Inbound Marketing is highly effective at bringing in business at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods however it takes time and a solid knowledge of the methodology, technology and inputs required to achieve results. This creates a barrier for many companies looking to implement and maintain inbound strategies.
A 2013 Gartner report tells us that inbound marketing budgets grew by 9% last year with companies investing more in digital advertising, content creation and social media marketing. The report goes on to reveal that almost half of their digital marketing budget is spent on outsourcing to specialised agencies helping these businesses run effective programmes.
Read on for the signs that it might be time to call on the help of an inbound marketing agency to make your streamline your marketing.
Indicators You Should Consider Outsourcing Inbound Marketing to an Agency
You Lack Resources and Skills
This is a common challenge. In-house resources are already at capacity in terms of what needs to be done and they don’t have time to learn anything new, let alone add more work to their schedules. Bringing in new hires is not only costly but can be a confusing process if you are unfamiliar with what qualities and skills a good inbound marketing candidate should have. Very often these can’t be found in a single person either as inbound marketing entails technical, creative, editorial and analytical elements. Partnering with an inbound marketing agency will provide you access to a broad set of skills as teams are put together to cover all aspects of inbound marketing.
You Aren’t Seeing Great Results
You will no doubt have business objectives that need to be achieved. If you are struggling to meet those goals with internal inbound marketing efforts, it is probably time to have a chat with an agency. A reputable inbound agency will be able to assess your current situation, identify key areas of improvement and work with you to develop a new strategy to meet business objectives and provide solid return on investment.
You Are Running Short on Time
Researching and writing well-optimised, buyer-persona-centric blog posts takes time. Monitoring and participating on social media platforms and industry forums takes time. Crafting marketing offers, CTAs, landing pages and thank you pages takes time. Setting up lead nurturing email campaigns takes time. I think you can see where I am going with this. Inbound marketing activities take a lot of time – something I am sure you don’t have a lot of after you’ve attended to your primary functions. The inbound approach is only effective when consistent and if you don’t have the time available to focus on implementing and maintaining the programme you are not going to see the kinds of results you've read about.
Did you find yourself nodding while reading any of that? Perhaps its time we have a chat about how our agency can help you reach your marketing and business objectives? Contact us today.
