A 20 Year partnership
Even the most capable marketing teams in the business can sometimes benefit from a bit of backup.
Maybe you’re producing your first major video campaign. Tackling a project that needs specialist creative skills. Working on something that falls outside your team’s usual wheelhouse. Or maybe it’s just the busiest time of the year, and you need a hand keeping all the plates spinning.
Having access to experienced B2B marketing specialists through an outsourced marketing partner means you can supplement your existing capabilities and bring in specialist skills when the job demands them.
For more than twenty years, MIH has happily performed this very role for global franchise company Pirtek. As their B2B marketing sidekick, we’ve supported Pirtek’s internal team across a mountain of marketing projects, from events to award submissions, data analysis to design.
Here’s what you can take away from our decades-long marketing engagement with this global B2B leader:
Lesson 1: You don’t need every marketing skill in-house
Marketing teams are expected to know a little about a whole lot.
Strategy. Design. Lead gen. Sales enablement. And whatever new channel, platform, or acronym has popped up since last week (we’re looking at you, GEO).
But being an expert in absolutely everything is unrealistic (if not impossible) – especially when the exact mix of skills you need changes from one project to the next.
That’s where external expertise can massively expand what your team is capable of.
Over the years, Pirtek has drawn on MIH for a wide range of the B2B marketing solutions we specialise in, like print and sales collateral, video content, events, and digital marketing.
For example, when Pirtek needed to promote franchise opportunities in specific locations, MIH developed a visually engaging Franchise Opportunity Prospectus designed for prospective franchisees.
Pirtek had the business and audience knowledge. MIH added the specialist marketing and creative expertise required to turn it into an effective sales tool.
The Lesson
Map the expertise you already have in-house, then look at where external specialists could make the work stronger.
Lesson 2: Specialist skills = more opportunities
Sometimes a project has bigger potential than the original brief suggests.
Pirtek initially worked with MIH on a storytelling video communicating the story behind its brand. That project then grew into a series of industry-related videos that Pirtek could use across social media.
What started as a single asset became a much more valuable campaign that helped the brand build greater awareness and reach.
When you engage a marketing partner with deep expertise in particular disciplines, you can go beyond internal capabilities to capture more opportunities. The result can be a stronger deliverable and sometimes a whole new stream of marketing activity.
The Lesson
Bring external experts into the thinking early enough to contribute. Access to a wider skills-set can take a good idea in directions your internal team might not have considered or have the capacity to follow.
Lesson 3: Some work deserves external attention
Certain marketing projects need a little more effort to match what’s at stake.
Pirtek’s entry into the Franchise of the Year Awards was a key opportunity for the brand to make its mark in a competitive industry.
Award submissions demand a particular kind of storytelling: finding the strongest evidence, identifying what makes the business stand out, and shaping it all into a compelling narrative.
MIH developed Pirtek’s award application and supporting video, which helped the business become a finalist. Pirtek then used those materials as the basis for the following year’s submission…and won!
For projects like these, specialist support can give internal teams the lift they need to make an impact when it really matters.
The Lesson
Outsourcing doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing deal. Consider bringing in extra marketing support for high-value occasional projects, where external expertise can make all the difference.
Lesson 4: Good marketing expertise goes well beyond creative
Outsourcing your marketing is about much more than just bringing in a better designer or professional copywriter.
When projects require technical marketing expertise, the right B2B agency can step up and fill the gaps.
Pirtek’s annual Pirtek Fishing Challenge raises money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Peter Duncan Neurological Research Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital. And the team wanted to find ways to increase engagement and uptake for this important event.
Enter our data team, who analysed four years of attendee data – that’s almost 20,000 records! – to identify key opportunities that would allow Pirtek to up the ante on its event impact.
The Lesson
A specialist B2B marketing agency brings a lot more than creative to the table. Strategy, research, analytics, and audience insight can amplify your team’s capabilities.
Lesson 5: Long-term partnerships make for the most valuable relationships
Of course, expertise alone only gets you so far.
An agency can have the smartest strategists and cleverest creatives, but they still need to understand exactly what makes your business tick.
And this is why we’re such firm believers in the power of long-term marketing partnerships.
Our relationship with Pirtek has developed over the years, as we’ve built a deep understanding not just of their brand, but of how their team operates, what approaches work best, and how we can continue to add value.
When a new project comes up, there’s no need for lengthy back-and-forths or entry-level questions – Pirtek shoots us the brief with the peace of mind that we already get their business.
As Pirtek CEO, Stephen Dutton, puts it:
MIH provides clear direction on the strategy they will employ and concisely explains the reasons and benefits for employing these strategies. We always know what we are going to get and how the finished project will look.
Stephen Dutton, Pirtek CEO
The Lesson
Don’t rush into a decision about which marketing agency to partner with. The right cultural fit is just as important as fancy marketing skills – especially when the engagement can last years (or decades!).
Could your marketing team do with an extra team of experts?
With over twenty years of B2B marketing experience across Australia and beyond, MIH can support your team to do so much more with your marketing.
Reach out today for a friendly chat and find out how we can help you with our outsourced marketing solutions.
