Lessons to Help You Find Your Next Executive Job

Here are a few lessons I learned personally from changing companies eight times and talking with more than 150 executive job seekers, mainly marketers.

Before You Are Fired from Your Executive Job (or Quit because Your Job Is Unbearable)

1. Let your family know what’s going on:
   
   1. In advance, if possible,
   
   
   2. Immediately, when necessary, and
   
   
   3. Constantly, during the search.
   
   


2. Make solid decisions in advance or your executive job search with your family. Will you:
   
   1. Move?
   
   
   2. Travel?
   
   
   3. Do a very long?
   
   
   4. Stay away from home several nights weekly?
   
   
   5. Take a pay cut?
   
   
   6. Drop down a level?
   
   
   7. Change categories, even to something not appealing?
   
   
   8. Change job functions?
   
   
   9. Network with people you prefer not to talk with?
      
      — I received a good job lead from a former adversary and a good
      
      recommendation from an ex-boss who had just forced me out.
   
   

3. Develop substantial financial reserves.
   
   1. Sufficient for your family to survive for at least twelve months with only a slightly reduced standard of living with no income from you. Include:
      
      • Cash, cash equivalents, and investments such as stock easily converted to cash without penalties (realizing that stock values are unstable), and
      
      
      • Spouse’s income assuming s/he is employed in an apparently stable position.
      
      
      • Do not touch retirement accounts or home equity
      
      
   
   
   2. A twelve-month reserve should be prioritized higher than buying virtually anything except food, shelter, and health insurance.
   
   


4. Have your executive job brand and positioning developed and understood by your primary professional support network.


5. Have all of your executive job search tools up-to-date and polished.
   
   1. This is a difficult task when seemingly securely employed.
   
   


6. Know:
   
   1. Which category or two are most likely to hire you.
   
   
   2. What you probably will be doing for them.
   
   
   3. Why they’ll hire you rather than a thousand other qualified executives.
   
   


7. Develop an extensive contact database.


8. Have executive job marketing and sales plans.


9. Work Linkedin like a pro.


10. Join both local business and national functional networking groups such as the American Marketing Association’s Executive Circle, which have executive-level members.
    
    1. Work your executive job search network continuously―a lesson to others which I didn’t follow nearly as well as I should have.
    
    

Once You Become Uneasy that You May Be Fired

1. Continue doing a good job.


2. Work internally to keep relationships strong.


3. Realize that the light at the end of the tunnel usually is a train. Those jokes about early signals that you will be fired often are correct:
   
   1. Shut out of meetings
   
   
   2. Left in the dark in general
   
   
   3. Closed doors with you on the outside
   
   
   4. Left off of project teams
   
   
   5. Less time with peers
   
   
   6. Less contact with your boss
   
   


4. Review job search tools and plans.


5. Start executive job networking as if it’s a second job, which it is.

As You Are Getting Fired

1. Be pleasant but leverage the situation―those firing you often have significant guilt and decision-making flexibility.


2. Do not believe that the firing manager and the H.R. “executioner” must follow specific rules that keep them from improving their initial exit offer.


3. Sign nothing on the spot.


4. Think about discussing your situation with a lawyer who specializes in labor law but never threaten anything.
   
   1. While legal action seldom is fruitful, it can be productive to know your rights.
   
   


5. Ask for more/better in a general way and then later come back and negotiate:
   
   1. Living up to any written agreements, such as an offer letter, regardless of how old
   
   
   2. Extended benefits
   
   
   3. Health insurance
   
   
   4. Salary continuation
   
   
   5. Retirement payments
   
   
   6. Delayed official exit to reach higher plateaus
   
   
   7. Part-time consulting work
   
   
   8. Written reference
      
      — A personal example: I was forced out after nearly 6 years but given a part-time
      
      6-month consulting assignment (real work that needed to be done) which
      
      continued salary and benefits and let me reach a higher retirement payout
      
      level.
   
