Digital marketing today is bigger than ever. Some companies focus on search engine optimisation while others place their focus on PPC. With so much choice, how do you know you’ve picked the right inbound marketing agency?
The rise and rise of inbound marketing has left search engine results pages (SERPs) practically bursting with a slew of inbound marketing agencies to choose from and a variety of inbound marketing services that you may or may not need. However, the challenge lies in finding a company that stands out amidst the similarity. It's crucial to focus on lead generation and achieving your business goals when selecting an inbound marketing agency to effectively generate leads and drive your business forward.
Having decided to work with an agency, it's likely that you've come to the conclusion that inbound marketing should be from the core of your inbound marketing strategy to reach your target audience. That's a great call to make. Today, inbound marketing has all but replaced the outdated practices of intrusive outbound marketing – and for good reason.
For starters, you’re in good company. According to the recently released State of Inbound 2017 report from our partners over at HubSpot, inbound marketing is the primary marketing method for a massive 71% of global organisations today.
(Image source: cdn2.hubspot.net)
Why such a global surge towards the practice of inbound marketing? Simple – because an overwhelming number of marketers now acknowledge traditional marketing (i.e. paid advertising) to be the most overrated marketing tactic today.
(Image source: cdn2.hubspot.net)
Why is outbound so overrated? Because it doesn’t deliver ROI (return on investment), that’s why – especially when compared to inbound marketing. It could be a part of the wider marketing strategy but your entire focus should not be on outbound.
The HubSpot report reveals 59% of marketers reporting that inbound marketing delivers their greatest ROI – compared to just 16% reporting outbound. What’s more, 59% also said that inbound marketing produces the highest quality leads, while, once again, only 16% of respondents reported outbound marketing as being the source of high quality leads.
Why Inbound Marketing Works
Companies don’t make sales without leads. Traditionally, leads were generated through initiatives like paid advertising, cold calls, email blasts, and other intrusive forms of marketing.
Inbound marketing works in the opposite direction. Using a strategy based on content (blogs, eBooks, videos, infographics, etc.) creation and promotion, content marketing, the job of the inbound marketing agency is to provide a wealth of free information and education for leads and customers, and make it available at times and in places where it suits them.
In today's world, consumers have become tired of having their days and evenings interrupted by advertisements and sales calls. In fact, they've pretty much become impervious to these disturbances. To overcome this challenge, it's important to leverage the expertise of inbound marketing experts who specialize in providing inbound services.
These experts understand how to attract and engage customers organically, aligning with their preferences and needs. As a marketing director, collaborating with these experts can help you navigate this shifting landscape, effectively reaching your target audience and achieving your business goals, all while avoiding intrusive marketing tactics.
Check this out to learn more about our Inbound marketing strategy and services:
- What Are the Five Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing?
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- Inbound vs outbound marketing: which one is better for you?
Instead, when they want to find information about a product or service like yours, they head online to find the answers they need – and it’s the role of the inbound marketing agency to ensure that they do so.
This strategy works. Let’s take blogging as an example. Separate research from HubSpot reveals that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 - 4 monthly posts.
(Image source: blog.hubspot.com)
And when it comes to leads, the results are even better.
Indeed, HubSpot found that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published between 0 - 4 monthly posts.
(Image source: blog.hubspot.com)
This is inbound marketing ROI in action – and it’s only as a result of blogging, let alone all the other tactics that your inbound marketing agency will put to work to ensure your business gets the exposure it needs.
But the question remains – how do you know that you’ve picked the right inbound marketing agency for the job?
5 Ways You Know You’ve Picked the Right Inbound Marketing Agency
1. The Agency Has Clear Processes and Methodologies
Blogging is one thing, and it’s a great way to generate big traffic to your website. But the process of turning those strangers into leads and those leads into customers requires a system designed specifically to grease the wheels of the buyer’s journey, producing profitable results in a repeatable way.
You’ve picked the right inbound marketing agency when it can explain its methodologies and demonstrate its lead generation processes the very first time you make contact. It will know what to prioritise, how you will collaborate, and be able to give you clear answers to any questions that you have. You’ll know straight away if the agency appears to be figuring out this stuff on the fly, and you should avoid it.
2. The Agency Also Provides Branding Strategy
There are many agencies out there who in all likelihood have got the basics of inbound sussed. They understand that content is king, that strong social media promotion is key to amplification, and that it is through “gated content” that leads are captured. In short, they understand what inbound marketing is all about.
