Why We Became an Inbound Marketing Agency and HubSpot Partner
Any good salesman will tell you that you need to establish compelling reasons to buy from you based on your prospect's "pain points". What do they desparately need that your product or service will fulfill? More often than not your prospects don't even know what their pain points really are, so you must establish them through questioning. Magic begins to happen when they start to self-realize and recognize the benefits of your solution. Turning back the clock a couple of years, we had some pretty severe pain points as a marketing agency, and we found our salvation through inbound marketing and Partnership with HubSpot.
Our Pain Points in the Summer of 2009
- Traditional marketing accounts were drying up
- We were weak on retainer accounts – just a few and at low $ per month
- We had no sales process or dedicated sales team, and Chris and I were splitting time with other duties
- We were losing money on project accounts, especially websites with lots of custom functionality
- Our customers were asking us for things we couldn’t deliver, like SEO, leads etc.
- Our brand wasn’t well known outside NE Ohio, and we had no strategy for market expansion
- We had no real way of capturing or nurturing sales leads
- We had no idea how to integrate sales and marketing efforts
Inbound Marketing and Certified HubSpot Partnership
At the beginning of 2009, we had a pretty good idea what was holding us back from growing more profitable. We started investigating inbound marketing, largely through the many blogs and other resources from HubSpot, and became convinced that we should at least add it to our marketing repertoire. Then things started to snowball. The more we blogged about it and wrote our own Inbound Marketing Handbook, the more our current clients and prospects became interested. Now we needed a working solution, and that solution presented itself in August, when HubSpot announced its Certified Partner (Reseller) Program. We jumped at the opportunity and were among the first to qualify and begin operations.
Fast forward to today, and inbound marketing and HubSpot redesign services have grown to become our dominant offerings. We are growing rapidly and enjoying significant market leadership from being early adopters and advocates of inbound marketing.
Now We Analyze Our Clients' Pain Points, Most Commonly:
- They aren’t happy with their brand or website
- Their brand awareness is zero
- Their sales are down and they want more leads from Google (we gently let them know that search is important, but not the only way)
- They want to rank #1 on Google (yes, but you have to work to get there with content, social media, SEO, etc.)
- They want to generate more qualified sales leads (we give these folks a gold star!)
- Their marketing isn’t working (usually this is PPC) – we redirect them to inbound marketing
- Their website hasn’t been updated in months/years – so, we're definitely starting from scratch!
- They aren’t happy with their website design – yes, we understand, now let's talk about the purpose of your website...
We've learned a lot since 2009, and we continue to learn new tricks every day. It starts with self-realization. What's really holding you back, and are you prepared to throw away your preconceived ideas? Only then can you get on the fast track to better sales performance from inbound marketing.