   

Once You Are Looking for a New Job

1. Work as hard looking for your next executive job as you will once you land your next job.


2. Do not delay your search for a vacation or sabbatical.


3. Have a written marketing and sales plan with specific metrics and track them.


4. Spend money to get a new job sooner.
   
   1. Coaching
   
   
   2. Travel
   
   
   3. Direct mail campaign
   
   
   4. Office away from home
   
   


5. Take every networking or interview invitation, even if not appealing.


6. Talk with your key contacts as soon as:
   
   1. Any anger has dissipated.
   
   
   2. You can describe your
      
      • Exit
      
      
      • Target categories and any limitations such as geography
      
      
      • Value to your targets in a few words
      
      
   
   


7. Quickly start executing your marketing and sales plans.
   
   • Use a CRM system to contact more people
   
   
   • Keep your key contacts informed and up-to-date
   
   


8. Videotape many practice interviews and have them critiqued.


9. Once interviewing, know that the ass across the table interviewing you will be a bigger ass once you’re hired.
   
   • Boss
   
   
   • Peer
   
   
   • Key report who’s protected
   
   


10. Don’t make your job goal so hard to obtain that you pass opportunities that can feed your family.
    
    • Good often is good enough since you can use your skills to make the situation better over time.
    
    


11. Select your next executive job based on what’s best for your family.

The overall thought is to be prepared for the likely need to find another executive job. I’m certain everyone who has been through a job loss and job search can add to these lessons.

Source: B2C

Customer Success in the Business-to-Government Sector

For the most part, when we are talking customer success, we are dealing with the business-to-business (B2B) ecosystem where your CS team is in contact with the representatives of the customer companies. Of course, there are also business-to-consumer (B2C) companies whose customer success managers deal with individual customers, but the majority still do work with company representatives.

There is an even smaller, third group of customer success managers and professionals and their numbers will grow as time goes by – those who work in the business-to-government sector, or B2G.

What Is the Business-to-Government Sector?

Governments, including all of their levels (federal, provincial, state, city, etc.), all employ a certain number of people to do certain jobs for them. For example, the City of New York will employ that many police officers who will try their best to keep their streets peaceful; the Province of Ontario will employ this many secondary school teachers who will try their best to educate the children in the province. Depending on the country, they will also feature federal employees who will do work pertaining to the entire country.

These various levels of government employ a certain number of people, depending on the amount of funds they have at their disposal. For some purposes, they have enough, or at least enough to get by (there is always call for more teachers, everyone will agree). For other purposes, however, there are just not enough professionals to provide the service.

The governments handle this via public procurement, or the process of putting out contracts and hiring companies to provide certain services to them. This is done in order to ensure that the government (i.e. taxpayers) do not spend more than needed and that no fraud or corruption takes place.

For example, the American federal government might contract a company to drive laboratory specimens for the Centers for Disease Control because they do not have their own trucks. Or, the province of Manitoba might be in need of an IT overhaul and they contract a company that will provide the provincial agencies with a new system.

You get the picture.

Another part of public procurement involves government agencies purchasing products from corporate entities.

Why B2G Companies Need a Customer Success Team

Government contracts usually pay very well and they can provide an unprecedented sense of stability to a company that may have struggled finding customers before. They are also one of the more spectacular endorsements that a company could ever get.

And once you start thinking about it, a great customer success team can easily make a difference between a company that gets awarded the contract and the one that does not.

Inexperienced Users

One of the situations in which the customer success team is especially useful is when they are dealing with inexperienced users and this is exactly what many companies find when they start providing a service or product for certain government agencies.

We do not mean to generalize, but many government agencies become set in their ways due to a combination of factors such as subpar funding, outdated tools and practices and an occasional feeling of malaise that you can experience when walking the halls of government agencies.

For example, imagine if your company developed accounting software geared towards government agencies. The State of California hires you to provide your software to their innumerable agencies (this is obviously a once-in-a-lifetime hypothetical example), replacing their solutions from 1988. You would definitely need a customer success team, and a massive one.

Future Government Contracts

One of the first things people tell you when you start asking around about public procurement and government contracts is that government agencies prefer companies they had already dealt with. It is the risk-mitigation factor which is so pervasive in the world of politics and also very understandable.

Of course, in order to be able to fall back on your past government contracts, they need to be successful, and in order for them to be successful, the government agency you worked with has to be successful.

It is all very logical.

If a government agency fails to succeed using your product or service, they will feel the political ire of their superiors and the voting public and there is absolutely no way they will not pawn off some of the blame on your product or service.

This will, effectively, blackball you from any and all future government contracts, at least in your part of the world.

It Takes a Lot

In the end, you will also want your customer success team to help ensure that you have not wasted your money and effort on bidding and trying to win a government contract only to find out that they are completely dissatisfied and that they are looking at loopholes trying to wiggle out of the contract with your company.

Do not be fooled, it takes a lot of effort and money to win a government contract, once again, for a number of reasons.

For one, the amount of paperwork and bureaucratic hoops your company will need to jump is almost Sisyphus-like. For example, this is just a part of the paperwork your company will need to handle before you even bid for a contract with the Canadian federal government. Even in supposedly business-friendly countries like the United States, you will be absolutely inundated by paperwork and requirements including bid bonds and performance bonds, just to name a few.

You may also need to engage in some account-based marketing to win a government contract, which is always costly and there is often a need to talk to consultants that have experience with public procurement processes.

In certain parts of the world, winning government contracts might also call for some greasing where greasing is needed (which is definitely not something we would ever recommend and encourage). Still, we are all grown-ups here and why not tell it as it is?

You need your customer success team to ensure all of this effort and money is well-spent and that this first contract is only one in line of many more that you will win in the future.

Instead of a closing word

In the end, it all comes down to one thing – a customer success team can make you a true B2G player.

Source: B2C

7 Things to Do Before You Send Your Resume

You only have one chance to make a first impression—so you don’t want to send your resume to a recruiter or a hiring manager until you’re sure that it’s perfect. Pause for a minute before you upload your document, and make sure your resume is polished. We’ll show you how.

Before You Send Your Resume: A Checklist

1. First, proofread, proofread, and proofread! Yeah, you know this already—a single typo or grammatical error can cause the hiring manager to move on to the next resume in the pile. Yet countless resumes are sent with major errors, and it’s all because jobseekers don’t allow plenty of time to proofread. Get a second and a third set of eyes to help you spot any typos or sloppy mistakes!


2. Check for correct verb tenses. This is simple: If you did something as part of a prior job, use the past tense. If it’s related to your current position, though, the present tense is more appropriate.


3. Verify readability. It’s imperative that your resume is clear and easy to navigate. You might even share it with some friends or family members to get their take on it. Make sure your font choices, margins, and layout all make your resume easy on the eye!


4. Ensure consistency. Do you use multiple fonts in your resume? Do you use bold and italic text inconsistently? Be thorough in reviewing these elements and ensuring steady, unchanging design choices throughout your resume.


5. Eliminate technical jargon. Is there anywhere in your resume where you can substitute plainer, more user-friendly language for your high-level industry buzzwords? Generally speaking, you want to minimize jargon to keep your resume widely accessible.


6. Look at the job description you’re applying for. Are there any words, phrases, or key skills listed there that you could incorporate into your own resume? This is almost always a good idea!


7. Don’t forget the cover letter! If you have an opportunity to send a cover letter along with your resume, that can go a long way toward getting your document read! Of course, you’ll also want to ensure your cover letter is well-proofed, well-formatted, etc.

Source: B2C

Customer Experience & the Link Management Platform

Every customer touchpoint has a link.

No matter the device, platform, or channel, there’s a link connecting customers from Point A to Point B. If you can create, measure, and manage all those links in one place, you can see the customer experience in real-time and optimize every touchpoint.

Today, having a link management platform really matters. The digital marketing landscape is fragmented. Whether you’re talking about social media or content, recruiting or advertising, finding a way to connect to your audience is a challenge.

According to Chief Marketing Technologist, the number of marketing tech solutions reached 3,874 in 2016, nearly double the 2,000 solutions reported in 2015. There were about 150 in 2011. The average enterprise uses eight channels to market to different audiences. Media organizations use an average of 21.

Teams feel the strain. More than three-quarters (79%) of business and IT leaders say that they haven’t been able to integrate different data sources across the organization. Marketers spend more than three hours on average every week analyzing data from different sources.

Tech stacks have grown more complex, but link management platforms help simplify them. Here’s how:

The Customer Experience Tech Stack

The customer experience tech stack is comprised of ten core categories. The link management platform is the foundation for them all. There are tons of solutions, so we decided to dig in and find some of the leading players in each category:

The link management platform is the central interface for all these tech solutions. By optimizing links across social, email, SMS, websites, mobile, sales collateral, customer service, and DMPs, you can create precise content flows and an intuitive view of the customer experience in real-time.

Links in email and SMS campaigns can intelligently route customers to the best possible device or channel. Recruiters can measure how candidates are finding jobs. Customer service reps can see the most common issues and questions. Social media marketers can track how investments are paying off. DMPs can look at the data from all that link engagement and use it to inform retargeting campaigns.

A link management platform helps you with three very important things:

1. Interface – With a central interface for all of your links, you can immediately see the performance of customer engagement, trending content, clicks, campaign performance, collateral, and more. When you use trackable links everywhere, you can measure every touchpoint.

