We sat down with OXYGEN, a platinum partner based in China, to learn more about how they harnessed the partner program Impact Awards to win some of their largest clients.
HubSpot’s Impact Awards recognize the work of our top partners each quarter. The application process is straightforward: put together a case study blog post featuring impactful work you’ve done for a client with the help of HubSpot’s platform. Win or lose, you’ve just created inbound content showcasing your best work to the world.
Here’s what OXYGEN had to say about building submissions into their business process.
Our team took a training session that forced us to focus on SMART goals that would play to each of our strengths. The training identified that some members of our team had “competitive” traits, which we decided to lean into. The Impact Awards seemed like a perfect avenue to start.
It was a bit of a light bulb moment for us. Looking at our retention rates and other metrics, we knew we were doing good work, but we just kept it to ourselves. Once we’d applied and won the first few awards, we knew we had to keep it going on a quarterly basis.
Each quarter, we look at all our existing projects and speak with clients to find out which project might be applicable for an award.
From past experience, we get the best results (and case studies) when we’re allowed to have a meaningful impact on the marketing and sales strategy, instead of just being given one-off requests each month by a siloed team.
There’s been an undeniable boost in leads and conversions since winning. We’ve noticed a big change, with many leads actually finding us through HubSpot’s Impact Awards showcase page.
Our current largest monthly retainer came to us through a HubSpot referral, after seeing our awards. They wanted to focus on the quality of their campaigns over quantity for the same price. So, they decided to partner with us.
And although we did great work before the awards, it was hard to communicate quickly and effectively to leads who often are just comparing agencies at a glance. That’s why we’ve also turned our winning case study blogs into PDFs for when leads ask about our track record and previous work.
Work with clients who are willing to fully invest and trust your team to lead the direction of your campaigns. Don't focus on clients who want ad hoc tasks done to complement their existing team. It's much easier to make bold changes and get bold results with a client who trusts you and your team.
Find the true impact that the campaign had on your client’s business. Many times, we weren't even aware of the real impact we made until we sat down and probed about the ROI or offline sales results with the CEO and other decision-makers.
Lastly, to create a winning case study, you really need to care about your client’s business. It's a lot easier to create winning cases when you are genuinely invested in their success, whatever success means to them.
You can read all five of OXYGEN’s award-winning case studies on our showcase page. Have you made a big impact on your client’s business? We want to celebrate you too. Apply today.