Inside The Mind Of . . . Jeremy Durant

Last updated on November 21st, 2017 at 07:17 pm

Jeremy Durant is the business principal and co-founder of Bop Design, a B2B marketing agency headquartered in San Diego, with clients around the world. At Bop Design, Jeremy builds relationships with B2B companies in need of a branding, web design and content marketing strategy in order to generate and nurture ideal client leads.

What does Bop Design do?

At Bop Design, we help B2B companies increase selling opportunities with their target market. This is done through a strong website with relevant content, followed by a digital marketing plan to drive ideal visitors to the website. The two pillars of Bop Design are our B2B focus, and an obsession with lead generation. We want to be a marketing agency that our clients’ sales teams actually like, since we help them do their job more effectively. We are not just a creative firm focused on design, but a business development agency.

How does Bop Design position itself differently from the competition?

Many agencies don’t practice what they preach in differentiating from the competition. They want to be everything to everyone—they will work with companies of all industries and both B2B and B2C. We believe that the B2B customer acquisition process is much different: multiple decision makers, higher priced product or services, longer sales cycle, longer term partnership, etc. The relationship is not as transactional. A B2B website is essentially a content marketing platform in which relevant traffic is channeled. The goal of the website is lead generation. The goal of content marketing is lead nurturing—a B2B company utilizes white papers, case studies, infographics, and so on, to nurture a lead along, and build a strong case of credibility so that a prospect has the peace of mind to commit to your B2B company over the competition.

How does Bop Design practice what you preach?

We rely solely on inbound marketing for all of our leads, with our website being a 24/7 sales tool. B2B companies, enterprise-level to micro, find our content, consume it and then reach out to us. We preach this same strategy to all clients.

Why does a B2B company need to make their website a priority?

Business prospects can be judgmental—they can be judgmental about your business card, the way you dress, your office and over the past 20 years, your company website. One of the first things a B2B prospect typically does in their vetting process is visit your company website.

The website design not only needs to be engaging, but also the content. The website content needs to be a balance of the brand story and the SEO keyword strategy, with the SEO objectives taking priority.

The more keyword rich content you have on your website, the more likely your website will be found. The more useful the content is, the longer a visitor will stay on the site. The longer a visitor stays on the website, the more likely a visitor will convert. For B2B lead generation, the website is typically the centerpiece of any lead generation strategy.

How is a B2B website involved in content marketing?

Your website is typically the centerpiece for all content marketing tactics. If you send an email newsletter, it should link to your website. Any blogs you post to social media will bring visitors back to the website. Any printed materials you share at tradeshows or conferences will list your firm’s website URL for more information. When prospects search for your products and services on search engines, you want your website to come up at the top of the results.

You can’t be available to hold every prospect’s hand throughout the sales process. The good news is that your website is your 24/7 salesperson. Since it hosts the majority of your B2B content marketing pieces, it’s also a passive nurturing tool. It allows your company to share helpful information to guide the visitor down the sales funnel without needing a sales or marketing person available all the time.

Can you offer a brief case study of how you took a company/client from A to Z, and increased their ROI?

We worked with a B2B actuarial firm that rarely generated leads from their old website. We instituted a new website design and SEO strategy so that they could increase inbound selling opportunities. The website launched in late 2016. Comparing September 2016 to 2017, organic traffic is up 44 per cent, with lead conversions increasing 264 per cent. This is all due to a well-executed on-page and off-page SEO strategy driving visitors to a website designed for conversion.

Any recommendations for B2B companies, as they decide on a long-term B2B marketing agency?

As you narrow down the list of agencies being considered, don’t just rely on the testimonials and references provided by the agency. Go to Google and look at third-party review websites like Clutch, Agency Spotter, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc.

Make sure that any agency you’re seriously considering has a strong online reputation and that the reviews are generally positive. Be very concerned if there is minimal information on them online and of course, if there are negative reviews, proceed with caution.

Also, be somewhat literal with the type of website you need. Don’t just look at relevant industry experience, but make sure any agency considered has worked on a website of similar size – number of pages – and functionality.