2. Routing – Links don’t just decide where your customers end up – they decide how they get there and how they experience it. With a link management platform, you can easily manage that experience for every link. Want mobile users to go to the app store? To the app itself? Your links will adapt automatically and route each user to the best possible experience.

3. Data – A link management platform goes beyond clicks by offering data like geolocation, demographics, and referrals. When a link is optimized, you can get data about different audience segments and leverage it for retargeting and future campaigns.

Optimize Prime

When you use a link management platform, you’re not just optimizing your marketing campaigns or your operational processes, you’re optimizing the customer experience. By building an Internet you can see clear across, you can see what customers really need. And when you can see what customers really need, you can create the experience they really want – all with the same tool.

Source: B2C

5 Tips for Leaving Your Stress at Work

No matter what your job is, work can be stressful. But what if it gets so stressful you feel like you have no time to relax? You end up bringing piles of work home with you, and it starts to cut into the time you should be spending on yourself or with your friends and family.

Finding a good work-life balance can be tough, especially in the digital age when it’s so easy for your work to follow you home. Here are five tips to help you in your pursuit to a healthy work-life balance:

1. Maintain Healthy Lifestyles

As if diet and exercise didn’t already affect our physical health enough, these factors have a huge impact on your mental health, as well. By implementing a regular workout schedule and eating healthy food, you can boost your ability to manage stress. And if you’re less stressed, you’re more equipped to leave that stress at the office.

Unfortunately, when people are stressed, they tend to want to eat greasy, fatty comfort foods like pizza and ice cream. Try to resist this as much as possible, because these foods only make you feel lethargic and less able to deal with stress. Steer clear of high-fat foods, caffeine and sugar and opt for high-fiber, carbohydrate-rich foods like sweet potatoes, vegetables and rice. Fruits and vegetables are always a good choice, and in this case, they’ll help fight stress by boosting your immune system and filling your body with antioxidants.

When it comes to exercise, the most important thing is to find an activity you enjoy. If you hate to run, don’t run. Try Zumba, kickboxing, swimming or playing a co-ed sport — there are tons of ways to get some exercise without torturing yourself. You might even have some fun while decreasing your stress levels and increasing your productivity, thus making it easier to leave that slightly smaller pile of work at the office.

2. Take Breaks Throughout the Day

Just as athletes take breaks throughout a game, working people should be taking breaks throughout their workdays. One study found that taking periodic breaks throughout the day can lead to higher job satisfaction, reduced emotional exhaustion and an overall greater effort from employees to go above and beyond.

Though the frequency and length of breaks should vary from person to person based on preference and feasibility, the study suggests employees at least try to take a brief break early in the day. Morning breaks can leave you feeling more energized, motivated and focused. They can even help reduce headaches, eyestrain and lower back pain.

In short, taking breaks keeps your stress at a manageable level while you’re at work, allowing you to go home feeling accomplished and calm, rather than frustrated and exhausted.

3. Organize Your Time

The first step to organizing your time is setting aside time to organize your time. Taking 10 to 20 minutes at the beginning of the day to look over your tasks and set goals for the day can drastically increase your productivity.

It’s also crucial to designate specific hours of the day as your “working hours.” The addition of technology has made it even harder for some people to leave work at work — it’s difficult to enforce office hours with bosses, co-workers and clients calling and emailing you well into the evening. However, setting boundaries on your time is one of the most basic tips to establish a proper work-life balance.

Make a list of the things that are important to you and decide how much time you want to spend on them each week. These could include hanging out with your family, playing an instrument, reading, learning a new skill, practicing a hobby or just kicking back and watching a movie. No matter what the activity is, make sure to have some “me time” planned into your week.

4. Set Up “Tomorrow You” for Success

Along with organizing your time at the beginning of the workday, it’s also important to carve out time at the end of the day to think about the next day’s priorities. This will save you from the morning scramble of trying to remember what you’re supposed to be working on.

Take another 10-20 minutes at the end of the day to write your future self a note about what you did that day, where you left off and what tasks you need to get started on in the morning. This method will allow you to streamline your work and maintain a smooth flow from day to day. It also prevents you from obsessing over which tasks you need to tackle the next day — you can relax, knowing it’s already taken care of.

5. Embrace Your Commute

Commuting is one of the leading causes of stress in working people. One Swedish study found that couples where one partner commutes at least 45 minutes have a 40 percent higher chance of getting divorced. How you spend your commute influences your productivity during the day, and your attitude when you get home.

