This document discusses how to hire an effective inbound marketing agency. It outlines 11 habits of highly effective inbound agencies, including offering the right services, having a clearly defined delivery process, conducting a goal-oriented sales process, maintaining an optimized website, presenting compelling case studies, showcasing specific areas of focus, teaching and training the client's internal team, having in-house capabilities or trusted partners, possessing strong project management skills, placing an emphasis on measurement, and valuing transparency. The document provides questions to ask prospective agencies to determine if they demonstrate these important habits.
Marketing science at Dell: modeling investment trade-offs; George Sadler, Director, Social Media & Marketing Insights; Mu Sigma Customer Summit 2012, Half Moon Bay, CA, February 27, 2012
Marketing science at Dell: modeling investment trade-offs; George Sadler, Director, Social Media & Marketing Insights; Mu Sigma Customer Summit 2012, Half Moon Bay, CA, February 27, 2012
Just the Facts: From Social to Funnel: Connecting Social Buyers to the Custom...Dell Social Media
George Sadler, Director, Social Media Insights at Dell discusses how effectively listening to customer conversations leads to valuable and actionable information that enables businesses to achieve success in today's "social" era.
Social CRM - Functional Architecture and Interactions FlowFabio Cipriani
Building long-lasting links with customer through innovative experience and co-generating value with them
Topics covered:
- Why Social CRM?
- Functional Architecture
- Flow and Value of Interactions
- What are CRM vendors doing to promote Social experience
- Pre-requisites and business questions
HOW DOES FRANCHISING WORK?
The partners in a franchise agreement are the Franchisor, who grants the franchise licence to the Franchisee, who invests in it. Remember, a franchise is NOT an independent business. The franchisee buys the opportunity to run a business based on the franchisor’s established operational methods, often detailed in an Operations Manual. These methods ensure that all the products and services offered by the franchisee conform to consistent quality standards.
An Operations Manual eliminates the need for the franchisee to create a strategic plan on how the business is run. The business logistics, such as marketing, product assembly, service delivery, accounting, store layout, employee recruitment and training, are all mapped out. Most franchisors provide extensive training to the franchisee to help ensure that the business is run according to proven methods, making it more likely to succeed.
Cunsomer guidance for buying franchise
Many people dream of being an entrepreneur. By purchasing a franchise, you often can sell goods and services that have instant name recognition and can obtain training and ongoing support to help you succeed. But be cautious. Like any investment, purchasing a franchise is not a guarantee of success.
The benefits and responsibilities of franchise ownership
A franchise typically enables you, the investor or "franchisee," to operate a business. By paying a franchise fee, which may cost several thousand dollars, you are given a format or system developed by the company ("franchisor"), the right to use the franchisor's name for a limited time, and assistance. For example, the franchisor may help you find a location for your outlet; provide initial training and an operating manual; and advise you on management, marketing, or personnel. Some franchisors offer ongoing support such as monthly newsletters, a toll free telephone number for technical assistance, and periodic workshops or seminars.
The obligations of both the franchisor and the franchisee are fully laid out in the Franchise Agreement. Some franchisors use a standard agreement, and some are customised.
A brief primer on social media recruiting, social media marketing, Applicant tracking systems, linkedin, CRM, good for recruiter training, IT recruiting and ATS, HRIS, CRM and other systems managers or architects.
With technology now infused into every aspect of commerce, the entire craft of marketing has become more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. This has led to profound changes in ways the discipline is understood, led and practiced. The onus of this evolution has landed on the doorstep of the Chief Marketing Officer. And that means that the mind-set, as well as the skill set, of a CMO has to evolve right along with it to transform from a Chief Marketing Officer to becoming a Chief Marketing technologist
IBM has released its Global CEO Study of more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries worldwide. In the next 3-5 years, social media will go from the least used customer engagement tactic to the second, surpassed only by face-to-face interaction.
Case Study: More Than Just Facebook for Business: Translating Social Interactions into Actionable Social Intelligence
Presented by: Alan Nugent, CEO, Mzinga
Business is inherently social—and accordingly, many brands around the world have already embraced social technologies as a way to engage customers and raise brand awareness. But social solutions are more than just Facebook for business. A comprehensive, well-planned social ecosystem can provide enormous benefits that span the enterprise—and can help organizations gain valuable insight into meeting customer needs, improving loyalty, and sustaining and growing revenue.
www.bdionline.com
Social media for Customer Service Summitharryrollason
If you’re social media strategy is moving from traditional marketing and beginning to expand throughout your company – especially customer service. Then hear from 20+ leading corporate speakers like Citi, Zappos, KLM, Coca-Cola, Xbox and more. All with first-hand experience at leveraging the power of social media for better customer service
Just the Facts: From Social to Funnel: Connecting Social Buyers to the Custom...Dell Social Media
George Sadler, Director, Social Media Insights at Dell discusses how effectively listening to customer conversations leads to valuable and actionable information that enables businesses to achieve success in today's "social" era.
