Ah yes, that perpetual question… what do clients really want from their B2B PR agency? Are they looking for an equal partnership where the agency contribution to wider marketing plans is valued and measured? Or do they want a volume of coverage in tier one publications? Or do they want to rely on the agency as an additional resource who can turn their attention to a whole host of marketing communications activities (and in some cases wider marketing) simply because they can’t recruit internally for a marketer to do the job?
The answer, of course, is yes – to all of the above. But do they really? In my experience most clients think that they want one thing but as the relationship develops it soon becomes obvious that they need something else. Usually this is the result of an internal challenge to delivering wider B2B marketing plans. Perhaps they lack the experience or expertise specifically in communications or are simply too busy to apply creativity to marketing efforts.
We recently set out to discover what each and every one of our clients value in our agency/client relations and the results were somewhat surprising. We asked our clients to rank 12 core deliverables that they wanted from an agency in order of importance. These deliverables covered everything from creativity and honesty to expertise and knowledge right through to responsiveness and reporting.
What was surprising was that there wasn’t one overall deliverable that came out consistently on top. The responses were mixed and varied, and if we’re honest attuned somewhat to the individual marketer’s personality. There was however some deliverables that appeared regularly. To find out what these are click here.
Claire Lamb has worked in technology PR for 20 years and has survived more bubbles than Michael Jackson.
