Find The Best Inbound Marketing Agency for You (Even If It’s Not Ours)

Find The Best Inbound Marketing Agency for You (Even If It’s Not Ours)

By Lara Nour EddineFeb 26 /2018

As we’ve evolved as a digital marketing agency, we’ve come to realize just how important it is to find the right fit. We’re more selective than we used to be, and we’re proud of the fact that we work for our clients because we want to, not because we have to. If we don’t believe we can help someone, we would rather refer them to someone who can instead of wasting their time and money desperately trying to make it work.

To build stronger relationships with clients who are a great fit, we needed to rethink our entire sales process. We’ve made some big changes, which you may have noticed on our newly redesigned website. Our partner, HubSpot, has made some important changes as well to make it easier for new HubSpot customers to find an agency that is truly the best fit, not just the first name they happen to stumble upon.

If you’re searching for an inbound marketing agency, this is great news. Here’s how the recent changes will make it easier for you to find the right fit, even if it’s not us.

Start Your Search: HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Partner Directory

If you’ve invested in HubSpot or you’re considering it, it only makes sense to partner with an inbound marketing agency that has extensive experience using the platform.

The HubSpot Partner Directory is a listing of hundreds of HubSpot partner agencies who are certified experts on HubSpot’s content management system and marketing automation software. These agencies follow the inbound marketing methodology and have access to exclusive tools and resources to help further their clients’ marketing efforts.

HubSpot launched a newly updated directory today with a number of changes designed to make it easier for CMOs or marketing directors to find an agency, including:

  • Improved filters that display the highest quality agencies first
  • Removing other filters that weren’t used frequently, improving search functionality
  • Displaying agencies from a broader geographical area
  • Improving search engine optimization for agencies, making it easier to find one you may already be familiar with
  • Making it easier for sales partners to connect directly with customers and prospects

These directory improvements serve to take the guesswork out of choosing an agency and give you confidence in your choice. Through the HubSpot Partner Directory, you can easily see the agency’s HubSpot partner tier, which represents the level of success they’ve achieved for their clients using HubSpot.

You can also view their star rating, an indicator of client satisfaction based on a scale of 1-5 stars.  (Kuno is a diamond agency partner, the highest possible tier, and has a five-star rating.)

Soon, you’ll also have the ability to read reviews from the agency’s clients and read case studies that demonstrate how they’ve achieved success.

Connecting With An Inbound Marketing Agency

Once you’ve browsed the directory and have found an agency that sounds like a good fit, you’re probably eager to talk with them. In the past, if you wanted to connect with an inbound marketing agency, you may have picked up the phone and left a message or filled out a form and then waited several days to hear back. It might have taken another week of back-and-forth emails to schedule a sales call.

Fortunately, the sales process is changing across the industry to one that is more streamlined and personalized. There’s also a greater focus on individual outreach through account-based marketing. Agencies at the forefront of these changes, like ours, are relying less on forms to capture leads and are doing more with conversational marketing platforms like Drift.

These platforms gather data that add context to the conversation, such as when you visited a particular website and which pages you were most interested in.

Rather than filling out a standard form when you arrive at a website like ours, and waiting to hear back from someone to arrange a meeting, you can interact with the Kuno bot and immediately schedule a consultation at a time convenient to you.

Finding The Right Inbound Marketing Agency

Once you’ve narrowed down your options to a short list of agencies you can see your team working with, there are a few other steps you can take to determine which one is right for you.

Take the time to learn about their approach to creating an inbound marketing strategy for companies similar to yours. Learn about who their clients are, and look at the work they’ve done.

If you like what you see, learn about the team who will be working on your account and what expertise they bring to the table. Find out how they measure success and report results. Take a look at how they do inbound marketing for their own company. Do they have quality content that’s educational, meaningful and persuasive? The work they have on their own website is a good indication of what they’ll be able to do for you. (Check out our blog post for more tips on what to look for in an inbound marketing agency.)

Knowing Where To Look Is Half The Battle

When Kuno first became a HubSpot partner in 2009, there were only a handful of digital marketing agencies. Now there are hundreds. With so many options, choosing the right one can seem like an overwhelming undertaking. Fortunately, it’s much easier once you know where to look. The changes recently implemented in the HubSpot Partner Directory will make it easier to start your search and make an informed decision.

If you’re ready to start your search, take time time to check out the newly updated HubSpot Partner Directory now. And stay tuned for more updates coming soon.

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Lara Nour Eddine
The Author

Lara Nour Eddine

With years of experience as a brand journalist, Lara shifted roles within Kuno to manage client relationships as an account manager. She puts her storytelling skills to use from her journalism days to help develop a big-picture strategy for clients and to execute tactics that best achieve results. Lara has worked in journalism and public relations. She also serves as an adjunct professor.
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