All agencies will tell you that you need to hire one, mainly because they have the knowledge to scale your go-to-market operations at speed. But before I jump into why your SaaS company needs a lead generation agency, let me tell you a quick story.
A good friend and mentor of mine, Robert Craven, recently attended an event, where Boston Consulting Group gave a session on multi-signal marketing and how it compares to single-signal or single-point marketing. A single point is one channel (PPC, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, etc.), and multi-signal channels are also known as omnichannel.
What was interesting about this, and to give context, is that Robert is the guy that Google rolls out to train their top-tier agencies. When he asked the presenter how much a multi-channel strategy would cost to execute, the presenter stayed silent. He told me when he asked how much a tech stack to run a strategy like that would be, she told him it would be in the millions.
I mention this because you need to understand and accept that the best results cost millions of dollars, and that is simply how it is. As a founder or marketing leader, you must figure out what channels to punch in and focus on knocking out the competition. That’s where SaaS lead generation agencies come into their own.
As an agency, we encourage you to hire a product marketer (PMM) as your first internal marketing hire. They will sit between you and your product, sales, marketing and customer success teams and be the dedicated resource and agency liaison.
The job title is marketer, but they are not hired to write blog posts, post to social media, or run ads. Their work is far more critical than that. Check out our ARISE product; that is what their job entails as product marketers; we also provide the same support if necessary.
A product marketer's only job is to understand the product comprehensively, help communicate its value internally and externally and be the customer's voice. Their day-to-day is research, analysis, preparation and understanding, which is more than a full-time job.
For an agency like BIAS, our job is to amplify your PMM's ability to penetrate the market with the right story, value proposition, positioning and messaging to the right target audience - ultimately, the right marketing strategies. By getting this right, you mitigate the risk of wasted effort in attracting the right people and maximise the ability to convert more traffic. But it takes an agency to help you do that.
A SaaS lead generation agency knows the right technology, strategy and methods to acquire the right traffic, increasing the ability to convert that traffic into open sales opportunities. The best agencies will offer a combination of consultancy, strategy and technology supported by training to help clients adopt them and use their intelligence and capabilities to move internal resources along at the right time.
They will also help shape the business case for an agency and work with the leadership teams to get the right objectives to the right goals with the available budget. Moreover, beware of agencies that present a fixed 12-month proposal with itemised month-by-month executables.
Lead generation strategies need to be fluid while working towards your goals. Often, long-term strategy is influenced by both macro and micro economic and internal changes, and you should plan for and question that with your agency right from the outset.
The business will always seek high-quality leads from a marketing mix that delivers on content marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing and lead qualification so that the hand-off to sales teams delivers high conversion rates in the sales funnel.
There are three ways you can work with an agency on your lead generation campaigns:
For companies with more extensive marketing resources, bringing in an agency to act as a fractional CMO for you could be wise. Having a senior strategist run the strategy, build the reporting, and monitor your team's performance keeps them within arms' reach but directly connected to leadership. They focus on improving lead quality, and your team focus on generating leads from potential customers.
For companies with smaller teams, having an agency integrate with your internal team to fill the gaps and help execute a strategy is another bold choice. Growth is the goal, and amplifying your team's capability to achieve it with an agency specialising in lead generation services for your business vertical is intelligent business acumen.
For companies that need outsourced support. It could be that your internal team has other priorities or needs a specific skill set, like product-led growth. It could be that you need support for a particular campaign or don’t have a marketing team. Whatever the reason, fully outsourcing lead generation to an agency with a depth of experience in accessing and converting decision-makers and a team large enough to move at speed is also an intelligent decision; it depends on the circumstances.
Choosing a SaaS lead generation agency is about precision. You must decide whether you are handing the reins over or need collaborative support. Even outsourcing requires some supervision, so ensure the agency you choose understands how you value results for the optimum outcome. Ensure your reports do not simply show the effort the agency is putting in but the outcomes you are receiving in line with your KPIs.
We'd happily support you if you want to speak to our team about converting leads across marketing sales and customer success.