If you’re here, then you’ll likely know a little about the market for marketing and you’re either considering using a B2B agency or you’re about to find out that you’re considering using a B2B agency. You have to know about what’s available and stay up to date, which is why we’ve put this together to help you make informed choices that will have you on the road to success.

What is B2B Branding?

B2B stands for business to business, meaning that businesses are promoting or selling products or services to other businesses or groups. It’s distinct from B2C marketing, meaning business to consumer marketing, whereby the business markets their goods to a consumer. As a result of this different target audience and the different needs and preferences, the strategies, concepts and branding that are used in B2B are also distinct.

B2B is necessary when a company’s product or service is required by another company in order to improve or maintain its operations. Consequently, the first company has to present an image that’s appealing, effective and successful in terms of aesthetic as well as service, the goods themselves and the brand. The brand is what appeals to the target market, retains them and assures the success of the business, which makes it imperative.

How can a B2B branding agency help?

The overly simple answer is they help with the branding. They understand why it’s important and how it can impact the success of the business, so the B2B branding agency protects that success by ensuring they do a good job of the branding. A great example of a B2B branding agency is Tiga UK, who provide the expertise needed to market to other businesses.

They help by creating a strong, noteworthy, impactful brand, most specifically by using a diverse team of professionals, who rely on their knowledge and experience to offer incredibly valuable input. It’s the experience and the knowledge across multiple fields that a branding agency puts on the table. It’s also the fact that all of this resides under one roof and it can all be in-house, making the process faster, less stressful and more effective. Taking some of the negative emotion out of a very important sector is another benefit of a B2B branding agency – someone who knows how to thrive with pressure and consistently produces excellent results shoulders the responsibility of the branding. In practice, the way they do this is by offering a set of services.

What type of services are offered across B2B branding?

• Brand Strategy – This means the way that a company has planned and executed the way they appear and what they will do to impact how they want the public to perceive them. It’s important because of the impact this has on consumers, their behaviour and their actions, because it makes a key difference in the success of the company.

• Branding Audits – What this means is evaluating the position of the company in the marketplace, its strengths and weaknesses and how to develop those things. Typically, it covers internal branding, external branding and customer experience, and the goal is to get a true reflection of where the company stands with itself, with its competitors and with its customers. This is imperative because a consistent brand builds brand equity, and with brand equity comes customer retention, word of mouth referrals, and less money on attracting new customers, among other things.

• Touch Point Analysis – Touch points are the actions of the company that ‘touch’ the consumer at each point on their journey from encountering the brand to choosing it to developing brand loyalty. Analysis involves identifying, assessing and prioritising types of interactions through a variety of approaches. The touch points affect loyalty, brand equity, and profitability, which means analysing them to establish how to be most effective and impactful is a valuable tool for improvement.

• Creative Identity – This is essentially the unique selling point, or USP, the way the brand defines itself and the way people define the brand when referring to it. Whether that be the aesthetic, a specific sound, an iconic advert or a well-known product, it’s essential that this is a positive thing, because it’ll be the first thing the target audience associates with the company. The goal of branding agencies is to make sure that thing is positive, obviously, and the image they want to present.

• Research – Research involves gathering information about the subject, the product or service, and the target market in order to develop an understanding, which is then used to inform the branding. It’s the foundation of any branding because it determines what tactic or concept to use to appeal to the consumer, and the success of the company is dependent on the appeal of the brand.

In short, a B2B branding service offers the benefit of its knowledge and experience in developing and maintaining a company and can be the integral factor in determining the success or failure of the branding.

As most finance experts know by now, the ecological concerns of private citizens have been influencing their investments for decades now. It’s come to the point that companies purposely engage in greenwashing to present themselves as being more eco-conscious in hopes of increasing sales. That should be enough to tell us that consumers and investors alike are ready to see a new kind of economic model take the place of the one that caused the environmental concerns we are facing today.

Why Is Everyone Talking About Circular Economy?

We’ve all seen that a linear economy puts stress on the planet by stimulating climate change and waste accumulation. On top of that, it presents us with several financial disadvantages, including the fact that the price of raw materials will go up as we run out of resources. So at this point, investing in businesses that support the linear economy is a bad financial decision. Essentially, that economic model is quickly becoming a sinking ship.

Luckily, we already have a valid alternative on the horizon. The circular economy model has been around for decades. The concept prioritizes regenerative resources including materials that would have otherwise been considered waste. Proponents of the system hope to reduce waste or perhaps eliminate it, allowing nature to recover from decades if not centuries of abuse.

