Recommended reports
Return on Effort Study
The Return on Effort Study examines the variable of time in the evaluation of fundamental marketing tactics. The report, sponsored by Hubspot, also examines the skills that modern marketing teams need to develop to take advantage of social, inbound tactics.
UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report
The UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2012, carried out in association with search agency NetBooster, contains a comprehensive analysis of the UK search marketing environment. Now in its sixth year, the report is based on a survey of more than 500 marketers and covers current issues and future trends within search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search), paid search (PPC) and social media marketing.
CEO at Econsultancy
26 May 2009 16:21pm
For a long time now I've been surprised by how few agencies, consultancies or technology companies seem to focus on Business to Business (B2B) vs. Business to Consumer (B2C).
We have lots of members operating in the B2B space and they often ask us after suppliers (from services to technology) who are good at B2B and we struggle to name that many companies.
Where it's search marketing, display advertising, lead generation, affiliate marketing, email marketing etc. it seems most suppliers aren't focus on the B2B space ('too small', 'too niche', 'can't track sales offline' etc.).
But these B2B companies are *big* (often multi-billion dollar companies) and have plenty of money to spend online. They don't operate on wafer-thin profit margins in ultra-competitive marketplaces so I don't understand why there aren't more suppliers going after B2B clients? Many of them are weathering the recession much better than their B2C counterparts too.
So here is an open invitation to pitch youselves if you're a specialist in B2B digital marketing. At least then we'll be able to point such potential clients to this thread to find out more about who's out there and what they do / offer.
(BTW, we do have a page on this site dedicated to B2B digital marketing though we'd like more dedicated B2B content there. Most of our B2B stuff is done in small closed groups like our B2B Forum.)
So please feel free to reply to this saying who you are, what your B2B credentials are, contact details, link to your site etc.
Regards
Ashley
CEO at Write My Site
26 May 2009 16:50pm
Hi Ashley,
Interesting thread. We are a London-based web and blog content agency called Write My Site and our client base is almost exclusively B2B. You are right that many of these customers have plenty of money to spend online.
We have a number of fixed price digital content packages, details of which can be found here: http://www.writemysite.co.uk/copywriting/new-copywriting-packages/.
Our contact details are:
Write My Site
http://www.writemysite.co.uk
020 8819 9535
info@writemysite.co.uk
Managing Director at Pauley Creative
26 May 2009 16:53pm
Hi Ashley,
I found your B2B twitter post today and thought I'd respond accordingly.
I'd like to put ourselves forward.
We are Pauley Design [http://www.pauleydesign.co.uk] a graphic design and digital media agency specialising in producing intergrated campaigns for a B2B audience from our base in MK.
Our main audience falls within in the manufacturing and engineering communities from the Automotive, Construction and Professional Services sectors and we find there are many cross overs between the three.
We've worked on various design and digital projects for: Shell, BP, GM, Wilmott Dixon, Institute of Engineering and technology, Institute of Accountants in England and Wales, Various Councils, Sika/Sarnafil
Does this profile fit your criteria?
Cheers,
Nick
Senior Online Account Manager at Summit Media
26 May 2009 17:02pm
Hi Ashley,
I work for a marketing company based in North Yorkshire, you may or may notr have heard of us - Summit Media. We are a marketing company with an interesting history.
http://www.summit.co.uk/
While our public face is one of retail expertise and we work for the likes of Comet, Argos & Play, we also have a small, hard working and dedicated team of Account Managers who spend their working lives (and some of their personal lives) delivering bespoke marketing plans for our non-retail clients!
I currently head up the team and am actively looking for ways to increase my customer portfolio. We currently manage a range of clients in the team, including:
Trinity Mirror Group (job sites such as http://totallyfinancial.com/ & http://www.secsinthecity.co.uk/) as well as the Daily Mirror's own website and the group's newest website "Local Mole"
Peer1 Hosting - just launched in the UK, we managed their offline launch at Internet World and now manage their online marketing - http://www.peer1hosting.co.uk/
UNITE Students - We designed their site last year (www.unite-students.com) and now manage all their online marketing
QAS - Part of the experian brand, we manage their PPC campaigns http://www.qas.co.uk/
Envirowise - A government agency, we manage their PPC, SEO and media campaigns http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk.html
We also manage marketing for a number of smaller companies and charities.
We are aware of the general feeling regarding B2B clients. In your article you mention some of the challenges - 'too small', 'too niche', 'can't track sales offline' etc. All of these, are not seen as an issue to us, rather a challenge!!
The too small issue is not a problem, I have some good "SME" type clients currently who we manage to run profitable campaigns for through minimum spend agreements (or min management fees)
The too niche issue is not a problem, my team enjoy finding out about businesses which they have limited knowledge of. Peer1, QAS & Envirowise are great examples of businesses which are complex products which our team have worked hard to understand and deliver strong marketing campaigns for
Tracking too is not an issue. Summit Media have just launched a new product to our current clients which I believe we are coming to market with soon.... summitTRACK. We have worked hard on this solution with a third party supplier and can tie offline transactions back into online activity for all our current clients and therefore I don't see why we would not be able to complete this for anyone else!!