Try using your morning commute as a time for meditation, reflection and breathing exercises. Practicing these skills can help you remain calm and focused throughout the day. On your way home, concentrate on unwinding and celebrating that you’re on your way home. You may feel like you need to rush to get home and relax, but why wait? Do whatever makes you feel stress-free — roll down the windows and blast some music, or embrace the beautiful sound of silence after a trying day.

Finding a balance between work and life can be challenging and stressful. But, in addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and making the most of your commute, you can manage this stress easier by taking breaks throughout the day, organizing your time and setting yourself up for success.

Source: B2C

4 Things That Predict Customer Sentiment After Online Interactions with Brands

It’s no secret that customers are flocking to social media in droves to express their delight and disdain with the brands they buy. A key tool that cutting-edge CX practitioners use to measure their social media (SM) reputation is sentiment analysis. This indicates the relative positivity (or negativity) and strength of the attitude expressed in any particular post. By using statistical techniques to compare sentiment analysis scores of customers against measures of their online interactions with companies over time, it’s now possible to see what factors in SM interactions drive customer sentiment.

New research from the peer-reviewed academic journal Computers in Human Behavior considered this very question. Utilizing Twitter to draw their sample, the authors focused their study on tweets mentioning five large online UK retailers over the course of one month. They found that 15,350 out of the 76,166 tweets examined expressed either a positive or negative sentiment. The researchers also examined replies from a particular company back to the customer and the length of their conversations to see what determined customer sentiments.

Engage, Engage, Engage

The study found that negative customer sentiments dropped precipitously in direct relation to the number of replies the customer received from the company. The more replies the customer received, the less likely it was they would express a negative sentiment. In the case of four or more replies, the negative customer sentiments fell to zero by the end of the conversation.

In other words, you should encourage your SM specialists to engage with customers through extended conversations. This will let them talk customers off the proverbial cliff, and prevent them from becoming net detractors, by taking the time to understand the problem in detail.

Say More Rather Than Less

One of the more interesting findings is that the greater the number of words in the company’s replies to the customer, the more likely it was that the customer’s sentiment would convert from negative to neutral.

As such, not only should your SM specialists engage with customers, they should take the time to say it correctly, rather than say it quickly. By writing politer, more nuanced, and grammatically sound responses, SM specialists are more likely to give the customer the impression that the company cares about their problem, and will take the time to solve it satisfactorily.

Be Upbeat!

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the results also showed that companies expressing a positive sentiment in their tweets to customers led to a significant reduction in negative tweets from the customer by the end of the conversation. (The inverse was also true.) In other words, a company’s attitude (as expressed in SM conversations) is an important determinant of the customer’s sentiments and brand perceptions.

This suggests you should advise your SM specialists to ask the humanizing question, “Why would a decent and reasonable person have posted this?” ¹, before firing off a neutral or negative response. By empathizing with the customer’s point of view and expressing a confident and positive perspective on the company’s ability to solve the problem, they can turn down the heat that’s brought the customer to a boiling point.

Point the Customer in the Right Direction

This study yielded only one factor which successfully converted customer sentiment from negative to positive (rather than from negative to neutral): tweets from the company which included a hyperlink. These types of tweets quadrupled the percentage of favorable replies from customers, relative to the start of the conversation. This suggests that tweets that point the customer to a place on the internet that helps them resolve their problem are much more likely to result in the customer endorsing the company.

This means you can tell your SM specialists that it’s a best practice to help the customer help themselves by showing them where to find additional information. Doing so will help your customers feel empowered, reducing the load on staff who might otherwise have to solve the problem.

Social Media Matters

This research shows empirically what most of us understand through common sense: social media matters in giving your customers a good experience. As CX professionals, it also provides us with insights that should prove highly useful in working with our SM specialists to improve how our customer’s express their sentiments online.

Notes

1. Credit to Al Switzler for coining this particular phrase in his book Crucial Conversations, and apologies to him for tweaking the question to fit the material.

Source: B2C

Should I Hire an Inbound Marketer or Partner with a Marketing Agency? Understanding the ROI of Each.

As the old saying goes “anything worth doing is worth doing well” and inbound marketing is certainly no exception to this rule. Ask any marketer and they would most likely agree, inbound is a full-time job. It does not always replace other marketing activities (paid media, events, account-based marketing), but instead it complements these items. Adopting inbound marketing requires planning, execution, and analysis, providing even the savviest marketer a full to-do list.

In most cases, businesses that are just starting with inbound, or who have recently implemented an inbound marketing tool such as HubSpot, have quickly realized that the resources needed are not always there. It is uncommon to find extra hours in the day to devote to new marketing initiatives without taking time and effort away from other items.

