What does the value of a B2B marketing agency look like in 2024?

Marketing agencies have long been a value-add for B2B brands. Yet in 2023, we saw market shifts with the potential to shake up the traditional agency function. As organisations prepare to head into another hesitant year when every decision must be justified, I explore what the true value of agency looks like in a time of AI, short-termism, and in-house resourcing.

We’re sprinting towards the end of the year – and frankly, many a B2B marketer will be more excited about closing the door on 2023 than opening the big door on their Advent calendar. Yes, it’s been another tough one (when will THAT become old news?) – a year of making the best of it, rather than accelerating long-term growth.

Unsurprisingly, any progress made in 2023 centred around gen AI and where it sits in a marketer’s toolbelt. At the same time, marketing teams had to defend their spend. These two forces – applying AI and budget scrutiny – coincided, leading to marketers considering AI efficiencies, while optimising in-house resources. Of course, this scenario naturally raises questions about the role that B2B marketing agencies will play in 2024 and beyond.

If anything, it’s an opportunity to reiterate the strategic value of agency partnerships. Agencies are still fabulous at delivering impactful campaigns and specialist services (Revere might have won a few industry awards this year – cough). Plus, our outside advantage continues to serve us – and our clients – incredibly well in a changeable market. Agencies can do what brands can’t, for a multitude of reasons – whether that’s having time to action and adapt at speed, scope to experiment, or applying wider market learnings to drive better outcomes.

Strategic marketing agencies have agility baked in, so can adapt with a fluid market. In fact, we readily embrace change by adding new services to our end-to-end offering, advancing our specialist B2B capabilities, and building diverse skills to align with client needs.

The only constant is making sure that we continue to drive holistic, captivating, market-relevant experiences for client and customer. We’re always tuned in and responsive to what’s next.

With that in mind, these are just five of the ways that B2B marketing agencies can shine by showing their value in the near future.

1.   We can multiply our expertise with AI

Marketers are exploring AI today; testing its limits and possibilities to see what’s most intuitive and applicable to their needs. What’s become clear from our own testing is that AI empowers real people to do what only real people can do – and so it has the potential to scale the value of the expertise we offer.

With strategic agencies, it’s the knowing, thinking and guiding that clients love, across specialisms. Not only can this knowledge be instinctively applied to prompt AI for stronger input, it can also be used to adapt the output – making it more authentic and connected to wider strategies. By challenging and elevating what AI yields, agencies can help steer client brands away from the predictable. We can focus more of our human talent on using AI as a basis for more personalised, valuable and meaningful marketing.  

2.   We can bring you closer to your buyer

Decision-makers don’t make decisions like they used to. Just as buyers don’t buy how we’d like them to. B2B organisations will need to keep up with these changing behaviours and the realities of B2B buying to create longer-term business value. Yet it’s tricky to adapt to more relevant approaches when you’re scaling back or other initiatives require your immediate attention. However, even when focus is limited, you still need to prove value back to the business. 

Strategic agencies have a trained eye on these market shifts and behaviours, plus a strong understanding of how to increase brand associations and influence buying decisions. We regularly update our own models and methodologies, so we can offer clients the most actionable advice here. We move with the market to embrace organic growth. We help you to resonate with today’s customer and your future buyers – allowing you to fuel your pipeline with longer-term engagement and sales. And we do all of this with busy clients in mind, so are poised to hop on or off marketer’s priorities by switching our support, guidance, and resources.

3.   We can be there, right down the line

Of course, B2B tech organisations are keen to leverage partners that already hold these closer buyer relationships. This will be even more critical for creating customer value in the future. As marketers look to polish their partner-first strategies, it’s worth knowing how B2B agencies can align here.

An agency that really ‘gets’ the IT Channel should have experience of marketing to the multiple, distinctive links in that partner chain. They should know how to represent vendors, distributors or marketplaces, resellers or systems integrators, based on what those businesses and their partners care about. A strategic agency should be able to speak to and for Channel clients, right down the line, to better engage them and their customers. By unleashing the full force of your partnership ecosystem, you can optimise your go-to-market strategy through trusted connections. This is so important in the current economic climate.  

4.   We can act on insight

Everyone loves an exciting new trend or mind-blowing statistic that they can get behind. But can you action that insight in your marketing? Your marketing agency should be invaluable in supporting here. First, by sourcing or managing research that aligns to what’s happening in the wider market – sorting the unfounded flimflam from the genuinely relevant. Second, by applying those insights in a way that authenticates the strategic direction you’re heading in.

Aside from steering clear of fads or trends with a limited shelf-life, we use research to connect clients to the market they want to reach. We discover what the client wants to do and achieve – and we see where the market is heading and what it takes to attract buyers. Then we help bring those two perspectives together. It’s this approach that will guide B2B organisations through the future trend maze to their most effective routes to market. Tailored routes that should ultimately help to meet ongoing business objectives.

5.   We offer an evergreen partnership

A good agency is for (the realities of) life, not just the good times. An economic downturn really tests the mettle of that partnership as a strong, strategic agency should continually adapt to your shifting business priorities. Know that your expectations may change and still blow your socks off with award-worthy marketing. An agency that you can rely on for both endurance and excellence.

Yet that same agency must also proactively advise on the best ways to maximise marketing impact within the context of your reality. Tell you straight if there’s a better or simpler route to achieve results, even with constraints in play. Help you get past any internal obstacles and provide constant support, maybe even in ways you wouldn’t expect – like filling in for a role you’ve yet to hire for or bringing your wider stakeholders along for the ride. An evergreen agency will always walk beside you, yet stay a stride ahead to keep you moving in the right direction. 

Faced with financial uncertainty, sky-high buyer expectations, and rapid tech innovation, B2B marketers need to deliver marketing effectiveness and meaningful results. Whatever happens next, strategic B2B agencies do more than you might think to help you get there.