Transcript
Page 1: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

HUBSPOT HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Page 2: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

About the Author

Andrea is a marketing funnel optimisation specialist at HubSpot, Dublin.

She is a member of the international marketing team, where she manages

email marketing and lead nurture workflows, as well as list segmentation

and improved targeting. Her data-driven testing informs the team’s strategic

decisions and contributes to improving the number of leads generated and the

quality of those leads.

@andydidwhat

Page 3: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

Chapter 1: Dangerous Liaisons: Choosing the wrong clients 4 Stories from Bryan Adams (PH Creative) and Patrick Armitage (BlogMutt)

Chapter 2: Creepy Scope: When projects go beyond the original timetable 7 Stories from Ed Marsh (Consilium Global Business) and Emma Jones (Katapult)

Chapter 3: Watch Your Back! The importance of having a backup plan 10 Stories from Sarah McIntyre (Bright Inbound Marketing), Alistair Norman (Tomorrow People) and Pau Valdés (InboundCycle)

Chapter 4: Falling Behind... Keeping up with industry changes 14 Stories from Matt Hodkinson (Influence Agents) and James Welch (Online Ventures Group)

Chapter 5: Strategy Tragedy: When strategies fall apart 17 Stories from David Bowler (Incisive Edge) and Ricardo Molina (Brightbull)

Chapter 6: Client Catastrophes: When clients get in the way 20 Stories from Bernie Borges (Find and Convert), James Cox (Tracepoint) and Chuck Malcomson (Screwpile)

*BONUS* Email Wails! - classic email fail contributions Kelly Kranz (OverGo Studio) 7 Roberto Moragón (INCRENTA) 12 Guy Levine (Return on Digital) 18 Jeremy Knight (Equinet Media) 23 Laura Hogan (OverGo Studio) 28

...and a special submission from Klaas Klunders (Marketing Penguin) 34

Table of Terrifying Content

Page 4: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

1DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Page 5: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

5It pains me to remember this client -- on the outside they

appeared to be a great match, but in reality, it was an evil

pairing. So we began to work together, and despite the amazing

results we were achieving for them, it was never enough.

Time after time we would display exemplary results – and it was

never satisfactory. Regardless of what results we got for them

on a monthly basis, they wanted more. They wanted to know

why it wasn’t better, how we could improve the next month and

how we could compensate them for any lost opportunities. It

was insanity. They had no grasp of reality. Our team were close

to killing themselves during the work and it took months for us

to recover our morale even after I had stepped in and delicately

moved them on to another agency

Today at PH Creative, we have a firm rule which arose from

too many similar experiences like this with nightmare clients.

In order to work with us, a client must provide two out of

three of the following criteria: fame, fortune or fun. It’s just not

negotiable.

Avoid this Nightmare

Always ensure the scope of work and the boundaries of the

deliverables are set in stone along with setting client expectations

firmly in reality… Under promise, over deliver and don’t be afraid

to fire clients if they become too demanding and will not up their

budget to compensate for the loss of sanity.

Bryan Adams

PH CREATIVE

@PHCREATIVE

A BOTTOMLESS PIT OF DISSATISFACTION

“Under promise, over deliver and don’t be afraid to fire clients if they become too demanding and will not up their budget to compensate for the loss of sanity.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 6: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

6In a previous life, I worked at an agency commissioned to develop

an e-commerce website for a client. Awesome, except for one

terrifying problem: I never developed, nor did our agency ever

develop, an e-commerce site before! We were experiencing the

agency equivalent of the “bus jump” scene in “Speed”. I was

Sandra Bullock, blowing by warning signs, gas pedal floored,

white-knuckling it, trying to jump our collective knowledge gap in

e-commerce while the rest of the agency braced for impact.

That knowledge gap was the need to sync tax tables, shipping

and handling fees, bundled pricing, fulfillment, backend CRM

integration, accessorising and check-out capabilities in one

seamless customer experience. Over the course of the project,

we went through three programmers, our client quit, and we went

tens of thousands of dollars over budget doing whatever it took to

deliver a functioning website held together by spit and duct tape.

And just like in “Speed,” we successfully jumped the gap but not

without extensive damage wrought on office morale, our bottom

line, and the relationship with the client.

