Inbound marketing is a little bit like painting your house: sure, you could probably do it on your own, but that would require a ton of work and preparation. Wouldn’t you rather hire professionals to handle the job for you?
Similarly, you can absolutely create and implement your own inbound marketing strategy, but it’s a pretty formidable challenge. And there are professionals out there in the form of inbound marketing agencies that would happily handle the job for you (we know of a pretty great agency, if you’re interested).
If you’ve determined that you want some help with your inbound marketing, you now have to select an agency to work with. There are so many agencies out there, each promising to boost your traffic and increase your leads – how do you possibly select the right one? Here are some tips to help you narrow it down:
Find out what software they work with
Virtually every agency has selected some type of subscription-based marketing software to work with – it’s simply too difficult not to. Marketing automation software allows you to streamline much of the marketing process, and can make it easier to edit your website, compile analytical information, and nurture leads. You should investigate the software a potential agency uses and decide if that’s the type of software you’d like to use, too. For us, we find HubSpot to be the most reliable software provider on the market.
Ask for some numbers
You should ask to see some of the analytics from the agency’s current clients, because believe me, the agency has them. Any worthwhile agency will have enough numbers to make an accountant envious. If the agency is hesitant to share them, that’s a major red flag.
When you do get to see some numbers, the totals aren’t as important as the trends. If their clients are seeing their visits, leads and/or engagement rise on a continual basis, that means the agency is doing its job.
Talk to some current clients
Once you’ve seen the numbers, now it’s time for some references. Ask the agency to put you in touch with one or more current clients, so you can get their opinion on the agency. Since these businesses are paying good money for the agency’s services, you can bet they’ll have an opinion on the agency’s success. Take their opinion with a pinch of salt, but if they have nothing but bad things to say, that’s a cause for concern.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
