliver quality leads to sales, all
on a large scale.
•
Too few marketers have the skills or knowledge to maximise the
return on these platforms and so increasingly they will rely on
their agencies to provide a fully managed service. This requires
agencies to adapt their propositions, services, and internal
skillsets.
•
The pace of change continues to accelerate and failure to adapt
to this rapidly changing reality will be damaging for marketers
and their agencies alike.
The digital revolution
In the early years of the 21st century, we saw a shift towards digital
technology and communications mechanisms. More and more users
shifted to cloud computing, Google’s pre-eminence was established and
both personal and business users became accustomed to using vast
quantities of computing power at a standardised, scalable cost.
At the time, for many B2B marketers, this seemed like a dizzyingly
rapid transformation, but seen in retrospect and compared to what
has taken place since 2008, it now looks like a fairly gentle migration.
It is the e?ects of 2008-9 global ?nancial crisis, coupled with the
“Budgetary pressure and the
emergence of social media
channels, combined with
changing buyer behaviours,
have forced marketers to
look for new ways to reach
business buyers”
Adapt or die: the evolution
of the marketing agency
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
3
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“[Marketing automation has
become the platform on
which B2B marketers can
tether the potential of social
media to existing channels
and deliver the results and
accountability on restricted
budgets their boards
demand from them”
emergence of social media platforms, that has truly revolutionised the
way B2B marketers use technology.
During 2008-9, it was hard to have a conversation with a B2B marketer
that did not involve a discussion of how much their budgets had been
cut. For the most part they remain under signi?cant pressure to generate
a return and demonstrate the relevance of their activities.
Indeed, according to B2B Marketing’s 2012 Marcomms Agencies
Benchmarking Report, by far the greatest challenge facing B2B marketing
agencies is downwards pressure on clients’ budgets. Fifty-six per cent
of the 50 agencies surveyed cited this issue. Five years ago, this was
far less of a problem for agencies than where to ?nd quality sta? (now
only an issue for 6 per cent), but now it really is the burning issue of
the moment: marketers need to produce and demonstrate a return
on investment.
At the same time a host of new technologies have created new
opportunities for those B2B marketers. Four years ago Forrester ran its
?rst Social Technographics For B2B Technology Buyers Survey, and found
a general scepticism shared among marketing executives regarding the
value of social media for B2B customer engagement and its impact on
the sales pipeline.
It repeated the exercise in 2012 among more than 6000 US and EMEA
business technology decision-makers of various levels of seniority, roles,
and industries and found a transformation in attitudes: more than 80 per
cent of business technology buyers in the US and more than 75 per cent
in EMEA now use social media for work purposes.
Marketing automation: the ‘must-have’ technology
The ?nal piece of the jigsaw has been the rise of marketing automation.
Not so long ago marketing automation was synonymous with plaguing
people with email spam. However, in just a few years, marketing
automation has become widely accepted by B2B marketers as a must-
have sophisticated process of nurturing, scoring and then contacting
prospects when they want to hear from you. It has become the platform
on which B2B marketers can tether the potential of social media to existing
channels and deliver the results and accountability on restricted budgets
their boards demand from them.
Forrester’s B2B Marketers Must Better Prepare For Marketing Automation
report puts it this way: “For companies serving buyers that make high-
consideration purchases, from medical equipment to advertising services,
marketers need to communicate with potential buyers at every stage
of their problem-solving cycle, providing them with information that is
targeted to their needs, role, intent, and interest level. To manage this
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
4
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“[Agencies] face pressure to
become more digitally
focused, demonstrating ROI
to their clients, and
matching the pace and
volume of output that their
competitors manage”
depth of engagement at scale requires marketing automation.”
That was back in April 2011. If it was true then, it is even more so today.
It is not only budget levels and available technology that have changed;
buyer behaviour has also changed. Most importantly, buyers no longer
wait for salespeople to approach them – they do their own research, and
arrive at a salesperson already armed with information and questions.
The challenge for marketers is to provide them with well-timed content
that educates and inspires.
The upshot is marketers are racing to understand and use marketing
automation. A year ago in its B2B Marketing Trends And Predictions For
2012 report, Forrester wrote, “The con?uence of several factors will cause
automation technology to tip in 2012. Our surveys show that 19 per cent
of B2B organisations are planning to implement marketing automation in
2012, and another 17 per cent are expanding their usage.”
It continued, “Why? Price tags have come down due to intense
competition; user interfaces have greatly improved in the past year;
sales force automation has reached a saturation point, and companies
want to get more from it; and dismal results from cold calling and
unsolicited emails are pushing marketing and sales teams to adopt a lead
nurturing approach.”
