On not going it alone
Repeat after me: I cannot do all the things all the time all on my own.
Maybe say it five times, fast.
Lately, I’ve been fielding inquiries about where to find the right marketing help. Things like … Which agency can I trust? (Or, more accurately, is there one?) Who can fix the #$&(@#$&( mess that is my HubSpot installation?
Whether you’re heading up growth at a lean startup or scaling an enterprise-level practice, you need amazing people and teams you can trust to do excellent work, within your budget and time constraints.
So…here are my go-to people and teams. You’re welcome :) (And next time you email/text/call/dm me, I’ll just send you a link to this page.)
Also. This list ended up even longer than I expected it to be and I’m still worried I’ve left someone out so if you’re that someone, message me and you’re still amazing and I’m sorry!
For HubSpot help:
I cannot say enough about what a crazy good idea this company is, and how much they’ve changed how I get things done. I was skeptical at first. How can it possibly be this easy to take these things off my plate? I’m sure they’ll get stuff wrong or it’ll take a ton of back and forth to get things done. Nope and nope. Even if you have in-house HubSpot admins, give this a try.
For HubSpot help + inbound marketing:
When you have a heavy lift in improving your HubSpot systems or really leveling up your content marketing practice, I’d look to Impact. In fact, I did. They’ve been ranked HubSpot Partner of the Year twice. Their process is far better structured and more transparent than a lot of agencies’ tend to be. And their people are super smart. (Shoutouts to Nick, Genna, and Carina!)
For WordPress help:
They’re kind of like my Wordpress analog to HubSnacks. Because every once in a while, you look up and realize there are 5,000 updates waiting for you in Wordpress. Or you have a quick change to the template you want to make. Or a set of new pages to launch. The team is all based in India, they’re affordable, fast, and super responsive. For in-depth projects, we hop on a Google Meet to talk things through. Otherwise, a few emails and the work is done. (Have to give my CPO credit for finding these folks.)
For WordPress help + strategy + design + general awesomeness:
I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH about how super awesome Tara is. She’s smart strategy + design sensibility + execution + implementation. I don’t just hire Tara for a project. I partner with her. And she’s super fun to work with.
For design:
I am not a designer. But I totally play one in Canva. I’ve designed emails, banners, social posts, CTAs, ebooks, sales sheets…it’s amazing. I’ve boosted my email CTRs and on-page conversions with Canva. And gotten ridiculously good conversion rates on LInkedIn ads and sponsored content. All without agencies or freelancers.
I have a few freelance designers I work with on an ad hoc basis. The projects are side hustles for them. They don’t have web presences and anyway I don’t want you to overload them with projects so there’s no space left for me. Sorry not sorry :)
For wrestling Salesforce into submission:
Technically, Karen works with nonprofits. But my mission-driven SaaS, thankfully, made the cut. There is no crazy complicated marketing-sales-pipeline-funnel-ROI-metrics-dashboarding or why-won’t-Salesforce-and-HubSpot-play-nicer-together question that Karen can’t tackle. And, as is becoming a theme here, she’ll do it quickly and transparently and like a super awesome partner who sits beside you to work through the tangles.
For making Zendesk better:
Pulled this team in to give our Zendesk a refresh to align with our visual brand, and to improve our platform chat experience. Affectionately referred to within my team as “the Belgians” as in…oh, that’s a great idea for making Zendesk even better; let’s get the Belgians on that immediately. Not to be repetitive, but much like Impact, what’s great here is their well-structured and very transparent process, alongside excellent and quick work.
For videography and voiceovers…
Amazing work. Excellent vision. We produced this together. Would pull them in on any project in the future.
Award-winning voiceover artist and all-around good egg. Incredibly good at what she does, making clear why this is a thing you should hire a professional to do.
While I’m talking about video and voiceovers, if you don’t know about Temi yet (like that New Yorker reporter who hired a virtual assistant because he’s still spending hours manually transcribing his interviews), you need to. I rely on Temi to turn videos and webinars into transcripts that I can then turn into blog posts and other kinds of content. It’s fast, practically free, and no longer gives me hilarious errors like that one time it inserted into a transcript the phrase, “eat your children.”
Other people I haven’t actually hired but are ridiculously smart and I look to them for good advice and you should probably just hire them right now for real go do it…
Susan at ScaleSpark is the smartest most approachable CFO person on the planet and also ridiculously good with tech stack stuff to make your business better. Side note: very thankful to Pia’s bootcamp for connecting us (see below).
Margo Aaron makes marketing matter in the most important ways and would have loved if I could’ve made the alliteration go the whole way through this sentence. I found Margo when she posted a piece to our altMBA alum group about the Gary Vee in her head that yells at her every night. I was like…I need to know this person. I was right.
Matt and the team at HandBuiltBrands will build your website, boost your traffic, create your content, report on your ROI regularly, and generally do all the great things that turn marketing into actual business growth. I learned a lot from Matt when we were in Margo’s coworking community for solo entrepreneurs. To understand how he works and what drives him, check out his culture articles. Also go subscribe to HAMYAW just do it now because as my 11yo said recently: Wait. Hillary and Margo *yell* at *websites*? No. We have to watch.
Pia Silva, cofounder of WorstofallDesigns, author of Badass Your Brand, general and all-around badass. I read Pia’s book when I was building my consulting practice, thanks to Caelin’s recommendation who I met through Margo’s coworking community (just read below, it’ll all make sense). Then I joined her beta bootcamp, where I met Susan (again, below…). Super smart, no bs approach to branding and marketing. Useful for founders and solo entrepreneurs alike.
Caeiln Aerin of Touchstone Copy because Caelin is smart and thoughtful and puts a ton of heart into the work and knows copy inside and out.
Adrienne Nakohl of ANB Consulting and bestbuyerpersona.com because she’s one of the few people on the planet who truly gets how to do buyer-centered marketing for actual people that actually grows your business with content that actually works. Actually. Yet another amazing person I met through Margo’s coworking community, which is no more, so you’ll have to find these people somewhere else. Also you should follow Adrienne on Twitter or you will have no idea what’s happening in #marketingtwitter. I’m still not entirely sure. But it’s there.
Case Study Buddy…I’ve looked into this and am hoping to try it soon. Case studies are just those things that everyone needs and no one ever has time to do. And I generally advise keeping content generation in-house if you can. But when you find someone who’s got the process down and has succesfully done content for brands, it’s worth trying (see many smart people above as more examples).
And for more in-depth work…
They were our digital agency in my enterprise days. If you’re in the Boston area, you know why. Not for lean startups. But more for these kinds of brands.