Don't get me wrong! It's not a ton of free work at all, but the fact we offer a free audit come discovery session before engaging in any paid-for work is a very conscious decision based on the many projects we've run over the last 5 years or so as a HubSpot Partner.
Within the free work, we will analyse your digital footprint. Your website, HubSpot or other CRM, your content and so on. We will also want to land on a firm problem statement to allow us to capture exactly what work you need us to do.
Here are the 5 big reasons we work for free!
There is a lot to be said for getting on with and liking the people you work with, and simply put, when this is the case, we believe we can achieve anything when working together. Getting stuck or arguing with your client is counterproductive and no one enjoys it.
Feeling like you are being ripped off, on either side of the equation is horrible and something to be avoided at all costs!
We want to feel like we are part of the team, and that you view us as part of the team. It gives both sides confidence to communicate properly and makes sure everyone goes that extra mile for the process.
When I first started in agency life I wanted to help customers fix everything! This often resulted in overblown pitches and we often ran the risk of over-promising and under-delivering. Exactly the opposite of what our relationship with you should look like.
It's really important that everyone starts from the same place and gets to the end together. We really don't want to think we've finished a job only for the client to be disappointed in what has been delivered, or worse, expecting more.
The early chats we have during the free discovery session are vital in this respect. As other issues come up, and they invariably do, it's much easier to agree to push those issues back onto a wish list or roadmap where they can be looked at properly, once the initially agreed scope is completed.
We are really good at what we do. And that's because we do similar work over and over in different ways for different people. We know when we start what to do to fix a problem or launch a project.
In the early days, we probably said yes to too much that we weren't all that sure of solving. I don't believe we let anyone down, but now looking at the results we achieve and the feedback we get shows that staying in our lane is an extremely powerful strategy.
CRM, yep, CMS, yep, Integration, yep, Sales, Yep, SEO, Social, PPC, yep, yep, yep. Anything else, and maybe we aren't the best fit. But we'll probably find someone who can help you anyway, thanks to the depth of our relationships in the HubSpot ecosystem.
We believe in transparency. Which is why we decided to charge on a straightforward hourly basis. We charge a little more the higher the expertise you need. And that's it. There are no points, indices or anything else that can confuse people.
The free discovery allows us to set an estimate for the scope we are dealing with and therefore robust pricing for the client. I am extremely proud of the fact we never have to go back to a client to tell them we have underestimated the tasks and need to ask for more.
Equally, it's important that the client knows if they want something outside of that original scope time and materials estimate, it will be extra work and therefore an additional charge.
Our ambition with many of the projects we work on, is to move into a mutually valuable retainer. It's not always sensible, but it's often the case that when the project is completed we have earned the opportunity to continue to work with the teams we have so recently helped.
We think we can teach you everything you need to know about HubSpot and Inbound marketing within 12 months, but it takes two to tango as they say.
The trust we generate but doing this initial free discovery is the basis of any longer-term relationship we develop with you.
And even if we don't immediately end up in a retained relationship, we are all glad to see each other when the time comes to work together again sometime down the road.
It's not for everyone, and we know some agencies absolutely refuse to do work for free, but I hope I have given you an insight into why we do this for our clients. If you have been inspired or are interested in talking to us for free, you can also rest assured there are no catch or hard sales closes or anything else.
Free is free. If you (or we) decide a project isn't going to work, we all move on as friends. And we look forward to meeting you again at some point down the road as I hope, we will have impressed you and given you good grounds to trust us in our work.