Inbound Marketing Agency: A Case Study Report on Business Development

This report presents a case study on an Inbound Marketing Agency facing challenges related to incorrect hiring decisions, cultural gaps, and a shortage of content marketing specialists, leading to decreased profitability. The agency's issues are examined, focusing on the negative impacts of hiring the wrong employees and the need for skilled content marketers. Several alternatives are considered, including hiring experienced employees, expanding the content marketing team, and employing an operations consultant. The report recommends prioritizing the hiring of experienced employees, as it offers the highest potential for improving profitability and employee morale. The analysis includes a decision matrix evaluating the alternatives based on factors like cost, profitability, and ease of implementation, with the suggested solution of hiring experienced staff to address the agency's problems and improve overall performance. The report emphasizes the importance of maintaining work ethics and employee morale for enhanced productivity.

Running head: INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
A case report on Inbound Marketing Agency
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Name of the Author:

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
Executive summary
In this report, the main aim is to provide a solution to the problems which are faced by the
Inbound Marketing Agency, leading to a decrease in their production. The problems which are
faced by the company regarding the wrong hires and the emergence of the cultural gap in the
company have been discussed in the report. Less number of employees in the content marketing
segment is also one of the main issues which are faced by the company. The alternatives which
have been used to overcome the issues faced by the company are hiring experienced employees,
hiring employees for the content marketing segment and hiring an operations consultant. From
these three alternatives, an alternative solution has been provided in the report, which suggests
the company to start hiring people in the content marketing segment. The other two alternatives
which were stated are not advised for implementation since they might not improve the
productivity and profitability of the company. Reasons for the implementation of hiring people
who are expert in content marketing has been explained in the report.

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
Issue
According to Adam Rowles, the main problem which was faced by the inbound
marketing agency is the hiring of the two wrong employees by the company in the frontend and
the backend of the company. The profitability of the company gradually decreased, and there
was a cultural gap in the company (Capstone 2019).
Causes
The problem with the new hirings by the company was that the new employees did not
meet the required skillset of the company. Hiring a new client by the company resulted in some
budget issues faced by the company. The budget went significantly high and the company could
not provide service accordingly. the cause of the decrease in the profitability of the company was
because the new team members required some time to cope up with the workplace environment.
The new hire in the backend of the company was facing a lot of pressure and was unable to cope
with it. The team comprised of a lot of individuals who were designated as content writers, social
media specialists, and others but what the company needed more was individuals who were more
skilled at the content marketing side of things. The company was lacking in the number of team
members who could help the company by covering the side of content marketing. The capacity
of the team was fine but the company was lacking in capability issue. These are the reason due to
which the productivity of the company went low due to the new hiring of the staff. The team
members of the company were also over-servicing their clients. These are causes for the decline
of the company and so new ways will be found for the company so that they can do better.
Alternatives
Based on the discussions done above, the following are the set of alternatives which can
be followed by the company:

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
Alternatives Pros Cons Resources
Alternative 1:
Twenty percent of the
new employees who will
be hired by the company
must have an experience
of at least ten years in the
required field.
-reduces the chances of hiring
the wrong employees
-reduces the time of adjustment
needed for the new employees in
the workplace
-the experience of the newly
hired employees will facilitate
the production of the company
(EG Bateson et al.,2014).
-the
experienced
employees
might ask for
higher
salaries.
-the newly
appointed
employees
might ask for
some extra
facilities to
be provided
to them.
-online sites
where the
company can
put their
advertisements
-newspapers for
advertising their
hiring process.
Alternative 2:
Hiring employees for the
content marketing sector.
-it will be contributing to the
increase in the revenue of the
company.
-the company will be able to
expand their business expertise.
-there will be an increase in the
-new
employees
will require
extra time to
adjust to the
new
workplace.
-time will be
required by the
company to hire
employees in
the marketing
sector.
-space will be

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
cash flow of the company.
-there will be an increase in the
market share of the company.
-there is a
risk that the
new
employees
hired might
not deliver
the required
outcome.
-difficult to
implement a
new team of
content
marketing
employees.
-extra costs
will be
needed to
hire new
employees.
required for the
new team of the
marketing
sector.
Alternative 3: -hiring an external consultant
will be facilitating an
improvement in the work
-the external
consultant
will not be
having any
- A
consider
able
sum of

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
The company can hire an
external consultant to
improve its internal
system operations.
culture.
-Employee morale will be
improved.
-the operation of the company
will be improved.
idea about the
operations
process
which has
been taking
place in the
company
(Pulizzi and
Joe 2013).
-the
consultant
might provide
generalized
steps to be
followed by
the company
for its
improvement
(Velasquez,
Mark and
Hester 2013).
-the external
consultant
money
will be
required
to hire a
consulta
nt.