Avoid this Nightmare

This mistake could’ve been avoided if we stayed true to our

expertise and played to our strengths. Our agency did great

branding, messaging and design work. Our web development

capabilities were serviceable but not nearly at the level our

client required. Everyone knew it. But we got greedy and fooled

ourselves. Going dramatically over budget wasn’t the only pain

we felt. Nerves were frayed. Other client work suffered, and our

team’s collective confidence took a hit.

Patrick Armitage

BLOGMUTT

@PAT_ARMITAGE

JUMPING FROM A SPEEDING BUS

“Agencies that say they’re a “jack of all trades” are a master of none. Sometimes saying “no” is more profitable than saying “yes”.

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 7: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

7

With great intentions of making life easier for one of our

clients, we set up a lead nurture email workflow for their

new web leads. However, we did this without asking if

that was how their sales process worked – a hazardous

mistake. We simply assumed this was something that

they’d want. As you can probably guess, this was

absolutely not what the client wanted and they almost

fired us immediately – a gruesome end. As it turned out,

the client’s process was to follow up personally with each

lead – and between getting our nurture emails and the

client’s personal emails, these leads were getting very

confused, sending the client into a fit of rage with us and

we were terrified we were going to lose their business.

Thankfully, we were able to talk them around by begging

for mercy!

Avoid this Nightmare

Simple; Smarketing. If we knew that our client’s sales

process was to follow up with leads personally and right

away then we could have planned his lead nurturing

campaigns better. Now we always connect with the

client’s sales team first to understand their process. And

we get their approval on any emails that go out with their

signature on it. Lesson learned!

Kelly Kranz

OVERGO STUDIO

@KELLYKRANZ

THE MYSTERY OF THE MULTIPLYING EMAILS

“If we knew that our client’s sales process was to follow up with leads personally and right away then we could have planned his lead nurturing campaigns better.”

EMAIL WAIL

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 8: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

2CREEPY SCOPE

Page 9: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

9

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of inbound and its

possibilities for clients but this can be a dangerous thing. With

new clients, we have often been eager to set their pulse racing

and have set ambitious goals to drive a step change in marketing

performance and ROI.

With all good intentions, we have pulled out all the stops and put

in lots of extra time in order to meet those original goals. Of course,

the problem with such over-servicing is that unless the client is

aware of all the extra work, it is taken for granted which undervalues

our efforts and our inbound proposition as a whole.

Avoid this nightmare

On reflection, during the early stages of offering inbound services

we could have perhaps been more prudent in our goal setting and

managing client expectations. Further, it’s vital to ensure that clients

have a clear view of all the work you’re putting in so that they

understand the full value of your expertise; this builds a platform for

a strong relationship moving forward.

Emma Jones

Katapult

@_katapult

OVER-SERVICE AT YOUR PERIL

“It’s vital to set clear goals and manage client expectations from theoutset to ensure that they understand the full value of your expertise, and have a clear view of the work involved.” TRICK OR

TWEET

-

Page 10: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

10

When we at Consilium Global Business first started working with this

ghoulish client, we did not realise what a mistake it would be not to set

up agreements on what we would deliver and what the client would

deliver. We began the project, naively thinking that the client would

step in when required to move the project forward.

Unfortunately, as time went on, it became clear that the devilish client

was not prioritising the relationship, or the job we were trying to do.

Tasks that only they could complete were not getting done and the

project continued to drag on and on. A 90-day project turned into a

180-day nightmare.

Avoid this nightmare

I’ve learned that a reasonable mutual SLA should be established

with auto publish deadlines (or extra-project work surcharges)

outlined before we begin a project. This way, both client and

agency know what they are responsible for and the project goes

much smoother.

Ed Marsh

CONSILIUM GLOBAL

@EDBMARSH

MUTUALLY AGREE, OR DIE

“We did not realise what a mistake it would be not to set up agreements on what we would deliver and what the client would deliver.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 11: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

11

As the Inbound Manager at Increnta, I was sending our most

important customer an email with the annual report. I decided to

open YouTube to make it a little more fun. And boy did it! I played my

favourite guilty pleasure song “La Macarena” on repeat.

After listening to it over and over again, I got lost in my own

world and became careless, and swiftly realised I had just sent

the ridiculous video to the customer. My heart started racing

immediately, my hands started getting all clammy and I could feel

the sweat trickling down my forehead. I thought “Dear God! We’re

going to lose our biggest account!”

While writing a letter of apology, the most important email of my

life arrived in my inbox. It was the customer, congratulating me on

the campaign and adding that La Macarena was his favourite song.

