Inbound marketing is still one of the most effective ways to generate leads. If you need help with your inbound efforts, here are our top agency picks for 2023.

Here, you’ll find:

  • What an inbound marketing agency is
  • Why you need to invest in inbound marketing in 2023
  • The top inbound marketing agencies to consider
  • What qualities to look for in an inbound marketing agency partner

Do you remember the hilarious video that went viral sometime around the early 2010s about a certain affordable razor subscription service?

Over a decade ago, Dollar Shave Club launched a video that explained the benefits of their subscription service and how their razors are, and I quote, “F****N’ GREAT!

That ad was so brilliant that it made me want to buy their razors right away (even though I can’t, for the life of me, grow facial hair).

Then there’s HubSpot’s “Make My Persona” tool that attracted plenty of attention from business owners and marketing teams by allowing them to build buyer personas of their ideal customers. And Chipotle’s “Boorito” campaign that attracted costumed customers to their store and generated so much social media buzz.

These are just some examples of brilliant marketing campaigns that showcase the power of inbound marketing.

When done right, a well-executed inbound marketing strategy can help save 62% more money while generating three times as many leads, driving up to a 1,270% return on investment.

If that sounds right to you, consider enlisting a marketing partner to help you with your own inbound lead-generation efforts.

To help you get started, here are our top picks for inbound marketing companies to work with.

Top inbound marketing agencies to consider in 2023

  1. HawkSEM
  2. Siege Media
  3. SmartBug Media
  4. New Breed
  5. Kuno Creative
  6. Influence & Co.
  7. WriterAccess
  8. 3 & Four

What is an inbound marketing agency?

Inbound Marketing Agency

Inbound marketing agencies are often a team of experts you work with on campaigns, ads, and more. (Image: Unsplash)

An inbound marketing agency is a digital marketing firm that helps build, implement, and optimize marketing campaigns based around creating valuable content that boosts customer success.

Guided by the inbound methodology, an inbound agency works with its clients to:

  • Understand their audience
  • Identify tactics for reaching that audience
  • Develop messaging to connect with their audience
  • Implement data-driven strategies
  • Use different metrics to measure success

The exact scope of work and the approach taken may differ. Some may apply marketing automation tactics like automated email marketing campaigns to engage early-stage prospects. Others may specialize in video production or building landing pages.

The tactics may differ, but their ultimate goal remains the same: to help their customers generate leads, build customer relationships, and increase demand for your products and services.

On that note, let’s do a deep dive into each agency.

  1.  HawkSEM

    HawkSEM content marketing agency

    Not to toot our own horn, but since being founded in 2006, HawkSEM has transformed into one of the leading agencies offering inbound marketing services in the industry.

    We are a Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency that specializes in driving positive results through inbound marketing.  As a conversion-focused agency, we believe that results are everything — and we’re not just saying that.

    For over 15 years, we’ve helped countless businesses in SaaS, e-commerce, and other industries take advantage of online opportunities to reach their business goals, such as:

    Overall, as a full-service digital marketing agency, we’ve helped our clients enjoy an average 4.5x return on investment.

    But how were we able to achieve this?

    By taking advantage of the increased reporting capabilities of our proprietary reporting software, ConversionIQ. We use those insights to strengthen your messaging, fill in the gaps, and make instant optimizations across all our inbound marketing services:

    • Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing
    • Content marketing
    • Search engine optimization (SEO)
    • Social media marketing
    • Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

    “At HawkSEM, our focus is on revenue-generation methods that drive conversions and create thought leadership,” says Yadegar. “We combine those methods with our ConversionIQ System to measure it all.”

     

  2.  Siege Media

    Siege Media inbound marketing agency

    Looking for premium SEO-focused content? Siege Media could be for you.

    With 10+ years of experience in the industry, Siege Media has developed impressive results for their clients, including TripAdvisor, Capital One, Zillow, and Symantec. 

    Armed with a genuine commitment to end-to-end client experience, Siege Media develops targeted services designed to reach prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey and generate long-term results for their clients.

    The secret to their success is their winning approach to content production, which generates approximately $148.6 million per year in client traffic value. These results are created with the help of their outstanding delivery team comprising clever creatives, sharp marketers, and savvy SEOs from diverse backgrounds.

    With the help of their fantastic team, Siege Media is able to offer the following services;

    • Content strategy
    • Blog design
    • Link building
    • Graphic design
    • Video production
    • Copywriting
    • SEO consulting
    • Content creation
  3.  SmartBug Media

    Smartbug Inbound marketing agency

    SmartBug Media is a well-known marketing company that was established in 2007. Throughout its 15+ years of experience in the industry, this company has been awarded more than 550 marketing certifications and has won more than 142 industry awards for their excellent services. 

    As a full-service digital marketing company, SmartBug Media takes pride in their practical approach to inbound marketing and their other digital marketing services, which include:

    • Public relations
    • Sales enablement
    • SEO
    • Shopify services
    • Web design
    • Paid media
    • Video production
    • Software integrations


    Over the years, SmartBug has earned a reputation for being an innovator and a customer-first company. This has helped them generate more than 500 5-star reviews across various review and social media platforms.

  4.  New Breed

    Newbreed inbound marketing agency

    Are you a SaaS company that needs help developing your sales funnel to generate quick conversions and attract new users? If so, New Breed is just the company for you.

    New Breed is a digital marketing agency that helps software businesses grow through the power of inbound marketing. As a HubSpot partner, New Breed leverages the inbound methodology in order to create customer-centric strategies that help their clients realize their business goals.

    Since the company was founded in 2002, New Breed has become a go-to partner for some of the world’s fastest-growing companies in improving their lead input and strengthening their brand reputation.

