Effective lead follow-up is a critical part of the sales process, as it helps businesses connect with potential customers and turn them into paying clients. However, it’s not always easy to get it right.
If you follow up too quickly, you may come across as pushy or desperate. On the other hand, if you wait too long, you risk losing the lead altogether. So, what are the best practices for an effective lead follow-up?
Follow up quickly
Research has shown that the chances of making contact with a lead decrease significantly after the first hour, and the chances of qualifying a lead decrease significantly after the first 24 hours. This means it’s important to follow up with leads as soon as possible after they express interest in your product or service. If you can’t follow up immediately, aim to do so within the first few hours.
Personalize your follow-up
Use the lead’s name and any other information you have about them to make your follow-up more personal and relevant. For example, if you know the lead is interested in a particular product or service, mention that in your follow-up. Personalization helps show the lead that you’re interested in them and not just trying to make a sale.
Use multiple channels
Follow up with leads via email, phone, and social media to increase your chances of making contact. Some people prefer to be contacted via email, while others may prefer a phone call or a message on social media. By using multiple channels, you increase your chances of reaching the lead and making a connection.
Be persistent but not annoying
It’s important to follow up with leads, but you don’t want to be a nuisance. Strike a balance by following up a few times before giving up. For example, you might try following up via email and phone, and then give the lead a few days to respond. If you still haven’t heard back, try reaching out via social media. Just be sure to give the lead enough time to respond and avoid sending too many messages too close together.
Keep track of your follow-up efforts
Use a customer relationship management (CRM) system, like HubSpot, so you know when and how you have contacted a lead. This can help you avoid duplicating efforts or missing opportunities to follow up.
Follow up with a clear call to action
In your follow-up, make it clear what you want the lead to do next, whether it’s setting up a meeting, filling out a form, or making a purchase. By providing a clear next step, you make it easier for the lead to take action and move closer to becoming a customer.
Use automation
Use automated email campaigns and other tools to help you follow up with leads efficiently and effectively. Automation can help you reach out to leads at the right intervals, without requiring you to manually send each message. Just be sure to personalize the automated messages to make them more relevant to the lead.
By following these best practices, you can effectively follow up with leads and increase your chances of turning them into paying customers. However, it’s important to remember that each lead is unique, and you may need to adjust your follow-up approach based on the individual’s needs and preferences.
The key is to be proactive, personalized, and persistent, while also respecting boundaries and not being overly pushy. With the right approach, you can build strong relationships with leads and turn them into loyal customers.
If you are looking for assistance in building this approach within your business, reach out to SmarkLabs here.
Starting a new business can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to managing marketing and sales efforts. That’s where HubSpot comes in to help.
As a powerful all-in-one platform for marketing, sales, and customer service, HubSpot helps businesses of all sizes grow. And for startups, HubSpot offers a special pricing program to help get your business off the ground.
The HubSpot Startup Program
The HubSpot Startup Program is designed specifically for early-stage businesses that are looking to get a leg up in the competitive world of marketing and sales.
To qualify for the program, your startup must meet the following criteria:
Have less than $1M in annual revenue
Have received less than $1M in funding
Have fewer than 10 employees
Not be a reseller or consulting agency
If your startup meets these requirements, you can apply for the HubSpot Startup Program through the HubSpot website.
The application process is straightforward and typically involves providing some basic information about your startup, including your company name, website, and a description of your business.
Benefits of the HubSpot Startup Program
Once your application is approved, you’ll have access to the full suite of HubSpot tools at a discounted rate. This includes everything from marketing automation and email campaigns to sales tracking and customer service management. With the HubSpot Startup Program, you’ll have the resources you need to grow your business and reach your goals.
In addition to the discounted tools, one of the major benefits of the HubSpot Startup Program is the access it gives to a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and business professionals. Through the HubSpot user forum, you can connect with other startups and ask for advice, share best practices, and collaborate on projects. This community can be a valuable resource as you navigate the difficulties of starting and growing a business.