Social CRM - Functional Architecture and Interactions FlowFabio Cipriani
Building long-lasting links with customer through innovative experience and co-generating value with them
Topics covered:
- Why Social CRM?
- Functional Architecture
- Flow and Value of Interactions
- What are CRM vendors doing to promote Social experience
- Pre-requisites and business questions
HOW DOES FRANCHISING WORK?
The partners in a franchise agreement are the Franchisor, who grants the franchise licence to the Franchisee, who invests in it. Remember, a franchise is NOT an independent business. The franchisee buys the opportunity to run a business based on the franchisor’s established operational methods, often detailed in an Operations Manual. These methods ensure that all the products and services offered by the franchisee conform to consistent quality standards.
An Operations Manual eliminates the need for the franchisee to create a strategic plan on how the business is run. The business logistics, such as marketing, product assembly, service delivery, accounting, store layout, employee recruitment and training, are all mapped out. Most franchisors provide extensive training to the franchisee to help ensure that the business is run according to proven methods, making it more likely to succeed.
Cunsomer guidance for buying franchise
Many people dream of being an entrepreneur. By purchasing a franchise, you often can sell goods and services that have instant name recognition and can obtain training and ongoing support to help you succeed. But be cautious. Like any investment, purchasing a franchise is not a guarantee of success.
The benefits and responsibilities of franchise ownership
A franchise typically enables you, the investor or "franchisee," to operate a business. By paying a franchise fee, which may cost several thousand dollars, you are given a format or system developed by the company ("franchisor"), the right to use the franchisor's name for a limited time, and assistance. For example, the franchisor may help you find a location for your outlet; provide initial training and an operating manual; and advise you on management, marketing, or personnel. Some franchisors offer ongoing support such as monthly newsletters, a toll free telephone number for technical assistance, and periodic workshops or seminars.
The obligations of both the franchisor and the franchisee are fully laid out in the Franchise Agreement. Some franchisors use a standard agreement, and some are customised.
A brief primer on social media recruiting, social media marketing, Applicant tracking systems, linkedin, CRM, good for recruiter training, IT recruiting and ATS, HRIS, CRM and other systems managers or architects.
With technology now infused into every aspect of commerce, the entire craft of marketing has become more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. This has led to profound changes in ways the discipline is understood, led and practiced. The onus of this evolution has landed on the doorstep of the Chief Marketing Officer. And that means that the mind-set, as well as the skill set, of a CMO has to evolve right along with it to transform from a Chief Marketing Officer to becoming a Chief Marketing technologist
IBM has released its Global CEO Study of more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries worldwide. In the next 3-5 years, social media will go from the least used customer engagement tactic to the second, surpassed only by face-to-face interaction.
Case Study: More Than Just Facebook for Business: Translating Social Interactions into Actionable Social Intelligence
Presented by: Alan Nugent, CEO, Mzinga
Business is inherently social—and accordingly, many brands around the world have already embraced social technologies as a way to engage customers and raise brand awareness. But social solutions are more than just Facebook for business. A comprehensive, well-planned social ecosystem can provide enormous benefits that span the enterprise—and can help organizations gain valuable insight into meeting customer needs, improving loyalty, and sustaining and growing revenue.
www.bdionline.com
Social media for Customer Service Summitharryrollason
If you’re social media strategy is moving from traditional marketing and beginning to expand throughout your company – especially customer service. Then hear from 20+ leading corporate speakers like Citi, Zappos, KLM, Coca-Cola, Xbox and more. All with first-hand experience at leveraging the power of social media for better customer service
According to Gartner, 70% of social implementations fail because they lack a business purpose. When it comes to harnessing the power of social software, a focus on business value is required. This whitepaper defines a strategic framework for gaining business value from social software. It outlines six successful rollout strategies. Each of the six approaches delivers different business results, and has a different level of risk. And most importantly, each has different requirements to succeed. To be successful with social software, you need to choose the rollout strategy that is best for your organization, and understand its requirements for success.
How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business.pptxDivya Sharma
Dark Horse Media is a 360° advertising agency as well as the best digital marketing company in Vasai. They provide a custom digital solutions including Social Media, SEO, Website Development, ORM, App Promotion, Branding, PPC services in Vasai, Virar, Palghar & Mumbai.
Known as one of the legal profession's most educational and entertaining speakers, Ross Fishman's presentations are designed exclusively for litigators and trial lawyers.
A former litigator and marketing partner, Ross's fast-paced presentations are perfect for litigation-oriented groups and bar associations.
Appropriate for keynotes, CLE, MCLE, Ethics, retreats, and marketing training programs, Ross's programs are often called, "The best marketing presentations I've ever seen" by marketing and managing partners.
Downloadable .pdf brochure of Ross Fishman's entertaining and educational presentations specifically designed for law firm networks. These include Ethics and CLE presentations, keynotes, and a wide range of marketing-oriented programs.
A digital marketing agency can either make or break your business. See that you choose it wisely.
#digitalagency #bestdigitalagency #choosingdigitalagency #flynautLLC
DayLogic Infotech develops attractive, user-friendly websites that are simple to browse through, load, and browse with the goal of improving the internet. Our company provides our clients with adaptable and thoughtful strategies.
Learn best practices for developing integrated multichannel marketing campaigns using social media, email, creative design and direct mail. Integrating these channels into the marketing mix will produce meaningful results that will keep your customers coming back for more.
Business Focus Group (BFG) pioneers in Offshore Sales & Marketing Support, Professional Education and Emerging Promotional Services (to B2B & B2C) by way of Thought Leadership Industry Interface, ITES Marketing and Digital Marketing with enhanced ROI at Right Budgets.
The exciting journey began in 2005 as a group of Business Practitioners offering partial Industry Interface and insights to the Professional Education Sector while later took the position of MPO specialists in 2007-09; helping High Tech SME clients in US.
The evolution of digital commerce has given rise to a growing set of customer expectations for the digital experience, both within and across channels. That experience is enabled by a combination of strategy, technology, content and features, all of which require an investment of time and resources. Those resources must work collaboratively – often across functional silos including marketing, merchandising, creative, technology and more – to deliver an optimal experience.
In this paper, we will explore:
-how successful retailers, brands and digital merchants structure their digital organizations, leveraging technology where appropriate, to achieve maximum effectiveness while operating under resource constraints
-the advantages of aligning organizational design, technologies, tools and work processes to empower internal teams to work together more effectively
-the tools that empower agile digital commerce teams to succeed
Authors: Kanaru Fukushima
Topics: Ecommerce Basics, Ecommerce Strategy, Omnichannel Organization, Ecommerce IT Development, Omnichannel Architecture
Industry: B2B / Wholesale, Retailer / Brand - Other Goods, Other, Retailer / Brand - Fashion & Accessoires, Retail Products – Electronics and IT, Travel & Leisure
Publication date: January 2017
There are a lot of digital agencies in the USA, which offer custom mobile, web, and social media application development for brands and businesses alike. Any digital agency in the USA will love to work with world’s famous brands like Oreo, NFL, IGN and Toyota. All these brands are hiring digital agencies in the US to build mobile, web, and social media apps for their marketing and advertising campaigns. A lot of digital agencies in the US are focusing mobile, web, and social media application development services and creating fantastic apps for their clients across the globe. This presentation is all about such digital agencies in the US and how they can help your business to grow exponentially.
How do I use for Bing SEO?
Optimizing your website for Bing SEO involves understanding Bing’s ranking factors, including keyword relevance, backlinks, page authority, and social signals. By creating high-quality content, building backlinks from authoritative websites, optimizing website metadata, and having an active social media presence, businesses can improve their search rankings on Bing.
Does Bing matter for SEO?
Yes, Bing is important for SEO, as it handles millions of search queries daily and has a significant market share. Optimizing for Bing can help businesses reach a wider audience and improve search rankings.
How do I rank in Bing Places?
To rank on Bing Places, businesses must claim their listing, ensure their information is accurate and complete, and optimize their listing with relevant keywords and images. Positive reviews on third-party sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook can also improve a business’s ranking on Bing Places.
How do businesses use Bing Places?
Bing Places allows businesses to create a free listing in Bing search results and Bing Maps. The listing provides customers with essential information about the business, such as an address, phone number, hours of operation, reviews, and photos. By optimizing their Bing Places listing, businesses can improve their visibility in local search results, attracting more customers.
What is Bing Places?
Bing Places is a free online directory service provided by Bing that allows businesses to create a listing that appears in Bing search results and Bing Maps. The listing provides customers with information about the business, such as an address, phone number, hours of operation, reviews, and photos.
How do I add my business to Bing Maps?
To add your business to Bing Maps, you must create a Bing Places listing, verify it, and ensure your listing information is accurate and complete. In addition, adding relevant keywords and images to your listing ensures that your business appears correctly on Bing Maps.
What is Bing My Business?
Bing My Business is not a separate product or service but refers to using Bing Places for Business to manage a business’s online presence on Bing. By creating a listing on Bing Places, businesses can provide customers with crucial information about their business and improve their local search rankings.
Does Bing have something like Google My Business?
Yes, Bing has a similar service called Bing Places for Business. Like Google My Business, it allows businesses to manage their online presence on Bing by creating a listing that appears in Bing search results and Bing Maps, providing customers with information about the business, such as an address, phone number, hours of operation, reviews, and photos.
Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns Guide
Google AdWords introduces enhanced campaigns to make it easier for advertisers to promote marketing messages based on people’s context like their location, the device they are using and the time of day – all within a single campaign.
This paper explains: 1. What enhanced campaigns are 2. How to plan your upgrade to enhanced campaigns 3. How to upgrade your campaigns to enhanced campaigns 4. The upgrade process for some example campaigns.
This article attempted to meet the challenge of combining two extensive topics, both equally important for modern publishing: branding and social media. It has been shown how branding and social media can function as a virtuous cycle. It has also been shown how branding strategies can be used in the publishing context, and how author, publisher, product or series branding strategies contribute to general strategic brand management. Branding strategies and social media opportunities complement each other in theory, the survey findings have confirmed the hypothesis that publishing products that can be associated with social media offerings have an increased probability of customers purchasing the products. Hence, making use of social media for branding and brand management in publishing is viable from both a theoretical perspective and from a practical point of view since it helps publishers pursue branding strategies that both support their commercial goals and at the same time are successful with and adopted by consumers.This research can confidently state that social media strategies behind publishing products increase purchase probability. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 1 – Issue: 4 – October - 2011 Using Social Media for Branding in Publishing Dr. Bettina Lis Assistant Professor Media Management (Prof. Dr. Heinz-Werner Nienstedt) Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz Department of Communication.
Marketers, retailers, content owners and technology firms are more focused than ever on obtaining
results from investments in digital marketing. If past years were about amassing data from the touchpoints between
companies and consumers, 2012 will be about curating, filtering and measuring that information to drive outcomes.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project half of all adults in the US use social networking sites. Despite its obvious appeal as a marketing channel, social media is far from achieving "equal citizenship" status among the marketing mix, particularly for Business-to-Business marketers. This benchmark report will examine the pressures and challenges social media presents for B2B marketing, and the path taken by top performing companies to achieve success. Aberdeen's research shows that top performing companies have integrated social media marketing with existing, core marketing channels and processes.
Fifty-two times a year, MarketingSherpa offers its renowned Chart of the Week – a
concise, yet thorough visual summary of Sherpa’s proven research, findings and lessons
learned. Covering the questions and topics that today’s marketers find most relevant,
these charts take mere minutes to read, but provide the detailed information you need to
make your marketing more effective.
In September 2012, LinkedIn announced a new look for its Company Pages. From a
usability perspective, this release became an effort in bringing a better experience to
LinkedIn members. But what did the rollout mean for marketers?
On the subject of efficiency, we also found that a larger percentage of advertisers were using Phrase and Exact type of keyword matching, and realizing strong performance gains as a result. Lastly, our data suggests that advertiser adoption of mobile and tablet devices for paid-search advertising is accelerating and showing significantly better performance than similar campaigns on desktop computers.