While many individual people share the values of this system, change can’t happen if the big players decide not to participate. But if there’s one thing big corporations understand, it’s the language of finance. If we can start investing in companies that support a circular economy on a wider scale, more businesses will make the changes we want to see.

For what it’s worth, socially responsible investing has already started changing the tide. The financing of the companies that support circular economy has increased rapidly over the past few years. According to reports from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, public equity funds that are focused on the circular economy have grown from 300 million dollars at the end of 2019 to over 8 billion dollars at the end of June 2021.

How Are Companies Supporting Circular Economy?

So how could a business land on one of those ESG funds that stress the importance of the environmental, social, and governance responsibilities of investments? A few examples come to mind.

Companies like IKEA have taken strides in the fight against the usage of raw materials, and plastics, in particular. In large part, IKEA has transitioned to renewable and recycled resources. Moreover, it’s even offering buy-back programs to keep its products from clogging up landfills. And since plastic is particularly slow to degrade, the company has also committed to using recycled plastics for the large-scale production of household appliances.

But of course, many companies have branded themselves as being sustainable by using similar campaigns. That doesn’t mean that they’re interested in enabling a circular economy. So there have to be other incentives to invest, aside from following positive optics.

The Benefits of Investing In Companies That Support Circular Economy

As we have previously mentioned, investing in companies that aren’t sustainable is starting to look like a really poor financial decision. After all, it all comes down to risk and reward. With companies that participate in the linear economy model, there’s a risk that the resources will dry up. On top of that, the cost of raw material and production can quickly overwhelm the potential profits, as has been the case in the automotive industry.

The negative public perception of wasteful companies and industries has also led to legislative solutions. For example, the EU has famously pledged to ban single-use plastic and transition to mostly recycled packaging by 2029. That will certainly affect companies that wish to operate within the EU.

Simply put, if companies manufacture products that don’t comply with EU regulations, they will be missing out on that part of the market. That means that their sales will drop, resulting in dropping stock prices too. So really, investing in companies that are closing the loop is the only thing we can do.

As we learned from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, there are three key benefits of transitioning to a circular economic model. Namely, doing so is:

• A fantastic way to get financing, particularly since many governments and NGOs are now offering incentives to “go green”
• Less risky than engaging in practices that support a linear economy
• A sustainable option for financiers who prioritize ESG investing values

The investors can also experience these benefits. After all, the good luck of a company or investment fund tends to trickle up to the financiers.

How Investment Companies Can Jump on the Circular Economy Bandwagon

In Financing the Circular Economy, the fourth chapter explains how financial services firms can capitalize on the growing popularity of the concept of a circular economy. The main investment opportunities they might explore include:

• Launching or investing in passive and active public equity funds that benefit from the circular economy
• Issuing or investing in bonds or loans to allow companies to transition to a circular economic model
• Supporting sustainable products and services through private equity
• Investing in innovative sustainable production solutions through venture capital
• Funding projects that boost sustainable infrastructure and public services

In the above report, you’ll find many examples of investment companies seizing these opportunities, and more! Even Alphabet — aka Google — is putting billions of dollars towards sustainability bonds. And many other international conglomerates are doing the same thing.

All of these companies know what we’ve been trying to prove here — that circular economy is the future. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can start investing in it to bring it to its full potential. Ultimately, this new economic model is our chance to redeem ourselves and fix the damage we did to our planet. And if we can increase our profit while doing that — why would we wait?

Generating leads is an integral part of building your business and every salesperson knows it. Salespeople have to continuously maintain the health of their pipeline to ensure short and long-term success.

Lead generation, which can also be referred to as prospecting, can be done in a variety of ways. In today’s digital business world, it’s easy to get lost in email, social selling, chatbot communication, and so on. Despite all of these innovations, the phone is still one of the most valuable tools at the disposal of salespeople.

Lead generation over the phone, like any sales tactic, can be a trying and time-consuming task. You can automate email outreach but reaching out by phone still requires a lot of manual work. The work is grueling, and it can take several attempts to get a prospect on the phone.

“It takes an average of 18 calls to actually connect with a buyer,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning lead generation provider in the Philippines.

A statistic like that makes this process perfect for outsourcing. In fact, a lot of companies have been improving their processes and reducing their costs through Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). When it comes to lead generation services, many businesses have been turning to the booming BPO industry in the Philippines.

