Marketing is always evolving. Each year there are new strategies and tools to master, all of which must be aligned with your business goals. Because of this, the responsibilities of marketers and business owners continue to grow as well. It’s common to consider marketing budgets and identify areas of reallocation and ROI. When in need of marketing help, often the first thought is to hire another employee or give some of the overflow work to others within the organization. What most don’t realize is that this can be quite costly and in many cases, does not produce the same return as working with an outside resource.
Hiring an inbound marketing agency is a great solution in this scenario. Not only does this partnership provide unparalleled expertise, it will allow you and your employees to focus on growing the business in other ways. Here we will discuss 5 ways to cut costs by hiring an inbound marketing agency.
Many companies operate marketing with an “everyone helps” attitude. This means that everyone from the CEO to the sales team helps by writing blogs and content offers. This is great if each employee has a few extra hours each week to help out, however this is rarely the case. For most of nonprofits and small businesses, the weeks are jam-packed, with an ever-growing list of to-do’s to accomplish. In order to hit these marketing deadlines, team members have to step away from their primary responsibilities and shift gears into a marketing mindset. This can seriously take away from weekly productivity and reaching key goals.
By hiring an inbound marketing agency, employees can spend their time doing what they were hired to do, driving the business forward. This will undoubtedly result in more business closed and better customer success. Now, instead of an “all hands on deck” approach to marketing, it is now the responsibility of one individual to manage the relationship with an inbound agency as opposed to executing the marketing as a whole.
Another solution could be to hire an employee internally. What often goes un-discussed is the total cost associated with the hiring of a new marketer, or any employee for that matter. Filling a new position can turn into another full-time job. When adding up all the time it takes to identify, interview, hire and train a new employee, the total hours can be astonishing. As mentioned before, this not only takes time away from your primary responsibilities, but odds are, there will be additional handholding required over the next few months.
When working with an inbound agency, you can cut costs by immediately partnering with a team of marketing experts who have dedicated ample time and resources to learn about you and your business. Their process in doing so will be extremely thorough, resulting in a true understanding of your value proposition, solutions, and a detailed plan to reach your goals. The time it takes to interview and vet an inbound agency will be a fraction of that which you would spend on a new internal hire, and we all know that time is money.
Another way that an inbound agency can help you cut costs is with the optimization of existing marketing efforts that are costing you money. Many businesses spend a decent portion of their marketing budget on paid advertising such as Google Adwords, social ads. With the right expertise, this spend can be optimized greatly. This can be done by removing ad spend for those channels that do not yield adequate results, or by improving the overall conversion rate, effectively lowering the cost of acquisition.
An inbound marketing agency will look at your current marketing activities with a keen eye, identifying areas to lower spend and drive optimal results. With the right tools in place, such as HubSpot, they can generate in-depth reports and adjust campaigns accordingly.
Another important factor in cutting costs is the fee structure for inbound marketing retainers. Most agencies work in a retainer-based model. This means that there is a fixed fee associated with the amount of work to be completed each month. This statement of work is often laid out in terms of a set number of hours or deliverables, based upon an agreed-upon monthly fee. This model allows you to allocate budget appropriately for the next year or many years to come. With an internal employee, the cost of that person increases over time. This can be seen with annual raises or the cost of benefits rising as well. In order to maintain a steady budget for marketing, while ensuring the highest return on investment, hiring an inbound marketing agency is certainly your best option.
As mentioned earlier, each year, new marketing technology is released to help businesses drive new customers while reporting accurately on their efforts. In many cases, these tools are not free and the cost of multiple subscriptions can add up quickly. By working with an inbound marketing agency, often you can get access to a number of tools that they are already using. For example, many agencies use a variety of analytics tools to measure website performance and visitor behavior. As a client, this software can be installed on your website, essentially adding you to their subscription. This can cut significant costs and provide you with more budget to allocate elsewhere.
It’s clear that hiring an inbound marketing agency provides a number of great values. Not only do you get access to a full team of marketing and creative experts, you can significantly cut costs and increase ROI. When compared to hiring an internal marketer or splitting the responsibilities across your team, partnering with an inbound agency is extremely cost-effective and allows you to focus on growing your business.
| As a Certified Hubspot Partner Agency, Tapp Network offers inbound marketing through digital, content, and social media solutions to “Tapp” your target markets across multiple touch-points when and where your customer wants it. |  |