The ultimate guide to hiring an inbound agency inbound marketing
1. A publication of
Learn more
about HubSpot’s
all-in-one inbound marketing software
& Partner Agency Program
at www.HubSpot.com/partners
2. By Pete Caputa
VAR Program Director
@pc4media
& Patrick Shea
Manager, VAR Marketing
@mpatrickshea
3. Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................. 4
The Undeniable ROI of Inbound .......................................................................... 5
Agencies Can Accelerate Growth ......................................................................... 5
The Habits of a Highly Effective Inbound Agency ....................6
Offers the Right Services...................................................................................... 7
Presents a Clearly Defined Delivery Process ...................................................... 8
Uses a Goal-Oriented Sales Process ................................................................... 9
Maintains a Website Optimized for Inbound.....................................................10
Presents Compelling Case Studies....................................................................11
Cites Specific Areas of Focus .............................................................................12
Teaches & Trains your People............................................................................13
In-House Capabilities or Trusted Partners ........................................................14
Possesses Strong Project Management Skills..................................................15
Places an Emphasis on Measurement..............................................................16
Values Transparency ..........................................................................................17
Conclusion................................................................................... 18
Find the Best Equipped Agency .........................................................................19
Additional Marketing Agency Resources ...........................................................19
5. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
5
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
INBOUND’S ROI CANNOT BE DENIED
The return on investment businesses experience when
shifting from outbound to inbound marketing has been well
documented -- and with good reason! Companies who part
with traditional marketing methods to follow their
customers online are blowing key growth metrics like
marketing efficiency and sales productivity out of the water.
The inbound combination of remarkable content and
website engagement create a bedrock foundation for sales
and marketing efficiency, effectiveness and growth.
AGENCIES CAN ACCELERATE RESULTS
Marketing dollars have shifted away from traditional outlets like
PR and cold calling. But the skill sets of internal teams lag
behind. For some, the time and resources needed to train
internal people on how to master inbound marketing must-
haves like SEO and email marketing do not exist.
As a result, businesses wanting to take advantage of ROI-
charged online tactics like blogging and social media are
looking to outside agencies for help. These agencies can use
their deep online experience to help companies and businesses
short on time and internal resources increase their online
visibility and lead generation efforts.
However, it is not one-size fits all. Agencies come in all shapes
and sizes, with different specialties and talents. But there are
core values and skill sets that make some better than others.
Here are the 11 most important values to consider when
choosing an inbound marketing agency.
www.HubSpot.com
6. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
6
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
THE 11 HABITS OF
HIGHLY EFFECTIVE
INBOUND AGENCIES
www.HubSpot.com
7. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
7
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
1
OFFERS THE RIGHT SERVICES
HIRE A MARKETING AGENCY THAT DELIVERS THE INBOUND
SERVICES THAT MATTER THE MOST
While a specialty or two like social media or
email is to be expected (more on that later),
any firm that asserts themselves as an
inbound agency must offer Four Core services.
These services are each comprised of several
tactical components. But to execute in a way
that delivers real value and maximum impact,
all these tactics need to be performed
together. Seeing that an agency can fold all
these tactics together into one cohesive
strategy is a good sign they know how to
execute and get results.
The first core service of inbound marketing is
an agencies ability to generate traffic to a
website through SEO, blogging and social
Key Questions to Ask: media sharing. Second, agencies should be
able to tell their clients they can develop the
1. Do you offer Traffic Generation, Lead premium content needed to capitalize on that
Generation, Leads-to-Customers and traffic by building landing pages and
Analytical-Focused service packages? managing online lead generation efforts.
2. What tactic or tactics does your firm use Third, agencies need to be able to construct
to deliver each of these service packages? targeted lead-nurturing campaigns aimed at
converting those leads into customers. Finally,
3. What past or current client example(s) in order to iterate and improve, analysis and
best illustrate success you have delivered measurement needs to be present at every
for each of these services? step in the process.
Being able to dig into the results of your online
efforts is critical. Doing so on a regular basis
will allow agencies to repeat successes, and
tune underachieving campaigns to get better
results. More on this later, but make sure
reporting and analysis is second nature to any
prospective agency you’re thinking of work
with.
www.HubSpot.com
8. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
8
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
2
PRESENTS A CLEARLY-DEFINED DELIVERY PROCESS
Hire an Agency with a Solid, Proven and Logical Plan of Attack
They know you. They know your business. They
know their capabilities and what is required for
inbound marketing success. Therefore, any agency
worth considering should be able to plot out the
specifics and details for the campaigns and
strategy they propose for your business.
Building on the goals and challenges identified in
the sales process (more on this in #3), your
potential partner agency should be able to outline
their approach in terms of the four core services
and explain all the tactics they plan to employ in
their execution. Expect a timeline for each chunk
and a description of the resources they’re likely to
need along the way.
