As we continue to get to know the team behind Motion, we discuss with Rob Cullum, Motion’s Co-Founder and Lead Consultant, the most common marketing challenges, the trick to handling multiple clients and projects and how customers can get the most out of working with an agency.
What are the most common marketing challenges customers ask for help with?
We do get approached by new customers with a variety of challenges, but I would certainly say the most common is for help on getting websites to deliver lead generation. Of course, there is often a multitude of things that need to be nailed to achieve that challenge result, but a challenge we have certainly succeeded with many times.
With existing or longer-term customers it has been about advancing digital marketing in general, getting the team engaged, and creating quality online content regularly. Covid has accelerated digital marketing and digital communications significantly. A business needs to be found online, be presented effectively online, and the team need to be active online. Strong digital marketing has become a necessity to compete in most marketplaces.
What’s the trick to handling so many clients and jumping between different projects?
Being able to grasp what you need to focus on and let go of the other information. Grab the key elements, and key knowledge effectively. Dig deep but do not hold on to everything – consider what is most important to generating more business for that specific company. I am lucky to have a Product Design degree that helps me understand most things pretty quickly. Combining that with a previous life where I was involved in a fast-paced IT organisation that launched disruptive tech into EMEA from Asia or the US, I have had decent practice in picking up key things quickly. You will also find connections between many customer solutions, cloud, AI, IoT, IIoT, SaaS, digital transformation, automation, connectivity, customer engagement etc – arguably the more clients you are involved with the more you can cross-pollinate information.
How can customers get the most out of working with an agency?
We very much have a “cards on the table” open-book approach with our customers. This is because we believe the best results will come from full integration and full openness. The sooner we can create trust the faster the results will come. We move the fastest when we have had our discovery phase and then just go for it – we are amazing value for a client in this mode, but only if the client trusts us, only if the client recognises that they have partnered with a specialist agency that is used to a technical world, who constantly see a wider industry perspective.
The customer that says “I can see you have considered it, I will go with your thoughts” is the customer that gets the best results and quickly. Of course, we understand a client who wants to know more, who wants to justify things, wants to dig into the detail of everything. But this takes time, costs money and slows things down. It is a trust thing, and we always do our best to create that trust early in a relationship.
What marketing mistake do you see B2B businesses make the most?
My first major marketing experience was very lead generation focused – and that will be the backbone of what we focus on almost always. But experience has shown that something that is often undervalued is brand. You can do thousands of campaigns, but if your brand is poor, your engagement and therefore lead generation will be poor.
In a previous role, we spotted that even the best IT solutions would not be successful if they were branded poorly – hence we created an evaluation process for new IT solutions before we gave them the green light. Your business will be evaluated, considered, perceived, as good as your brand – it is reality. Even in a B2B world, we are all still consumers, we are all affected even if we do not openly consider it. Get your visual brand nailed before you invest in campaign work and digital marketing, it will save you a lot of money, and create a lot more leads. Covid accelerated the importance. Underestimating the power of the brand is very common in a technical world.
If you didn’t work at Motion, what would your dream job be?
Years ago I would have certainly said a racing driver in the British Touring Car Championship, today I would probably say marketing for a not-for-profit organisation. I still love to design concepts for products or buildings and sketch visual concepts. I also love to play with messaging concepts and come up with posters. I care a lot about the environment (which does not go hand in hand with being a BTCC driver!), I am a big believer in ongoing education plus sports and culture in society – supporting these areas in some format would be great in the future.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Motion team, please read our other blogs in this series where we meet Angela Greaves (Content Writer), Matt White (Lead Creative) and Ollie Butler (Digital Apprentice).
