Evolving Agency Roles: Why Outside Help Is More Important Than Ever For B2B Brands
By Nick Nelson
I know: it probably sounds self-serving for a guy who works at a marketing agency to talk about how agency partners are becoming more indispensable than ever for B2B brands.
But it’s simply the truth, and the numbers bear it out.
According to CMI’s latest B2B Content Marketing Benchmarking report, around half of all respondents report outsourcing content marketing activities. Of note: 57% of the companies categorized as “most successful” use outsourcing, compared to 36% of the “least successful.”
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“Regarding large companies,” CMI wrote in the report, “61% indicated last year that they outsourced. This year, the figure was up to 75%. This suggests that in the early phase of the pandemic large companies pulled the reins back on outsourcing but are now back to the practice. In fact, more large companies are outsourcing now than in 2019 (75% vs. 71%).”
[bctt tweet=”“According to @CMIContent research, 57% of the most successful B2B organizations outsource content marketing activities, compared to 36% of the least successful.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN #B2BMarketing” username=”toprank”]
New research from the World Federation of Advertisers and The Observatory International found that, globally, marketers express less intent to shake up their agency rosters than they did four years ago.
It’s not so much the fact that big B2B brands are increasingly turning to agencies that energizes me, but why they are doing so. The role of B2B agency partners is evolving, and the ways in which we can help clients are becoming more powerful as we enter a critical time for businesses.
The Evolving B2B Agency Partner: Key Trends
“I think we’re seeing yet another facet of the massive shift in how we think about work and the workplace,” Shama Hyder wrote recently for Inc. “Countless brands are realizing that marketing and PR don’t need to be in-house. In fact, these functions have undergone such a dramatic evolution, in terms of responding to what customers and clients want, that it makes more sense to have an agency team of marketing and PR experts working on their campaigns.”
Hyder cited two key trends driving this shift:
- Fast-changing client and customer expectations
- Increasing recognition of the value of branding relative to lead gen
I think these are both on point, but there are a few other timely factors that I see contributing to the growing role and impact of agencies and outsourced partners.
[bctt tweet=”“Countless brands are realizing that … in terms of responding to what customers and clients want, that it makes more sense to have an agency team of marketing and PR experts working on their campaigns.” — Shama Hyder @Shama” username=”toprank”]
Marketing teams are being asked to do more with less.
This is a common refrain in the marketing world today. In the CMI research cited before, 67% of respondents agreed that over the past year, their …read more
Source:: Top Rank Blog
