Inbound marketing has been taking off lately as an effective and modern way to communicate with target customers. Inbound marketing campaigns are highly effective when executed correctly. But the question that most business owners and marketers face is whether or not they should partner with an inbound marketing agency to plan, execute and monitor their campaigns?
There’s always the option to do inbound marketing in-house. But you might not have the bandwidth or expertise to ensure a campaign’s potential is maximised. So, here’s how partnering with a specialised inbound marketing agency can help you get the most out of your campaigns and reap the benefits of inbound.
1. Increase Productivity
With the help of an inbound marketing agency, your workforce is free to focus on important work relating to the business. If your team isn’t familiar with many inbound marketing concepts and practices, it’s best to get expert help especially if your campaign is time-sensitive. They would only monitor and communicate while the nitty-gritty is outsourced. This won’t affect their brand width and thus increase productivity.
2. Hit the Ground Running
Building and training an in-house team can take months before a good campaign can begin. Hiring an agency partner cuts that time and resources, allowing your campaign to hit the ground running with all the right practices and strategies. An efficient inbound marketing agency wouldn’t waste time coming up with solutions and ideas for your business. Therefore, if you’re looking to start inbound soon, consider partnering before establishing your own team once the process and operation have stabilised.
3. Get Unbiased Perspective from an Outsider
When your team has been knee-deep in a project for weeks or months, it can be hard to get objective and unbiased feedback from your team members. You can get your head out of the fog by soliciting unbiased and neutral feedback from a third party whose only objective is to make your team better. An agency’s job is to learn and understand your brand and business and propose the best ways to make it better.
Agencies can also help you accurately gauge your business’s current marketing rankings and provide a crucial perspective that motivates internal and external company growth. You’ll be able to quantify and understand what current tactics work and which ones to improve.
4. Weaponise on the Latest Marketing Tech & Insight
Inbound marketing agencies are hyper-focused teams of marketing specialists and industry experts. Other than helping you out with projects, they also work with your team to develop new skills and knowledge base. Working with their industry insider knowledge will catch you up to date on all the needs of your clients.
Especially with HubSpot Solutions Partners, you will be able to weaponise on the latest inbound marketing tech and solutions while upskilling your team. HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing enabler, partners with selected inbound marketing agencies to help businesses make use of only the best marketing technology that fits into modern consumer needs.
5. Get Started with Inbound Marketing Right & Efficient
There are plenty of marketing agencies out there, each with its own specialisation and niche. If inbound marketing is what you want to do for your campaign, the best place to start looking is from the industry’s best player. Partnering with the right inbound marketing agency can give your business a great head start with a strong foundation and strategy.
What Should You Look For In An Inbound Marketing Partner?
Finding the right inbound marketing agency to partner with you is a matter of both patience and process. There are many capable and powerful agencies out there, but which one will be the right fit for your business? Take the time to analyse each of these attributes to pick the perfect inbound marketing partner for your company.
1. Good Communication
Working with an external partner can be daunting, especially when you need to ‘chase’ them for every single deliverable. When scouting for an inbound partner, look at how responsive and communicative they are. Is the agency’s team sensitive to your needs? Do you feel like you’ve been actively listened to when talking about your concerns with them? It’s also helpful to agree on how and when should you touch base and get updated.
2. Portfolio
One great way to filter candidate partners is by looking at their portfolio and past clients. These can usually be found on the agency’s own website on the homepage or at the case study. You’re not necessarily looking for the exact portfolio that matches your campaign or project. Instead, you’re looking at how this agency solves their client’s challenges, how they execute their inbound strategy and what quantifiable metrics are used to define their success.
3. Process
A good indicator of an efficient inbound marketing partner is how they communicate their work process to you. How transparent are their marketing and development processes? Does this agency have a clear step-by-step procedure for planning, strategising and reporting? Are you convinced of their workflow? Having a clear process can suggest that the team is ready and experienced to implement your inbound strategy.
4. Branding
For an agency that claims to be experts in their field, they should have an impressive branding that sends the right messages out to you. Check out how the agency brands and promotes itself - their website is a good place to start. The way they market themselves says a lot about their future abilities and how they will handle your brand. How convinced are you by the materials you’re seeing?
5. Trust
And lastly, you should always be able to trust the agency partner you’re going to work with. It’s good if an agency ticks all the boxes in your criteria but it’s also important to feel safe and confident with them. As you’re communicating and talking to members of their team, do they give out a sense of trustworthiness? You should also look at online reviews from past clients to gauge on the agency’s capabilities and quality assurance.
In Conclusion
The right inbound marketing agency partner can boost your marketing performance, improve customer satisfaction and bring in long-term benefits. They grow with you and see you as more than just paying clients, but as collaborators of a shared goal. As the old adage goes, if you want to go far, go together. When you’re ready, partner with us and achieve sustainable results for your business.