In this case, businesses are required to look elsewhere to effectively execute inbound marketing. The two most common options are to hire an inbound marketer internally or to partner with an inbound marketing agency. This can be a difficult decision and most likely each marketer has his or her own opinion. In the end, it is all about results. Inbound is an investment and the focus should be on ROI. It’s important that this work is done correctly from the start as to build optimal momentum. In this article we will discuss both options and provide some additional insight to help make your decision easier.

Hiring an Internal Marketer

The first inclination might be to hire a marketer to join your full-time team. For many executives, keeping marketing completely in-house is a priority. This can be an effective option as you have complete control over the workload of this employee and can adjust as needed. Another important item here is this employee’s familiarity with your business and solutions. With an internal employee, he or she can complete the same new-hire company training that all employees go through, ensuring a high level of understanding of company vision, goals, and products.

Another benefit to hiring an internal employee is the fact that you can allocate his or her time toward additional activities outside of inbound marketing. Although inbound does require much of one’s attention, there are other items that can become necessary and having another employee to allocate toward these needs can be helpful. Finally, internal employees are seen as a long-term investment. Hiring the right addition to your internal team is critical and finding the right person who fits your company’s culture and values can be of huge value.

There are a number of reasons, however, that you may choose not to hire a full-time inbound marketer. The most common reason is cost. We all know that the cost of an employee is not simply the salary, but there are many additional line items that add up. These include benefits, computer or phone, vacation time, etc. Also, keep in mind that you’d probably be looking to hire an experienced marketer, so you will most likely be paying a premium. Additionally, any new hire will have a ramp-up period. Whether he or she is learning about your business, becoming familiar with your product, or even just settling into the new job routine, it is difficult to have them jump in from day 1. From a results perspective, you must factor in these first few months in order to set realistic KPIs and goals.

Finally, one often overlooked detriment to hiring a marketer in-house is that this new employee will not be a jack of all trades. He or she may be an expert marketer, but most likely will not have the expertise in design, web development, or paid search that may be required to yield optimal results. In that case, you might find yourself looking for additional resources and having to hire additional team members or outsource.

Partnering with an Inbound Marketing Agency

Just like the alternative, there are many positive attributes to outsourcing your inbound marketing to a certified agency. Using a directory such as HubSpot’s partner marketplace, you can identify a number of qualified partners and contact them right away. One major benefit is the fact that instead of hiring just one person, you are gaining a team of experts. Although you will have a main strategist on your account, that person is supported by a team of expert developers, designers, paid media managers, and SEO strategists, and has a wealth of knowledge and resources at his or her fingertips. Additionally, this team has expertise across multiple campaigns, industries, and clients. This is extremely valuable as an internal marketer most likely has narrow experience and continues to grow only through your individual campaigns. Working with an agency partner, creative marketing work is being executed daily and one can learn from these efforts and apply best practices and new results toward your work. Instead of learning on the job, there is a ton of experience constantly building up for you to leverage.

Another valuable asset when partnering with an inbound marketing agency is the ability to adapt and be creative on the fly. With a team of inbound marketing experts, your partner can effectively adjust the plan to yield optimal results. This can be seen as they are working to constantly outdo themselves and figure out the best plan of action. Having the ability to pivot as needed and constantly challenge the status quo is important as inbound marketing requires creativity and experimentation. With a team of experts, these changes can be implemented quickly and effectively.

As you can imagine, there are a few alternative items here as well. One thing to consider is the fact that you are not the only client this agency works with. So, unlike hiring an inbound marketer in-house, a partner agency is unable to devote 100 percent of their time and attention to you and your business. That means that they are not always available to talk at the drop of a hat, as opposed to being able to walk over to a colleague’s desk. The best agency partners have open lines of communication with all clients and provide an exceptional level of customer service, so there is rarely any holdup or difficulty in reaching your strategist. Another item to consider is the fact that your partner will not be going through the new hire training that an employee would be. That being said, there is a high caliber of discovery and learning being done during the client onboarding process, however, they may not fully understand the nuances of your business from the start. This may take a bit of time as they interview internal team members and continue to get to know your audience.

As you can see there are a number of factors to consider. Inbound marketing requires a large commitment in order to drive quality results. When deciding whether or not to hire an inbound marketer or partner with an agency, be sure to do your due diligence. Agencies have a number of case studies, references, and client examples for you to look at, all of which reflect their expertise and quality results.

Source: B2C