Why Lead Generation out of the Philippines Works

The globalisation of our world and the way we do business has created an environment that has allowed the BPO industry to grow and flourish. Within that environment, we have seen several nations emerge as leaders, and one of those is the Philippines.

Over the past twenty years, the Philippines has established itself as a leader in lead generation services. They have several competitive advantages that have positioned them above others.

To begin with, the country shares a cultural affinity with the West. Closely related to that, English is one of two official languages in the Philippines. As the most widely spoken language on the planet, that ensures they are able to serve businesses worldwide.

While culture and language are important for communication, infrastructure is also incredibly important in the digital age. When you outsource lead generation to the Philippines you are looking for a country with a reliable telecommunications network, reliable utilities, and reliable transportation for the work force.

Finally, the Southeast Asian nation has an educated labour force with all the necessary skills for lead generation, appointment scheduling, outbound data verification, surveys, etc. The Philippine BPO industry is built on persistence, communication, and sales experience. Being able to execute this over the phone is crucial in a world that has been reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of this is great for your business, but the cherry on top: they do all this at a fraction of the cost. They offer you a high-quality service and a great bottom line price.

Choosing the Right Lead Generation Partner in the Philippines is Crucial for Your Success

PITON-Global is the mid-market industry leader in the Philippines when it comes to high-performance customer acquisition and retention services. As a key player in one of the leading industries, they partner with companies around the globe and provide impeccable service at an affordable rate. Outsourcing lead generation to the Philippines could be the game changer for you and your business.

Payroll is something that is very important. All businesses should strive to ensure that all employees are paid on time, as well as all relevant information is reported to HMRC on time and correctly. Simple mistakes can be penalised heavily.

Dealing with payroll on your own can be a nightmare. Whether you are trying to take on the responsibility yourself or you are thinking about hiring an in-house team, this task is huge and a lot more complicated than you think. What’s more, it can be time-consuming and costly to keep payroll in-house.

This is why a lot of businesses are choosing to outsource payroll and work with another company. Here are some reasons to consider this direction with your business.

You Gain Highly-Trained Experts

Finding the right candidates for any job is difficult. You can go through months of applications not to find the professionals you need for the job. Even if you do find the right candidate, they often come at a price. But, this is the good thing about outsourcing. You can gain highly-trained experts for the tasks you need and you do not have to hire them full-time. For example, if you outsource your payroll services, you are going to have professionals working for you. They are going to be trained and have experience, which means that they know what they are doing. No longer do you have to worry about staying up-to-date with the law and changes in rules. You can outsource this responsibility.

Access to the Best Payroll Software

If you were thinking about having payroll services in-house, you would soon realise that you had more to do than just hire a team. You would also have to set up the office. In other words, you would have to purchase a lot of equipment and this includes payroll software. This is something that is costly. A lot of businesses try to cut corners and choose budget payroll software. But, this is something that you will suffer from in the long term.

When you outsource your payroll services, this is something that you can gain access to. Most companies offering payroll services invest in the best payroll software. This allows you to enjoy peace of mind and know that all of your information is organised and in one place. In particular, it can mean that records and data are transparent.

Have Happy Employees

Let’s not forget that it is not just you that benefits from outsourcing payroll services. Your employees are also going to benefit too. Nobody that works hard Monday to Friday wants to have their pay cheque delivered to them late. They trust you to deal with this side of the business and for all of their salary and benefits to be sorted out on time. you want to do everything you can to enjoy a good relationship with your employees. The last thing you want is for them to be disgruntled. Before you know it, they might look to move on.

Enjoy More Time

If you have been trying to do your payroll and juggle all of your other tasks, this will have been very time-consuming. A lot of people do not realise how long payroll can take until they have that responsibility themselves. IF you are the owner of a business, you need a lot of time to grow and deal with other duties. Simply, payroll takes up too much time and energy. Outsourcing is going to solve this problem. You can have over the reins to professionals and this is going to give you more time to work on other tasks.

Save A lot of Money

Unless you are a large corporation, having your own in-house payroll services is just too much money. You would have to spend money on recruitment, premises, equipment and ongoing training and salaries. Simply, this is not realistic for a lot of small businesses. The easiest way to overcome this is to outsource your payroll services. You are still going to have a skilled team but you only pay for the services you need. This is going to work out a lot more affordable for your business.

What’s more, when you outsource your payroll service, you are going to ensure compliance. Nobody wants to have to pay for fines when they could have been avoided. Letting the professionals get the job done properly means you save money and do not make any mistakes that you could be fined for.