For B2B companies, a virtual agency offers expertise, flexibility and value.
At C.E.K. & Partners, a woman-owned Atlanta-based B2B market research and strategic communications agency, for over ten years we’ve had the tools and processes in place to support effectively working virtually—everything from secure cloud data storage, file sharing and collaboration tools to time tracking. These tools, along with strong governance and policies, have allowed us to build a culture of inclusivity while servicing our clients—whether they’re in Atlanta, Austin, London, Honolulu, or Toronto.
Hiring a virtual woman-owned small business means everyone benefits—clients, employees and the agency.
Work gets done at a virtual agency. It does not require a company with central office location.
As you consider your next B2B agency partner for marketing research or strategic communications, you should consider the advantages offered by the virtual agency model that can support your team day in and day out.
Here are 4 advantages offered by a virtual agency:
1 - Tapping into expertise
Virtual agencies can thoughtfully build a team of experts brands needed to achieve results—across disciplines such as market research, brand strategy, content marketing and design There’s access to a wider talent pool, the right talent, that isn’t limited by geographic location.
This means tapping into dedicated experts versus a team sitting on the bench that may be stretching to handle areas beyond their skills or knowledge. In other words, your fintech or payments marketing initiative will be supported by a writer or research with deep industry experience and not by a healthcare writer or vice versa.
We’ve done this so well with our content creation and writing services that C.E.K. & Partners has been dubbed, “The fintech/payments industry’s favorite B2B content writers.”
We believe expertise leads to superior outcomes. It’s exactly why we provide B2B companies with the expertise that matches their needs (instead of assigning junior writers).
2 - Extend capacity and scale quickly
Virtual agencies allow a B2B company's in-house marketing team to scale up quickly when extra bandwidth is critical to ensure business continuity and to avoid overtaxing existing employees.
Here are a few common scenarios in which our woman-owned Atlanta-based B2B agency offers the ability to help teams scale quickly:
· Support companies after an acquisition.
After an acquisition, there’s a transition period with integrating the acquired brand's marketing and sales materials. This takes time and consideration. Yet often a dedicated team hasn’t yet been assigned or even hired.
· Extend capacity to lean teams
B2B company's in-house teams can encounter periods of high growth, or on the flip side lean times due to hiring freezes or even layoffs.
Having a virtual B2B branding agency as a partner means your team can rely on senior talent swiftly jumping in to operate as an extension of your team whether it's for market research studies, support with content marketing or writing and programming customer communications. It’s an option that’s more affordable than hiring all the needed experts to achieve an initiative with a firm deadline.
· Support for the unexpected.
With the right B2B marketing agency partner, it’s easier to scale up to meet changing workloads and demands. Today we’re finding that the volume of communications in-house B2B marketing teams need to produce require extra support and expertise from their agency partners.
Advantage: Value
When selecting an B2B agency partner, value is a critical part of the equation.
Here’s a closer look at some of the value offered:
· Certifications supporting supplier diversity goals
Selecting an agency with certifications, such as being a woman-owned small business, means your spend with them supports your goals, but also helps your company meet its supplier diversity goals.
· Confidence to scale up and meet deadlines or goals
The business-to-business companies we work with benefit from dedicated experts focused on their work, but they also find that a virtual branding and content marketing agency’s ability to flex up relatively quickly offers them immense value and confidence knowing that we’ve got their back to stay on track with goals and deadlines.
· Efficiency and accuracy of senior talent
Traditional agencies fueled by junior talent might appear to have a larger team or be less expensive until the time associated with rounds of revisions begins to add up and deadlines get missed.
Remember, someone dedicated and more experienced can complete tasks more swiftly. Often this is less expensive than the time that accrues for lower rates. Additionally, fielding fewer emails from junior talent, you’ll be freed up to focus on leading your team and other important matters.
Advantage: Dedicated team
We offer B2B companies and our employees a better way to work. Empowering senior talent to conduct their work when, where and how it works for them, and offering a culture of inclusivity to military spouses who move around the country and flexibility to single moms or those with passionate pursuits outside of work, means when our team members are working, they are fully present and engaged with your intiatives.
"Virtual teams allow us to be more diverse and inclusive. Location bias (rural vs. urban) goes away, and remote teams already have a better track record..." - Forbes
Our team members are dedicated. It means they aren’t quitting. There’s no reason to! They have flexibility to influence and shape their own lives while staying a dedicated presence on our agency team in order to serve your team.
And that means if there’s a need to sometimes work unusual hours to support your B2B company's in-house marketing teams, it’s okay. We’re willing and able to make it happen.
Do you need a reliable and responsive agency to help your team meet its goals?
There are many advantages to hiring a virtual B2B agency with expertise across multiple disciplines like market research, brand strategy, and content marketing. We’ve just touched on the top few.
We’re here to be supportive as your needs evolve, whether you’re running leaner or flexing up to support a product launch.
About C.E.K. & Partners
We’re a woman-owned small business business, and we’re here to help!
CMOs, product marketers and sales leaders from mid-size to Fortune 500 companies engage us based on our expertise. They stay with us based on our results.
We've generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for our clients. Our marketing research studies deliver insights to inform business decisions, our content fill sales pipelines and our thought leadership programs shift perceptions. Our positioning work accelerates growth.