A changed role for agencies
It is not only marketers who need to adapt to the fast-changing landscape
– their agencies need to keep up too. They face pressure to become
more digitally focused, demonstrating ROI to their clients, and ultimately
matching the pace and volume of output that their competitors manage.
So, the role of the B2B marketing agency is changing in three key ways:
•
They are now less focussed around the creative product or
proposition, and more around these new technologies.
•
Their work is less seasonal and event driven, and more focused
on helping clients deliver a constant and consistent presence
through various channels, including ‘always-on’ social media.
•
They have an increased focus on delivering detailed data to
marketers. This is not merely email click-through rates or the
number of event attendees; it is also the amount of revenue
generated and even predictions of future revenue generated
for given actions. Agencies are increasingly talking business
metrics rather than marketing metrics. This is a profound shift.
It a?ects not only how agencies operate, but also how they are
judged by existing and potential customers. In its Interactive
Marketing Agency Evaluation Framework report, Sirius Decisions
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
5
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“Marketers go into
automation projects thinking
they can use their existing
content to power lead
nurturing campaigns but
discover their content
consists mainly of
brochures, whitepapers and
press releases”
proposed ?ve criteria by which marketers should evaluate their
agencies: strategy, creative, demand generation, social media
and reporting.
Thirty years ago, marketers sought only creative from their agencies. By
the 1990s, they might have looked for strategic input and clear reporting.
It is only recently they have expected their agencies to get involved in
demand generation or to provide sophisticated reporting, and of course
social media is a very recent innovation.
The new B2B marketing agency: rising to
the challenge
As client demands change so the agency must itself change. So what
does the roadmap for this change look like?
1. Positioning
Too many B2B marketers invest in marketing automation to solve a
tactical issue, but lack the technological expertise to realise the full
strategic potential of their investment. The tendency of vendors to
hype their systems as being ‘simple to set up and run’ exacerbates
the problem.
Some marketers become disillusioned with marketing automation, but
many look externally for support. Agencies that can o?er a comprehensive
managed service – running marketing automation platforms independently
with little input, and delivering regular, comprehensive reports – are the
ones clients will increasingly select.
2. Services
The automation of marketing programmes is about the rapid, large-scale
delivery of appropriate content to relevant decision-makers. It relies on
a large amount of quality content, but as Forrester noted, “Marketers go
into automation projects thinking that they can use their existing content
to power lead nurturing campaigns but discover that their content
consists mainly of product brochures, technical whitepapers, and press
releases. If they only push this type of content out in campaigns, they
push their audiences away, since business buyers have a low tolerance
for commercial messages.”
Content planning, creation and management is a growth area for
agencies, and many of them are building capability in unfamiliar areas
such as: communication planning; social monitoring and troubleshooting;
measurement and analytics; and reporting.
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net
6
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“A startling 13 per cent of
marketers only produce
random acts of marketing
with very little strategy. This
is not outsiders criticising
marketers, it is their own
assessments of their levels
of sophistication”
3. Skills
Typically, agencies have hired creatives who provide the sparks that
bring client strategies to life, and account handlers with communication
skills to bridge the gap between those ideas and strategies.
However, this is fast changing and we now see a new breed of agency
developing or recruiting new skills, focused around technology and data,
rather than creative and communications.
Tomorrow’s point of competitive di?erence
If Moore’s Law continues to hold true then we can expect to see technology
having an ever greater impact on marketers and their agencies, and the
automation landscape evolving even faster. To give just one example of
what lies ahead, Marketo has recently released its Programme Exchange
tool, on which marketers can share campaigns. Other marketers can take
the campaign structure, insert their own content and produce work for
their clients even faster and at lower cost than before. These cost savings
can create competitive advantage for agencies, allowing them to reduce
their fees, or go directly onto the bottom line in terms of increased pro?ts.
There is a great opportunity here for those agencies who act now.
Whether it is marketing automation, revenue performance management,
or another one of the terms used to describe this high volume, low cost,
closely targeted delivery of relevant and timely content, there seems little
doubt it is the future for the B2B marketing agency. But surprisingly few
on either side of the client/agency divide seem to have realised this.
B2B Marketing’s June 2012 Revenue Performance Management Report
revealed only nine per cent of marketers are very familiar with, and
regularly use, the term revenue performance management. Thirty-two
per cent had never heard of it and 28 per cent had heard of it but didn’t
understand what it means.
The same report revealed only 20 per cent of marketers e?iciently
design, execute, measure and reuse optimised programmes across
multiple channels. Forty-three per cent have a strategy but say it requires
a lot of manual e?ort. A startling 13 per cent only produce random acts
of marketing with very little strategy. Bearing in mind this is not outsiders
criticising these marketers – it is their own assessments of their levels
of sophistication – it is clear there is much to improve.