I COULD go on, but at the risk of not wanting to bore you, I will stop! Please contact me though if you want ANY more information. My e-mail address is david.ayre@summitmedia.com. I am confident I would be able to add value to any client's marketing campaigns, please point them in my direction!
Regards
Dave
Online Publisher - Estates Gazette Group at Reed Business Information
26 May 2009 17:04pm
Hi Ashley,
As a B2B 'client' in a big publishing house, if you're thinking of organising any specific B2B web marketing events where we can meet suppliers who specialise in the B2B market - count me in.
The comments you make in your post are spot on - the B2B market is generally good margin and often less competative than B2C, but its often difficult to find agencies that have the right experience.
I've recently encountered this in the affiliate marketplace, where it was really difficult to find someone to work with who could grasp the concept that B2B affiliate might work. We got there eventually (thanks to DGM).
I'll await results with interest
Cheers
Tony
UK MD at InfoQuest
26 May 2009 17:33pm
Hi Ashley,
We are specialists in B2B in that we don't work for the public sector (which used to make us feel very honourable but now it makes us feel poor) and what we do is inappropriate for B2C. What do we do? We specialise in B2B customer satisfaction surveys where our client has a relationship with their customers (no, not that sort of relationship, silly!).
There are obviously pros and cons to specialisation. For example, we show our clients exactly how each of their customers have responded to their survey. This is not allowed by the Market Research Society (MRS) or their sister organisation, ESOMAR - so the downside is we can't belong to these societies and the upside is we've got a niche.
Sometimes it feels quite lonely, being in a niche. Other times, when we get an 80% response for a client and they'd been happy in the past getting 20% to 25% it makes you proud to be different.
Carry on the good work Ashley.
John Coldwell - UK MD - www.infoquestcrm.co.uk
Consultant at Marketing Partners
26 May 2009 18:55pm
Hi Ashley
Here at Marketing Partners we work with both B2C and B2B SMEs who need to get more from their online businesses, whatever space they're in.
We have experience and existing clients in both areas.
We offer:
We offer a virtual agency offering and our clients benefit from an experienced and agile team according to their biref and scale of requirements/budgets.
More info at:
www.marketingpartners.co.uk
email: info@marketingpartners.co.uk
Director at Velocity
27 May 2009 09:30am
Thanks for the invitation, Ashley.
We're Velocity (velocitypartners.co.uk) and all we do is B2B, with a focus on technology companies.
We're essentially a strategic consultancy with a B2B marketing agency attached -- and these days that means digital (from SEO and PPC to Online PR, social media marketing, web builds, traffic-generating campaigns... you name it). Our digital offer is summarised on our site (What We Do) and given added spin on our blog.
At the moment, we're into some really exciting projects for Psion, Cisco and ARM and just got shortlisted for a New media Age Award for our digital campaign work with ShipServ.
Other clients include Gartner, dotMobi and... eConsultancy!
Thanks again for the opportunity to break out the digital dog & pony...
CEO at Econsultancy
27 May 2009 10:38am
@All - thanks, and keep them coming! Would be good to hear from B2B ad networks (I'm aware of http://www.burstmedia.com/about/news_display.asp?id=52 and http://www.thedigitalpartnership.com/), any B2B affiliate or search specialists etc.
@Tony - thanks for lending 'client-side' support / validation!
Managing Director at The Digital Partnership
27 May 2009 13:47pm
Hi Ashley,
This is a very interesting topic and the very reason The Digital Partnership (TDP) was established.
The Digital Partnership is a B2B Digital Advertising Sales House and Consultancy.
We are increasingly finding that more and more B2B companies are advertising online to the point we fill a large percentage of our ad space every month.
The continued growth of digital advertising is testament to the fact it really works!
This is because it is the most targeted form of advertising available, it’s the very fact that digital advertising can be increasingly well-targeted that makes it so perfect for companies within the B2B sector.
TDP Operate in this way:
Publishers:
We can fill your unsold advertising space for a much higher yield than the average generic unsold advertising company and only to leading B2B advertisers (no smiley face advertisers!)
Or..
We can provide a full third party outsourced solution where we sell the ads on your site to leading B2B advertisers, traffic and manage the campaigns, invoice and collect monies due, provide monthly reporting and most importantly send you the revenue generated at the end of the month.
Advertisers:
We can provide you with a bespoke service where we can offer a targeted and integrated offering across your chosen sites within our Premium B2B network.
Or ..
We can place your brand on a lower CPM basis across our extensive B2B network, targeted at generic business users but with no channel or site targeting guarantee.
For further information please have a look at our site: www.thedigitalpartnership.com or call Matt Gower directly on 07921409488.
Regards,
Matt Gower
Managing Director
The Digital Partnership
mgower@thedigitalpartnership.com