Conclusion
Overall, the HubSpot Startup Program is just one way that HubSpot helps businesses succeed. Whether you’re just starting out or well-established, there’s a HubSpot plan that’s right for you.
If you’re interested in learning more about the HubSpot Startup Program or any of the other products and services offered by HubSpot, reach out to SmarkLabs for more information.
I hope this blog post was helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions or need any additional information.
Inbound marketing automation is a strategy that helps businesses attract and convert leads through the use of digital marketing techniques. It involves creating valuable content, optimizing it for search engines, and promoting it through various channels in order to attract potential customers.
Once a lead is generated, automation tools are used to nurture the lead and guide them through the sales funnel until they are ready to make a decision. In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at inbound marketing automation and how it can benefit your business.
The Benefits of Inbound Marketing Automation
One of the key benefits of inbound marketing automation is that it allows businesses to target their marketing efforts more effectively. By creating targeted content that addresses the specific needs and pain points of their target audience, businesses can attract leads that are more likely to convert.
For example, if a business sells software for project management, they might create blog articles and ebooks that provide tips and best practices for project management, and promote these resources through social media and email marketing campaigns. This targeted approach helps businesses attract leads that are interested in their products or services, and are more likely to make a purchase.
Another advantage of inbound marketing automation is that it helps businesses save time and resources. By automating certain tasks, such as email marketing campaigns and lead nurturing, businesses free up time and resources that can be better spent on other tasks, such as creating new content or analyzing data.
Automation tools can also help businesses scale their marketing efforts more easily, as they can handle a larger volume of leads and customers without requiring additional time or resources.
In addition to saving time and resources, inbound marketing automation can also help businesses improve their lead conversion rates. A survey by Hubspot found that businesses that have a defined sales process and use marketing automation tools have a 53% higher conversion rate from marketing lead to sales lead compared to businesses that do not use marketing automation.
Businesses that have a defined sales process and use marketing automation tools have a 53% higher conversion rate
Hubspot
By using automation tools to nurture leads and guide them through the sales funnel, businesses can ensure that leads are receiving the right information at the right time, which can increase their likelihood of making a purchase.
Automation tools can also help businesses track and analyze the performance of their marketing efforts, allowing them to optimize their campaigns and improve their conversion rates over time.
The Sales Funnel and Inbound Marketing Automation
One of the keys to successful inbound marketing automation is having a well-defined sales funnel. A sales funnel is a series of steps that a lead goes through on their journey from becoming aware of a product or service to making a purchase. By creating a clear and concise sales funnel, businesses can more effectively guide leads through the process and increase their chances of making a sale.
Some common elements of a sales funnel include:
Awareness: At this stage, leads become aware of a product or service through content marketing, social media, or other forms of marketing.
Interest: Once a lead is aware of a product or service, they may become interested in learning more. This is achieved through lead magnets, such as ebooks or webinars, that provide more detailed information about the product or service.
Decision: After considering their options, leads may decide to request more information. This is facilitated through the use of calls-to-action, such as contact forms or purchase buttons, that make it easy for leads to take the next step.
Action: At this stage, the lead makes a purchase or becomes a customer.
By defining and optimizing each stage of the sales funnel, businesses can more effectively guide leads through the process and increase their chances of making a sale.
In conclusion, by saving time and resources, improving lead conversion rates, and defining a clear sales funnel, businesses can increase their chances of success with inbound marketing automation.
Creating a marketing budget for the year can be a daunting task, but it’s an essential part of any business’s planning process. A marketing budget helps you allocate resources effectively, track the performance of your campaigns, and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
Before you start putting together your marketing budget for 2023, there are a few things you should consider:
Your business goals: What are your goals for the year? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or boost sales? Your marketing budget should be aligned with your business goals, so make sure you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.
Your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your marketing efforts? Understanding your target audience will help you determine the most effective channels and tactics to use in your marketing campaigns.
