Is Your Blog Hurting Your Inbound Marketing Agency?

You undoubtedly know that blogging is one of the most important components in a successful inbound marketing strategy. You've almost certainly read HubSpot's Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000+ Businesses and seen the data that quantifies just exactly how critical regular blogging is. And, I'm willing to bet that you're quoting those statistics and selling those concepts to your clients on a regular basis.

You know that businesses that blog 15 times or more per month see five times as much traffic as those without blogs.

Are you blogging 15 times per month?

Okay, every other day is a big investment, and chances are that you aren't even pushing most of your clients to ramp up to that level. Resources are limited and you have to balance blogging with the other elements in your marketing plan.

You know that a small increase can have a big impact: going from 3-5 posts per month to 6-8 posts per month nearly doubles leads.

Do you make a point of posting to your blog 6-8 times per month?

That's less than two posts per week--very manageable from both a reader perspective and a production standpoint. And, it significantly increases contact from prospects.

Blogging just once or twice a month means about 70% more leads than companies without blogs.

One or two quality blog posts per month represents an investment of just a few hours. Yet, I see marketing agency blogs every day that haven't been updated in several weeks (or even months).

You're busy. You have a lot of people to answer to. You're juggling competing priorities.

I know.

What would you tell a client?

And that question is the key to how your blog may be hurting your inbound marketing business. You understand the importance of blogging. You know the impact regular blogging has on inbound marketing ROI. You must convince your clients to blog, or to let you blog on their behalf, if you want to see the kind of returns that convince those clients of your value. And, that's going to be a hard sell when they find out that you don't invest in your own blog.

Why Marketing for Marketers?

Since I started focusing in this niche, many friends and colleagues have asked me why I wanted to write marketing content for marketing agencies. I quickly noticed, though, that none of those inquiries came from marketing professionals. If you're running an inbound marketing agency, you probably know exactly how I ended up tailoring my services for people like you.

When I first started picking up agency work to fill the occasional gap between regular clients, I expected that work to be contracted client work. Much to my surprise, more than half of the agency assignments I received involved content for the agencies' own websites, blogs and premium content offerings.

Why Inbound Marketers Don't Use Inbound Marketing

At first, that didn't make sense: obviously, an inbound marketing agency would know how to create effective blog content, optimize a web page or put together a case study. And, it's impossible to participate in the marketing world today without understanding the importance of inbound marketing. But, as I looked at one small inbound marketing agency's website after another, I saw neglect: blogs that hadn't been updated in months, few or no premium content offers, even a lack of conversion opportunities.

Slowly, it dawned on me what was happening. Like most other small business owners, those marketing professionals were wearing too many hats. They had to prioritize client work and they had to manage their contractors and order office supplies and update the books, and marketing their own services just couldn't make its way to the top of the list.

Your Marketing Agency's Marketing is at the Top of My List

Just as you're prioritizing client work over your own marketing efforts, your favorite television show and sometimes even sleep, I'm prioritizing YOUR work. And, just as your clients can rely on your expertise, you can rely on mine: I have more than a decade of experience in the strategies now known as "inbound marketing," and have been writing content for more than twenty years.

I used web content and online forums to promote professional services and consumer goods before social networks as we know them today existed, and closely monitor trends in SEO, social media marketing and other aspects of inbound marketing. In short, I have the expertise you need to demonstrate to your clients through your marketing materials, and can adapt to a wide range of niches.

Ready to stop stressing over when you're going to find time to update your blog? Tired of worrying about what your prospects will think when they notice that you don't have any of those premium offers you're pitching to them?

I can help.  TALK TO ME

Should Inbound Marketing Prospects Trust You?

Not so long ago, social media marketing burst onto the scene and many businesses were scrambling for help. The rush of blog posts, webinars, conferences and other information told them that they must have a social media marketing strategy if they wanted to remain competitive, but they didn't know how to do it.

Overnight, the business world became populated with "social networking experts" and "social media gurus," all lined up to offer advice, manage social media campaigns and collect their checks.

However, it quickly became clear that it wasn't so easy to tell the true experts from the self-proclaimed gurus who were really little more than opportunists. Paradoxical rules of thumb like, "If someone calls herself a social media expert, she's not one," emerged. Because most of the thoughts about what truly made a social media expert were coming from alleged social media experts, it was very difficult for businesses without social media knowledge to determine which experts they could trust. Many got burned.

Then, it turned out that social media marketing was actually just one aspect of a larger concept known as "inbound marketing".  A rush of blog posts, webinars, conferences and other information told businesses that they must integrate inbound marketing into their marketing plans if they wanted to remain competitive. But, they didn't know how to do it.

Overnight, inbound marketing agencies sprang up around the country, populating the web like mushrooms after a hard rain. And, just like those social media marketing clients before them, businesses don't know how to determine which agencies really have the knowledge, which they should listen to, and which are opportunists who know little more than the company's own marketing director.

For the true inbound marketing expert, this creates an opportunity, not an obstacle. Being able to back up your claims can quickly separate you from the pack. But, you must be conscious of the pretenders in your midst and the fact that so many of those statistics you're bandying about are coming at your prospects from all directions. Instead of just telling them inbound marketing success stories, start telling them YOUR inbound marketing success stories--just like you'd tell a client to do.

Image courtesy of xedos4 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Inbound Marketing Agencies: Lead by Example

You're in the inbound marketing business, so you know all the stats. You know that regular blogging dramatically increases website traffic and the number of leads a company receives. You know that premium content offers provide an incentive for visitors to give a business their contact information, allowing the marketing department to score those leads and move the valid ones down into the sales funnel.

You preach these statistics every day.

When was the last time you posted on your blog?

If you answered, "Yesterday," that's great news.  If the reason you blogged yesterday is that you have a blogging schedule and make sure to post regular content, that's even better. But, if those things are true, you're in the minority.

Marketing is a Crazy Business

You're busy. And, when time is limited, you have to prioritize client work over your own website, blogging and other marketing work. But when that happens, you're not just missing an opportunity to promote your business. You're telling your clients and your prospective clients that you don't really believe in those statistics you're spouting, that you don't actually think a strong website with up-to-date content and an active blog is important to running a successful business.

You must put your practices where your preaching is, implementing the strategies that you're pitching to your clients as necessities, or you can't possibly expect them to take you seriously when you tell them those same activities are critical for their business success.