Most Marketing Companies Don’t Really Know
Inbound Marketing

Separate the Inbound Impostersn

-In your endless endeavor to capture and convert new customers, the buzz phrase ?Inbound Marketing? has undoubtedly come up time and again. Marketing companies, themselves trying to capture and convert you, have perhaps tossed the phrase at you in hopes of obtaining your business. Some of their pitches may have taken root inside your brain.

But not so fast…

What is Inbound Marketing?

(Click here to watch a video)

You should scrutinize the marketing services offered by marketing companies as vigorously as your future customers will judge your own products/serevices. Customers might have their own unique criteria with which to appraise your product, but you in turn should use specific criteria with which to appraise marketing companies who claim to know Inbound Marketing.

Inbound Basics

Following is a light introduction to true/effective Inbound Marketing. Use this to know what to look for when assessing the validity of marketing companies who purport to specialize in Inbound Marketing.

Inbound Marketing comprises a set of tactics, born from Strategy,
whose proper execution is tantamount to consistent success:

Success ?= ?Conversions

Think of Inbound Marketing as a puzzle with many pieces.

Inbound Marketing Creates a Clear Picture

?Puzzle? is not meant to convey confusion or to evoke a maze. In this sense it refers to vital pieces of a whole picture whose wide reaching power rests in its completeness.

Each piece of the Inbound Marketing puzzle has a place. Together, each pieces build a complete and clear marketing picture.

A single jigsaw piece is worthless on its own. Likewise, the puzzle it belongs to is equally incomplete without all of its pieces intact. Inbound marketing is no different.

Who will you choose to help you build a complete marketing picture? Who will you choose as an Inbound Marketing Firm partner?

Good Inbound Marketing Companies

Here, in no certain order, are a few marketing companies to consider as Inbound Marketing partners:

PR 20/20

Inbound Marketing Agents

Kuno Creative

Marketing Matters Inbound (That’s us)

Things Good Inbound Marketing Companies Know

The pieces of a truly powerful Inbound Marketing Puzzle include Attraction, Nuturing, Conversion and Re-Conversion. They include (but are not limited to):

A Website Built upon a Conversion Architecture?Model

Landing Pages

Lead Nurturing and Lead Management

Business blogging

SEO

Email

Social Media

Mobile

Sales Intel & Internal Alignment

Question:

What should you look for to determine whether prospective marketing companies comprehend these ideas and utilize them as a central marketing model?

Answer:

Start by examining marketing company’s website. Go beyond the graphic design to see if it has clear navigation with Calls-to-Action and the ability to engage the Visitor (you). More specifically, make certain marketing companies in question adhere to the following:

Non-interruptive, content-based strategies

Keyword enriched and strong SEO info to grab customers’ attention and/or subsequently capture leads (via landing pages)

Capable of building an Internet Conversion Machine (one that gently funnels customers through a Call-to-Action Map whose outlined route leads to a conversion and/or purchase)

Inbound Analytics to tell you whether your efforts are garnering results

?Hubspot Certified” or at least subscribing to software like Pardot, Eloqua, or Marketo

By the way, you can also test your own efforts with a Website Grader or Inbound Marketing Assessment.

Hubspot Certification

or the use of the aforementioned software is crucial to determining which marketing companies are authentic in their approach to Inbound Marketing. Remember that the term as it’s being commonly used today was coined by Brian Halligan, MIT professor and co-founder of Hubspot.

The Real McCoy or a Fake

Hupspot Certification?assures that marketing companies understand Inbound Marketing. It’s the difference between the real McCoy and a fake. Ultimately, it’s a holistic understanding of Attractive Marketing. That can mean the difference between reaching/converting more customers or not.

Spreading the Word

Inbound marketing doesn’t merely convert a handful of customers. Converted customers tell their friends about your business and the grapevine vibrates with praise about your products/goods/services. This is the essence of growth. The steadier your growth, the easier you can adjust to each new bracket of customers.

When you begin perusing marketing companies, give preference to those who meet all or most of the above criteria. According to Hubspot’s “State of Inbound Marketing Report 2013,” 93% of companies who use Inbound Marketing experience increased lead generation. Your business could be among them soon enough. The journey must first entail sorting through traditional marketing companies in order to find a powerful Inbound Marketing company.