Sopro partner with b2b better podcast
In this blog
- Episode Five: The core pillars to growth in a saturated market
- Episode Four: Unlocking commercial value in a niche market
- Episode Three: Building credibility through a PR strategy
- Episode Two: Unlocking commercial value in a niche market
- Episode One: Elevating niche service businesses through strategic outreach
Sopro partner with B2B Better podcast
Episode Five: The core pillars to growth in a saturated market
The fifth episode in this series of the B2B Better podcast sees Jason Bradwell taking a moment to sit down with the CEO of Disruptive Thinking, Yiuwin Tsang.
Disruptive Thinking is a “small but mighty” collective of marketing and business growth experts based in the southwest.
If you’re in a small, service-led business struggling to find that growth footing, this is the episode for you. Listen as Yiuwin describes his journey from a blank slate to a thriving agency.
Below are some of the core elements touched on in this episode that are vital when growing your business in a somewhat saturated sector.
- Building the right team
- Carving out the time for business development and marketing
- Understanding your customer journey
- Differentiate your offering
When building the right team, be prepared – it won’t be a seamless process immediately. One piece of advice that stands out from Yiuwin’s personal experience is ensuring you have a “chemistry test” in place.
It’s great when a potential hire has all the skills that would benefit your team, but do they have the personality that will resonate beyond the walls of your office (or teams call!)? It’s an essential but often overlooked aspect and he shares a question you should ask yourself ahead of all new hires.
Next up, the conversation dives into business development, marketing, and differentiating yourself from your competitors. When you’re a small business, what steps must you take?
Having developed Disruptive Thinking into a well-established agency, Yiuwin underlines that making time and having the discipline to achieve your objectives is pivotal.
Second, your outreach will evolve as your business scales – have the necessary systems to help you test and measure your efforts.
While making these investments during the infant stages of your business can be challenging, investing in your team and the right tools is pivotal.
Understanding your customer journey will also directly influence your outreach and help your content and, ultimately, your offering stand out.
This episode will get you focusing on some really important questions that you should be asking:
- What are the client’s pain points?
- What solutions are already on the market?
- Where are the critical conversion points in the customer journey?
- Where and how can you optimise outreach?
Yiuwin’s insights are invaluable when thinking about your over-arching strategy and all of those details that might otherwise be easy to overlook.
And don’t forget to stick around until the end! We get one more instalment from our very own Kit Smith.
This time, he follows the theme of understanding your proposition, the customer journey and how that will go far in distinguishing your offering.
Episode Four: Unlocking commercial value in a niche market
This week’s episode of the B2B Better podcast sees host Jason Bradwell sit down with Frans Swarttouw, Founder of Getting the Market, a Netherlands-based company specialising in positioning and online marketing for the maritime and logistics industry.
Listen as Jason and Frans immediately delve into the crucial importance of good positioning. Frans emphasises the significance of online marketing, particularly in niche markets, where visibility is paramount for success. Getting the Market’s approach is then strengthened with content and public relations to drive traffic to their client’s websites, ensuring their stories are effectively communicated.
“What is the use of running if you’re running in the wrong direction?”
Frans highlights the essence of making strategic choices in positioning – identify who you are and who you aren’t. And understand that being an expert in niche industries can be a double-edged sword. While expertise can attract clients, it may deter others seeking a more detached perspective.
If you are working in a niche sector, Frans stresses the importance of networking and attending industry events to expand your reach. Winning new business in smaller sectors often relies on being well-connected within specific network collectives.
When you’re looking to transition to global markets, you will need to shift your marketing strategy. Frans explains that while online marketing remains valuable, email marketing becomes crucial for reaching a wider audience. Personalisation is key in email campaigns and showcasing expertise and industry credibility.
This episode offers valuable insights for businesses aiming to unlock commercial value in niche markets, emphasising the significance of strategic positioning, personalised outreach, and effective networking. There are also some great takeaways on A/B testing to take note of.
As always, be sure to stick around for Sopro’s very own Kit Smith. He details with Jason the criteria that B2B organisations should prioritise to ensure they’re reaching the most receptive audience, especially when they’re expanding into new markets. Spoiler alert: perfectly timed outbound is the key.
Episode Three: Building credibility through a PR strategy
In the latest instalment from B2B Better’s Jason Bradwell, we tune in with Xanthe Vaughan Williams, Director and Co-Founder of Fourth Day PR.
Fourth Day is a well-established B2B-focused PR company that is all about shaping perceptions and establishing a reputation for businesses based in the world of tech.