Your budget: How much money do you have available to allocate to marketing? Having a realistic understanding of your budget is essential, as this will help you make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources.
Your past performance: What has worked well for your business in the past, and what hasn’t? Look back at your past marketing efforts and see what has been successful and what hasn’t. This will help you make informed decisions about where to allocate your budget in the future.
Your competition: One great thing about marketing is we often have direct access to view what our competition is doing. Competitive analysis is a strategy that involves researching similar competitors to gain insight into their products, sales, and marketing tactics. At SmarkLabs, we utilize SEMrush for our competitive analysis. By reviewing your competition’s marketing strategy, you can establish how their budget is utilized and compare it to your own practices.
Now that you understand your business goals, target audience, budget, and past performance, you can start putting together your marketing budget for 2023. Here are some steps to follow:
Determine your marketing mix: Your marketing mix is the combination of marketing channels and tactics you will use to reach your target audience. Some common channels include social media, email marketing, content marketing, and paid advertising. Decide which channels and tactics will be most effective for your business based on your target audience and business goals.
Allocate your budget: Once you have determined your marketing mix, it’s time to allocate your budget to each channel and tactic. Consider the costs associated with each channel and tactic, as well as their expected return on investment (ROI).
Set benchmarks: To track the performance of your marketing efforts, it’s important to set benchmarks. Determine what success looks like for each campaign, and set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, you might set a goal to increase traffic by 20% over the next quarter.
Track your progress: Regularly track the performance of your marketing efforts to ensure you are meeting your benchmarks. Use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic and conversions, and use social media analytics to track engagement on your social media channels.
Adjust your budget as needed: As you track the performance of your marketing efforts, you may find that some channels or tactics are performing better than others. If this is the case, consider adjusting your budget to allocate more resources to the channels and tactics that are producing the best results.
According to HubSpot, a looming recession has made budget cuts common. Nevertheless, they state that creating a comprehensive marketing budget is your silver bullet for avoiding these outcomes and executing your marketing strategy.
Preparing a budget allows you to plan more strategically. With a set plan, marketers can easily maintain track of the actual goals and responsibilities of their role.
Creating a marketing budget for the year can seem like a daunting task, but it’s an essential part of any business’s planning process. By considering your business goals, target audience, budget, and past performance, and by setting benchmarks and tracking your progress, you can effectively allocate your resources and create a successful marketing strategy for 2023.
Are you looking for new ways to expand your reach on LinkedIn that don’t involve a significant amount of time or financial resources?
LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Events, and LinkedIn Newsletters are worthy features to consider for promoting the content you already have.
Creator Mode
LinkedIn allows you to make a simple change to your profile, enabling you to access new capabilities. Creator mode is a profile setting on your dashboard that can help you grow your reach and influence on LinkedIn. By turning on creator mode, you can access additional tools and features that help you create content and grow your audience base on LinkedIn. A massive benefit to Creator mode is the ability to utilize creator analytics which provides aggregate analytics to show how your content portfolio performs over time. Creator mode allows you to use previously unavailable tools, such as LinkedIn Newsletter and LinkedIn Live.
LinkedIn Events
LinkedIn Events helps organizations deepen relationships with target audiences by bringing their professional community together via a closed and invitation-driven event on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Events can be utilized to reach many different goals. Some top content ideas that see the most success include community and brand-building events, conferences, targeted-audience events, and talent branding. As home to the world’s largest professional community, LinkedIn offers the features and ecosystem to make any event a success.
LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn Live helps organizations drive unprecedented reach and brand awareness by bringing their professional community together via a public and discoverable event on LinkedIn. The first step to utilizing these powerful tools is to apply for access. LinkedIn Live turns the challenge of digital events into opportunities to reach and engage with your audience more widely than ever before.