Key Questions to Ask:
Make sure each component of the strategy they
are proposing to you, as well as what comes before 1. Given your understanding of our situation,
and after each piece, make logical sense. Does goals and challenges, what do you
your business have no web presence? Then traffic recommend we do first, second, third, etc?
generation services like SEO, blogging and social
media need to come first. Is your website 2. How does our situation, and the plan
underperforming from a lead generation you’re recommending, match that of another
perspective? If so, your agency partner will need to customer you’ve worked with?
ensure that your site has decent traffic and then
3. What do you see as the most critical piece
begin crafting premium offers and landing pages.
of inbound marketing for our business and
Are too few sales being attributed back to the
goals?
website? An agency brought on to help with that
challenge will (again) need to look at the traffic and
lead numbers to ensure quality is present, and
then begin crafting targeted lead nurturing and
email follow-up sequences. Obviously, the ability to
measure and interpret data is a baseline skill for
each of the core services, and each agency you
consider should be able to set benchmarks,
identify trends and take action.
www.HubSpot.com
9. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
9
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
3
CONDUCTS A GOAL-ORIENTED SALES PROCESS
A Marketing Agencies Pitch Should be Tailored to your Businesses
Specific Challenges and Goals
The sales process of a good inbound
agency will start with your goals and
challenges, and dovetail into how they can
help you. You’re sure to see slides about
who they are and what they do, but they
should understand that their services are
most compelling when they can be seen
as potential answers to the business
challenges you are facing.
They should begin by asking about your
goals, and the timing and urgency around
meeting those goals. Also, how are you
being measured? What are the metrics
and benchmarks most important to you?
Key Questions to Ask:
Also, what does the size and makeup of
1. Have you worked with clients who have your internal team look like?
faced challenges similar to mine?
Getting answers to these critical questions
2. How does each piece of what you are at the outset will allow them to prescribe a
proposing take aim at my challenges and plan unique to your business. Your goals
goals? and challeneges should be natural segues
into discussions around their capabilities
3. What is the timeframe for achieving these and case studies.
goals, based on the strategy you have in
mind/outlined for my business?
www.HubSpot.com
10. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
10
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
4
MAINTAINS A WEBISTE OPTIMIZED FOR INBOUND
HIRE A FIRM THAT CAN CITE ITSELF AS A CASE STUDY
They will most likely talk the talk, but does
the agency you are considering walk the
walk? Meaning: do they do inbound for
themselves? Digging into their site for a
solid YES or NO answer to this question
could give you interesting insight into just
how good they really are at what they do.
Because you’re in “hiring mode,” your
trips to their site have likely been
dominated by scouring their services and
client testimonial pages. But take a step
back from these self-promotion-heavy
pages and ask yourself, do they do the
things they’re proposing for me? Do they
Key Questions to Ask:
blog with the frequency they say I will have
to? Are they active on social media? Can
1. What have been the results of your own firm’s
inbound efforts?
Call-to-Actions buttons and premium
content offers that convey thought
2. Does what you are outlining for us match what your
leadership be found throughout their site? own firm does online?
A truly effective inbound marketing agency 3. What are some key lessons you have learned from
should be its own best case study. Think using inbound marketing for your own business?
twice about engaging with a firm that
doesn't make the services they sell a
priority for their own business.
www.HubSpot.com
11. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
11
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
5
PRESENTS COMPELLING CASE STUDIES
HIRE AN AGENCY WITH COMPELLING EXAMPLES OF THEIR
INBOUND MARKETING PROWESS
You’re sitting at a conference table. A prospective
agency partner is projecting some flowchart-heavy
Powerpoint slides and outlining the inbound
marketing strategy they’ve designed for you.
While you’re following the arrows and considering
their capabilities, you should be asking yourself
two key questions: “have they done this before,
and if yes, can they replicate that success for
me?”
Any inbound agency truly hell-bent on delivering
ROI for you will be eager to show you how they’ve
done it for others. Ask for these client success
stories early on. These testimonials should
Key Questions to Ask:
include not only glowing remarks from their
1. Can you provide case study materials and clients, but also numbers and campaign
references from other clients you have strategies that summarize the impact of their
worked with? work.
2. What lessons do you plan on applying to Make sure you consider the four core services of
our business from inbound success you inbound marketing when looking at these
have achieved for other clients? numbers and testimonials. Do these case studies
cite proof that these guys were able to increase
3. What are the critical success factors for their customers website traffic? Did leads
inbound marketing? increase? Did they help turn those leads into
customers? Make sure the accomplishments that
they are boasting match up with the outcomes
you want for your business.