That’s all well and good, but you’ve only picked the right inbound marketing agency when you’re working with one who can offer an on-going branding strategy to supplement all other efforts. Branding is what you are. “Your brand” as Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said, “is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Your inbound marketing agency should possess a deep understanding of your brand, encompassing its current identity and the essential elements of branding that must be incorporated into every piece of inbound marketing content they create and promote on your behalf. This entails effectively utilizing email marketing, a potent channel for customer acquisition. Collaborating with your marketing teams, the agency can seamlessly integrate your brand's messaging and values into the content, ensuring a cohesive and impactful approach to attracting and engaging your target audience.
3. The Agency Focuses on the Right Metrics
Many inbound agencies out there will tell you that they are obsessed with metrics. But you need to ask – which metrics are they obsessed with?
In the inbound marketing world, there are such things known as ‘vanity metrics’, and far too often it is over these that obsessions form. Vanity metrics are things like Twitter followers, website traffic, video views, Facebook likes and shares. True, when these numbers are going up, the inbound marketing agency must be doing something right. But the reality is, if increased traffic, followers, views, likes and shares aren’t translating into increased leads and sales, then they are next to worthless.
A good inbound marketing agency knows that it is conversions that count. And while conversions do indeed start with generating traffic from social media, that’s not the end of the story by any stretch of the imagination.
If you've picked the right agency, when you ask them about last week's results, they won't fob you off with visitor numbers or how many hearts your latest Instagram post has accumulated. They'll begin with the number of leads they've captured. In fact, during discussions with potential agencies, inquire about their track record in generating leads across all clients on a daily basis. A reliable agency should have a clear understanding of this metric and be able to provide an instant answer. It's crucial that the agency excels in utilizing search engines and conducting thorough market research to drive effective lead generation. Additionally, emphasize the significance of conversion rate optimization to ensure that the focus remains on tangible results rather than mere vanity metrics.
4. The Agency Is Forthcoming with Case Studies
A good inbound marketing agency will of course be armed with its own impressive set of inbound marketing content – and you should pay particular attention to its case studies.
Case studies will provide you with a real-world example of the inbound marketing agency in action. They will essentially tell the story of one of their clients who came to the agency with a problem, and then explicate the methodologies used to overcome that problem to produce favourable results.
This is the sort of social proof that you’re after (though make sure the focus isn’t on those distracting vanity metrics) – and the agency should have more than one case study that it is willing to share with you. The case studies that you need to pay attention to are the ones that focus on a business that is similar to yours, and the inbound marketing agency should be more than willing to put you in touch with the client so you can hear the truth from the horse’s mouth.
Here at Incisive Edge, we have a whole page on our website dedicated to case studies and testimonials – please take a look at our Results Page to find out more.
5. The Agency Understands the Power of Marketing Automation
Today, marketing automation plays a big part of inbound marketing strategies. Marketing automation platforms – such as HubSpot – are designed to streamline efforts right across the board, and if you’re expecting lots of new leads to be generated and lots of new clients to contend with, your agency will need to up to speed with marketing automation.
The inbound marketing agency will probably have a preferred marketing automation platform that it likes to use, but it should also be able to work with others as well. But, either way, it should know and be able to tell you exactly why it is that marketing automation is important.
From improving lead quality to determining a lead’s lifecycle stage, email optimisation, content optimisation, personalisation, sales insights and analytics – marketing automation platforms are powerful tools, and you’ve only picked the right inbound marketing agency when it can get you set up on a winning platform from day one.
Back to You – But You’ve Already Found Us!
With so many inbound agencies out there today, separating the wheat from the chaff may seem like a tall order. However, if you can ensure that the inbound and digital marketing partner or agency, you're thinking about working with is performing strongly on all of the above points, then you know that you're in discussion with someone who knows what they're talking about.
You’ve found us here at Incisive Edge, and we’re confident that we can we produce the results you need. We produce strategies for clients that drive results. We are focussed primarily on leads – generating leads, nurturing leads, and improving lead quality. We understand how branding fits into inbound marketing campaigns, and are official partners with one of the world’s most recognised and most effective marketing automation providers – HubSpot. If you’re looking for an inbound marketing agency that delivers results, then look no further.
Got any questions about our inbound marketing strategies or want to discuss our case study results? No problem. Please get in touch with us here at Incisive Edge today. We look forward to working with you. And if you want a free marketing consultation, please just fill in the form to the right.