LinkedIn Events vs. LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn Events are the best option if your goal is to build a community through sustained quality engagement. LinkedIn Events can be planned weeks or months in advance, with opportunities to engage your audience before, during, and after your event. Your event’s unique URL can be shared through multiple channels, making LinkedIn Events an excellent option for reaching targeted audiences you want to engage with more deeply. LinkedIn Events live streams are private to attendees, and your attendee list is viewable.
LinkedIn Live by itself is a good option when striving to achieve top-of-funnel goals like brand awareness and reach. Your live broadcast is available to anyone on LinkedIn and will be aired publicly. Since your Page followers are most likely to view it, each broadcast triggers a notification to a subset of your followers. It is a best practice to stick with content topics that you know will appeal to your existing LinkedIn audience. When using LinkedIn Live on its own, you can engage with attendees during the event but cannot view the attendee list.
You can host events in a trusted, end-to-end environment by combining both tools. LinkedIn Live Events offer a safe environment that is a one-stop-shop for attendees. You will now be capable of engaging your audience before, during, and after your event with a product created for a low-friction, high-attendee experience.
LinkedIn Newsletter
By leveraging LinkedIn Newsletter, you can regularly discuss professional topics you’re passionate about. Other LinkedIn members can then subscribe to your newsletter and are notified about newly published articles, allowing you to build and grow your regularly engaged audience.
By starting a newsletter on LinkedIn, you can engage your audience from the minute you publish. LinkedIn makes it easy to invite all your connections or followers to subscribe when you create a newsletter. Also, after publishing each newsletter article, push, in-app, and email notifications are sent to all your subscribers to help drive views. You’ll get real-time feedback and comments from your readers, and you can understand how your content is doing with analytics.
Conclusion
With tools like LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Events, and LinkedIn Newsletters, you can expand your reach without adding a significant amount of new resources. Become a true LinkedIn Creator and share your content regularly within your professional community. Before you know it, you will be regarded as a business that can share expertise and ignite conversations about ideas and experiences.
Meet Heidi Williams, Marketing Enablement Specialist with SmarkLabs.
What is your role at SmarkLabs?
At SmarkLabs, I am a Marketing Enablement Specialist. I work directly with our customers to establish marketing plans while also ensuring they have the resources needed to succeed.
Why did you join SmarkLabs?
Joining SmarkLabs was a massive leap for me. I was working in a different industry, feeling unfulfilled, and wanted to do work that felt engaging. When I first met with the CEO, I could tell how much knowledge he held in the marketing world, which was really inspiring. I wanted to move forward because I knew that working here would be exciting as I love meeting new people and helping them, but I also knew that the knowledge I would gain would be priceless at this stage in my career.
What is your favorite part about working at SmarkLabs?
One thing I love about working at SmarkLabs is the emphasis on continued education. In my first few weeks with the company, I completed multiple certifications relevant to the scope of work I’ll be performing. I am also challenged to get out of my comfort zone and work on projects that involve things I have never done before.
What are the toughest challenges ahead that your industry faces?
One of the toughest challenges when working in an industry like Marketing, which is constantly changing, is differentiating your company from the crowd. As we learn more about marketing, other companies are also learning. Differentiating your marketing from others will become increasingly important and challenging as time goes on.
What do you like most about your industry?
I like that Marketing is consistently growing and evolving. Marketers are always looking for new ways to improve, and I find it exciting to work in an industry with a surplus of new information to learn.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
When I’m not working, I really enjoy baking and crafting. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I love to try new recipes. I like crafting with polymer clay, beads, and sewing/embroidering.
Did you know that approximately 42% of marketers still use spreadsheets for marketing attribution?
What is an Attribution Model?
Marketing attribution is the process of assigning credit for conversion to the various marketing channels that contributed to the sale. By understanding how different marketing activities contribute to conversions, businesses can optimize their marketing mix and budgets to better achieve their desired results.
Attribution modeling allows marketers to analyze how much credit each marketing channel and customer touchpoint should receive for a given conversion. A tool like HubSpot can make managing attribution even easier. Over time, marketers can utilize this approach to optimize their programs toward the touchpoints that drive the most value. These models focus on different touchpoints to better understand how the customer behaves when interacting with your marketing.
