How to Define Roles With Your Inbound Marketing Agency

For many companies, they know that they need help with their marketing, but inbound marketing might as well be a foreign language.

Landing page development, calls-to-action, social media marketing, blogs, buyer personas...the list goes on. The mere concept of these strategies are completely unknown to them.

So where do you go fromhere?

As a brand or business what exactly do you need to do to when working with an inbound marketing agency? What role should you play in the process?

Like any successful relationship, that of a client and its agency is one of give and take and requires effort from both parties.  Here are four things that every client should practice when defining roles with their inbound marketing agency.

4 Tips for Defining Roles With Your Inbound Marketing Agency

1. Identify Buyer Personas

Simply put, a Buyer Persona is a detailed description of your ideal prospect; who you're ultimately trying to reach. When starting any business endeavor, you need to know who is attracted to your product or service and who you want to attract.  How old are they? What do they do for a living? What are their needs?  Your agency needs to know what your audience is looking for in order to cater content to them. That begins with creating distinct Buyer Personas.

2. Know your Value Proposition

What is your promise to the consumer? What are you offering them? Before developing content, your agency needs to know what you do and where it is you shine compared to your competitors. Once this is determined, it becomes clearer to your agency what needs to be stressed in your marketing.

Knowing your value proposition also helps ensure relevancy.

Say for example, you're an event planner who specializes in weddings. If your value proposition isn't clearly defined or communicated, you may wake up one day and find an article titled "How to throw the BEST Bieber Fever Themed Sweet Sixteen EVER" on your blog. --- Ok, that's a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

Know what you're offering, know your expertise, and your agency can develop content around it.

3. Know your Brand Identity

Much like your Buyer Personas and Value Proposition, your Brand Identity is an integral part of your business' foundation. Visuals aside, Brand Identity is the perception that you want to give off.  It is how and what  your brand wants to communicate with its potential consumers.

Clearly defining your identity and communicating it with your agency helps them capture your voice. Even if you don't have a hand in the writing, this ensures that the personality of your brand shines through the content and is consistent.

The best content shapes your image; it doesn't send mixed or unwanted messages. If you and your agency know your identity, there will be no confusion.

4. Maintain Ongoing Communication

In every relationship, communication is key. In a long term commitment with an inbound marketing agency, you as a client need to maintain regular and ongoing communication. Make sure that you schedule a time, perhaps once a week, or every other week to discuss your strategy with your agent.

• What content is effective? Which isn't?

• What do you want to see more of?

• What are the new developments in your industry?

• What is no longer relevant?

This is your opportunity to express any concerns, ask questions, and make changes. This type of open, consistent communication is the only way to guarantee that what you want is achieved and your goals reached.

You may also consider using collaborative software like Google Drive. These programs allow you and your agents to work together on spreadsheets, blog drafts, etc. and make changes as needed.

Overall, stay in contact with your agency so they know what you expect and what to expect from you.

Don't be afraid to play an active role in the development of your content. No one knows your business and brand better than you do and your input can only take your inbound marketing campaigns to the next level.

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