Questions That You Should Ask to Hire a Powerful Inbound Marketing Agency in India
Mar 11, 2016
10 min read
Since the onset of the digital age and the marketing platform moving towards the digital marketing, it is very important to know how to source the right agency that meets your needs. Even if you google your search typing “popular inbound marketing agencies in india”, you are bound to get 3,44,000 results! This is very obvious that to shortlist one agency out of these is going to be a nightmarish task for anybody. Even if you use the HubSpot platform, they might whittle down this list to a mere thousands, but that’s not enough, is it?
So we are going to provide you some questions that will give you a fair idea to shortlist that one agency that you are looking for. If we miss out on any of the questions that you feel like must be added to the list, then provide us with your valuable comments and we’ll modify this blog according. We also want you to share this blog as much as you can so that other businesses in need get the hang of what to do next in hiring an inbound marketing agency.
What Makes You Hire The Inbound Marketing Agency
1. Marketing
Did you like the agency’s marketing work done in the past? If a marketing agency struggles to find leads and customers for itself then probably same is the thing that they are going to do for you!
2. How did you find this agency?
- SEO:Was the agency’s website rank well for the keywords that I’ve searched? After clicking on the website, were you efficiently directed to the products/services page?
- Social Media:How engaging is their content on social media channels? Do they have enough of following and does the fans like what the agency posts?
- Email:The landing page where I gave them my email ID was it enticing? Did the emails from the agency help me move closer towards a decision?
- Design: How does their website look? Are the graphics used on the website catchy?
- Website Content: How well is the website designed? Does it helps me in understanding about their inbound practices? Is it just like every other agency? How engaging is the blog's page on the website(if any)?When was it last updated and what is the frequency?
- Lead Generation: How effectively did the agency contact you(if they did) even after looking at their products or services page and not making any sales? Was the landing page form catchy to give your contact details? Did they offer you anything to convert you into a lead? Are they similar to the other agencies?Let’s say you are convinced with one of the agencies and have become a marketing lead for them. Now is the time to look at their sales process.
3. Sales
Questions to ask about the sales process of the agency:
How was I contacted by the agency? Did I like it?
What was the understanding for the sales people about the Inbound Marketing?
Were they able to convince you that how how their agency was different from the other agencies? Even if you hired this agency will they be able to convert leads into sales for you?First Impression is the last impression!
4.Writers
Inbound Marketing is all about generating curiosity for readers and help them understand how your product is gonna solve their problem. For this purpose, the writers hired by the agency should be able to generate content that actually convinces someone how your product stands above the products offered by your competitors.
Questions for writers:
Does the agency has in-house writers or does it outsource the writing part? Will your company get a dedicated writer or you will get the one whoever is available at the time?
Have the writers written any piece of content related to your industry?
5. Marketers
Same thing goes for while shortlisting any marketer from the agency:
Who will be assigned your company’s project?
What kind of experience he or she has?
6. Client Management
Will I personally blend in with the people at the marketing agency? This is important to know because you are going to work with agency for at least 8- 12 months to make the inbound marketing success.
7. Proposal and Contract
After all the back and forth of communications, you are bound to get a proposal. Now it is as per your liking that how good a proposal you get from the agency. It should be able to provide you with answers for questions like: how is the company planning to report on the tasks that they did for you, how will they handle the scope of project that are not included in the contract, will they be able to meet deadlines. If you do get a convincing answers then we believe that your search for the right agency is over. We hope that this article should be able to guide you in the right direction for hiring the most powerful inbound agency. Good Luck!
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Top 7 SaaS Content Management Systems For Your Business in 2024
Do you know what SaaS marketing is? One needs to focus on the marketing task fully to achieve the desired results. Whether you are creating your own content or working with a full-service digital marketing agency like Saffron Edge, it is important for your SaaS company to stand out with relevant content. This can be difficult if your focus is on managing your website. A content management system can help you by handling the infrastructure, making it easy for you to build and maintain an appealing site without paying for any developers and designers. This blog will discuss how investing in a SaaS content management system can benefit SaaS business while exploring the top 7 CMS options for building a SaaS website. What is a SaaS CMS? A SaaS CMS is a pre-built content management system that works completely in a cloud environment. This type of system can be accessed online and doesn’t require installation, updation, or maintenance. The SaaS provider handles all the processes, such as hardware setup, server management, storage, virtualization, and much more. The vendor’s ongoing improvement or updates can also benefit you. You need to purchase a subscription to get a licence to use the SaaS CMS. Some examples of SaaS CMSs include ButterCMS, Salesforce, and Box.net. Types of SaaS CMS If you want to establish an online presence without hiring high-budget developers, SaaS CMS is your go-to choice. In this section, we will discuss the different SaaS CMS types: Open-source vs. closed-source: Open-source CMS can be accessed via the Internet or downloaded at zero charges. However, you will need to pay for other features such as customization, support, training, add-ons, plugins, etc. On the other hand, a closed-source CMS requires structured coding, and you need to purchase a licence or monthly/annual subscription to access support and updates. Some examples of Open-source include Kentico, Pulse CMS, and Joomla. Some examples of closed-source include ButterCMS, Rivista, Haven Nexus, and Metro Publisher. Legacy/Traditional CMS: This type of CMS generally includes a technical architecture that connects the frontend and the backend with each other, providing everything from a database for content to a presentation layer for publishing. Hosted vs. On-premise CMS: A hosted CMS software requires you to purchase a license from a vendor, similar to on-premise CMS, but a hosted CMS can be hosted remotely through a third-party host provider, or you can rent it from a vendor. In contrast, you are accountable for all the infrastructure required to run the on-premise software. It is clear that you own the software, but for the hosted, as the name says, you need to host it remotely, not physically, unlike on-premises. Headless CMS: We have another category of SaaS CMS Known as Headless CMS. A headless CMS is mainly a back-end system that is responsible for managing and structuring your content without a frontend layer. What are the benefits of investing in a SaaS CMS? The main benefit of SaaS CMS is that it does not require companies to install and run applications using their own computers or data centres. SaaS products don’t require support, maintenance, or uptime. Companies need not worry about these concerns; they can focus on giving a better customer experience and quickly improving their services based on customer cues and insights. It doesn’t matter if you are a Small or medium-sized business that wants to spin up a site fast or a large organization that wants to support multiple brands across different regions and languages. These SaaS products offer many significant benefits: Accelerating Time-to-Value As the old saying goes, "time equals money" and it holds more significance than ever before in the B2B SaaS marketing strategy. A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform expedites the deployment of your experiences, facilitating swift installation and quick takeoff. However, the actual benefits emerge when you're soaring and empowered to launch new experiences in a fraction of the time compared to traditional on-premises solutions. Emphasis on Core Competencies By outsourcing software management to a SaaS provider, organizations can focus on improving their core competencies and pursuing strategic initiatives rather than being looked down on by software development and upkeep. This strategic shift enables businesses to allocate resources more efficiently, directing efforts towards activities that foster growth, a key component of any SaaS marketing playbook. Streamlined Maintenance and Management Consider the time your organization invests in monitoring applications. Transitioning to a SaaS Content Management System (CMS) typically entails the vendor assuming responsibility for system maintenance and ensuring its security and scalability. With Sitecore's SaaS CMS, inclusive support ensures that maintenance and infrastructure concerns are promptly addressed, leaving you with a reliable infrastructure capable of adapting to future market dynamics while optimizing every stage of the SaaS marketing funnel. Accelerated Innovation The SaaS CMS model empowers marketers with accelerated speed to market and minimized friction through features like out-of-the-box templates. Routine tasks such as content publishing or updates are expedited while adapting to evolving market trends and improving marketing automation becomes seamless. Sitecore's SaaS CMS offers marketers user-friendly templates for content creation and updates, streamlining the content creation and deployment processes and enabling quicker asset delivery. Seamless Upgrades and Improvements With a steady stream of software releases and upgrades from your SaaS vendor, you can rely on having the latest software version without the need for reimplementation. Consequently, a SaaS CMS presents a convenient and cost-effective solution for managing website content, eliminating the need for hefty investments in traditional infrastructure or software upgrades. Cost Friendly SaaS negates organizations' need to invest in costly hardware infrastructure and software licenses, as it typically operates within a shared or multi-tenant environment. Instead, businesses can opt for a subscription-based SaaS service, paying a regular fee, often on a per-user basis. This shift minimizes upfront expenditures and trims operational budgets earmarked for software maintenance and upgrades, making the SaaS model particularly appealing to SaaS marketing in a startup. Improved Integration Capabilities SaaS applications are engineered to seamlessly integrate with other software and systems, fostering smooth data flow and bolstering productivity. Many SaaS providers furnish APIs or pre-built integrations with popular tools and platforms such as ERP systems or email clients, facilitating effortless connectivity across diverse systems and streamlining workflows. Top 7 Content Management System 1. WordPress It's not surprising that WordPress is at the top of the list. According to W3Techs, WordPress is used by almost 43% of all existing websites and has over 64% of the market share. It is a beginner-friendly CMS with over 58,000 plugins and themes to design any website you require. It is the perfect choice for small or medium-sized businesses with a light to medium workload. Advantages: User-friendly interface suitable for beginners. Extensive selection of plugins and themes available. No requirement for technical expertise or coding skills. Engaging community resources like WPBeginner Engage and dedicated WordPress courses for learning. Disadvantages: Specific plugins and themes may be unreliable, and bugs may occur frequently. Being open-source, WordPress lacks a dedicated customer support team. 2. Wix Wix is a drag-and-drop interface offering several pre-built templates. It ranks after wordpress, making it the second best CMS option available, which covers almost 9.43% of the total market. Although it is a paid platform, it also provides a free limited plan to help you look for the pros and cons of the platform. It is best for smaller businesses, but ecommerce businesses might want to check Shopify's CMS. Advantages: Simplified operation facilitated by a drag-and-drop interface. Convenient on-the-fly editing capabilities. Access to ready-made templates tailored for desktop and mobile use. Extensive integration possibilities with various applications via the Wix App Market. Disadvantages: Once a template is selected, it cannot be easily changed. The free plan offers limited features, notably lacking an eCommerce store and payment options. Downloading or exporting data can be challenging, requiring manual copying and pasting. 3. Drupal Drupal is an open-source and flexible CMS built for expert web developers. It is the perfect CMS option for UNICEF and Pinterest Business. The API architecture allows to create big sites comprising large data within it. It allows you to choose any site template or create a website from zero. Advantages: Drupal websites typically attract more traffic than other commonly used CMS platforms. Improved security measures are ensured through regular security assessments conducted by the CMS. Comprises over 48,000 modules and 3000 themes, Drupal offers a a lot of customization options. Free to use. Disadvantages: Expertise in PHP, CSS, and HTML is required. Drupal is not user-friendly for beginners. Implementing upgrades on Drupal sites can be a time-consuming process. 4. Joomla Joomla is a robust free, open-source CMS that combines Drupal's flexibility with WordPress's user-friendly interface. It can be used by CMS developers and professional web creators, Joomla comprises a lot of out-of-the-box features, making it a best choice for those seeking versatility. Advantages: Over 6000 extensions in its offline directory, including eCommerce solutions. Bolstered by an active and vibrant community, offering abundant learning resources. Improved security through 2-Factor Authentication. Streamlined document editing functionality. Disadvantages: Compatibility issues may arise among certain modules, plugins, and extensions. Joomla may lack some additional extensions. Beginners may find Joomla's learning curve steep. 5. Magento (Adobe Commerce) Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform acquired by Adobe, have a big clientele, including Coca Cola, Ford, and Nike. It is known for its expertise in various features like security, SEO optimization, and flexibility for customization, Magento is often considered one of the top choices in the eCommerce industry. It particularly suitable for larger online stores with substantial sales volumes, adeptly managing high product counts and order traffic. Magento offers Adobe Commerce, a premium platform providing complete hosting services and support. Advantages: Easily customizable with various third-party extensions. Handles heavy workload. Multiple integrated payment options. Disadvantages: Pricing may be high. Locating and hiring Magento developers can be both complex and costly. Setting up and configuring Magento stores can be time-intensive affairs. 6. CMS Hub HubSpot's CMS Hub is a fully integrated content management system for marketing and business owners. This CMS is widely used by 100,000 sites, and it offers accessibility to individuals with minimal technical expertise thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop editor.CMS Hub extends its functionalities into marketing automation, as well as sales and service tools. Advantages: Built-in security features, including a global CDN and Web Application Firewall. The drag-and-drop editor requires minimal technical skills. Seamless integration with email tools and HubSpot's CRM Disadvantages: Limited availability of plugins and themes Absence of direct technical support 7. Shopify Shopify is an all-in-one Content management system. Its package offers hosting, installation, and website management. Its drag-and-drop interface is best suited for eCommerce retailers. As it is not an open-source platform, it does not offer many customizable options. Advantages: Integrated multiple payment options like Debit card, Credit Card, Paypal and more. If your sales go higher, it doesn’t ask you to upgrade. Comprises more than 70 themes and over 5700 free/paid apps. Disadvantages: It doesn’t have many functionality additions. Integration of third-party apps can increase your bills. ...
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SMS Automation Chatbot: How It Works and How to Build One
SMS is a direct and effective marketing tool, with a 98% open rate ensuring most recipients see the messages. However, conventional SMS campaigns are not very effective at driving meaningful engagement. To solve this issue, most businesses started implementing SMS automation chatbot solutions. These solutions facilitate automated, interactive conversations through text messages and improve response rates and customer interaction. These SMS chatbots offer personalized experiences by handling tasks like answering queries and promoting services. Building an SMS chatbot might be challenging if you're just starting. But no worries—this guide will explain what SMS chatbots are, why they are a better choice than standard SMS campaigns, and how to build one step-by-step. What are SMS Automation Chatbots? An SMS chatbot is a tool that automates text conversations. It uses set responses to understand what users need and reply in a human-like way. SMS chatbots can work 24/7, sending updates, managing subscriptions, sharing links, answering questions, and running campaigns. They can also chat with many people simultaneously, making communication faster and easier. Why Do You Need an SMS Automation Chatbot? SMS chatbots provide numerous benefits that can help businesses save time, reduce costs, and improve the customer experience. Here are some key advantages: 24/7 Availability: SMS chatbots work 24/7, providing immediate responses to customers anytime, even after business hours. Cost-Effective: Automating communication with SMS chatbots eliminates the need for a large customer support team, reducing operational costs. Scalability: SMS chatbots can handle multiple conversations at once, making it easier for businesses to manage high volumes of customer interactions. Personalized Experience: Chatbots can be programmed to recognize customers and personalize interactions, improving engagement and satisfaction. Better Engagement: SMS is a direct and familiar communication channel, so customers are likelier to engage with SMS-based interactions than other methods. Go From SMS Campaigns to SMS Chatbot Campaigns Many businesses are already using SMS campaigns to send messages to customers. However, the shift to SMS chatbots provides a more interactive and engaging way to communicate.Traditional SMS campaigns are typically one-way, where businesses send promotional messages or updates to customers. On the other side, SMS chatbots offer two-way communication, allowing customers to interact with the company. Making the switch from SMS campaigns to SMS chatbot automation requires careful planning: Identify Your Goals: Before transitioning, you must identify the specific goals you want to achieve. Knowing your objectives will guide the chatbot’s design, improving customer service or increasing sales. Segment Your Audience: SMS chatbots, like SMS campaigns, work best when segmenting the audience. Tailor your messaging to target specific customer groups to increase engagement and conversion. Integrate with Your Systems: For maximum efficiency, your SMS chatbot should integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) and support system. This integration enables personalized interactions and seamless service. Test and Improve: Before fully launching, test your SMS chatbot with a small segment of customers. Use feedback and data to optimize the chatbot’s functionality and improve customer interactions. How Do SMS Chatbots Work? SMS chatbots use AI and NLP to understand and respond to user inputs. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how they work: User Initiates Interaction: A customer sends a business an SMS message with a question, request for support, or desire to purchase. Bot Processes the Message: The chatbot receives the message and uses NLP to understand the intent behind the user’s text. It analyzes the message to determine the appropriate response. Bot Responds: The chatbot sends an automated reply based on its analysis. This could be a simple answer, a series of questions to clarify the request or an action like confirming an order. Continuous Interaction: The chatbot can continue engaging with the customer, asking for more information, or providing further assistance. Data Collection: Throughout the interaction, the chatbot gathers data, such as customer preferences and feedback, which can be used to improve future interactions. How to Build an SMS Chatbot? Building an SMS chatbot requires a mix of strategy, technical setup, and integration with existing business tools. Here’s how you can get started: Step 1 - Define Your Use Case Determine your chatbot's primary function. Will it be used for customer service, marketing, or order processing? Identifying your chatbot’s purpose will help you create its design and features. Step 2 - Select an SMS Platform Choose an SMS platform that supports chatbot integration. Services like Twilio, Nexmo, and Plivo offer APIs that allow you to send and receive SMS messages programmatically. Many platforms also support chatbot features, making them ideal for building an automated solution. Step 3 - Develop the Chatbot Script The conversation flow is a crucial part of building a chatbot. Work with your team to design the chatbot’s script. Make sure it covers common customer queries and aligns with your business objectives. Keep the language simple, clear, and easy to understand. Step 4 - Integrate AI and NLP Use platforms like Google Dialogflow, IBM Watson, or Microsoft LUIS to integrate natural language processing into your SMS chatbot. These tools help the chatbot understand user input more human-likely. Step 5 - Test the Chatbot Once your chatbot is developed, testing it with a small group of users is essential. Based on user feedback, gather feedback on its performance and adjust the conversation flow, language, or functionality. Step 6 - Deploy and Scale After testing and optimization, launch your SMS chatbot to a broader audience. As your business grows, continuously monitor the chatbot’s performance and make the necessary improvements. Best Practices for SMS Chatbots To ensure your SMS chatbot functions effectively and provides value to customers, follow these best practices: 1. Keep Messages Short and Clear SMS is a concise communication medium, so messages should be brief and to the point. Avoid overloading users with long texts. 