My sigh of relief was audible from three streets away!

Avoid this Nightmare

Always check your emails before hitting send if you don´t want

your dreams to become nightmares. Remember that messages

via email can easily be misinterpreted, and you never know how

someone might react. Important communications should always

be made in person or via telephone if possible to avoid this kind of

mishap.

Roberto Moragón

INCRENTA

@INCRENTA

CAN YOU HEAR THE MUSIC?

“Remember that messages via email can easily be misinterpreted, and you never know how someone might react.”

EMAIL WAIL

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 12: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

3WATCH YOUR BACK

Page 13: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

13Being a small agency, I have a roster of freelancers that I use

for various elements of an inbound marketing program. These

include writers, graphic designers, web developers etc. and they

are all over the world. I was working on an entire HubSpot COS

website rebuild with a freelancer who was usually fast and reliable.

However, as the go-live deadline approached, they disappeared

and did not respond to any form of communication I attempted.

The tensions and panic grew. Whatever could have caused this

mysterious disappearance?

They did respond finally, and when I politely pointed out that the

site was scheduled to be going live at the end of the week, they

imploded and were astonishingly unprofessional. Needless to say,

that relationship ended there and then. So I was stuck without a site

and without a developer. Luckily I had another resource with another

HubSpot partner who quickly took over the project and had it back on

track without any further delays. What could have been a disaster was

saved at the last moment.

AVOID THIS NIGHTMARE

The lesson here is to always have a back-up plan. I’ve found

in some instances that using other Hubspot agency partners as

resources can work better than freelancers. The Hubspot partner

community is somewhat unique in that we often do collaborate

on projects. This can be done transparently with the client or not,

depending on your comfort level and who “owns” the customer

relationship.

Sarah McIntyre

BRIGHT INBOUND

MARKETING

@BRIGHTINBOUND

FREELANCER FAIL

“The tensions and panic grew ... the lesson here is to always have a back-up plan.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 14: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

14On a dark, dark day, there was a dark, dark building and

in the dark, dark building there was a dark and suspicious

internet connection.

We had spent weeks planning and finalising a concept for

a new marketing campaign and were preparing for the final

presentation. They were travelling to our offices from afar

- and when I say “they”, I mean all of the key stakeholders.

But on their arrival, once pleasantries were out of the

way, we discovered the internet had gone down - again!

Our presentation, along with our entire company, lives on

the cloud. We couldn’t do anything - not even print it off.

Nightmare! The horror on our faces was something you

would never forget.

AVOID THIS NIGHTMARE

Many agencies operate within a serviced building where

one internet connection line feeds all. Our advice would

be to always outsource third party services if what you’re

offered from the managed building is hindering your

business’ performance. We live in the digital age - and for

a digital marketing agency to be offline is scarier than any

trick or treater to appear at my doorstep!”

Alistair Norman

TOMORROW PEOPLE

@ALISTAIRNORMAN

TECHNOLOGY IS MY BEST FRIEND, AND MY ENEMY

“Always outsource third party services if what you’re offered from the managed building is hindering your business’ performance.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 15: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

15A few years ago, when we started out, the team was composed

of two people. There were a lot of plans, expectations, ideas...

and also quite a lot of time invested in finding clients. With

the first customers, things were looking great and we kept on

expanding, reaching into new market segments and growing

fast. Then, a new member came into the group but we kept

growing. The three of us were doing all the executive work,

which I was combining with our own marketing and sales. The

cracks were beginning to show. But suddenly, out of nowhere,

the third member of our group decided to leave the agency… uh

oh.

We had no idea what to do and had the responsibility of

continuing to provide the best service to our customers. There

were too many projects per person, and it quickly became clear

that it was impossible to do all these tasks. We were sucked into

a black hole of keeping the level of service to a high standard –

but we were chained to our desks for more hours and days than

I care to remember. It was hell. But then we hired a new person,

and another, and another. We have grown, we have learned, and

we are having fun every day. We never want to see those old

days again.

Pau Valdés

INBOUNDCYCLE

@INBOUNDCYCLE

Avoid this Nightmare

It’s a good idea not to overload the workforce. To have some spare capacity to deal with unexpected events

is a lifesaver. Today, some of our executives are involved with projects full time, but some others remain

busy 80% of their time, so they can always be available to absorb extra work if needed.

“It’s a good idea not to overload the workforce. To have some spare capacity to deal with unexpected events is a lifesaver.”

A TICKING TIME BOMB WILL ALWAYS EXPLODE

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 16: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

16

Back in the olden days of our agency, we were approached

by quite a high profile client to undertake some SEO work

for them. They kindly sent us some reports from their current

agency with a list of some of the issues they were having.

We spent hours crafting the perfect proposal, referencing all

the issues the client faced, how bad their current situation

was, and how a new strategy was desperately needed.

However, due to whatever wickedness was at play that day,

our emails got mixed up and we sent it directly to the client’s

current agency. It felt like Halloween had come early! No

email retraction was going to save us from this mess! It was

like a vampire had come along and sucked the life out of us.

Avoid this Nightmare

Five years on from this unfortunate error, not only do

we make sure we never mix up email addresses, but we

also take care to profile each prospect carefully to stop

any potential horror stories. We discuss level of inbound

knowledge, size of team, buy-in from the board, parties who

will be involved, growth plans for the company, if they are

detail or big-picture oriented and most importantly, is there

anyone who we should not contact!

Guy Levine

RETURN ON DIGITAL

@GUYLEVINE

PROSPECT PROFILING PREVENTS PROJECT PARALYSIS

“We take care to profile each prospect carefully to stop any potential horror stories.”

EMAIL WAIL

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 17: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

4FALLING BEHIND...

Page 18: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

18When we first started conducting our own inbound campaigns,

we took the standard business owner stance and ignored all

the advice about niching. It could have been RIP for us then and

there. There seemed to be a great deal of fear in targeting a very

specific industry or buyer persona, at the expense of all the other,

non-conforming business profiles that we could also help.

As a result of my own aversion to get specific, we welcomed a

broad and poorly-targeted array of prospects into our marketing

and sales funnel, each of which were subjected to a generic “blah”

of follow-up information. Unsurprisingly, (with hindsight) conversion

rates were hauntingly low, and we found ourselves talking to

“prospects” who weren’t really qualified to buy our services. Big

mistake!

Avoid this Nightmare

How we address this issue is exactly how we approach all

campaigns now, both for ourselves and with clients (yes, we eat

our own dog food). We start every engagement by identifying

the primary and ideal buyer personas, and create content-led

campaigns that not only attract the right leads, but which also

pre-qualify and nurture those leads through to sales readiness.

Conversions have improved, and we have a more satisfied

client-base as a result of the subject matter expertise we can

provide across the board.

BE EVERYTHING TO SOMEONE OR BE NOTHING TO EVERYONE

“We start every engagement by identifying the primary and ideal buyer personas, and create content-led campaigns.”

Matt Hodkinson

INFLUENCE AGENTS

@MATT_HODKINSON

HERE LIES

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 19: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

19

As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing more horrifying than the

thought of falling behind. We at Online Ventures Group always

strive to be at the cutting-edge in everything we do, from the

software we create and use, to the marketing tactics we implement

for our clients.

We have all heard the almost-cliche ‘content is king’. We all know

quality content is integral to advertising campaigns of all sizes,

content marketing especially. Our horror story is that we didn’t

embrace content marketing earlier and fell behind our industry

peers. Now that we utilise content marketing as our main tool to

reach business objectives, our clients are enjoying a much larger

return on their investments. If only we implemented it years ago.

Avoid this Nightmare

My advice to other agencies would be to trust your gut. If you hear

rumblings of ‘the next big thing’, do you research and do it quickly.

Then turn it into an plan and implement it double-quick. The feeling

of being left behind is awful. But the feeling of knowing you are

ahead of the curve and seeing the result is one you will never

forget.

James Welch

ONLINE VENTURES

GROUP

@JAMESWELCH_NET

RUN! HE’S BEHIND YOU!!

“Trust your gut. If you hear rumblings of ‘the next big thing’, do your research and do it quickly.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 20: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

20

“In the early days of setting up a customer re-engagement mail a

couple of years ago we had something of a mishap. It could have

been a complete freaking nightmare had it not been for how cool the

customer remained, even as some interesting and sinister responses

to our unfortunate mistake poured in…

Imagine if you will, we’ve gone through all of the work defining a key

persona for the client. We’ll call her Laura, OK? Well, as I copy write

the re-engagement mail, as you would expect, I’m considering exactly

what matters to Laura, how would she be thinking about things, how

would this offer be best received by her?

Yes – I wrote ‘Hi Laura’ at the top of the mail, fully intending to replace

it with first name personalization later. And yes I did, I sent it! I called

over 2,500 people Laura. I break out in a cold sweat just thinking

about it, to this day. You can imagine, there were a fair few replies

along the lines of “I’m only Laura at the weekend” and some, it should

Jeremy Knight

EQUINET MEDIA

@THEJEREMYKNIGHT

“Never, ever send anything without proofing properly, ever.”

IS THAT YOU, LAURA?

EMAIL WAIL

be said that were not so humorous. I still have nightmares about it… (for a while I think my wife thought

I was having an affair as I groaned “no Laura, no Laura” in my sleep).”

Avoid this Nightmare

Of course - it is obvious (but oh so easy to overlook if you are rushing at deadlines and, ultimately cutting

corners); never, ever send anything without proofing properly, ever. Today we always ensure we’ve had a

second person in the agency check the work of a colleague before anything is sent out and, I’m delighted

to say, nothing like that has ever happened again.....has it, Laura?

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 21: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

5STRATEGY TRAGEDY

Page 22: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

22

A B2B client had invested heavily in their brand, seeking to

penetrate various market sectors through multiple channels. They

made some initial traction, albeit by taking a scatter-gun approach

to building brand equity. The trade name they were leveraging was

competitive and ultimately unprotected. Whilst successfully winning

some early market share, it eventually backfired on the company,

with the proliferation of cross sector messaging costing them a

significant portion of their marketing budget. The company ended

up in a state of disarray and as a result, the head of marketing

lost their job. Unfortunately for the client, despite having spent

considerable sums on marketing-reach, they ended up needing to

start from scratch.

Avoid this Nightmare

When the client came to Incisive Edge, they had inconsistencies

with messaging and their value proposition coupled with justified

concerns from the costly lessons they had learned. They required a

strategic approach to align and integrate marketing with sales and

to stop deploying activities in isolation.

Our approach to consistent multi-channel digital and content

marketing positioned them as a sector specific thought leader

and put our client back on the road to recovery. We measurably

energised their sales and marketing operations driving return on

investment through clarity.

David Bowler

INCISIVE EDGE

@INCISIVEEDGE

SHOT IN THE FOOT WITH A SCATTER GUN APPROACH

“It requires a strategic approach to align & integrate marketing & sales.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 23: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

23

We once developed a top-of-the-range inbound marketing

campaign for a client who had difficulty letting us manage the

execution of it. An inbound marketing campaign performs best

when applied consistently, and especially by those who have

experience in implementing the steps involved. The internal

team in this particular case had no prior experience in such a

thing. The delivery was choppy and slow, but thankfully we were

lucky, and it all worked out in the end.

Avoid this Nightmare

Always execute and bring your ideas to fruition yourself. No one

will ever translate vision into reality in the way you can.

Ricardo Molina

BRIGHTBULL

@BRIGHTBULL

“No one will ever translate vision into reality in the way you can.”

THE CHOPPY SEA OF INEXPERIENCE

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 24: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

24

“I’ll tell you a story that left me quaking in my boots, a story

that haunts me to this day. We’ve all made mistakes when it

comes to dabbling in a little bit of HTML or CSS in order to

add personalisation or a favourite colour. Oh, I wish it had

been a meaningless string of code that I sent! Instead, I sent

a ghastly un-personalised email for a client that unfortunately

referred to everyone as “Hey First Name”. Needless to say,

the client was pretty unhappy with that result… I was sure that

was going to be the day I met a grisly end!”

Avoid this Nightmare

This mistake can be avoided by not only having someone

look over your emails, but also having them sent to you as a

test as if you are a contact in your system.

Laura Hogan

OVERGO STUDIO

@LALALAURAHOGAN

HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED

“This mistake can be avoided by not only having someone look over your emails, but also having them sent to you as a test as if you are a contact in your system.”

EMAIL WAIL

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 25: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

6CLIENT CATASTROPHES

Page 26: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

26

One of the deadliest traps for agencies is the client who is

obsessed with only one thing… SEO.

Modern SEO is about an inbound marketing strategy and

that includes being discovered through search engines as

well as other online channels including social. It requires a

strong messaging strategy, a documented content strategy, an

employee advocacy strategy and a comprehensive review of

the client’s website architecture, authority and linkback status. A

plan needs to be made about what needs to get viciously axed

and what needs to be added to the cauldron to brew the right

enchantment for visitors.

We’ll never enter into a client engagement again that is

one-dimensionally focused on just “search engine optimization.”

The notion of “improving search engine rankings” is so 2010.

It’s an obsolete concept. Alas, there are some clients that are

cursed with not seeing the whole picture of marketing.

Avoid this Nightmare

The new SEO is very multi-faceted. We’ll only work with clients

that understand the breadth of modern inbound marketing with

a willingness to collaborate on all the success factors.”

Bernie Borges

FIND AND CONVERT

@BERNIEBORGES

THE WALKING DEAD SEO PRACTICES

“The notion of “improving search engine rankings” is so 2010. It’s an obsolete concept.”

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 27: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

27

We worked with a client who bought HubSpot software, but

wouldn’t invest in any strategy work (beware of such devilish

creatures – they bring with them untold horrors known as

‘unrealistic expectations’). Despite our forewarning, they

didn’t follow our advice to start the process with research

and planning. They insisted they knew the customer and their

market, and jumped straight to the execution phase. .. much

like the grim reaper! They published some content they thought

would be interesting and waited for the leads to roll in. The

results were predictably horrifying and they were shocked to

find they weren’t closing a deal each week at the end of the first

month.

Eventually we convinced them to do a content strategy session,

which was informed by a workshop, several persona interviews

and an independent assessment of the marketplace. The

recommendations we presented were far different than the

content they’d produced and after investing in the process, they

realised what they should have done from the get-go.

Avoid this Nightmare

Want to avoid the same terrifying fate? Spend at least a month

doing research, strategy development, client interviews, persona

development, internal workshops – amass all the data you have

before you start production. It’s the best way to ensure your

content isn’t dead on arrival!

James Cox

TRACEPOINT

@JAMESBUZZCOX

“Spend at least a month doing research, strategy development, client interviews, persona development, and internal workshops.”

STRATEGY IS THE SKELETON OF SUCCESS

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 28: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

28

Earlier this year, Screwpile was working with a surgical practice

helping them grow their business. We’ll call the owner Dr.

Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein came to us with a problem; he

was frustrated that his website was not helping the practice

attract new patients as well as he felt it could. Typically we

measure success with inbound medical marketing in three

important categories: increases in website traffic; number of

leads generated; number of new patients closed.

After a few months of inbound medical marketing efforts, things

were really looking up. Traffic had grown from under 1,000

visits a month to well over 11,000 visits per month. Leads had

increased as well. Before the engagement Dr. Frankenstein’s

office had been getting only a handful of leads every month from

the website. We’re talking 2-3. As their inbound marketing efforts

ramped up, all those website visitors began to convert into leads

as well. Now, they were getting upwards of 50 every month from

their website alone.

Chuck Malcomson

SCREWPILE

@SCREWPILECOMM

“Now we make sure to press hard during our consultative sales process to ensure that the prospect is a good fit for our services.”

The problem was that not enough of these leads were becoming new patients in Dr. Frankenstein’s

office. Even though these leads were requesting consultations, the practice didn’t have an effective

way to handle new patient leads and get them in office. Dr. Frankenstein’s office didn’t have the luxury

of a team of appointment coordinators to effectively follow up. Even after delivering on what we

promised the account ended up churning. Dr. Frankenstein just wasn’t able to dispose of that many

patients.”

Avoid this Nightmare

Now we make sure to press hard during our consultative sales process to ensure that the prospect is

a good fit for our services. Do they have someone available to follow up with inbound leads? Do they

have a process in place to effectively connect with the highest percentage of inbound leads? If so,

great. If not, we leave it at that.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN IS READY TO SEE YOU

TRICK ORTWEET

Page 29: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

SPECIALHORRIFYING ADDITION

Page 30: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

30

Who is afraid of bad content?

Let me tell you a scary tale

Of a text written to no avail

A blog without a ‘body’ but with a ‘tail’

And scarier even more

It was filled with jargon galore

This sucked the life right out of the story

Never to see the morning glory

But there was even more hell to pay

The blog did not have a CTA

So let me tell you in a single breath

The blog was boring its readers to death

Yes, the content was a sure hit and miss

That lives forever in the abyss.

Klaas Klunder

MARKETING PENGUIN

@MKTPENGUIN

Page 31: Hub spot halloween_special-_marketing_agency_horror_stories

?IF YOU’RE BRAVE ENOUGH FOR

A DEMO OF HUBSPOT ...

Click Here