Many marketers remain stuck in the dark ages, and rely on agencies to
help them emerge from it. The marketers who fail to do so will soon ?nd
their brands, companies or job are marginalised. As a necessary e?ect
of this, the agencies that embrace this new technology now will soon
?nd themselves in possession of a point-of-di?erence that few potential
clients will be able to resist.
Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
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7
Adapt or die: the evolution of the marketing agency
“Many marketers remain
stuck in the dark ages, and
rely on agencies to help
them emerge from it”
Six questions to ask your vendor
It is one thing for a B2B marketing agency to decide to invest in a
marketing automation platform, it is quite another for that agency
to select the right platform. If you are considering making this
investment here are six questions for you to ask vendors:
1. How credible are you?
•
What do analysts, such as Gartner and Forrester, say
about you?
•
What case studies of similar organisations to mine can
you o?er me?
•
Which customers can I approach for references?
2. How frequently is your software updated?
•
What percentage of your revenue do you reinvest in
development?
3. How many languages does your platform support?
•
Will I be able to run my regional campaigns?
4 . What support do you o?er around installation, training and
support?
•
What community-based support is available?
5. What ?nancial packages are available?
6. What innovations do you have planned for the future?
B2B Marketing is the comprehensive information resource for B2B
marketers. Its mission is to provide practitioners with the information
they need to perform better and achieve more, whatever sector of the
B2B space they are operating in.
Launched in 2004 as B2B Marketing magazine, it has since evolved into
a multi-faceted resource, delivering a broad range of content in a variety
of di?erent forms and formats.
Its key products are:
Community: B2B Marketing is a community where you can learn, share and
connect with other marketers to help better achieve your objectives.The
site also holds a huge archive of content focusing on every conceivable
aspect of B2B marketing and includes various opportunities for online
interaction and learning, such as a best practice webcast programme
and an interactive online directory for supplier sourcing.
Magazine: The essential monthly guide to B2B marketing, with a key
focus on best practice guidance, plus monthly features looking at current
trends, regular research and pro?les.
Awards: The showpiece event for brands and practitioners, attracting
over 700 people. Former winners include a host of top-tier B2B brands,
including Amex, Barclays, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, KPMG, Nokia, O2,
Oracle, Orange, SAP, Thomson Reuters, Vauxhall UK, and many more.
Research and reports: A library that houses the best in B2B practice,
in-depth practical guidance and research into speci?c channels or
industry issues.
Training and events: Highly-focused events and training sessions aimed
at helping marketers hear and learn ?rst hand from the experts in order
to hone their skills.
Membership: Become a member and receive all research and reports for
free. You will also receive exclusive invites to members-only networking
events, get discounts on training seminars, workshops and conferences
and receive a subscription to the monthly magazine. There are di?erent
levels of membership available so please call +44 (0) 20 7269 6592 to ?nd
out more.
For more information on any of these products or services go to
b2bmarketing.net or call +44 (0) 20 7438 1370
8 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
b2bmarketing.net
About B2B Marketing
Marketo uniquely provides easy-to-use, powerful and complete marketing
software that propels fast-growing small companies and global
enterprises alike. Marketo® marketing automation and sales e?ectiveness
software – including the world’s ?rst integrated solution for social
marketing automation – streamlines marketing processes, delivers more
campaigns, generates more win-ready leads, and dramatically improves
sales performance. With proven technology, comprehensive services
and expert guidance, Marketo helps thousands of companies around the
world turn marketing from a cost center into a revenue driver.
Known for providing breakthrough innovation and fueling explosive
growth, Marketo was recently named one of “America’s Most Promising
Companies” by Forbes, the #1 Marketing Software Vendor on the INC
500, and the #1 fastest-growing private company of 2011 by the Silicon
Valley Business Journal. In both 2011 and 2012 the company received
the CRM Market Leaders Awards Winner for Marketing Solutions by CRM
Magazine. Salesforce.com customers also honored the company with
two AppExchange Best of ’11 Awards, for Best Marketing Automation
Solution and Best Chatter Exchange.
Marketo and the Marketo logo are trademarks of Marketo, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact details:
Marketo EMEA Ltd.
Cairn House, South County Business Park
Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland
Freephone UK: 0800.456.1393
Phone: +353.1.242.3000
Marketo, Inc. Headquarters
901 Mariners Island Blvd.
Suite 200 San Mateo, California 94404, USA
US Freephone: +1.877.260.MKTO (6586)
Marketo Australia Pty Ltd
Suite 502, 151 Castlereagh Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Toll Free AU: +61 1800 352 270
9 Whitepaper: Technology and the evolution of the marketing agency © B2B Marketing 2013
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About Marketo
B2B Marketing
Colonial Buildings
59/61 Hatton Garden
London
EC1N 8LS
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7438 1370
Fax +44 (0) 20 7438 1377
[email protected]
b2bmarketing.net
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