2. Offer Opt-Out Options Always allow users to opt out of chatbot interactions if they no longer want to receive messages. This ensures compliance with regulations and maintains customer trust. 3. Personalize Interactions Use customer data to personalize chatbot interactions. Address customers by name, recommend relevant products, and tailor responses based on previous interactions. 4. Provide Human Escalation While SMS chatbots help handle simple queries, some issues require human intervention. Ensure that users can quickly escalate their problems to a live agent when necessary. 5. Monitor Performance and Improve Track response time, engagement rates, and customer satisfaction metrics to regularly analyze your chatbot's performance. Use this data to improve and optimize the chatbot’s effectiveness. Conclusion SMS chatbots help businesses communicate with customers more efficiently by automating customer support and marketing tasks. They save time, reduce costs, and make customer interactions smoother. With the proper setup, an SMS chatbot can improve engagement and service quality. Want to add an SMS automation chatbot to your business? Saffron Edge can help. Our team specializes in developing custom chatbots that improve customer interaction and streamline operations. Contact us today to learn how we can build a tailored SMS chatbot solution for your business. ...
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5 Quick-Fixes That Can Help Bring Back Website Traffic
When you own an e-commerce firm then you spend a lot of time to keep driving traffic to your website. Infact, large firms like Amazon and Flipkart spend millions of dollars to not only retain online customers on their website but also bring in new traffic and increase unique users. But this is only half the battle. Once you generate the traffic, now how do you retain the customers? The best way to keep your customers around is not only by rewarding them to stay but also through customer engagement. Keeping prospects on your site is the key to turning traffic into sales. Let us see on this side of the battle on how to manage customer engagement: 1. Analyze Your Website You must be having a team of people who work day and night to make your website discoverable on popular search engines. It is indeed a difficult task but is a necessary part of business. Yet, just think about why offer a website that does not functions well? Customers either see a 404-Page not found error or the site takes too much of time to load. You should let your team to work out on finding the dead links in the website by using the many tools that are available online. One of them that we use is brokenlinkchecker.com. The other issue and we must say the big one is that of page load times. Customers want to click through to a landing page that is informative that solves their needs and is attractive. If you can’t offer these things, then customers will write you off almost immediately and never come back. For checking the site speed you can use tools like Pingdom or other tools that are available online. As a general rule, please make sure that your site takes less than 3 seconds to load to ensure that your customers do not leave before they even arrive. 2. Create A Consistent Experience Stay in touch with your customers apart from the online channels as well. The more options you provide your customers to contact you, the more likely they are to engage with you. Offer links to your social media page along with a live chat option on the website to instantly connect customers with the customer service. When you can recreate the same customer service features online that a customer would generally find in a physical store, you can improve engagement and this will keep customers coming back. 3. Offering Customers A Loyalty Program Most people think loyalty programs are hard on businesses by draining out profits, but this is not always true. A good loyalty program will draw in customers and make you their first thought whenever they need to make a purchase. Most of the loyalty rewards are related to making a future purchase discounts whenever a client wants. Either it be a “Buy 1 and Get 1 Free” or “Buy 1 and Get 50% discount on next purchase”, loyalty programs are a great way to ensure that customers come back to you rather than the competition. It is cyclical method, the more customers you retain or gain, the less money you have to spend chasing down more. 4. Offer Online Video Content It is known to all that Google and Facebook have prioritizing online videos over other content. Google’s Youtube is already a very popular social media channel and an old one. That alone is a good enough reason to get involved in making online videos for your business. Online videos are far more engaging, and according to a recent report Facebook has reported video content as the most engaging content on its platform. 5. Create a real ‘About Us’ Page People really want to know who you are. It’s our human nature to be curious and because the internet has anonymized the businesses, customers want to be able to at least know who they are buying products from when they come online. A great “About Us” page not only engages the customers but also inspires them and draw them into your story. In world, where people use social media to find deeper connections, the ‘About Us’ page is a vital step for your website. ...
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