The Complete Guide to Hiring the Perfect B2B Inbound Marketing Agency

In 2021, customers are increasingly active in the digital world, and their expectations have never been higher. In response, B2B marketers are adopting new strategies to cope with the new normal. One of the most popular is inbound marketing.

It’s worth investing in a good B2B inbound marketing agency, as this can increase your business exponentially. Companies using Hubspot’s inbound marketing techniques increased their leads by 250% over one year. 

But not all inbound marketing agencies are made equal. Hiring an agency is a major commitment, and If you choose one that doesn’t understand your industry or isn’t adept at inbound marketing, you’ll lose time, money, and opportunities.

How can you choose an experienced agency that meets your company’s unique needs? 

We’ll show you how to set out your requirements and find the perfect agency to meet them to help you reach your goals.

Determine How an Inbound Marketing Agency Can Meet Your Company’s Needs

When deciding on the best inbound marketing agency for your business, first take an inventory of your specific needs and look for agencies who have helped other companies with similar needs. You’ll also want to know how flexible the agency is in meeting the ever-changing demands of the digital market.

Prioritize Which Services You Need 

Before you sign up for a costly full-service package, consider whether you actually need everything that’s offered. Inbound marketing services include setting up a strategy, SEO, web design, content creation, and often integrations with inbound analytics. Some agencies offer predefined, full-service packages while others are more flexible, allowing you to choose only the services you need. When you decide which services are essential, also look at the agency’s expertise in these specific aspects.

Choose an Agency with Experience in Your Industry

If your product is highly technical, you’ll want to see that the agency has experience creating technical content. To gauge how the agency can help you, consider their experience with similar companies. Good marketing agencies will have a portfolio and case studies, so you can get an idea of what their typical customers are like and how the agency has benefited them.

Look for an Agency that Adapts to Growth and Change

With digital trends changing rapidly, you need to find an agency that is agile. It should be able to innovate and easily adjust its strategy. Growing companies like yours will eventually need to scale or evolve their marketing strategy, so make sure the agency can keep up with that growth. Evaluate how flexible the agency’s packages are to ensure that you’re able to quickly shift resources to address emerging needs or opportunities.

4 Keys to Developing a Successful Agency Partnership 

Once you’ve established your priorities and what you expect the agency to do for you, determine how a partnership with the agency will work. Even if what the agency produces looks like what you want, get information on the entire process and be clear on the day-to-day details of how you’ll work together. 

1. Ensure the Company Culture Aligns with Yours

Since you’re going to be working closely with the agency, a company culture that’s a good match is key. What are the agency’s values and are they similar to yours? How well do they understand your brand and your style of working? If possible, have a meeting that includes all the team members you’d be working with to gain a sense of how well you’d align with one another.

2. Develop Trust While Working Out a Strategy Together

When aligning on a strategy, it’s important to develop mutual trust. You need to have confidence in the agency’s expertise at what they do and in their integrity in handling your information. You’re entrusting the agency with confidential materials, so you’ll want to be certain they won’t misuse it. In turn, they should respect your knowledge of your own product, and be willing to accept input from you. Whether in inbound or any other marketing agency relationship, years of research have proven trust is essential for effective collaboration.

3. Confirm Communication Channels

To collaborate efficiently, confirm communication channels before you even sign an agreement with the agency. Discuss which channels they use, for example, email, Skype, or Slack, and a reasonable response time for any queries. Set how often you’ll have meetings to discuss progress.

4. Set Clear Goals and Discuss Progress Measurement

Measuring progress through analytics is crucial in inbound marketing, so bring this up from the beginning. Before meeting with agencies, set goals that you aim to achieve through your inbound marketing efforts; for example, percentage of increase in lead generation, increase website traffic, and overall ROI from campaigns. The agency you choose should clearly show you how they’ll measure progress. For inbound marketing, Hubspot analytics are the best, so it’s good to choose an agency that’s a Hubspot partner.

Checklist for Choosing a B2B Inbound Marketing Agency

Are you ready to hire an inbound marketing agency? Here’s a checklist of questions to answer to make sure you have all the information you need to make a decision.

To conduct a more thorough analysis of your inbound marketing needs, you might want to get a professional assessment. Brighttail can offer you a free inbound marketing assessment to evaluate your current website and content and help you identify how you can improve to build a sustainable growth engine. Contact us about it today!