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
might be
asking for a
massive sum
of money.
-an external
consultant
will be
joining the
company for
a particular
period.
Decision Criteria
The different elements such as cost needed for the implementation of the process, the
profitability of the alternative process, the competitive advantages of the process, the rate of the
growing quantity and the efficiency of the process have been stated as the most important criteria
(15%) for addressing the various issues and causes of the company (Yu and Po-Lung 2013).. All
these processes are directly connected with the long term growth and the increase in the cash
flow of the company. Various organizations are supposed to engage the ethical practices among
the employees and consider the value of the employees while undertaking any kind of decision-
making process. Keeping in mind the employee morale in engaging the ethical issues, both of
these factors have been weighted at 10%. The ease for the implementation of the alternative

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
process has been weighted at 5% in which the focus must be put on the positive outcome which
will be generated by the alternative processes.
The following table shows the relevant decision criteria with the different weight, which
highlights the primary importance of every criterion along with the various scores which will
help determine the most suitable process which can be implemented by the company.
Reasoning Criteria Weight A1 A2 A3
Pre-
implementation
consideration
Cost 15% 2 30
%
1 15% 3 45%
Ethics 10% 2 30
%
2 20% 2 20%
Ease of implementation 5% 3 15
%
3 15% 2 10%
Competitiveness Profitability 15% 3 45
%
2 30% 3 45%
Competitive advantages 15% 3 45
%
3 45% 3 45%
Growth rate quantity 15% 3 45
%
3 45% 2 30%
Operational
efficiency
Efficiency 15% 3 45
%
2 30% 2 30%

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Employees
engagement
Employees Morale 10% 3 30
%
2 10% 3 30%
Total 100% 285% 210% 255%
Ranking - 1 3 2
Notes: A1: Twenty percent of the new employees who will be hired by the company must have an experience of at
least ten years in the required field, A2: Hiring employees for the content marketing sector, A3: The company can
hire an external consultant to improve its internal system operations.
Indicators
3 Very Strong/Very High/Very Easy
2 Moderate
1 Very Poor/ Very Low/Very Difficult
Preferred Solution
Recommended solutions
Alternative 1: Twenty percent of the new employees who will be hired by the company must
have an experience of at least ten years in the required field (preferred solution)
This alternative method is the most preferable solution to be implemented by the
company with the highest score of 285 percent. Hiring experienced employees by the company
can be very beneficial for it since it is already suffering profitability loss due to the hiring of the
wrong employees. Though it might cost a bit more for the company yet it will be very helpful for
the company in the long run since non-experienced employees take a longer time to cope up with

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
the work ethics of a place but experienced employees will find it very easy to adjust themselves
with an existing workplace environment (Winston and Bruce 2018). Keeping in mind the
competitive advantages of the company, it will be very helpful for the company to increase its
profitability and generate more cash flow. The employee morale of the workplace environment
will also be retained when an experienced employee is hired by a company since they already
know how they can retain the quality of a workplace with junior employees (Reigle and Dale
2014).
Looking at the overall score of this alternative it is safe to say that the company will be
back into its track if it starts to implement this strategy to cope up with the loss it has suffered.
Alternative 2: Hiring employees for the content marketing sector
The company lacks employees in the content marketing sector but there are certain risks
that need to addressed while implementing this process. the company has already faced some
issues while hiring new employees in the backend and the frontend of the marketing department
which has resulted in a decrease in their profitability. So they need to be careful in hiring new
employees as there are certain issues that the company might be facing like the new employees
hired in the content marketing sector might not live up to the expectations of the company
(Rezaei and Jafar 2015). The work ethics and employee morale in the workplace environment
might be slightly hampered as the new employees will require some time to get accustomed to
the new workplace. There might be certain cultural differences between the existing employees
and the new employees of the company. The efficient growth rate of the company might increase
after the hiring of new content sector employees but on the other hand, there lies a possibility
that the company might suffer cash flow again (Järvinen, Joel and Taiminen 2016).

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INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
Alternative 3: The company can hire an external consultant to improve its internal system
operations.
Hiring an external consultant by the company will be very useful for the company
but it will be costing a good sum of money. The consultant of the company will be providing a
generalized strategy for the improvement of the operations of the company which might not be
useful for the company at present. An external consultant might not be able to maintain
employee ethics and morale in the workplace environment so it might not be so helpful fo the
company (Ishizaka, Alessio and Nemery 2013). Maybe, in the future, the company might hire a
consultant to improve their work but at present looking at the score of the process (255 %), this
process might not be a good idea for the company.
Implementation and Implications
For addressing the issues and causes faced by the company this section provides a brief
solution for the addressed problems in the report.
The company needs to rethink its hiring process as the main revenue outcome of the
company mainly depends on the performances of the employees. Work morale and work ethics
must be maintained by the company to enhance the performances of the employees.
The company must understand the potential of the existing employees and retain them to
improve the productivity of the company. Hiring experienced employees by the company will be
helping the company to continue its work efficiently without facing any hindrance in the long
run.

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Reference list
EG Bateson, John, Jochen Wirtz, Eugene Burke, and Carly Vaughan. "Psychometric sifting to
efficiently select the right service employees." Managing Service Quality 24, no. 5 (2014): 418-
433.
Holliman, Geraint, and Jennifer Rowley. "Business to business digital content marketing:
marketers’ perceptions of best practice." Journal of research in interactive marketing 8, no. 4
(2014): 269-293.
Ishizaka, Alessio, and Philippe Nemery. Multi-criteria decision analysis: methods and software.
John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Järvinen, Joel, and Heini Taiminen. "Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content
marketing." Industrial Marketing Management 54 (2016): 164-175.
Pulizzi, Joe. Epic content marketing: How to tell a different story, break through the clutter, and
win more customers by marketing less. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.
Reigle, Dale A. "Hiring the right employees." The Journal of medical practice management:
MPM 30, no. 3 (2014): 183.
Rezaei, Jafar. "Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method." Omega 53 (2015): 49-57.
Velasquez, Mark, and Patrick T. Hester. "An analysis of multi-criteria decision making
methods." International Journal of Operations Research 10, no. 2 (2013): 56-66.
Winston, Bruce E. Biblical principles of hiring and developing employees. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2018.