Why does Marketing Attribution matter?
Some of the different reasons that Marketing Attribution matters include:
Improved decision-making
Increased return on investment
Improved customer journey insights
When considering how these factors impact your organization, it is clear that they provide a reason to learn more about how to improve. With knowledge and the right tools, companies can get complete visibility into the online channels that drive leads and will no longer be in the dark regarding marketing attribution.
Improved decision-making
Understanding which marketing activities are most effective enables businesses to allocate their resources more efficiently. By mastering marketing attribution, you take the first step to move towards better utilizing strategic marketing and moving beyond tactical thinking. Having a clear plan allows your business to make informed decisions that create a positive impact and, in turn, generate more customers.
Increased ROI
Businesses can optimize their camp by attributing conversions to the touchpoints that played the most significant role in influencing a sale. Digital Marketing can help uncover the strategies and efforts that result in increased conversations and ROI.
Improved customer journey insights
By understanding how customers interact with your brand across different channels, you can better map out their potential customer journey. Marketing attribution can help you determine the specific content your potential customers like, the ways they like to communicate with your business, and the activity that officially converts them to becoming a customer.
What are some of the different types of Attribution Models?
Attribution models can primarily be separated into two categories: single-touch attribution and multi-touch attribution.
Single-Touch Attribution
Single-touch attribution models assign all of the credit to a single touchpoint. The selected touchpoint is usually the first or last touch. Other marketing touchpoints can easily be overlooked when using single-touch attribution, as only one touchpoint receives credit for the conversation. First touch attribution is awareness focused, while multi-touch attribution is conversion-focused.
First Touch Attribution
First touch attribution gives all the credit to the first interaction that led to the desired action or conversation. This specific model is easy to set up and track. It also helps demonstrate how a consumer is introduced to your brand.
Last Touch Attribution
Last touch attribution gives all the credit to the last interaction that led to a closed won exchange. This model can help you determine the touchpoint that influences the consumer at the end of their interaction.
Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution gives each contributing channel a portion of credit for the final conversation. These models are highly informative because they account for the entirety of the buyer journey and allow you to identify where you are having the most success.
Linear Attribution
Linear attribution looks at each interaction that a prospect had before the final conversation and gives equal credit to each interaction.
Full-path Attribution
Full-path attribution gives 22.5% of the credit to the first interaction, the interaction that created the contact, the interaction that created the deal, and the interaction that closed the deal. The remaining 10% is then evenly distributed across all other interactions.
Time Decay
Time decay gives more credit to the interactions that occur closer in the customer’s journey to the completed conversation. This model allows marketers to identify the touchpoints that have directly led to the conversation. The value of this model is based on where customers engage across the funnel instead of the impact the touchpoints had on the consumer.
How can utilizing Attribution Models benefit your business?
Utilizing attribution models allows you to identify the specific touches that are influencing your customer. By understanding the particular click that leads someone to interact with you, you can focus your efforts on bettering these practices.
There isn’t an attribution model that is considered superior to the others. That being said, different factors like buying cycles or business goals can make one model better than the other.
Which model is best for your business?
To determine which attribution model is best for your business, you need to identify the information you hope to gain. There is no shortage of attribution models to help aid your understanding of both consumer behavior and which touchpoints are the most impactful.
Combining multiple models is the best way to get the most thorough insight across the entire buyer’s journey. By implementing numerous models, you are utilizing your tools to the fullest degree to truly understand the activity that will drive your business toward success.
HubSpot is a powerful tool capable of handling nearly all of your sales and marketing needs. With the many different ways to set up your portal and customize it for your business needs, there comes an increasing need to automate everyday tasks and processes that eat away at your time.
Enter: HubSpot’s powerful workflow automations.
It’s important to note the difference between “workflows” and “sequences” in HubSpot. An easy way to remember the difference between the two: workflows are typically on the marketing side and sequences deal with one-to-one sales communications.
Both send emails. Workflows, however, are leveraged to do so much more for your sales and marketing team.
While it may seem like heavy lift in the beginning, the time saved is huge — along with the actual return on investment. In fact, marketing automation leads to a 14.5% increase in sales productivity!
Here I break down my top five most used HubSpot workflows I believe every business, no matter the size, should implement.
Basic Asset Delivery HubSpot Workflow Example
Regardless of which industry you’re in, it’s extremely likely you keep downloadable content on your website behind a form. While your form may redirect to a thank you page with a link to download the final asset, it’s best practice to also have a “thank you” email deliver that asset to their inbox, as well. This also offers you the opportunity to have a secondary call to action in the email.
Pro tip: if you’re having issues with leads putting in fake emails just to get to the thank you page and download the asset, have the asset delivered only by email.
The trigger for this workflow is the form submission. The action after it will be to send an automated email to the lead that:
Thanks them for downloading the asset
Provides a link to download the asset
Includes a secondary CTA (i.e. schedule a demo)
This workflow can also turn into a nurture workflow promoting more relevant or related content to the downloaded asset. To do this, set a delay after the first email — typically 3 business days — then send another email out to the lead. If your reps are actively working all leads, put in an “if/then” branch so all SQLs, lead status = open, etc. leads are withheld from the rest of the nurture workflow.
Lead Routing with Rotation
HubSpot Workflow Example
When a hot new prospect comes in, your whole team is most likely chomping at the bit fighting over the fresh inbound lead you worked so hard to generate. Unless you employ only one salesperson, your leads need to get evenly distributed throughout your team to keep things fair.
Please note: this rotation functionality will require you to have a Sales Hub Professional , Enterprise, Service Hub Professional, or Enterprise account.
This is easily handled by creating a simple workflow in HubSpot using the “rotate contact to owner” function. The easiest method to catch all sales-ready leads is to trigger the workflow lifecycle stage “Sales Qualified Lead.” A million different actions may contribute to a lead being considered an SQL, but for the purpose of this workflow example we assume you covered that already.
The next step is to put in the action to rotate the contact between the salespeople you choose. If the contact owner is known, keep the owner there, but have the workflow skip to the next step. Or overwrite the contact owner with the new owner. Choose specific salespeople to rotate leads between, or if teams are set up in HubSpot already, evenly rotate it between the team members.
With leads rotated between your sales team, next setup an alert to the new contact’s owner for immediate follow-up.
This can come in the form of:
Email
Task
Text message
Regardless of which you choose, make sure your sales team is constantly checking that channel for hot leads who they should follow up with.
Nurture Emails Based On Activity Other Than Form Submissions
While nurture email workflows after content downloads are essential, form submissions shouldn’t be the only trigger for these workflows. With HubSpot, put contacts who visit certain website pages into workflows.
HubSpot’s powerful insights allow you to trigger nurture workflows for known contacts based on specific website page visits. This is especially useful for high-intent pages like scheduling a demo or an ROI calculator that signals a lead is interested in your company.
Trigger these workflows by lead scoring. Lead scoring could be a 2,500-word blog on its own (and is on HubSpot!), but the gist of it is that you are able to assign positive and negative “scores” to actions contacts take in emails and on your website, as well as attributes from their data.
From there, you can set thresholds for when a lead is considered an MQL and an SQL. With this in mind, create various workflows triggered by specific page views, or a HubSpot lead score.
For example, if I want leads in a nurture workflow after visiting the “contact us” page but not submitting the form, I would set something up like this:
Or, if I want to trigger a nurture workflow based off of a variety of actions I scored in HubSpot’s lead scoring, my workflow can start once a contact reaches a score of X:
Pro tip: if you want your emails to only go out during the week, in your workflow go to settings → specific times and select the days/times it should execute.
