What was the scope of their involvement?
We could have used several marketing automation tools, but Weidert Group is a HubSpot partner. They convinced me that HubSpot was the best tool. After my own research, I came to that conclusion as well. The collaboration has combined HubSpot work, contact organization, and content writing.
Getting our website code—whether it was Flash, HTML, or something else—and converting it to HubSpot templates was one of the biggest challenges. Weidert Group took our current website and migrated it to HubSpot, which was key to its launch.
They also broke my database of 12,000 contacts into an A group, a B group, and a C group. The initial plan was to launch our A group into HubSpot and start communicating with them. The A group had dialogue with HUI.
I was sending monthly email blasts through MailChimp before using HubSpot. I could see who was active, who clicked on things, who visited our landing pages, and who went to our website. That was the first group of people that Weidert Group helped me load into the system.
After that, they taught us how to create content. To drive people to the website, we needed videos and written content. They taught us how to blog, helped us create e-books, and assisted us in creating or changing blog posts. That was another big tool that got our inbound strategy off the ground. We mainly did email blasts before that, rather than creating blogs, white papers, or e-books.
We had very good SEO when migrating into HubSpot, which reduced our budget. A third party already managed our PPC effectively, so we chose to stay with that plan. Weidert Group could have provided this service, but they didn’t try to take it over. They knew that some areas of our inbound strategy needed more help than others, and focused on the code-red ones.
Social media was part of the backlog. They wanted us to start creating content for social media and pushed us to do more on LinkedIn.
What is the team composition?
I communicate with their senior inbound marketing consultant 95 percent of the time. I speak with their client operations manager as well, but he mostly interacts with one of my internal marketing colleagues.
How did you come to work with Weidert Group?
Their president walked up to us while we were exhibiting at an event called Manufacturing First. He asked about our current marketing strategy, and wondered whether we wanted to approach prospects in a different way. He proposed a tool that would drive more prospects to our website. We discussed possibilities, which is when he started talking about inbound marketing and HubSpot. I understood those and realized that we had a common interest in learning more about this subject. I could tell that he was passionate about it and wanted to help.
Just a few months later, I reached out to him and asked to meet. I was interested in seeing what they had to offer.
Our situation might be a bit different, in the sense that I was already educated about HubSpot, marketing automation, and inbound marketing. It was just a matter of putting it all together and finding a partner.
How much have you invested with them?
The cost of their work is $35,000–$45,000 per year.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Weidert Group in February 2016. The collaboration is ongoing.
Since the completion of the project, traffic, page views, and time spent on the website have increased and the bounce rate has decreased. Weidert Group communicated well and met all deadlines. Their attentiveness and understanding of the company allowed for a smooth launch of the final website.