Looking for a Platform for Inbound Success
Nile was founded to become a marketing agency that did things differently. First and foremost, Karim wanted to use the inbound methodology to achieve success for the new company and its new clients. He also wanted to move away from piecemeal project work and into retainers.
However, Karim says that many potential clients had never heard the term inbound marketing before.
“In France and especially in the industrial manufacturing sector that we target, marketing is still very old school. Inbound was completely new to them; I needed to demonstrate that we could produce results and give them a good return on their investment. However, the various tools that we were using at the time – WordPress, Hootsuite, Google Analytics – weren’t allowing us to do that.”
Karim investigated several marketing automation platforms, and after evaluating his options, the HubSpot software emerged as the clear winner.
“It had every marketing tool that I could need, all in the one place. As well as that, HubSpot was offering the kind of training and support that as a Partner, I needed to make my business a true market leader.”
Ringing the Changes as a HubSpot Partner
Karim decided to become a HubSpot Partner in August 2015, after hearing about the success that other marketing agencies had achieved with the program. As a Partner, Nile would be able to pass along the benefits of the HubSpot Marketing Platform to its customers; it would also be able to avail of HubSpot’s dedicated sales training to help it win new business.
Nile began the HubSpot onboarding process for its own website immediately – Karim wanted his company to be a shining example of all that inbound marketing can help achieve.
It used the Social Inbox to organise its social media activities and the Email App to optimise its communications with potential clients. It leveraged the power of its valuable content with the Blog App and Landing Pages and began to automate its lead nurturing campaigns with Workflows.
Karim explains that his HubSpot sales manager also helped the company to organise its sales process. “Before we partnered with HubSpot, our sales process wasn’t structured. We didn’t have a strategy for organising our prospects or nurturing our leads. Thanks to our HubSpot manager that has all changed. Now we have a clear methodology to follow and specific targets to hit, and we can see the results of every action we take.”
Real Results Convince Conservative Customers
In the eight months since Nile became a HubSpot partner, it has achieved some impressive results. Its website visitors have increased by 850%, leads are up by 40X, and it has a growing number of clients on retainer.
It provides these customers with a comprehensive education in the inbound process and also teaches them how to use the HubSpot Marketing Platform to achieve their goals.
“Previously, these clients were using old-fashioned methods, such as magazine and display ads. They had much trouble measuring the return on investment of their marketing spend,” says Karim. “The HubSpot software has made it much clearer for them. With the Analytics Dashboard, they can see the ROI of their marketing and make intelligent decisions about what to do next.”
Nile’s new clients already see results. Their website traffic has been boosted enormously, while leads and sales are growing as well. Karim expects to double Nile’s customers by the end of the year.
Looking to the future, the Nile CEO wants to expand his company rapidly and plans to use the inbound methodology to help him do so. At the moment, about half of Nile’s customers come from inbound; he wants to make that 100%.
“I think that inbound marketing is the future for agencies in France, and I’m very confident that our partnership with HubSpot is going to allow us to scale our business to new heights.”
