B2B digital marketing

We have run marketing retainers for businesses for over 15 years. Typically our experienced team dovetails with the person responsible for digital marketing in your company. We agree on the strategy and the end result we want to deliver. Then we plan and deliver the work needed to deliver the goal. We meet every month and switch campaigns and tactics from time to time as needed. We’re also very familiar with reporting to senior leadership to show return on investment, etc.

We decide this together in your initial strategy workshop. Because we run lots of marketing retainers we know what tactics work best for different goals. So we can advise exactly what is needed. Often our team will deliver specialist tactics and campaigns to an agreed goal, whilst you deliver other aspects of the marketing in-house. The strategy and tactics are always customised to your business.

Normally there is an agreed goal around visibility or enquiries. For example, we have an established goal for monthly enquiries with many of our retainer clients. We let you know what work is needed each month and you approve the plan. At the end of the month we report results and discuss plans with you for the next month.

It’s common to do this and we advise when it’s appropriate. It’s often wise to switch campaigns and tactics around as running the same outbound campaign for too long can result in fatigue amongst the audience. We monitor metrics that tell us when to do this. We are normally thinking 2-3 months ahead so we advise in good time when it is time to change tactics.

Most retainers include some paid search activity. That might be Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads or, in some cases, YouTube ads. Other common tactics in a retainer are SEO (search engine optimisation), CRO (conversion rate optimisation), landing pages, email marketing and marketing automation. We will advise you on which tactics are most successful for delivering on your goal.

Digital marketing retainers are popular because they provide support and additional skills and resources for an in-house marketing team. Marketing teams feel supported and are generally more stable when agency support is on hand. The retainer also serves to train and upskill in-house staff by exposing them to new or more specialist concepts. Having an agency on retainer means you benefit from the very broad up-to-date knowledge and experience that can only come by managing lots of different types of account. Retainers also bring consistency to a marketing team. Many of our retainers have been in place for many years and some have seen generations of in-house staff come and go.

Our account managers are very experienced. We only hire staff with prior experience of delivering digital marketing successfully in B2B environments. In addition, account managers undergo a 12-week training programme when they join us, and work with proven models that deliver results consistently for our clients, year after year.

Yes. We have lots of clients on retainers who are big advocates of Bespoke and our approach. Some have been with us for 5+ or even 10+ years on retainer. Annual renewal rates are very high. You can also read what existing Bespoke clients say in the client success stories section of this website.

It depends how ambitious your goal is. The cost is typically around the same as hiring an additional in-house marketer. For more ambitious goals a retainer might be the cost of hiring a senior in-house marketer, or a manager. Of course, the difference is, with the retainer you get the benefit of a full team of digital experts, who are collaborating across lots of different accounts every day of the week. Although the costs are similar to a member of staff, with the retainer there are no recruitment agency costs, no training costs, and in many cases the retainer can stay in place for 5+ or even 10+ years.

We will advise on what’s sensible in your case when you get in touch to discuss your project. You may already be used to spending a certain amount each month on your Google ads and paid search ads. A lot of paid ad budgets fall in the £1k to £2.5k per month range, and if your turnover is above £1m, normally others in your sector will be spending something in this range, as a minimum. For this reason we often quote this range as a guide. Once ads are profitable, clients often want to spend as much as possible of course, to generate as much business as possible.

The initial fixed period is 12-months. The retainer needs to be this long because there is normally a particularly large amount of work to do in the first 6 months whilst digital assets are being put in place, one by one. Retainers typically deliver a good return in year 1, and perform exceptionally well in years 2 and 3. Most of our clients continue renewing their retainers for at least 5 successive years, and some for much longer.

We report results face-to-face at the end of each month. We prefer in person meetings but meet by video call if necessary. As well as reporting results back to you we also explain what work is to be done next, and seek your approval and input where appropriate. Internally, we measure your results on an ongoing basis throughout the month and record your return on investment, to make sure that the retainer remains comfortably profitable and beneficial for you.

We’ve been delivering lead generation websites and retainers for B2B clients since 2001. In total, the value of business generated through the websites we have built, and retainers we have run exceeds £1bn. However, this is spread over a long period of time and across many clients. Most clients see returns in the tens of thousands of pounds, or in some cases, in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. There are less direct benefits too, such as bringing stability, experience and additional skills to their in-house marketing operations. A good measure of our success is our renewal rates which have been above 90% in each of the last 5 years.

We agree this with you in the initial strategy workshop. We establish that the goal is proportionate with the budget, and establish that we have data or experience that suggests the goal is realistic and can be delivered upon. We also do calculations using your average order value to check that the retainer can be expected to deliver a good return on investment for you. If we cannot see that this is the case, we do not go ahead with the retainer.

We measure every month against the agreed goal, so you can see if we are ahead, behind, or on target with where we want to be. There are, of course, some other benefits that are not measurable, such as increased brand exposure, and increases in offline or indirect enquiries, that tend to also come from the work. Goals are normally met over the course of a full year, and there is transparency on results and return on investment on a monthly basis.

Typically we introduce new and more advanced tactics into your marketing and establish new flows of enquiries as a result. Most businesses are delivering their digital marketing to a 6/10 level but may feel it is higher. We normally take a business’ marketing up through some additional gears when we redesign their website and run a retainer for them. Our aim is to introduce and fine-tune new channels one by one and gradually strengthen your business’ marketing processes, and grow the flow of enquiries, in a sustainable way. We sometimes say that when clients sign up with Bespoke for the website and retainer their online marketing tends to mature into a lean and successful operation for the long-term.

Most people start with a video call to discuss opportunities. If you want to move ahead with a retainer we’ll insist that you book a Digital Strategy Workshop first to properly plan out the work. You might also like to book a website audit, if we are not also redesigning and rebuilding your website for you. In all cases, if you contact us to discuss your project we will advise on options, likely budgets, and we’ll share how others like you are seeing successes online currently.

Normally clients have us redesign and rebuild their websites too. Sometimes this is done before the retainer begins, and sometimes the retainer starts first. Ours is a specialist digital team, so services cover everything needed to grow visibility or generate more enquiries online, encompassing strategy, websites and marketing.

We are specialists in digital marketing in B2B sectors, and have more than 20 years experience of success in this niche. So if you’re in a B2B sector, and want to grow your visibility or enquiries online, Bespoke is likely to be a well matched agency for you. We only take on accounts that are well matched both ways. If after speaking to you we can see that another agency is likely better matched for you we will simply refer you to them.