14: We get up close and personal with the hosts of the HubShots podcast Craig Bailey and Ian Jacob

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Craig Bailey and Ian Jacob are hosts of the HubShots podcast. Craig is also the founder and CEO at XEN and Ian is the Founder and CEO at Search and Be Found, both well respected digital marketing agencies. In the HubShots podcast, the guys share valuable information about HubSpot and Inbound Marketing such as HubSpot Marketing and Sales features of the week and resource of the week.  Craig and Ian are always sharing valuable insights into HubSpot and other parts of the HubSpot ecosystem but today we’re going to turn the tables and find out more about Craig and Ian and their digital marketing businesses.

[spp-tweet tweet=”@craigbailey Solve for the problem ie. focus on the one that gives the most benefit”]

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Time Stamped Show Notes

(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)

  • [05:47] – Ian shares his story on how he changed from being a developer to being business focused.
  • [06:40] – Samantha asks if they can share a tip, tool , or tactic that marketers need to know and probably don’t. Craig talks about the thing that they learned from HubSpot’s CMO which is “Solve for the problem”.  Focus on the one that gives the most benefit. Ian added that if there’s no “why” on why they are doing it, it just makes everything from that point a bit useless.
  • [09:15] – Samantha asks how to know if you’ve found the root of the problem. Craig gives an example.
  • [10:31] – Craig shares a tactical tip where marketers can use LinkedIn. He says that you can target LinkedIn group members in LinkedIn Advertising. You will get results when you post in LinkedIn groups. You don’t even have to be a part of the group to advertise to it.
  • [11:50] – Craig says that the key differentiator in getting great results vs average results is in targeting.
  • [12:47] – Samantha asks if people spend time consuming content on LinkedIn relative to the time they’re spending on Facebook. Ian says that there are people who spend a lot of time in LinkedIn and consume content. Craig added that they get responses from LinkedIn (not better compared to Facebook) and it’s a good source of attention.
  • [15:23] – Samantha asks what is Craig and Ian’s biggest success when it comes to inbound marketing. Ian shares a story relating to a client that is into property development. Coming on 2 years, they had 150% growth in traffic and also 150% growth in contacts in HubSpot. They also turned from a $1M – $6M business in turnover. They never run Ads and all they have done is the inbound methodology.
  • [16:45] – Ian also shared another tactic that he applied where they use the news in media and incorporate it into a blog post to attract people.
[spp-tweet tweet=”@ianjacob if there’s no ‘why’ on why they are doing it, it just makes everything from that point a bit useless “]
  •  [19:50] – Craig highlights a milestone in their journey where they grew his wife’s website from nothing to more than 50,000 customers in the space of a couple of years. It is where they learned a lot about SEO, Adwords, etc.
  • [20:45] – Craig shares another success story of a client that is a big global company involved in solar energy. Last year, they worked with them in driving awareness and leads. They built all social channels and ad channels to promote the company’s Ebook and drove 2,000 leads per month.
  • [26:00] – Samantha asks if they were able to share an indication of results as a result of what they did. Craig says that the global company’s sales went from $16M in sales to $25M despite the competitive climate of the industry.
  • [27:37] – Craig says that they built ‘micro sites’ providing information and social channels just for the sole purpose of providing value around a topic and promoting an Ebook. They had surprisingly great results on Instagram in terms of reach.
  • [29:55] – Samantha asks what are their biggest failures when it comes to inbound marketing. Ian says that being inconsistent has been their biggest failure. In terms of client work, his biggest mistake was that he had a team member creating content for their client and he didn’t have a close eye on it. After 3 months he realized that the content was not converting and they started all over again.
  • [33:30] – Craig shares his thoughts on their biggest failure which is wanting to cut corners especially on inbound marketing.
  • [39:00] – Samantha and Craig share their experiences and thoughts about cold calling.
  • [39:37] – Samantha asks what is the one thing they are most excited about today. Ian says that the evolution of marketing excites him. Craig says that he is excited about how marketing automation is getting smarter. He thinks that it’s amazing that software platforms can analyze data in just seconds.
  •  [49:00] – The Lightning Round
    • This content is available to The Daily Hub Subscribers.  If you’d like to see Craig and Ian’s answers to the lightening round questions below, subscribe now and you’ll receive access to the full interview and lightening round answers right in your inbox. Questions covered here are:
        • What was holding you back from growing your business? 
        • What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? 
        • Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success? 
        • Share a resource or tool that you’re using right now? 
        • What book would you recommend to Hub Nation and why?
        • Imagine you are starting a new role on a new industry tomorrow morning and you know no-one. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter are taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $1,000 dollars. The business owner tells you that things are incredibly tight and you need to achieve results quickly. What would you do in the next 7 days?
  • Note: If you are a subscriber to The Daily Hub and can’t see the answers above you need to login to view the answers.

Parting piece of guidance

      • “Solve for the problem. Test and measure”

3 Key Points:

      1. Focus on the one that gives the most benefit
      2. The key differentiator in getting great results vs average results is in targeting
      3. “Solve for the problem”

Resources Mentioned:

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