According to advertising strategists, the current marketing and advertising agency model is broken. One of the reasons is because agencies focus too much on their own needs ahead of their clients’ needs, trying to get ahead in their own industry by winning awards rather than getting to know the industry their client works in.

“A deep knowledge of the industry's sales cycle, buyers' behaviours, and products [or] services goes a long way to create a communication piece that works,” says Chris Bland, Managing Director of Great Southern Press (GSP), publisher of Gas Today.

Industry-specific agencies that specialise in particular sectors, such as Gas Industry Marketing Solutions, are starting to come into being as a result of traditional agencies’ unfocused marketing knowledge. These type of agencies have a deeper knowledge of the industry that they market in, resulting in stronger strategies, stronger communication and ultimately stronger results.

Here are five ways that gas businesses can benefit from using an agency with industry knowledge.

1. Strong results

Research conducted by the Fournaise Marketing Group in 2010 found that 67 per cent of agencies in Australia are creative-driven, and these types of agencies don’t know enough about and don’t spend enough time and money investigating the market that they are advertising in. This means that the agency doesn’t know enough about customer behaviours and motivations for an effective communication piece.

On the other hand, agencies that know the industry that they work in are results driven and are therefore able to deliver stronger results. This is because intimate knowledge of industry intricacies and market information creates stronger strategies and therefore stronger strategic marketing and advertising.

2. Expertise results in efficiency

An agency that is already familiar with an industry doesn’t have to spend precious time researching, as they already have all the information. This results in efficiency and a professional standard of work that is cost effective.

3. Communication that works

Strong industry knowledge also means strong knowledge of the industry’s market, meaning those with the potential to ‘buy’ a product from that particular industry. As noted by Mr Bland, deeper knowledge of industry ‘buyer’ profiles (such as their behaviours, motivators, needs, influencers and persuaders) go a long way in making a communication piece work. This is because the communication is steeped in strategy. For example, knowing the market’s media consumption behaviours means knowing which media to use to reach them.

4. Strong industry networks

Industry-specific marketing agencies have direct links to people in your industry. These networks are usually made of influencers and thought leaders in the industry, and can be leveraged in a number of different ways. For example, the networks’ industry knowledge and insights can be tapped into in order to create more persuasive messages.

5. Deeper knowledge of the sales cycle and an understanding of how your services fit into the wider industry market

Knowing the external marketing environment is fundamental for an effective strategy. Understanding how your product or service is placed in the wider industry market means you know how far you have to go and how much work needs to be put in to get to where you want your organisation to be, and when to capture your audience when they are most likely to be interested in your communication message.

By using marketing and communication agency such as Gas Industry Marketing Solutions, which has strong industry knowledge and networks, your organisation will have an agency that truly understands your needs and is able to help you reach your goals.

Gas Industry Marketing Solutions include:

• Audience and market research;
• Strategic planning;
• Marketing materials and copywriting;
• Graphic design;
• Lead generation;
• Website and social media audits;
• Custom publishing; and,
• Project management.