Ask prospective agencies for references. As long
as there isn’t a conflict of interest or a non-
compete in place, they should gladly hand names
over. Award them bonus points if the client they
refer you to you is still actively working with them.
Retainer work means than an agency has
delivered and earned an ongoing commitment.
www.HubSpot.com
12. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
12
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
6
SHOWCASES THEIR SPECIFIC AREAS OF FOCUS
YOUR AGENCY SHOULD SPECIALIZE, NOT GENERALIZE
Does the prospective agency you are talking
with have a sweet spot? If yes, is that sweet
spot service or tactic-specific? For example,
maybe they’ve done SEO for years and gotten
phenomenal results. Or is their sweet spot
industry specific? Meaning they have crushed
numerous client engagements in your industry
(or a close relative to your industry) before. If
they do have one of these sweet spots, look to
see if they align with your challenges and
goals. They should.
Use the sales process to get a solid handle on
your prospective agencies areas of focus. If Key Questions to Ask:
they have a service sweet spot, like social
media for example, they should know the 1. Have you worked in my industry before?
fastest and most surefire ways to leverage 2. Which piece of inbound marketing is your
social media for traffic and leads. Or if they’ve strongest capability, and how does the
worked in your industry before, it’s likely they strategy you plan to lay out capitalize on that
that know lots of key industry terms and in particular?
thought leaders – which will make content
3. If you have worked in our industry before,
easier to create at the outset.
how familiar are you with our thought leaders
Specialties like the examples referenced and key blogs? If not, how do you plan to go
about finding these?
above can shine extra bright when
incorporated into a comprehensive strategy
spanning the four core services. Just make
sure your agencies biggest strengths make
you stronger.
www.HubSpot.com
13. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HIRING AN
13
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
7
TEACHES AND TRAINS YOUR INTERNAL TEAM
HIRE AN AGENCY THAT KNOWS HOW AND WANTS TO LEVERAGE
YOUR TEAM’S INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
Inbound marketing hinges on effort. Effort to
create content. Effort to Tweet. Effort to
research keywords for SEO. Effort to blog.
Effort to think about conversion events on
your site and how lead nurturing campaigns
could be tuned to better perform. Lots of
effort. Any agency you hire will need to
spearhead and facilitate all these efforts, but
should also be able and eager to train
members of your internal team on how to do
things like blog and use social media.
Key Questions to Ask:
Consider all the different sides to your
1. To what extent do you plan on using
business. There are no doubt sales and
members of our team for content
marketing departments – but what about
creation, etc?
operations? Manufacturing? Research and
2. How do you plan on setting those development? Packaging? Think about the
folks up for success and ensure the
remarkable content folks from these different
pieces they work on with you is a good departments could contribute to your
use of their time? businesses inbound marketing efforts.
Consider how much more visibility a tweet will
3. How has involving client team
members in your efforts worked in the get if it’s tweeted out by 15 or 20 members of
past? an organization, rather than just the company
account.
An agency truly worth it’s weight will be eager
to talk with all of your folks, train them on
inbound marketing best practices and
harness their brain power. The more hands
on deck, so to speak, the quicker things take
root and being yielding results.
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KEY CAPABILITIES RESIDE EITHER IN-HOUSE OR
WITH A TRUSTED PARTNER
HIRE AN AGENCY THAT CAN EXPLAIN HOW IT DOES WHAT IT DOES
A complete inbound marketing strategy is
comprised of many different tactics. It’s like a
puzzle – but not because it’s confusing. It’s a
puzzle in the sense that it’s got a lot of
pieces. Pieces that should not stand on their
own, but when put together, make total
sense. And to truly succeed online, business
will need to execute a comprehensive
strategy that is inclusive of all the right
pieces.
Assembling the pieces together into one,
cohesive strategy is the job of your agency.
Each piece is crucial, and it is important that
you understand a potential partner firm’s Key Questions to Ask:
capabilities at the outset of your relationship.
Make your prospective agency provide detail 1. Do you do all your inbound marketing
around how each step of the strategy is going work in-house?
to get done.
2. If yes, who on your team specializes in
Because they might not have the talent in- what?
house to deliver a service entirely on their
own, ask who is responsible for 3. If no, to whom do you outsource what?
creating/building each piece. They might And how long have you worked with them?
outsource. Agencies that use partners for
technical pieces of the work, like website
design and integrations, will be relying on the
schedule of another when they make the
handoff. Probe them around who their
partners are, how long they have been
working with them, general timetables and
what pieces of the work will get shifted to
them.