Inactive Contact HubSpot Workflow Example
Leads inevitably get lost in the day-to-day operations of your business, so it’s important to establish processes to catch them and bring them back into the fold. A workflow for inactive contacts is extremely beneficial for both the marketing and sales sides.
For sales, qualified leads handed off to them can sometimes stall out or other leads take priority. When this happens, reps sometimes put them on the back burner or forget about them entirely. Those are already qualified leads that could be easy pickings for new business!
To alert your reps to follow up with these forgotten leads, create a workflow like the one below:
Feel free to put your own timeframe in the second criteria. With this workflow, reps will always be alerted of leads once qualified but fell through the cracks for some reason. If they find out the lead is no longer sales-ready, revert the lifecycle stage back to an MQL so the lead can continue getting nurtured.
On the marketing side, contacts not engaged with your website or marketing emails can be warmed back up. A good way to do this is with a “special” offer for just those unengaged contacts. This could be a special e-book (or one that’s not behind a form), a discount, or whatever offer you think of that would entice your audience.
From here, you just set the criteria on what you deem as “unengaged” such as:
Length of time since last website visit
Length of time since last email open/click
Last form submission
Then, set your automated email nurture to go out. This is very similar to the other nurture workflow I covered earlier, but the trigger criteria and content of the emails are much different.
New Customer Welcome
HubSpot Workflow Example
Hopefully, you are at (or soon will be!) a point where you’re onboarding so many new customers that manually completing all of the actions is overwhelming. This is the perfect opportunity to create a workflow to trigger when a contact’s lifecycle is changed to “Customer.”
From here, schedule a number of actions such as:
Adding the contacts to a running list of “customers” that can be used to send company/product updates to
Changing the contact owner from the sales rep to a customer service/success employee
Starting the contact off in a “New Customer” onboarding/welcome email
Setting the lead status to “Closed”
This workflow is very simple to set up and is invaluable as it pushes you to think through exactly what you want the journey to look like for new customers, as well as keeping it consistent for everyone.
These are the top five HubSpot workflow examples we use all the time with our clients and see the best results. Questions setting up your own version? Or have a new one in mind that you just can’t quite figure out? Reach out and we’d be happy to help!
SmarkLabs is a Gold HubSpot partner – We’re just the experts you need to get your HubSpot portal operating at peak efficiency. Let us help you create and execute a full-funnel marketing strategy that pushes your business to the next level.
When searching for a digital marketing agency to partner with, there are two agency models to understand and consider depending on the needs of your company. Integrated marketing agencies are an appealing option for businesses looking for comprehensive services and a streamlined approach. Conversely, tactic-specific agencies focus on one marketing modality, such as paid advertising or search engine optimization (SEO), which is another option for companies looking for support.
Throughout this article, we discuss both approaches more in-depth so you’re equipped to make the right decision for your company.
Let’s dive in.
Integrated Marketing Approach
An integrated marketing agency uses multi-channel targeting strategies with the same or similar messaging. Often this means the agency brings together various components of a successful inbound strategy combined with outbound strategies. This may include creating blog content, email campaigns, social media management, and paid ad campaigns.
An integrated marketing agency is a great option if you are looking for a marketing hub capable of handling your strategy and execution. It is a holistic approach that looks at your entire business and the potential impact of the different marketing methods and channels on the overall success of your business. An integrated marketing agency makes recommendations based on the most appropriate strategies for your industry and the stage of your business.
When a company is just starting out, it may be hard to know what kind of marketing expertise you need. An integrated marketing agency can provide all the expertise needed in one location, so you don’t have to stress about integrating the different methods into a strategy on your own. This decreases the overall cost and eliminates the inefficiency of employing a separate firm for each type of service.
Effective digital strategies require multiple channels working together synergistically. An integrative marketing agency makes it easier for companies to achieve their objectives with a single point of contact versus managing several different vendors responsible for different aspects of their marketing strategy. For marketers who want to bring multiple aspects of their campaign strategy under one roof, integrated marketing agencies are an all-inclusive solution that covers everything from content creation, promotion, and distribution.
