Inbound Networking Groups Will be Lead by Marketing Agencies Who Know How to Network
Just 7 days after proposing the inbound networking concept , I've been pleasantly surprised by the interest in Inbound Networking. People are writing blog posts about it, there are 20+ comments on the original post, there are <LOVE IT> retweets, etc.
For the last few weeks, I've been talking to High Mobley about starting a group, Jason Kallio has already recruited members for his, and there are about 20 HubSpot partners waiting for next steps.
My plan is to help marketing agencies form, lead and own these groups. At HubSpot, my team has helped 100s of marketing agencies grow their business. These agencies, in turn, have helped 1,000s of businesses grow theirs, by signing up these customers on retainer. On average, a HubSpot customer who works with a partner spends a few thousand dollars per month on marketing services and generates about 100 leads/month from their website, as a result of the work that the partner does. The ROI is there. However, it can be better. And we can serve more companies better if we:
- Have a way for small businesses to learn inbound marketing and start generating leads without investing $2k/mo+ right away.
- Have a way to help small businesses get their content shared by other small businesses who trust them enough to share it.
But, this will still take a lot of work and a committment of time and money by each member of the inbound networking group. Based on my experience running networking groups, that doesn't happen without a strong leader, who has the trust and respect of their members, and the ability to focus the group to do what they need to do.
In order to lead a group like this, the leader will need to be:
- A strong networker
- A strong inbound marketer
In the next post I write, I'll propose what I think each member should pay and what work the leader of the group should do for each member, in order to justify that fee.
Thoughts?