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POSSESSES STRONG PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS
INBOUND MARKETING IS A SERIOUS PRODUCTION AND THE MARKETING
AGENCY YOU HIRE SHOULD WANT TO RUN THE WHOLE SHOW
Inbound marketing is an organic process. It
requires time, elbow grease and
coordination. Any inbound marketing
agency you choose to partner with is going
to need to make requests of your time.
They’ll do it at the beginning of your
relationship to get up and running fast, and
on an ongoing basis, to ensure their
methods stay sharp and inline with your
business.
They will need to understand who your
customer is and get a sense of the types of
content that will be most effective in
attracting them to your site. They’ll also
Key Questions to Ask: need to add forms and other inbound
elements to your site. To accomplish these
1. What types of requests, technical or otherwise, tasks, an agency will need to get inside
do you anticipate making of myself and my team your head, and inside the heads of others
as our engagement kicks off? on your team. They will also need to get on
the calendar of your website admin!
2. What types of requests do you anticipate
making of myself or other members of my team Does the agency you're considering have
on an ongoing basis? the process and communication skills to
make you think they will make reasonable
3. What project management software, and realistic requests of other folks on your
spreadsheets or other orientation materials team? Also, have they set clear
should we expect to receive and when? expectations around what each inbound
component will require in terms of time and
resources? Do you get the impression that
they can manage campaigns with lots of
moving parts? They should. A good agency
will make your life easier -- not the
opposite.
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PLACES AN EMPHASIS ON MEASUREMENT
AGENCIES THAT MEASURE EVERYTHING SUCCEED FASTER
The Internet is an infinitely measureable
place. This makes each piece of the
inbound methodology track-able and
interpretable. This should be a fact
leveraged heavily by any inbound agency
you are considering working with. Your
prospective agencies should have
presentations littered with the words
"metrics," "benchmarks," and "analytics."
You have goals. You are trying to meet
those goals by hiring this agency.
Therefore, your agency should be as
focused on charting success in a data-
driven way as you are.
Progress made
toward your goals should to be measured
at every step of the way, and an inbound Key Questions to Ask:
marketing agency worth its weight will be
able to track all campaigns and report on 1. How will you measure the success of the
performance regularly. campaigns you are proposing?
2. How often will you report back to us on these
campaigns and progress being made towards
other key metrics?
3. What adjustments can be made if certain
metrics are over/underperforming?
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VALUES TRANSPARENCY
YOUR MARKETING AGENCY PARTNER SHOULD WANT YOU TO
SEE EVERYTHING THAT THEY SEE
Make sure the agency you are considering
embraces transparency as a core value. While
you’re not likely to see this word next to a bullet on
a Powerpoint slide, an agency can infer and prove
they are transparent with their clients by citing and
discussing the three main business practices
below.
First, they should outline a regular meeting
schedule in their sales process. These meetings
allow the agencies a regular venue to raise
questions and/or concerns as an engagement is
ramping and progressing. Second, agencies
should jump at the chance to train your people.
Questions to Ask: The more you understand what is being done and
why, the more you can thought partner with your
1. What online software packages does your agency and set their efforts up for success. Third,
firm use to execute and manage inbound truly transparent inbound agencies will insist that
marketing? you have login credentials to the online marketing
2. Will we be trained on this software? software they use to run your campaigns. These
accounts are loaded with data, and they should be
3. How often will you share wins and open and comfortable with you walking around in
progress with us? their world.
Transparent agencies make their end client part of
the team and get better velocity for it. They solicit
input and feedback often, and couple their know-
how and judgment with their clients industry
experience to craft killer inbound strategies and
call audibles where needed.
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Conclusion
9
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FIND THE BEST EQUPPIED AGENCY
You're short on the time and manpower needed to implement
and execute key inbound tactics like blogging and social
media. Fortunately, there are marketing agencies out there
that specialize in the inbound methodology to help. But like any
other agency partner, make sure this agency is a good
strategic match for the type of goals and challenges you have,
as well as your internal teams and processes. Agencies whose
personalities, leaders, skill sets and core values map to the
above 11 attributes will be well-positioned to deliver.
Marketing Agency Resources
Our Channel Account Representatives have helped hundreds of
online services agencies align with these key agency values
deeper, as well as use the Four Core service offerings of
inbound marketing and HubSpot’s software to more secure
them more retainer clients and grow their business. Request a
consultation by clicking or visiting the below URL:
http://www.hubspot.com/partners/free-strategic-agency-
consultation/
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