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This year marks 30 years since the brothers Pavel and Petr Marek founded the Marco BBN agency, a relatively unique agency on the Czech market, as its specializations include, among other things, B2B marketing, which has many specifics.

We talked to one of the agency’s founders and its Managing Director Pavel Marek about marketing know-how for B2B clients, interesting case studies, and how membership in the BBN network or the daily use of the Teamogy system helps the agency. And we looked a bit into the near future.

About B2B Marketing Know-how

Naďa: There are many agencies on the market, but fewer that specialize in B2B. Why should clients choose your agency? And for which clients or campaigns are you the optimal partner?

Pavel: As you already mentioned, we are distinguished by our specialization in B2B marketing. We start our cooperation with clients with a detailed discovery phase. I think we can very well understand the more complex product, the longer buying process in B2B, and uncover the opportunity of B2B brands with target audiences, influencers and personas. Only then do we work on the strategy.

Our team is set up to provide customers with a comprehensive 360 degree marketing service. Almost every project we handle today is digital. That’s why we position Marco BBN as a digital B2B marketing agency. We pay great attention to creativity in all forms, whether it’s text, visuals or video. We manage content for social media, including sponsored posts and campaigns, and in B2B we focus on the LinkedIn network. We cooperate with technology partners such as Google and Hubspot. 

Our offer targets B2B companies and brands that want to cooperate on a regular and long-term basis. The ideal partner for us is a client with a clear vision, a team of sales and marketing people who know how to define their business and marketing goals. 

In the agency portfolio you will find local companies where we deal directly with the owners, but also global corporations where our partners are C-level managers, brand specialists and other marketing positions.

Naďa: Your expertise in B2B marketing is also supported by your membership in the BBN network – THE WORLD’S B2B AGENCY. Can you tell us more about this network, how it works, how you share know-how?

Pavel: We’ve been at BBN since 2001, so it’s been many years. We were looking for a connection with a professional organization where we could share our experience and confront it with trends and practice. We couldn’t find such a platform among local associations, so we looked abroad.

What is particularly interesting about BBN is that it doesn’t operate as a network, but rather as one global organisation. Even in the rankings of global B2B agencies, we present ourselves as one company under the BBN brand, and we are repeatedly ranked in leading positions – both in the EU and the USA.

We are not owned by BBN. We are a family business. Marco BBN is owned by brothers Petr and Pavel Marek. We are partners and shareholders in BBN International. In recent years, we have been helping to expand BBN within the Central European CEE region.

Thanks to BBN, we have access to proven know-how and other tools. Everything we adapt from BBN know-how to Marco BBN’s service offer is supported by the implementations and results of our teams at large global corporations.

Naďa: As you have the opportunity to share know-how and case studies with colleagues in many countries within the BBN network, do you see any differences in how B2B marketing is used in the Czech Republic and other countries?

Pavel: B2B marketing has long been overlooked in our country, and only in recent years has it been perceived as an independent discipline within marketing. My colleagues from BBN agencies in London, Chicago or Singapore are a great inspiration for us. It is very inspiring for our team to work with them on various projects in international teams. I’ve already heard that we were the first B2B marketing agency in the Czech Republic, which makes me happy. We support the development of the domestic B2B marketing community, for example through our partnership with the largest B2B marketing conference, or by publishing professional articles on our B2B blog.

About Using Teamogy

Naďa: Why did you decide to start using the company system Teamogy?

Pavel: Since 2000, we have been using a predecessor to Teamogy called AD-IN-ONE. We learned about the development of Teamogy from the director Libor Černý. We were really looking forward to moving away from the original server solution and into the cloud. So Teamogy was a natural evolution for us.  It was also an advantage that the Teamogy team helped us with some data migration.

Naďa: What has changed in the company since using Teamogy?

Pavel: We have a real-time overview of the company’s performance. Teamogy is running on our team’s monitors all day long.

Naďa: What do you consider to be one of the biggest benefits of Teamogy to your agency?

Pavel: Teamogy comprehensively covers the most important processes that we need to follow in our business. It’s a system developed for global marketing agencies, their project management and other needs are mirrored in the system’s features, and we improve ours with it.

Naďa: Could you try to quantify some of the benefits of Teamogy?

Pavel: For example, thanks to Teamogy, we save time. And time is money,  isn’t it  :). Our monthly meetings with the team are shorter, thanks to the order overview. We’ve connected Teamogy with our accounting system, so data is only entered once.

Naďa: Who all uses the system in your company?

Pavel: Teamogy is used by all team members, including our accountants and some freelancers.

Naďa: Is the fact that you use Teamogy useful for your clients?

Pavel: Yes, for example in reporting the time worked on jobs; this functionality allows you to export time reports to an xls file. We use this very often.

About Projects

Naďa: And what are your favourite projects?

Pavel: We prefer long-term and complex B2B marketing support with the involvement of technologies. Our technology partners include Google, SharpSpring, AdForm, Meta and others. We believe that balancing brand with performance is very important for B2B brands. It is often necessary to fix outdated or neglected channels or other important marketing items before launching pilot campaigns, so the results of cooperation can come later. We love working with clients in joint workshops where we can inspire each other. This synergy then, once the strategy is fine-tuned, produces even better results.

Naďa: Can you tell us more about some of the projects you are proud of?

Pavel: Yes, I would love to. I’ll present the work for Business Lease and Schüttflix clients.

About Projects – Business Lease

Three years ago, we were approached by Business Lease, a company specialising in operating leasing services and vehicle fleets management. 

Assignment:

The aim was to increase the number of qualified leads using strategic marketing and digital forms of communication. At the time of the assignment, the acquisition of new customers was managed by the client’s sales team with the support of the call center. At the same time, there was a need to increase awareness of the association of the Business Lease brand with the key term ‘operating lease’ so that the brand was more frequently approached by the contracting authorities in the demand procedures.

Analysis:

At the beginning, we prepared a Desk Research and followed it up with a Discovery Workshop with the client’s management, where the main directions of the new digital B2B communication strategy were presented by the agency and discussed and approved with the client. The approved strategy revealed the need to create entirely new communication channels and formats that were not available until now.

Strategy:

In our communication strategy, we complemented the traditional customer path with multi-channel digital communication. We designed a connected system composed of performance channels to engage the target audience and capture leads. The lead nurturing tools then work with the leads to move the leads to the next stages in the buying process.

The entire marketing process is partially automated and user behaviour is evaluated by marketing automation technology. In the form of individual consultations, we helped to unify the brand presentation on LinkedIn and prepared the sales team for social selling.

After a preparation phase of 6 months, the campaign was launched and is continuously optimised in all channels. Measurement and reporting of the campaign results is done on a regular basis according to an agreed set of KPI’s. In addition to standard analytics systems, SharpSpring was deployed to evaluate campaign metrics at the level of specific leads.

Results:

Every month, an average of dozens of new leads are generated for the sales department from the ongoing campaign.

The Business Lease brand has improved significantly in searches for the key phrase “operating lease”.

PPC campaigns on Google and LinkedIn advertising systems deliver ongoing brand visibility in the hundreds of thousands of impressions per month.

About Projects – Schüttflix Czech Republic

A new addition to our portfolio is the interesting brand Schüttflix. Schüttflix came to the market with an app that changes the “established” rules in the construction industry.

Its contribution lies in the ability to order bulk materials, including their transport, through an online app, which leads not only to saving time and costs, but also to overall transparency of the market.  The app, which was created in Germany in 2018, also makes it possible to ensure the disposal of construction waste. After the app caught the attention of more than 9,000 customers in Germany who use it regularly, the company decided to expand to Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Assignment:

The primary goal is to build a business network of active partners over a period of 1-2 years and subsequently build the brand image and its growth.

Analysis:

This initial phase included several important surveys and analyses. These included:

• Target group insights, understanding who the target groups are, what personas are decision makers and influencers, and what their preferences are.
• Understanding the current level of marketing and business in the Czech Republic and in the context of neighbouring countries.
• Market audit – understanding the market situation, finding out what applications are used in the construction industry.
• Understanding the product – i.e. we received training on the web application and the entire process from ordering to the delivery of bulk materials for construction and rubble recycling.
• Keyword analysis.

Strategy:

3 groups meet on the Marketplace app. Providers and suppliers of construction rubble and crushed stone and quarries, then customers, i.e. construction companies and investors and transporters. We proposed two tactical phases in terms of the function of the marketplace app. The first phase of recruiting providers on the market, this is focused on bulk material suppliers and carriers. The second phase is focused on the customers on the market – construction companies.

The brand strategy consists of PR support, including participation in professional conferences, a content plan and its publication on social media, as well as appropriately chosen sponsorship.

The performance strategy is based on two conversion paths.The digital conversion path and 

the offline conversion path.

Results:

Google campaigns have generated more than 4 million ad impressions this year. Of these, the Google Ads search campaign brought nearly 6,000 clicks per landing page, and the Google Ads content campaign brought nearly 11,000 clicks per landing page.

Social media campaigns (on FB and IG) brought almost 7,000 clicks to the landing page.

Almost 1,500 landing page clicks were generated through LI campaigns.

Three waves of direct mail in the period 04-08/2023, with the combination of sending 682 personalized mailings with call center support, resulted in 98 relevant meetings being made. That is, 14.4% conversion rate between an offer and a relevant meeting, acquired prospect (hot lead).

Future Outlook

Naďa: Where do you think B2B marketing will go from here? Are you following any trends?

Pavel: B2B marketing is constantly evolving with the increasing use of artificial intelligence. AI is already integrated into many commonly used tools without us even knowing it. It’s a big challenge for creatives and agencies alike.

In addition, I see personalisation as a huge benefit, and I’m also watching it abroad. Tailoring content to the end user within B2B campaigns. This is a big topic in marketing, which is amazingly aided by technology. Various platforms have been working to support account-based marketing for some time, marketing automation systems  and other tools used by companies are being developed. Companies are seeing a gradual renewal of CRM solutions, which in new versions include marketing modules that track end-user behavior and are connected to digital channels.

Naďa: Pavel, thank you for an interesting interview, I believe it will be inspiring for many people.

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