No thanks, were happy with our current inbound agency service offerings. Our strategy is solid, email lead nurturing is simple, posting on social is easy, writing blogs and whitepapers... were starting to get into the groove. This is the typical agency reaction to change. Too bad! Millennials are taking over the research roles in B2B buying decisions, which means we need to totally re-calibrate our approach to generating quality sales opportunities for our B2B clients. Haven't you noticed that our traditional "inbound" approach just doesn't work like it used to? The truth is: your clients are wondering what your next move is because they are thinking about bringing your current scope of services in-house. Business development reps, video, participation marketing, user generated content, mobile apps, social ads: sounds scary - but it is time we get our hands dirty and think about the future!
Here are my predictions for the hottest B2B agency products and services in 2016 that will have you standing out from your competition - because most agencies won't make big changes this year. A lucky few will!
The research that supports a need for change in the inbound methodology.
Your clients will ask themselves: why do we need these new services? You will need research and statistics to back up your claims that next year's results are going to blow this year's out of the water..
- Google: Millennials are playing a research role in B2B buying decisions.
- IBM: Millennials don't trust your content - unless they get it from a rep they trust.
IBM’s Institute for Business Value Millennial Survey 2014
"Hott" agency services that cater to this new kind of B2B buyer.
Business development (or sales and marketing alignment)
Millennials will trust real live vendor reps to provide them with the information they need to research their buying decision. Research shows that after growing up as digital natives we don't trust what we find on the internet. And we are quickly overwhelmed with how much content is out there. We need to talk to someone who can get us the information we need and answer our questions.
Inbound agencies must train their client's business development reps, the inbound marketing middle men, to make connections and build trust by "hand-delivering" the information our buyers need. The white glove treatment. Connecting and nurturing via social media, call scripts, personal branding: all things that business development reps will need to know how to do.
Get some suggestions for modifying your inbound strategy in my recent article:
Read: How Millennials are influencing change in the inbound marketing methodology.
Video content, supply chain and asset management
I don't have to convince you that video is a more powerful form of communication. I just want you to ask yourself: what is holding you back? Last week I wrote a whole article on this:k: Conquer inbound marketing with smart video content.
Producing a marketing video is one thing. But to satisfy the need for hundreds or even thousands of videos you have to get smart about your supply chain and the management of video assets. Consulting, training and strategies that help clients develop, manage, re-use and re-purpose video content can be added on to fees. It is a win-win for your clients. Your giving them the knowledge to get more out of their video assets.
Oh, and both long and short videos work. So lets not put outselves in the shorter/longer is better bucket.
Participation & user generated content
Research shows that Millennials have a need to participate. They want to get involved. So as an agency you need to provide the ideas on how to get buyers involved in your content marketing programs.
Interview them, survey them, put them on camera! Get them tweeting.
IBM Institute for Business Value: Myths, exaggerations and uncomfortable truths
The real story behind Millennials in the workplace
Mobile apps: "Mobile Buying Environments" I call them
Most research in the B2B buying process is done on a mobile device. Companies recognize that their websites need to be optimized for mobile but that isn't enough. We need to design buying environments that house all our marketing and sales content in an easy to search, easy to share mobile application.
Why will most agencies ignore this?
Most agencies are scared because they haven't developed mobile apps before. There are plenty of folks out there that specialize in this. Roll up your sleeves, get a partner and start offering to create kick ass "mobile resource centers" to your B2B clients that have lots of marketing and sales content.
Social Advertising: to distribute content
Have you seen Facebook / Instagram ads lately? They are scary the way they know exactly what you want to see. Facebook has been purchasing app companies for years (Whats App, Instagram ect...), gathering all the data they need on Millennials to serve them "scary contextual" ads. Why are you paying some fresh out of high school kid $15/hour to post your blogs on social accounts? Can they deliver the right content to the right buyer at the right time? No. They can't.
In short, Millennials spend lots of time on social media. This is where we watch all that video content. Ad platforms have become EXTREMELY valuable if you know what you are doing and you don't run short-sighted salesy ads. Social ads can boost performance at every stage of the buying process, but the most important stage is the research stage.
Your clients are coming up for renewal: now what?
Don't die a slow death. You're better than that! Give me a call and we can chat about products and services related to Millennial buyers. Stuff that sells itself during our upcoming client renewals.
Scope of Services from Steven Schloss on Vimeo.
