FAQ's about our inbound services

There are many ways inbound consulting can help you and your organisation move forward but to summarise:

The biggest advantage of working with a trusted external inbound marketing consultant is that you have an external high quality source of information and skill with an independent voice to help you overcome your day to day inbound challenges as well as your strategy concerns. This will improve your inbound methods so that you can translate all the hard work that you and your team(s) do into real progress towards your business goals.

The three main consulting types I offer are:

1. Strategy consulting retainers:

This is where we take a high level look at your organisational challenges and how we can solve them using Inbound practices. I work with you on a long term basis to build out your inbound business strategy and help you steer your team(s) to implement changes or improvements. The goal is to increase the quality and efficiency of any or all of your customer facing departments. Here are some examples of the types of strategies I can help with:

• Content creation strategy
• Lead conversion optimization
• Reporting and alignment of your marketing department with your business goals
• Lead nurturing and workflows
• Alignment of activities between marketing and sales.

Although I believe in the grounding principles of inbound I also believe that the secret to inbound success is to tailor the process to fit your unique needs, resources and goals. 

2. Hubspot Maintenance retainers:

This is where I get involved to provide extra hands and skill so you keep your marketing automation running smoothly. These are typically recurring maintenance tasks and these engagements are mostly long running.

Some examples:

• Hubspot crm/contacts datebase maintenance
• Cleaning and streamlining your stored forms/lists and other assets
• Assisting you to optimize your workflows
• Assisting with email automation.  

3. Project based consulting:

Specific time based consulting projects that address a specific challenge you need help with. They often include a goal that relates to an Inbound strategy or Hubspot challenge. It can include any of the strategies and activities mentioned above. These engagements are usually billed based on estimated hours over a pre agreed period after a free initial consultation. They usually involve the following:

• Mapping your requirements in detail and creating a clear set of project actions
• Working with you and/or your team(s) to identify the changes needed to procedures.
• Implementation of the changes required and documentation of the changes and new procedures where applicable.
• Post project review of changes made and goals set
• advise and follow up suggestions.

I take fairness and quality seriously! This means I will figure out the best fit for your needs with you instead of taking the one fits all approach. In most cases my clients are best served by combination of Inbound training and consultancy but sometimes you might not need my help or be ready to invest in my services yet. Please feel free to book in some time with me to work out what type of engagement might fit your needs and to receive some free advice on your Inbound challenges.

Ah, this is a tricky question! It cannot be answered in an FAQ as it is unique to your requirements, resources, skill level and stakeholders. This one of those questions that can be best answered by having a chat with me directly.

What you can expect from an initial scoping call (free): 

We focus on your needs first.

• Have you already identified the exact Project deliverables you need help with?
• Do you have clear marketing or business goals that you want our engagement to satisfy?
• If you don’t have the goals or KPI’s for your project figured out, what are the main inbound challenges you would like to address?

How flexible are you?

• In terms of resources
• In terms of the project timeline
• In terms of project scope
• In terms of budget.

Do you have other stakeholders that need to approve this project or retainer? What are their concerns and questions?

Do you have any concerns about working external contractors? Have you had any bad experiences with consultancy or outsourcing in the past? If so what happened?

After going over these questions with you I will give you some advice on improvements and discuss with you where my consulting or training services might fit in. A common challenge I come across is a lack of high level knowledge within teams which makes it hard to ensure that the time and money spent on Hubspot and Inbound is adding to your company’s growth. Sometimes a specific project or training session will do the trick, in other cases, resources are tight or you might operate on an outsourcing model. This is where retainers come in. Any combination of these three service types can be mixed and matched.

After listening to you and working out with you what you need, we will discuss my experience and what I can bring to the table to add value for you and your organisation. When we are both happy that my services are a good fit, I will write a project proposal to address any follow up questions, estimated costs and agreed implementation details. 

There are cases where you might not yet need my services or be ready to invest at all. In that case I will always strive to give you valuable tips advise on the best course of action for your particular situation.

