Inbound Marketing as a Tool for Agency Business

In this session of The Smart Agency Masterclass, I chat with Max Traylor, director of client services for Innovative Marketing Resources, an inbound marketing agency. Max tells us how he got started in inbound marketing and explains how it can be an amazingly profitable tool for your business.

Max's ah-ha moment.

The concept of growing your business by providing valuable information has been around a long time. "I remember my father and grandfather doing it as part of their businesses," Max recalls. Inbound marketing is based on the same concept, just with different technology.

Take a look at the money you're spending on marketing. Is it generating business for you? If not, you need to look into inbound marketing.

But why would I give it away for free?

It does seem counterintuitive. Why would you just give away your knowledge? It really does work; all you need is that first little win. Max remembers his ah-ha moment as being life-changing.

[quote]Someone calling you saying, 'The reason I'm calling you is because of the white paper you posted' is an amazing feeling.[/quote]

The blog post that started it all.

The first thing Max gave away was in the form of a blog post about inbound marketing and its process. He gave the post to a client he was doing some web design for, and the client immediately saw value in his words. Max was hired on the spot for inbound marketing. (This was before he even had an inbound marketing business!)

Shift priorities and make time.

We're all busy. At times it even feels like we're too busy to do anything else. To Max, this lack of time to focus on things is actually confusion about your goals. He says as soon as you get specific about what you're targeting, everything will open up. "Start with a goal to shift your priorities and suddenly you'll find you have the time to make it happen."

Pro Tip: Have a bunch of ideas hit you when you're out and about? Use the recording function on your phone to make sure you don't lose them.

Now that your priorities have shifted, you can start to get a better vision of where you're going. With that better vision, you can become laser-focused on a specific audience.

"Everyone wants to feel special. People want to feel like a particular piece of content was made just for them."

How do you give them that special feeling? You have to discover what's motivating them. Why are they coming to your website? Are they just browsing for helpful information or are they looking for something immediately? Learning about your audience is what helps you provide the right information.

You don't want to give them too much information though. "If they don't need the information to make a purchasing decision, then you don't need to provide that information."

The three emails.

Max does email nurturing in three parts.

1. First there's the email that builds trust. You're helping them understand their problem.
2. Next, you email them some solutions.
3. Then you provide them with information to make a decision.

Email nurturing is all about helping the client get unstuck. You're giving the information to get them to the next step.

Become a Better Agency Owner

When you have improved your inbound marketing strategy and process, it's time to look at what other improvements you need to become a better agency owner.

By taking a step back, you can look at the bigger picture of your agency and focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles.

I have advice to share with you from how to increase conversions on your website, ways to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy, why building authority to improve your agency is important and the best way to pitch to big brand clients. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers.

You can learn more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, did you know I have a Youtube channel?

Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.