With a thorough understanding of integrated marketing agencies, it’s time to discuss the tactic-specific approach.
Tactic-Specific Approach
As you advance your marketing maturity and budget, tactic-focused agencies can be useful when you need to go deep in a specific marketing channel. For example, you might reach the point where you consider hiring a dedicated PR firm who is exclusively focused on your industry. If your organization has a dedicated in-house team capable of managing multiple marketing channels, and you have the time and budget to coordinate multiple vendor relationships, then a tactic-specific approach may be an effective strategy for your business. This is a big reason why you see enterprise brands using multiple agencies in addition to their in-house staff to fulfill their marketing needs.
You may notice some correlations to the saying– when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail– if you choose to work with a tactic-specific agency. Tactic-specific agencies can help advise on a single marketing channel but it’s unlikely they can advise on which marketing channels would be the most effective for your business. Their recommendations will be specific to the services they offer, no matter how relevant the services are to your business. This comes at the expense of neglecting to recommend other strategies with the potential for greater business impact.
Working with Integrated Marketing Agencies
When working with an integrated marketing agency, know that you may need multiple marketing tactics to accomplish your goals. For example, if you are looking for more leads and sales, choose an agency that specializes in inbound marketing methodology, as well as paid advertising. If you need help with brand awareness or building community engagement, look to partner with a marketing agency specializing in social media management and public relations.
Choose What Makes Sense for Your Business
There are many ways to market your business depending on your timeline, budget, and goals. Hiring a full-service integrated marketing agency is the easiest way to get your marketing strategy and execution taken care of seamlessly through one vendor.
If you have a strong in-house marketing team who only needs assistance in a single area or is able to juggle multiple vendor relationships, you may find the tactic-specific model works best for your needs.
Start creating your marketing plan by outlining what you hope to achieve and defining how much money and resources you can allocate towards it. Then compare your goals to the unique offerings that integrated marketing agencies and tactic-specific agencies offer. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency capable of handling all things strategy through execution, SmarkLabs does it all.
Legend Power Systems is a publicly-traded company with a technology solution that uniquely solves a 100 billion dollar problem in annual waste and risk for commercial buildings. Their intelligent technology sits at the center of the modern commercial building.
The Legend Power team began looking for a way to help their partners market, sell, and provide service to their clients most effectively. A new web portal would provide a unique opportunity in their market for partners to capitalize on the success of Legend’s technology solutions.
Challenges
Legend Power leadership began defining new processes and resources to best support their partners. The portal they envisioned would provide new and existing partners access to the latest training, marketing, and product resources. The portal would also need to facilitate an efficient and engaging experience.
Partner management software may have satisfied some aspects they desired, but it would lack customizable features and a fully-branded experience.
As with many new initiatives, technology was just one piece of the puzzle. The Legend Power team wanted to ensure their strategy and implementation processes would best facilitate success for their partners. They engaged SmarkLabs for guidance on defining goals, finding the best solution, and developing an ongoing strategy.
Solutions
SmarkLabs collaborated with Legend Power and assisted in the development of their partner program goals, strategy, and completion of their custom portal build over a three-month period.
First release highlights:
User login and profile functionality with permission-based access to relevant resources.
Organized content management system to populate and update resources
Deal registration automation with connectivity to HubSpot
Fully branded for Legend Power
Custom lead generation app to grade power quality
Results
The adoption of this program by Legend Power’s channel partners was above 90% shortly after its launch.
The overall build was a successful collaboration that required Legend Power and Smarklabs teams to work closely through the organization of content, as many processes continued to be defined alongside the build.
This portal now serves as a key differentiator for prospective partners evaluating new products to resell, as it is a first of its kind in the industry.
Thanks to this collaborative partnership, Legend Power continues to invest in the development of additional portal features that enable the success of its partners.
