Tips for choosing a B2B tech marketing agency

by | Jan 26, 2023 | Hiring an agency

Hiring a B2B tech marketing company is important

If you’ve ever tried to find the right marketing agency for your tech company, you’ve likely realized a one-size-fits-all agency doesn’t always know how to create content for your customers. Your sales cycle is long, the buyers are specific, and if we had to guess, your company is probably stretching you in a hundred different directions with some pretty lofty revenue goals.

From the nuances associated with technology purchasing to the strategy around each stage, tech marketing can be a beast and you need someone fluent in the industry. Outside help can make all the difference for a busy marketer — so long as you employ the right help.

Find a marketing agency that understands the B2B tech buyer’s journey

Ah, the tech buyer’s journey…it’s long! SaaS and other enterprise tech solutions often come with a hefty price tag and can require training investment and ongoing support. This is one reason that a tech deal can take months to years to move from that first demo request or email outreach to implementation. It’s also why tech marketers must work with a content marketing agency that understands how their buyers buy.

Tech marketers need specific marketing content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. Whether it’s the general awareness collateral that catches the eye of someone feeling the pain that your solution will solve, the right eBook for that post-demo experience, or the detailed whitepaper to convince leadership that the investment will be worth it, the content and the strategy need to be aligned to move potential buyers along. To succeed, the marketing agency you choose will need to have a thorough knowledge of the buyer’s journey and how to support it.

Ask for a portfolio of work the agency has completed for other SaaS or tech companies and ensure that it shows professionalism and creativity. You can also inquire about testimonials from current or former clients of SaaS or tech companies, just be aware that you will almost always get glowing reviews because most companies wouldn’t send you anything else. Finally, make sure your agency partners already understand the tech buyer’s journey and will provide you with a strategy for how content will fit into each stage.

Look for signs that the marketing agency is transparent with pricing and honest about their capabilities

Most SaaS marketers know that there is a strong case to be made for transparency in pricing. The trend toward publishing pricing began about a decade ago and is now table stakes for many SaaS buyers. Why should marketing agency pricing be any different? You shouldn’t have to waste hours talking to agency reps before you can put together a budget. Remember, your agency’s job is to make life easier for you. Find an agency that tries to make life easier with upfront pricing so you always know where you stand and what it might cost to work with them.

Here’s an honest question to ask a marketing agency — what don’t you offer? A marketing agency that is willing to give you an honest assessment of their capabilities is more likely to deliver on its promises. Agencies that profess to be experts on everything are probably just trying to make a sale. Learning an agency’s niche is important. If the agency doesn’t offer something you need they can often suggest reliable resources for things they don’t offer. Your agency should be happy to connect you with  the perfect solution for whatever service you are looking for because your marketing agency is a partner in your success.

How to interview a potential marketing agency

The final step in choosing the right agency is to conduct an interview the same way you would if you were hiring an employee. It’s not usually fair to ask that an agency give specific solutions to your marketing problems before employing them, just like you wouldn’t ask an employee to start work before they get the job. Still, you can ask them to give you examples of problems and solutions they have developed for other clients in the past. This way, you can learn how they think through issues to strategize creative solutions.

It’s also important to ask how a marketing agency likes to work with its clients, what types of processes they have in place that set their clients up for success and what organizational systems and project management tools they use to keep projects on track. If you don’t get a clear answer on how processes and projects flow, it could be a sign that there aren’t great processes in place, and that’s a red flag that projects may be mismanaged.

Ready to choose a marketing agency? Here are some tools to help.

Choosing a marketing agency should be fun! Visit this page to find tools, resources and information we think might help in your decision-making process.

If you’re looking to boost your content game, you deserve support that can help you shine. Ditch the catch-all agency and opt for a team that truly understands how SaaS sales and marketing fit together, the technology industry, complex strategy to woo buyers, your inner-organizational priority struggles, and most importantly, how to have fun while doing it.