Convince the C-Suite You Need Help with HubSpot

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You convinced your boss that inbound marketing is the way to go, and even got her to agree to signing up with HubSpot, the content management and marketing automation firm that revolutionized the approach.

But now it’s time to put that strategy into action. And you are running into the same major challenges every marketer faces:

A need for a high volume of high quality content; and
A lack of human resources to create and implement that content.

Hiring new staff is time-consuming and the costs go beyond salaries to benefits, overhead for equipment and office space, training expenses and more. For more and more marketing departments, the solution is to partner with a marketing agency already well-versed in HubSpot and content development.

Of course, not all CEOs and CFOs are going to see a need to allocate more funds for you to bring an agency on board (“Isn’t that what you have a staff for?” they’ll ask). If you need some backup in convincing the executive suite that it makes sense to hire a HubSpot-certified partner agency to maximize your inbound marketing and HubSpot investment, here are a few things you should make sure they understand.

1. Inbound marketing requires content.

A lot of content. High quality content. Brand- and campaign-focused content.

While HubSpot’s platform can transform the way you capture and nurture leads, manage content on your website, and coordinate your social media outreach, it is the content you use within HubSpot that increases traffic, captures leads and converts leads into sales.

One blog post a week and random reports, case studies or ebooks can’t create enough momentum to justify a HubSpot investment. But when you commit to creating and steady supply of content, the results are impressive.

Companies who blog 16 times a month (that’s just 4 posts a week) see 4.5 times as many leads as those who publish four or fewer blog posts each month.

Companies with 30 or more landing pages (where prospects complete a form to access an offer such as a webinar, case study, template, or free trial) generate 7 times more leads than those with fewer than 10 landing pages.

Creating the appropriate amount of content pays off.

But it also takes time. Here’s a look at how much time you should budget for content creation. (And it’s pretty conservative; you may want to consider incorporating longer, more in-depth blog posts that will take considerably more time to research and write, along with additional offers and content, such as videos, templates or calculators.)

Convince the C-Suite You Need Help with HubSpot

2. Learning the ropes in HubSpot’s platform takes time.

How many automation tools are you currently using? More than third of marketers are already using between six and ten different technologies and tools. HubSpot adds another layer of automation to the bunch (though, in reality, it may be able to replace a few of the tools you are already using and bring multiple functions together on a single dashboard).

As with any new technology, it will take time for your staff to learn the basics, and even longer to become completely comfortable and proficient with all of the functions HubSpot can provide. In fact, HubSpot says it typically takes three months for a new user to really get the swing of things.

If you don’t have three months to spare for before you need to launch, working with a certified partner agency can provide your team with instant know-how, plus a mentor to help coach them through the start-up phases. That means you can start your inbound marketing efforts as soon as you sign on with HubSpot, rather than delaying your actual launch until your own staff can go through the training.

And when your team is ready to take over, you can adjust your contract with the agency to reduce their responsibility for managing the backend of HubSpot’s software.

3. Hiring new people is time-consuming, expensive, and requires a commitment.

Even if your boss is open to new hires in your marketing department, an agency offers many things that hiring one, or even two, new staff in-house can’t.

First, while the additional hours involved in creating and managing content for a HubSpot-powered inbound marketing campaign may equate to roughly one or two FTEs, the skills are not all likely to be found in a single candidate. There aren’t many job candidates who can both write great copy and create the graphic designs and artwork that accompany that copy in your case studies and white papers. Data analysis requires a different skill set than writing lead nurturing emails.

Contracting with an agency gives you access to all of the necessary skill sets, in just the amount of time you need. You aren’t hiring a full-time writer when you may only need those services for 20 hours a week.

While hammering out the details of a contract with a partner agency will take time, hiring takes even longer. Fewer than half of jobs are filled within 30 days, and of those jobs that do take more than 30 days to fill, 57 percent will take at least 3 months. (Source)

Are you really going to wait 3 months to get started?

With an agency you also get more flexibility—contracts can be expanded or reduced to match your needs as they change. If you need more assistance in the beginning to get started, but less once your team is trained on HubSpot’s platform, that is easy to write into a contract. And when you find yourself in need of more help down the road, due to staff turnover or expansion of campaigns, your agency can step up the fill in the gaps.

Working with a HubSpot-certified partner agency improves inbound marketing results.

According to HubSpot, their clients who work with a certified partner agency typically see 17 percent greater results than those who go it alone.

Why? Because HubSpot only certifies partner agencies that have shown their proficiency in inbound marketing and in managing HubSpot’s platform.

And because working with an agency expands access to the full set of needed skills:

Branding and strategy development
Content creation (writing, video production, graphic design)
Content promotion and distribution
Website design and coding
HubSpot and marketing automation expertise
Data analysis

If you are convinced that a partner agency is the best way to resource the content creation and additional tasks involved in launching or maintaining your inbound marketing strategy with HubSpot, but your boss still questions it, try taking our ready-to-personalize presentation to your next meeting. We’ve provided the talking points; all you need to do is fill in a few spaces with your specific company information to show your boss “Why We Need an Agency Partner to Maximize Our HubSpot Investment”.

You’ll find additional HubSpot-specific resources here: