Most agencies are tasked with working within a limited marketing budget and are expected to perform tasks as part of an online marketing campaign, social media campaign, or digital transformation program. Working within those constraints, an agency may be forced to limit the number of tools it can deploy for marketing purposes. However, with the right approach, it’s possible to leverage the most popular marketing tools effectively within the agency to grow their business.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is all about attracting, engaging, and delighting customers through content creation, social media marketing, and growth hacking. Rather than aiming to convert prospects to leads, inbound marketers focus on creating value for current and potential customers.
The inbound way of thinking encourages marketers to become curious, learn from others, and seek to solve customers’ problems. Since inbound marketing emerged alongside the “content marketing” trend in the early 2010s, the two sides of the industry have worked hand in hand, complementing and reinforcing each other.
The concept of content marketing can be traced back to the late 1990s, when marketers were tasked with coming up with new ways to attract consumers and build brand awareness. At the time, the term “content marketing” didn’t exist but a similar idea was being discussed under the name “web content”, which implies the content would be published on the web for all to see.
Back in those days, creating content for the web meant investing in a desktop computer and learning how to use a web browser. In hindsight, that may not seem like a practical or even an affordable option, given that desktop computers and web browsers are still widely used across industries. However, those who mastered the art of creating web content back in the day grew their business significantly and became influential marketers in their own right. Today, they continue to thrive as the industry has evolved to fit their expertise.
Marketing Automation
Inbound Marketing is all about attracting, engaging, and delighting customers through content creation, social media, and growth hacking. Since inbound marketing emerged alongside the “content marketing” trend in the early 2010s, the two sides of the industry have worked hand in hand, complementing and reinforcing each other.
While humans have always interacted with brands and businesses online, marketing automation software platforms have made it much easier to engage with prospects, leads, and customers through digital marketing channels. Tools like HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot have made it much easier for marketers to set up automated email campaigns, landing pages, and social media accounts.
According to Gartner, Inc., by 2022 about 42% of all marketing expenditures will be spent on marketing automation.
Video Marketing
Thanks to the rise of TikTok and other social media platforms, people are consuming content in increasingly exciting and entertaining ways. Today, more people love to watch videos of themselves engaging with products than they do traditional text-based or graphical content.
According to HubSpot Blogs research, 39% of respondents said they’d rather read about an invention or event than watch a video of someone talking about it. While videos aren’t a replacement for other content types, like text or graphics, they do have a special place in marketing as more platforms like TikTok emerge.
TikTok is often cited as the most popular social media platform among users aged between 18 and 24. With over 300 million monthly active users, TikTok is a powerhouse that can’t be ignored by marketers. Not only does TikTok provide a captive audience, it also empowers users to discover new things and engage with businesses, brands, and each other via the platform. This user-to-user engagement provides marketers with the opportunity to learn more about their target audience and build a rapport with them. Building trust and credibility is a critical component of any marketing campaign and the more a marketer can do to establish brand voice and integrity on a niche platform like TikTok, the better.
While we can’t predict which marketing channels will emerge as more popular in the future, we do know that video marketing will continue to be a prominent tool in the marketer’s arsenal.
Email Marketing
The rise of marketing automation and the popularity of TikTok means that marketers can set up automated email campaigns and use email to connect with customers. Even better, with the right tools and with a little bit of creativity, marketers can identify the right audience within their own email database. For example, if you’re already using HubSpot, you can connect the email database you create in HubSpot with other marketing software, like Mailchimp.
Since the dawn of email marketing, marketers have struggled with creating automated campaigns that engage with prospective customers. Today, with the right tools, marketers can set up automated email campaigns and use email to connect with customers. Even better, with the right tools and a little bit of creativity, marketers can identify the right audience within their own email database. For example, if you’re already using HubSpot, you can connect the email database you create in HubSpot with other marketing software, like Mailchimp.
While we can’t predict which marketing channels will emerge as more popular in the future, we do know that email marketing will continue to be a prominent tool in the marketer’s arsenal.
Content Marketing and SEO
Content marketing combines everything a marketer needs to grow and maintain a profitable relationship with an audience including creating compelling content, connecting this content to relevant keywords, and investing in SEO. Since the dawn of content marketing, marketers have struggled with coming up with new ideas for content and keeping up with ever-changing search engine algorithms. While the first pieces of content can often be the hardest to come by, automated tools like HubSpot make creating content less stressful and more productive.
Whether you have a marketing plan for next year already or are just getting started, identifying the right content and the right platforms to disseminate that content are critical to your success. In order to do this, you need to understand the best way to connect with your audience, which can vary from person to person. That is why content marketing is such a diverse field; it might mean writing for the web or for a mobile device, creating content for social media or email, or becoming a thought leader and creating in-depth articles for your blog.
Social Media
With the rise of online marketing and the popularity of social media platforms, businesses have a direct line to their prospective customers. Marketers can use social media to gain valuable insights into how to engage with and retain customers. In order to do this, marketers need to understand the best way to use social media platforms effectively including identifying the right audience, creating content that is valuable and useful to that audience, and measuring the results of their social media efforts.
Instagram is one of the biggest and most popular social media platforms. In 2019, it had over 1.7 billion monthly active users and is a fantastic place for marketers to grow and develop their business. Instagram is one of the few social media platforms that offer in-house marketers and agencies the ability to run, monitor, and analyze marketing campaigns within the platform. That said, these capabilities come at a cost and, as a result, many marketers choose to use third party tools like Hootsuite and Radian 6 to help them manage their Instagram accounts.
Hootsuite is a popular social media management platform with over 10 million monthly active users. In addition to helping marketers manage their Instagram accounts, Hootsuite provides powerful social media listening tools that allow marketers to monitor and analyze conversations about their products and services across all social platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Radian 6 is an all-in-one social media marketing platform with a robust API that allows marketers to integrate social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook into one platform.
Once you’ve established your video marketing strategy and begun using marketing automation to carry out your strategy, you’ll want to look into the different ways you can connect and engage with your audience. In order to do this, you’re going to need to set up automated email marketing using tools like HubSpot or Marketo.