You’ve probably realized the importance of inbound marketing by now, but the problem is making it work for you without having to spend extra time on it and seeking employee volunteers. If you’ve been trying to implement inbound marketing without new hires or the help of a marketing agency, then you’re likely frazzled at work. Although paying an inbound marketing agency is another upfront expense, it will save your business money overall.
1. It Frees Up Your Time To Focus On Other Areas
Do you personally handle some of your business’s marketing? Do you ask employees to help with inbound marketing too? It might not seem like a big deal to ask for volunteers to write content for your website, but what’s the opportunity cost of that employee writing a blog post? They could probably do another task for your business in line with their field of expertise. Changing their focus to squeezing in a marketing task can hurt their productivity as well. Therefore, hiring an inbound marketing agency indirectly saves you money in this regard. Your employees will have greater focus on what they do best, so that they can deliver better results.
If you’re the owner of the business, you’re likely better equipped at closing deals than you are generating leads. Anyone who’s every closed a deal knows that selling takes focus, a ton of time and a deep expertise of your industry and business. Working with an agency let’s you focus on more on the part of the funnel you know best.
2. It’s Usually Cheaper than Hiring a New Employee
Paying an inbound marketing agency is often cheaper than hiring a new employee. At first thought, it may seem like adding a new employee is cheaper than paying an outside agency, but when you look at all of the costs of hiring a new employee you’ll see that’s not the case. A new employee costs more than his salary. Other expenses of a new employee include benefits, the interview process, training, and employee perks. When you work with an inbound marketing agency, you don’t have to consider all of those extra costs.
3. Most Inbound Marketing Agencies Offer Fixed Rates
Another great benefit of hiring an inbound marketing agency is most agencies bundle their services into inbound marketing plans at a fixed monthly rate. You will know exactly what services you will receive each month and at what price. Having a set amount to pay each month on inbound marketing helps stabilize your marketing budget because you already know what expenses to expect for your inbound marketing. The cost of an employee changes when the cost of benefits rises. Additionally, employees expect raises after working for the company so long.
4. You’ll Gain Access to the Latest Technology and Software
Many inbound marketing agencies use high quality software and inbound marketing tools to help them correctly serve their clients. By hiring an inbound marketing agency, you’ll save money you would have otherwise spent on inbound marketing tools and software. You will also have access to these tools in some cases if the agency installs analytics on your website or adds you to their subscription.
5. You’ll Get Expert Guidance
If you don’t have any inbound marketing experts on your team, then you are probably wasting money in some way without realizing it. For example, if you have a PPC marketing campaign, you may be spending money on a keyword that should be cut from the campaign because it’s not driving profit. That’s a common mistake people who are new to PPC marketing make. Someone with experience in PPC will know where ad spend can be eliminated and when to increase spending on a particular keyword that has a high ROI.
Agencies have the benefit of having seen both the best and the worst marketing examples working with a wide range of clients. You’ll benefit from this as they’ve already done the heavy lifting and figured out the most effective and efficient ways to grow traffic and fill your pipeline with more leads, without making rookie mistakes.
6. Inbound Provides A High ROI
Whether you chose to work with an agency, build an in-house team, or do it yourself – inbound marketing should be seen as more of an investment than a cost. Inbound marketing typically provides leads at a lower cost-per-acquisition than traditional outbound methods, and even a small incremental improvement in traffic and conversion rate can have a major impact on your bottom line. Even if an agencies price seems expensive at first, you need to think about the long term benefits of what they are bringing to the table. You can use our Inbound ROI Calculator to see exactly what this might look like for your own business.
Conclusion
If you’ve been taking on tasks for your inbound marketing and delegating to employees who have different primary responsibilities, it’s time to either hire an inbound marketing agency or an employee who is an expert in inbound marketing. Usually, paying an inbound marketing company will be the less expensive option while still providing the same benefits of inbound marketing. An inbound marketing agency will allow your employees to focus on their areas of expertise, thus decreasing their stress and boosting their productivity.