This week’s discussion revolves around the misconceptions of PR and the uptake of owned media taking the reigns. For SMBs within the realm of B2B, owned media is a space to add valuable industry perspectives. Still, it’s important to recognise that it’s not an avenue that offers neutral or independent representation.
With a challenge to stand out in tech spaces, what’s the solution to gain credibility?
This episode highlights that value still lies with traditional PR strategies – making your offering seen and, most importantly, trusted.
Xanthe hits home the point that there is no one-size-fits-all playbook in the world of PR. Depending on your business needs is where you place your budget. The objective is to add value and be taken seriously in your industry, positioning yourself as a thought leader.
But how?
Multi-channel is your greatest strength.
In this snippet, you’ll begin to understand what makes a good PR strategy and that story-telling across channels is your greatest strength. For businesses new to PR, it’s vital to understand that it isn’t about selling a product or a solution. It’s about building a complete narrative.
This episode is a great listen for SMBs who are thinking about dipping a toe into PR. It will provide insight on where to start and give you a better picture of what you must look at to develop your strategy.
Be sure to stick around at the end of the podcast for further insight from Kit Smith, content aficionado here at Sopro.
Kit and Jason dig deeper into the best ways to integrate multi-channel outreach into your strategy – particularly if you are a small business struggling to allocate time or operating with limited manpower and budget.
Episode Two: Unlocking commercial value in a niche market
In this week’s episode, tune in with the B2B Better podcast host, Jason Bradwell, in discussion with Callum McGranaghan, Director and Head of Paid Social at Social for Good.
This episode focuses on a well-known Sussex-based social media agency that transformed from helping any and all commercial brands to focusing on organisations in the third sector with their social strategies – primarily, non-profits and purpose driven brands.
Wanting to help these businesses with their impact but navigating a niche market, Callum goes into detail about how they set themselves apart in a field of other agencies.
As an SMB going through this re-brand, he speaks to the strength of recognising your weaknesses and when to draft in that help when the manpower just isn’t there. The solution Social for Good landed on was to outsource their prospecting.
“If we’re preaching “people should work with experts”, it felt silly for us not to practise that.”
Through this path, the first key element to building new relationships was to show an understanding of common pain points and provide evidence of successful solutions.
This was substantiated through their initial outreach, which focused on a unique value proposition paired with tailored and personalised messaging. For Social for Good, this began with a cold email outreach and was bolstered by multiple channels.
“The audience and your offer needs to be the primary focus.”
By utilising strategic targeting and building a presence, Callum mentions just how much uplift they have seen from word of mouth and referrals.
This is a great listen for fast-growing SMBs looking to harness personalised outreach and engage with prospects through multiple touch points – from email and LinkedIn to engaging with their content on social media.
Don’t forget to stick around for another dose of insight from Sopro’s very own Kit Smith. This time the focus is on how businesses with a broader offering can achieve the same heights in their prospecting outreach.
Episode One: Elevating niche service businesses through strategic outreach
Sopro partnered with B2B Better for the first of five episodes! Listen to Sopro customer Nick Patterson, Co-CEO of STORM + SHELTER, speak to Jason Bradwell.
In this episode, Jason had the opportunity to sit down with Nick Patterson, the Co-CEO of STORM + SHELTER, to delve into the evolution of marketing strategies for niche, service-led businesses.
The conversation addressed the critical challenge of moving beyond traditional referral-based growth, relying on word-of-mouth and, instead, embracing innovative approaches to generate new business opportunities. At the same time, the outreach needed to complement their existing marketing channels.
Amidst today’s challenging economic landscape and heightened competitive conditions, STORM + SHELTER found themselves seeking avenues to augment their marketing efforts.
Nick discusses the journey of developing their brand and implementing an email outreach strategy tailored to resonate with their niche audience. All while remaining personable and keeping messaging to the point.
This episode underscores the challenges facing many small, service-based businesses: scaling up while maintaining authenticity and relevance.
Central to the success of the STORM + SHELTER campaign was their profound emphasis on branding and the meticulous understanding of their audience and unique value proposition. Nick shares the areas of success behind their outreach, highlighting that personalisation- making a prospect feel seen, heard, and valued – is vital.
If your business needs to adapt to new and emerging outreach methods, this refreshing approach breaks down how you unlock growth opportunities in a competitive landscape.
Be sure to stick around for a breakdown at the end of his episode from Kit Smith, our Content Manager at Sopro. He details a personalised approach to outbound messaging at scale and how that goes hand-in-hand with ABM and inbound marketing.
