Max's inbound agency blog

Growth is turning out to be the Achilles heel for inbound agencies. A hidden weakness within an overall strength. Some of the smartest, nicest and most driven people I know are throwing in the towel.

Thousands of small marketing outfits have jumped on the inbound marketing bandwagon. Large agencies, established sales organizations and software companies have also built out inbound teams so they can say "yes" to the services that clients are begging for. But there therein lies the problem. Agencies are being spoon-fed opportunities and they eventually get caught with their pants down having not thought through the SERVICES based business model at scale.

No thanks, were happy with our current inbound agency service offerings. Our strategy is solid, email lead nurturing is simple, posting on social is easy, writing blogs and whitepapers... were starting to get into the groove. This is the typical agency reaction to change. Too bad! Millennials are taking over the research roles in B2B buying decisions, which means we need to totally re-calibrate our approach to generating quality sales opportunities for our B2B clients. Haven't you noticed that our traditional "inbound" approach just doesn't work like it used to? The truth is: your clients are wondering what your next move is because they are thinking about bringing your current scope of services in-house. Business development reps, video, participation marketing, user generated content, mobile apps, social ads: sounds scary - but it is time we get our hands dirty and think about the future!

Here are my predictions for the hottest B2B agency products and services in 2016 that will have you standing out from your competition - because most agencies won't make big changes this year. A lucky few will!