It was only a little under 2 years ago that I first heard about inbound marketing. I was certainly familiar with all of the elements involved with a well-designed inbound campaign, but we weren't really putting them all together as effectively the inbound concepts presented.
Inbound marketing was intriguing to me for this reason, we had a variety of clients we did a variety of different things for, with mostly good 'results'. I knew there was a better way to continue helping clients manage their internet presence beyond building their website or managing their social media campaign.
Before we discovered the power of inbound marketing and software, we were lacking something. We were finding new clients, building them great components, but struggling to pull it all together.
One problem we had was that good results were often one time transactions. We'd build beautiful websites for our clients, the job would complete and then..... nothing. We were trying to move them into social media marketing services, kick off a SEO campaign, or email marketing but with mixed results. We were often passing on even attempting to sell them additional services, concerned that they didn't have the money or desire to truly market their business.
The problem was we weren't truly positioning ourselves to market our client's business with an overall approach.
We were trying to sell them something, and that something was only part of the puzzle. None of these individual elements can really drive bottom line results as a stand-alone service, and I knew it.
So I started looking for help. I started digging into processes, examining our services and approach. I identified some week spots and started looking for help. I found help when I stumbled across HubSpot, a Boston-based marketing software company I'd heard of previously. I'd been using some of their free tools for a couple year
s but had no idea the strength fo their offering. I was instantly intrigued, I honestly felt pretty ashamed I didn't realize something like their offering existed, and I wanted it. Bad.
So I signed on and we got to work immediately. We spent many long nights, early mornings, and weekends working through the onboarding process with @albiedrzycki.
Before we were an Inbound Marketing Company
- Our offering was segmented, we were doing small pieces of the puzzle only.
- We had a lot of one time sales, building only a website and nothing else.
- We were constantly stuck in the sales cycle for additional services.
- We designed sites clients thought they wanted, not a site to build their business.
- In many cases we were not delivering bottom line results, only upstream conversions.
- We were using all kinds of tools to track and deliver metrics: Constant Contact, Hootsuite, Word Press blogs, Mail Chimp, custom design, and Google Analytics were all in the mix.
Once we became an Inbound Agency things quickly changed for us.
After becoming a HubSpot certified inbound marketing agency and implementing best practices for our own online marketing we began to see real results. The interest for our services has raised, as has our traffic, leads, and prospects. We've shot up the search engine rankings for an expanded list of keywords. We're drawing in qualified opportunities at all points in the sales funnel, bringing in top of funnel interest we we're missing out on before.
- We have a consolidated offering, gathering all elements and blending them into a lead generating campaign with true bottom line conversions.
- We now form ongoing performance based relationships with our clients, the ongoing strategy and review sessions drive continually improved results.
- The websites we build are designed with the end in mind, lead generation and bottom of funnel conversions.
- We control all of the campaign elements, increasing efficiency, cohesion, and real results.
- We have one central tool to replace many of the scattered tools we had in place previously, using only a select few of the best to supplement the HubSpot software.
- We have a grip of happy clients, and more are flowing in all the time!
We've put some great pieces together, but we still have a lot to learn.
We're not the best inbound marketing agency in the country. We're not the most experienced, lowest priced, or most connected either. We are one of the most driven marketing companies in the world however. We are certainly one of the most passionate. We truly believe in what we do and are 100% confident we can perform for you like we're performing for our clients. We work our asses off, and we're getting better every day (and night).
If you're considering shaking up your marketing campaign and looking at things a little differently than in the past we suggest you explore inbound marketing. Take a close look at HubSpot's software, and certainly take a look at www.revriv.com to see if our style meets yours. If you like what you see let us know and we'll spin up a free trial of pure marketing awesomeness for you to dine on. Careful, your paradigm will be changed forever. And so will your online marketing presence.
*A special note of thanks to the entire @HubSpot team, especially to the best team in their organization of @DannieHerz , @kevlinehan, @DTMacAdam, @KevinWheatcraft and @albiedrzycki. You guys rule the marketing world we all live in, thanks for letting us play in the sandbox and for your continued support!*