I’m going to depart from my usual blogging topics here and write something a little more personal today…
I’ve often been asked by prospective clients and people who’ve known me from my previous advertising agency life, “What made you go into this inbound marketing agency thing?” So I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell my story.
I have been toward the front of the inbound marketing movement since shortly after 2006 when the inbound marketing software company, HubSpot, hit the scene and began popularizing the term. (So popular now that HubSpot just received big time funding from Salesforce.com and Google.) I discovered HubSpot during the course of nearly two intense years of research and work to develop a process that would help my primarily B2B small and mid-size clients leverage the internet and web 2.0 to grow their leads and generate more sales.
An evolution from outbound to inbound marketing
A classically trained outbound marketer, I developed my skills first through my education at James Madison University (go Dukes!) and after that, through a 6-year stint working at two widely-recognized advertising agencies. TV, radio, and print were the staples of what we did and I had a very promising career in this field. Yet, I was always torn over this feeling that we were selling a product we couldn’t accurately, quantitatively measure; it was hard to see if all of our hard work actually resulted in sales. Not to mention, it all felt a bit overdone and wasteful.
In addition to traditional advertising, I also knew the direct marketing approach well as I spent time early on in my career studying, training, and working in the field. What I appreciated most about direct marketing is that everything is response-driven and by its nature, measurable. But I have to say, direct mail isn’t exactly the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.
Searching for a better way.
When I opened Spark Marketing Team in July of 2000 my aim was to provide services that bridged the gap between traditional and direct marketing. I knew the internet would be the place to do this.
As such, my discovery of inbound marketing and HubSpot was just what the doctor ordered and Spark Marketing Team soon became Spark Inbound Marketing. Today, we are deeply entrenched in helping our clients attract more visitors, convert more prospects to leads and customers, and tying everything together with measurable full circle analytics.
All inbound, all the time.
Over the past two years alone, Spark has delivered inbound marketing services to more than 100 different brands across an unusually broad range of industries. These services (offered to both HubSpot and non-HubSpot clients) have included content writing, web development, blogging, social media, search engine optimization, local search, pay per click management, email marketing, landing pages, digital PR, and more. Sometimes we offer these services as a complete soup-to-nuts solution played out over an ongoing monthly basis and other times we come in to provide only blogging or only web development or only social media, etc.
Any way you slice it, I have enjoyed every minute of the opportunity that inbound marketing afforded me to wear many hats (you should see my collection). Marketing consultant. Content writer. Social media guru. Blogger. Email marketer. You name it, I’ve got a hat that fits. What’s better, I’ve got a whole team of people who wear hats that emphasize the particular specialties they bring to the team. You should see the hat my favorite designer wears (it’s hand-knitted of course). Our web developer? He’s got his favorite beanie cap. And the SEO specialist in the group? He wears only white hats.
If you want to learn how the Spark Inbound Marketing team can attract more prospects, create more leads, and generate more sales for your business – without blasting your message out to people who don’t give a rip – give us a call at 800-474-1573 or request a meeting.
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Posted by CristiSpahr on March 18, 2011 |
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Tags: Inbound Marketing, inbound marketing agency, inbound marketing software
