The Agency Growth Blog - For Owners Who Want Growth

I hate to say it, but I believe it’s true. Most of the services now provided by digital agencies are commodities.

Don’t get me wrong, there are strong digital experience and digital transformation agencies working with Fortune 1000 companies who have effectively positioned their companies to drive significant value for high dollars, but most agencies are not in that space.

Almost every agency (at least at the top of the HubSpot partner network) have decided to low ball their retainers to win business, come in with small projects or start with training and that has caused everyone to be viewed as having similar services. In those circumstances history has shown we’re now selling a commodity where lowest price generally wins the business.

I like sharing with all of you what I learn by working with all of you. Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more about agencies leaning away from inbound marketing. Some are leaving it all together and going back to what they did before inbound marketing became so popular. Other are weaving inbound marketing services in and around traditional digital services.

What’s going on? What do you do about it? Do you even need to worry about it? Of course you do. What’s going on in the community of inbound marketing agencies and the boarder digital agency community affects us all. More importantly, you need to be able to adjust your own strategy accordingly and if necessary. So, what are you? Inbound? Digital? Or Both?

We’re all marketers. Smart marketers know if your agency isn’t remarkable it’s invisible. That’s what we tell our clients right? So what makes your inbound marketing agency remarkable? Even I’ve been challenged over the past few weeks to know what makes Square 2 Marketing remarkable.

If you’re not looking in the mirror and asking yourself this question, you’re going to be in for a surprise when you lose that prospect to another agency for a lower retainer. Why should they pick you? Why should they pay more for your retainer than for some other agency’s retainer? If you don’t know the answer—you can be sure your prospects won’t either.

Over the past year, I’ve worked with over 60 agency owners and spoke to more than 200 people who have agencies with inbound in the name. Unfortunately, there are still a ton of agencies who are pretending to be inbound agencies, when in reality they're still doing what they’ve always done.

I know moving from web design, development, SEO, PR, branding, email marketing or video to inbound marketing is a big change. I know it requires sacrifice, investment of both time and money, clients need to be fired, team members trained—it’s a ton of work.

So let’s get introspective and look at our agencies honestly and decide are we an inbound agency or just pretending to be one?

You went to Inbound15 this year and you’ve returned to your office all full of vim and vigor. You’re finally ready to do it.

You’re ready to go ALL IN on inbound and transform your entire agency into something that one day can be a Diamond Partner for HubSpot.

You wake up Monday, look in the mirror and say to yourself, “now what?” “I don’t have the faintest idea how to start taking my company from (a ___________ agency--fill in the blank) to being a full inbound agency that’s ready to compete with New Breed, Impact, Kuno and Square 2 Marketing.”

Here’s some good news. You don’t have to compete with any of these companies. You just have to get out of your own way.

I’ve been in meetings where the team is looking at you like you’re crazy. No advertising, no direct mail, no trade shows, no banner ads—are you nuts Mike? I’ve had people say to me, “but some clients who really need advertising, we’ll still be able to do it for them right?”

No! We’re an inbound agency and we’re going to get good at using inbound tactics to get clients all the leads they need!

That has to be your answer. Once you get your own head around where the world is going and how your agency needs to position itself to take advantage of that shift in thinking, then you need to start (and start soon) to get everyone on the same page.

Vision. Mission and Values Helps You Match Strategy To Hiring

So you’ve decided you want to grow your inbound marketing agency and you’re ready to hire. But are you really ready to hire? Do you have a solid growth strategy in place? Can you articulate your mission, vision and core values for your agency? Do you want to be a ten person, 20 person or 100 person agency? Are you ALL IN on inbound or planning to simply add inbound services to your list of other services?

It’s going to be very challenging hiring if you don’t have these questions locked down in your mind and in the mind of your team members, partners and outside advisors.