How B2B Can Survive “The Great Resignation”

By now, everyone has been affected in some way by what’s been tagged The Great Resignation. While some industries have been hit harder than others, chances are you’ve had people leave your company, even if you haven’t made your own move.

I would not characterize it as The Great Resignation but, rather, The Great Reshuffle. In the world of B2B marketing, we’re seeing people re-evaluate their goals, their career paths and their futures to look for better opportunities to get where they want to go.

Whatever you call it, the wave of resignations and job changes is wreaking havoc on company productivity. How big is the reshuffle, and how can you keep your B2B sales and marketing plans on track amid all the disruption?

Just How Great Is It?

In November 2021 alone, more than 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fast Company estimates that if the trend has continued through December, about 47 million Americans will have left their jobs during 2021, or about a third of the entire workforce.

You can see the trend from this Federal Reserve Economic Data chart.

The Great Resignation
Chart courtesy of Federal Reserve Economic Data

Workers cite many reasons for this movement, but they appear to mostly revolve around discontent with their current situations. According to Forbes, 67% said their reason for moving was low salary. This was followed closely by limited career opportunities (66%) and not being valued by a manager (65%).

B2B Marketers Feel the Pain

At Content4Demand, we’ve seen many of our clients lose key team members. The results include projects stalling, strategies shifting and processes that come to a crawl as new players enter the picture and get up to speed.

While you can’t eliminate all the disruptions caused by staff changes, there are steps you can take to mitigate the pain.

How a Content Agency Can Help

As you confront the Great Reshuffle in your own organization, a content agency can help you sustain your content strategy and development with fewer bumps in the road. Consider these five benefits of partnering with an agency you trust—and building that partnership before these disruptive staff changes happen.

Fill Gaps

The most obvious way a B2B content marketing agency can help is by filling in gaps when someone on the team moves on. When your agency’s strategists, project managers, writers and designers are used to working with a wide variety of clients and learning their business and processes quickly, they can easily slip into the roles you need to fill for as long as you need them. Not every agency works this way, so be sure to vet them carefully before you partner with one.

Provide Continuity

When team members leave and new members come on board, there’s often a gap in knowledge that can slow projects down. If you’ve been working with your agency from the beginning of a project, your agency team can help fill that knowledge gap. Granted, even agencies are feeling the impact of workforce redistribution, but with that knowledge spread across their team it’s less likely to get lost.

Help You Scale

In the hyper-competitive world of B2B marketing, you can’t afford to get behind. An agency can help you crank out multiple projects fast. With a team of strategists, writers, designers and project managers, a good agency can put more people on your project to develop content quickly and efficiently—three, six, a dozen or more assets simultaneously or in rapid succession, as needed.

Give You Flexibility

Each person has different talents and skills. When you lose one team member, you lose that person’s talents—but you gain the talents of your new hire. A strong agency includes people with a broad range of talent and skills. The agency can assign the people to your team who are the best fit to accomplish your goals and evolve your team as your needs change.

Broaden Your Perspective

Whether we’re in the midst of a Great Reshuffle or not, partnering with an agency means you’re partnering with B2B content marketing professionals who offer broad experience across industries, markets, small businesses and enterprises, profits and not-for-profits, and more. That breadth and depth of experience can bring a fresh perspective to your B2B content marketing.

The Great Opportunity

Whether you see it as The Great Resignation or The Great Reshuffle, the result can be a Great Opportunity for your organization to embrace new talent and new partnerships that create even stronger B2B marketing strategies.

If you’re new to working with an agency, there are ways to prepare your own team for a smooth transition that gets you off to a productive start. Check out 5 Ways to Set Your Content Marketing Agency Relationship Up for Success.

Brenda Caine

Brenda Caine is VP of Content Strategy at Content4Demand. She works with B2B clients on content marketing strategy, personas, messaging and ideation; content audits, gap analysis and content mapping; blogs; content development and more. Brenda has a black belt in karate, and when she’s not immersed in technology, you can find her dancing in the ballet studio, lifting weights at the gym or strolling down the avenue in a 1930s dress with a smart hat to match. 

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