The US, UK and the rest of Europe have been using marketing automation and inbound marketing practices now for many years, and it is an established norm in businesses of all sizes. In this arena, Switzerland has long been very competitive. It is one of the world’s top economies, and investors all over the world consider Switzerland a highly attractive place to do business.
Unfortunately for marketers, Switzerland's success as a capital of global finance has come at a cost. The Swiss tend to have a more conservative approach to new ideas, and a privacy-driven mindset is often at the fore. In itself, this is no bad thing and overall the Swiss economy has thrived over recent years whilst other have struggled. But as a result, certain practices and technologies take longer to be adopted by Swiss businesses. Marketing automation platforms are one of these, and inbound marketing has taken a while to establish itself in Switzerland's business climate.
What is the future of business in Switzerland?
Whether your firm is doing business in the B2B or B2C field, inbound marketing is an essential best practice for all Swiss businesses that want to thrive and grow. The best-case scenario for your business is that your marketing automation platform will streamline workflows and make doing business easier. Inbound marketing makes your demand generation process more efficient by creating a structured marketing approach and automating many of those tasks that have to be performed by a person. It also contributes sophisticated machine-learning to help you understand your prospects and direct sales teams to the right person at the right time.
Most importantly, in a business environment dominated by e-commerce, it's no longer enough to rely on the skill of a traditional web agency. PR, marketing, and graphic design still matter, but Swiss B2B and B2C firms will need the new technologies of demand generation to create their next crop of customers.
Traditional marketing firms vs inbound marketing agencies
Marketing automation as a technology is still relatively new. It was only in the early days of 2009 when it started to see widespread use, and even then it was only viable for large multi-national corporations. Today, inbound marketing can level the playing field for smaller companies, allowing them to get more done with less.
Marketing automation has also had a profound effect on digital marketing agencies. Many traditional marketing agencies have started to adapt and offer marketing automation as part of their services to their clients. However, many of these agencies are late to the game, and many more still even find themselves a bit out of their depth when dealing with inbound marketing.
This is why it's important for businesses to find an inbound marketing agency or consultancy that specialises in marketing automation in order to take full advantage of this powerful tool and take their marketing into the future. Many progressive businesses in Switzerland are realising this. Ultimately, any Swiss business that wants to thrive will have to realise it, too.
Let’s examine 3 core differences between regular marketing agencies and a marketing automation agency.
The web agency
Marketing automation has changed the game for many digital marketing agencies and is significantly different to the work performed by a traditional web agency or SEO consultancy.
Traditional web agencies focus on building amazing looking websites with plenty of user engagement, but little in the way of thought about lead conversions. They build great online brochures, but add little value to the sales process. And whilst their SEO and Adwords skills may get you to the front page on Google, that means nothing if it's not through the context of the buyer’s journey.
Inbound marketing agencies focus on understanding your customer journey, engaging with them throughout, and helping them to help themselves when it comes to understanding your solution offering. A great Inbound marketing consultancy understands not only how to build your website, but also how to use it to capture leads and build campaigns to nurture them.
The PR Agency
Both traditional PR agencies as well inbound marketing agencies will use different channels to attract customers to your landing pages and hopefully to your sales people. However, the way that each agency uses these channels will be very different.
Using different media channels, a traditional PR agency will often rely on each of their communications attracting and hooking prospects. From there, they typically see the job as done and move the leads onto the sales department. Essentially, each communication is a separate entity that attempts to reach out and attract leads. If they don't convert straight away, the opportunity is lost.
A good inbound marketing agency sees each medium as a piece in the overall puzzle, each is an important communication that the lead must act upon in order to convert into a customer. Similar to a traditional PR agency, an inbound agency includes "attract and hook" pieces, but takes it a step further by using additional content and nurturing before closing the deal. This ensures that each lead is a win, instead of a missed opportunity.
The Graphic Design / Branding Agency
When it comes to a branding agency, your image, name identity and messaging are the primary objectives.
Branding is the process of developing a company's image through brand strategies that focus on what comes to mind for customers or consumers when thinking about your brand. If you've ever wondered why brown sugar water brings the word "refreshing" to mind, you can thank Coca-Cola's brand managers.
A branding agency is useful in creating a general look and feel of a company while supporting (but not creating) other marketing efforts. They will supply their clients with a shiny new website, a new look and other graphical assets, but only (at best) provide guidelines and support with other efforts.
A branding agency will help companies create their vision, and then supply them with the tools and processes necessary to support that vision. This can be a very powerful approach. However, it does very little in actually hooking leads or even nurturing them. Instead, branding and branding agencies amplify the base a company has already rather than grow it from the ground up.
The truth is, there is no 100% 'traditional marketing agency'. Each agency has a specialisation, and, naturally, each agency will lean more into that specialisation than other marketing aspects.
For example, an agency that grew off of the .com boom will probably rely heavily on SEO and website-based marketing methods and techniques. A firm that typically creates incredible PR will use it as a fundamental aspect of their marketing strategy.
This is all for good reasons, and there's nothing wrong with playing to your strengths. However, when it comes to marketing automation and inbound marketing, many businesses struggle to find a specialist. This is partly due to the fact that marketing automation is still a relatively new technology, and is constantly evolving.
A true inbound marketing agency will play to its strengths and make marketing automation the core of what they do for your company. As an added bonus, successful inbound marketing campaigns incorporate all the traditional marketing techniques and methods to provide the most successful campaigns, making automation appeal to nearly every lead.
Finding the right inbound marketing agency for you
If your marketing automation software is working right, it will perform tasks like qualifying leads based on different criteria in order to place them in the sales funnel before a person interacts with them. Marketing automation not only collects data, it sorts and categorises almost instantaneously as well.
However, having a powerful tool doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the most out of it, and having the right agency who knows how to use the tool is just as important.
Here is an overview of some of the marketing automation agencies you can find in Switzerland.
Demodia
Demodia has the unique position being one of Switzerland's original inbound marketing agencies with over 10 years working with marketing automation. With offices in the UK and a head office in St Gallen, Switzerland, the consultancy has over a decade of experience helping traditional firms adapt to the digital world. With many awards to their name, they know what priorities firms looking to modernise their marketing should set.
Do they focus on marketing automation?
Demodia has built up their consultancy around marketing automation as a central pillar. It is primarily featured on their homepage, and they actively advocate the use for many different automation platforms.
Who do they cater for?
Demodia works with mostly B2B businesses, small and large.
What platforms do they support?
According to their website, Demodia is an official partner with HubSpot, Pardot, Eloqua, and SharpSpring. However, they also have experience in other marketing automation platforms.
SONDORA
SONDORA is a Swiss digital marketing agency with over two decades of experience. Their self-stated goal is to "help companies align Marketing and Sales with Overall Business Strategy".
Do they focus on marketing automation?
While they do offer 'advanced marketing automation', SONDORA only mentions marketing automation once on their homepage, and has one (admittedly long) page on marketing automation in general. They do not discuss marketing automation in their blog or case study section.
Who do they cater for?
SONDORA states that they cater for medium to large enterprises.
What platforms do they support
While they state that they have tested many automation platforms, they are an official partner of SALESManago marketing automation.
YourTarget
Specifically an inbound marketing agency, YourTarget doesn’t say much about their history or background. They aim to supply inbound marketing through a precise methodology that is applied to their clients.
Do they focus on marketing automation?
Marketing automation as a keyword only appears once on their homepage. However, they go into great detail about HubSpot, a major inbound marketing platform. Through their dedicated HubSpot page, inbound marketing page and the amount of detail they go into, it is a fair assumption that YourTarget is a dedicated HubSpot automation agency.
Who do they cater for?
YourTarget does not specifically single out a target market. However, glancing over their customer testimonials on their homepage seems to indicate that they focus on smaller businesses that need help with their inbound marketing strategy.
What platforms do they support?
YourTarget supports HubSpot exclusively.
Versio2
Focussing on web design and inbound marketing services, Versio2 establishes three core aspects as vital to their online exclusive approach: lead generation, marketing automation, and business growth. Versio2 has representatives in Canada as well as Switzerland—however, the representative for Switzerland may be busy.
Do they focus on marketing automation?
Versio2 highlights marketing automation as one of their core tenants in their about us page, and they promote their inbound marketing methodology as their primary offering, which includes marketing automation.
Who do they cater for?
Small and medium sized B2B enterprises, according to their About Us page.
What platforms do they support?
Versio2 promotes HubSpot as their marketing automation platform of choice, but looking at the HubSpot partner page it appears as though they are not an official partner.
BEEInbound
BEEInbound states that they're a performance-focused, full service agency that aims to delight and inspire their clients. They value KPIs and data-driven decisions, and promises to maximise growth through all channels the client desires.
Do they focus on marketing automation?
Marketing automation is not mentioned anywhere on their homepage, however, BEEInbound do position themselves as inbound marketing experts and is associated with HubSpot as an agency partner. From this, it's fair to say that they offer marketing automation as an option for their clients.
Who do they cater for?
BEEInbound does not directly state who their ideal client is, however, they do have a range of pricing plans and offer training and webinars. This points to an agency who targets all businesses, large and small.
What platforms do they support?
As mentioned before, BEEInbound is associated with HubSpot. They do not seem to mention any other automation platforms.
EC4U
EC4U is based in Germany, but they have offices in Switzerland. They state that they offer a 3 part service, consisting of consulting, execution and management for their clients.
Do they focus on marketing automation?
While they do offer marketing automation, they mainly focus on CRMs like Salesforce, Microsoft and Oracle. Marketing automation is an added benefit from this focus. EC4U mentions marketing automation once on their homepage, which links to their content marketing page that presents marketing automation at the core of their marketing strategy.
Who do they cater for?
Typically large businesses.
What platforms do they support?
Oracle Eloqua, Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Work with the future, not against it
Inbound marketing is quickly becoming the norm when it comes to digital marketing, and customers around the world are starting to expect it to some level.
With a small local market, for businesses in Switzerland that want to stay abreast of the latest developments in marketing and digital consumer interaction, inbound marketing is the way to go. The many complexities and opportunities that come with marketing automation can all be taken care of by partnering with the right digital marketing automation agency—and even better if they happen to be a local firm in Switzerland.
If you’d like to take your marketing to the next level and are seeking a partner to help and guide you through the process, give Demodia, a Swiss digital inbound marketing agency with over a decade of experience, a try. A consultancy rather than an agency, Demodia will help you craft the perfect automation campaign specifically to your needs.