Cost varies based upon the type of service, whether its retainer based and also whether I will need to travel to your business location or if it can be delivered remotely. Because of those variables it’s hard to give you an exact set of numbers without discussing your specific inbound consultancy needs but here are some of the more common price ranges:

A monthly hub spot maintenance or consulting retainer with our typical client’s might cost around EUR 1200-2200 per month. The exact cost will depend on the hours needed and actions required.

During a retainer I will work with you or execute the needed actions on your behalf, document and confirm the procedure and results and have direct contact with you to give you advise around improvements where possible. I can also take on some of the tasks you would otherwise have to outsource to other agencies.

I believe in delivering value so I always work with you to determine whether activities you are planning to outsource to me are worth your money. Reach out to have a chat with me and get some advice on what to expect.

I am flexible in how consulting can be delivered and am happy to travel to your offices or location of your choice if you require me to do so, but In most cases communicating using conference calls or online meetings mixed with email works best for consulting engagement as it provides the best value for time and cost.

There are plenty of reasons why you might need to invest in inbound marketing training. Here are some of the top reasons why we are contacted about workshops and training requirements:

• Hubspot software is not delivering enough value
• Your Marketing team feels they are not reaching their goals
• You have implemented Hubspot but are unsure how to use specific tools.
• Your team is having problems building an inbound strategy around your business goals or KPI's
• Your team doesn't want to change their way of working to use Hubspot (Buy-In). 
• You need help with Conversion, Customer journey, Business alignment, goal setting, social media, promotion or other strategies. 
• Your team need help on inbound workflows and contact management.
• You want to expand your use of Hubspot tools to other areas/departments of your organisation. 

There are many more reasons why you or your team might need training. Don't hesitate to contact us for a chat on what value a training might add. 

Many of our prospective clients ask themselves this question. If you got this far you have identified a general need for training, either due to a lack of results or because you simply feel your team is not familiar enough with the tools or strategies needed to reach your business goals. 

Have a look at Our post on what you should do when planning a training or workshop as it might help you define your needs and project constraints before you begin an engagement. 

Of course you're always welcome to reach out to us for a chat as well!

This is a question of which the importance is often underestimated.

The short answer is YES, absolutely! 

Clients often come to us for training because they feel that their investments in Hubspot, inbound marketing tools and methodologies just isn't paying off. They tend to focus on the fact that the tools aren't performing because of knowledge gaps or time constraints. A major reason that is often overlooked is that their teams just are not using the tools or applying the basic principles because they do not see the value of using these tools in reaching their goals. 

At About Inbound this is something we take seriously! We structure our training sessions around clear business goals so that your team can see why they are learning the inbound way and how it can benefit them to spend time getting to know it.  

I can deliver training at the location of your choice or combine in person training with remote sessions for employees in remote locations. It all depends on your training needs and your budget constraints. 

There are a lot of variables that have an impact on the cost of a training workshop. This depends heavily on the following factors:

• Whether the training is remote or in person. 
• The length of the training (hours or days)
• The level of customization required (read: unique content and exercises tailored to your business)
• The scope of the engagement (What follow up is required after the training, is there consultancy involved afterwards?)

As you can see there are a lot of variables but here are some bite-size examples of pricing:

Once off customized training and consulting calls start at Around €250 an hour for individual hours.  This always includes a pre-call assessment and tailored content. Prices vary heavily up or down based on the number of hours and type of engagemente.

For a full day training engagement complete with customized training materials and exercises we charge an average of €4000 for up to 20 people  (200 euro per person) plus travel expenses. These workshops typically include:

• scoping calls
• working out your goals with you
• creating any needed training materials exercises
• delivering the training at the location of your choice or remotely
• providing you with any worksheets or other  materials needed to complete the workshop
• A post-workshop follow up consulting call to ensure that the training met your goals
• Provide follow up tips for you and your team. 

Note that we are always transparent with our costings and makes sure that you understand why we charge what we charge. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about options or pricing.