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Inbound Agencies- Do You Know What Hubspot's #1 Concern is?

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 2/17/12 10:21 AM

Customer Retention for Inbound Agencies Who Use Hubspot

I don't normally write posts that are intended for other marketing agencies. My focus is on the client. But again, remember, I've been on the phone with Rick for 4 hours straight with 4 different marketing agencies this morning.

Before I dive into my summary, ask yourself these questions:
  • Why do people hire marketing agencies? 
  • Why are more and more turning to inbound over outbound?
Now ask yourself some harder questions (if you dare):
  • What happens after you double traffic, increase organic ranking, develop a social media following? 
  • What happens after you generate some leads and build email marketing lists?
  • What happens after your client turns to you after 3, 6, maybe even 12 months and tells you that even though you did everything you said you would, they can't do it anymore...
...because sales did not increase enough for them to reach their ROI?

Why is Customer Loyalty so Critical?

Back to HubSpot, the internet marketing software company. The opposite of customer retention is attrition. Churn is what HubSpot calls it. How do you prevent churn? HubSpot says CHI. How do you achieve CHI? According to HubSpot, CHI is how many blogs, landing pages, leads, and lead nurturing campaigns are running. In other words, how much they are using the software. I have no doubt that is how HubSpot retains their software customers.

Now, I hope this doesn't come as a shock to you. But how a software tool achieves customer loyalty is not the same way a hybrid inbound marketing agency creates customer retention and referrals. 

Please do not misunderstand me, HubSpot CHI is one metric that measures your client's intent to take responsibility, be accountable, and do what is necessary to accomplish their goals. It is a useful indicator to an inbound marketing agency. It is not however, the be all and end all.

It's not just about having landing pages, or lead nurturing campaigns, or even blog posts. That doesn't mean you can get away with not doing those things. The key to achieving long term CHI, and creating customer evangelists that are the heart of any growing business, is to enable your client's sales to close. And there is only one way to do that: Smarketing.

What is the sales and marketing integration process and methodology?

Inbound is content oriented, outbound is interruption oriented. Oil and water don't mix well. 

Here is an example I have drilled into my head: Ask around and you will hear a lot of stories about companies who increase leads in the triple digits. Incredible! And crippling. Here is what the headlines don't tell you. Sales went down. Why?

3 Reasons Why Sales Go Down as a Result of Inbound Marketing

  1. Sales didn't know how to handle inbound leads, creating a mismatch.
  2. Sales didn't have a process that could handle the amount of leads, they were on overload.
  3. The marketing message and the sales experience were not integrated, creating customer experience friction.

How do you learn sales and marketing integration, or Smarketing?

It's not, as some might indicate, throwing out your client's (or your own) current processes. You can read any multitude of posts about sales and marketing integration strategy and tactics on this blog. If you are more of a creative person, you can read about sales and marketing integration and what it means to branding perspective on Dale's blog. Decide for yourself what smarketing is and is not. In fact, just do a Google search on smarketing, and I am sure you will find something relevant and do not need me to fill you in.

But think of it this way if you are trying to visualize how you get through the 12 steps to sales and marketing integration and alignment to your customer's buying process.

Imagine you are watching two professionals dance. They are two partners in the buyer/seller dance. (Sorry marketing, but you can set the stage, dress up the personas on full-size cardboard cut outs, you can even help choose the music and costumes, but you are on the sidelines for this dance, argue all you want.)


Last question. How do you want your dance to end with your client? Wait, better question:

Bottom line; how does your client want to to end?

If you need some choreographing help, you might be able to get fit in for the next sales and marketing integration course for agencies.

If you are a HubSpot customer, this was designed with you in mind. Click here to get the best results from your inbound marketing investment.

Oh, one last thing. Look at the dancers in the video. They are good. They have practiced a lot. If you watch carefully, you will see them beaming. Smiling, almost laughing as they perform their routine for the hundredth time in perfect timing. They are having fun.

Rule #1 in professional sales: If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong.

Topics: smarketing, sales and marketing strategy, sales and marketing integration