    New Breed offers a wide range of digital marketing services, including:

    • Content development
    • Email marketing
    • Sales enablement
    • Conversational marketing
    • SEO
    • Paid advertising


    Sure, New Breed may offer services similar to other digital marketing agencies. But what makes this company stand out is its approach that combines people, processes, and platforms in order to acquire more insights that enable you to make better decisions. 

  5.  Kuno Creative

    Kuno Creative inbound marketing agency

    Kuno Creative is a top-rated, multi-awarded inbound marketing agency based in Avon, Ohio. It was originally founded in 2002 as a traditional marketing and branding company. Since then, it has become one of the leading inbound marketing companies in the country as a HubSpot partner and believer of the inbound methodology.

    Today, Kuno Creative works primarily with clients from manufacturing, healthcare, software, and technology, providing services designed to help them become leaders in their specific industries.

    Some of the services they offer include:

    • Inbound marketing
    • The development of a brand strategy
    • Content marketing
    • Search engine optimization and marketing
    • RevOps
    • WebOps
    • HubSpot onboarding
    • Website design

    Over the years, Kuno Creative has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, which is a testament to their genuine commitment to their clients and the quality of their service. Some of these awards include the Best HubSpot Partner Agency in 2012, the Happiest Clients Award, which they won three times, and Platinum and Gold awards from the AVA Digital Awards.

  6.  Influence & Co.

    Influence & Co inbound marketing agency

    Influence & Co. offers a simpler approach to inbound marketing. They do this through a collaborative solution that helps clients build a content strategy, create and publish quality content, and maximize results.

    As an inbound marketing agency, Influence & Co. offers a wide range of marketing services while specializing in content marketing. Their services include the following:

    • Strategic planning services, including SEO, the formulation of a content strategy, keyword research, and the auditing of existing content.
    • Earned media creation services, including guest posting and public relations (PR)
    • Owned media creation services, such as the writing of blog content, case studies, whitepapers, and infographic building
    • Paid media services, including search engine marketing (SEM), social media advertising, and Amazon advertising

    Teaming up with Influence & Co. means working collaboratively with a dedicated team of content creators, strategists, and editors who will maximize your content marketing results. 

    Best of all, the company has established relationships with more than 1,000 publications in various industries, which promises to give your content all the exposure it needs to reach your intended audience. 

  7.  WriterAccess

    WriterAccess inbound marketing agency

    Technically not an inbound marketing agency per se, WriterAccess is still one of the best ways to get in touch with top-tier marketing talent to help you create effective inbound marketing campaigns.

    WriterAccess is a content marketing platform that lets businesses like yours gain access to professional writers and editors that can help take your content marketing efforts to the next level.

    The WriterAccess platform is home to over 40,000 customers looking to secure top talent from among its pool of thousands of freelance writers, editors, translators, illustrators, animators, and content strategists.

    Businesses of all sizes have found success with the WriterAccess platform, including big-name brands like:

    • Kelly Servies
    • MGM
    • Randstad
    • Accenture
    • Draft Kings
    • Canyon Ranch
    • Ancestry
    • Liberty Mutual
    • Lids
    • EveryNurse


    WriterAccess also offers a wide range of content marketing solutions designed to streamline your experience with the platform. These include a reporting software and AI-powered searching capabilities. There’s a reason they were part of Inc.’s list of 5,000 fastest-growing companies for five years in a row.

  8.  3 & Four

    3&Four inbound marketing agency

    3 & Four is a Digital Solutions Consulting and Implementation firm primarily focused on providing CRM, sales automation, and marketing automation systems. These services empower their clients as they aim to enhance their lead generation and conversion capabilities through performance enhancement and data-driven decision-making.

    As a HubSpot partner company, 3 & Four firmly believes in the inbound methodology and how it can lead to long-term growth. As such, they offer the following services to support your company’s inbound marketing efforts:

    • CRM and sales automation system selection
    • Customization and deployment of systems
    • One-to-one team training
    • Extensive campaign monitoring
    • Framework evaluation
    • KPI-based reporting

What exactly is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves the creation of various content-based campaigns to promote brand discovery among their target audience.

Inbound marketing is similar to outbound marketing in the sense that the flow of information is outward (from the brand to the audience).

However, instead of directly promoting the business to potential customers, as with outbound marketing, businesses build up their online presence to earn a customer’s attention. In this scenario, the prospect is the one that initiates the engagement with the brand, not the other way around.

And for HawkSEM CEO Sam Yadegar, inbound marketing is “a true, authentic, and organic way to join conversations while providing value, as opposed to spray and pray paid advertising methods.”

The inbound methodology

In the digital age, inbound marketing has proven to be an effective method for building a strong online presence and achieving business growth. And at the heart of every successful inbound marketing campaign lies the inbound methodology.

The inbound methodology is a collection of steps designed specifically to help businesses find their ideal customers and guide them further along the buyer’s journey.

At each stage, various tactics are employed, such as creating valuable content and optimizing brand properties for search engine optimization (SEO) to attract the attention of your customers and draw them in.

But to do so effectively, you need to know each of the following stages by heart. It used to be a four-step process comprising attract, convert, close, and delight. More recently, HubSpot further refined the methodology to better appeal to the customer experience, as follows:

  • Attract

    This is the creation of a content strategy centered around quality content to help establish yourself as a trusted resource. Your content marketing efforts must also be complemented with the principles of website design and conversion rate optimization (CRO) to ensure all published content is optimized for SEO.

  • Engage

    This is all about lead generation, where you want to convert organic traffic into qualified leads. At this stage, it is important to communicate with prospects and offer value to capture their information. Offer something of equal or greater in value, such as case studies, webinars, sales calls, and newsletter subscriptions.

  • Delight

    The sales process doesn’t end with prospects being integrated into your customer relationship management (CRM) software. You have to continue to support your customers to ensure they are happy, satisfied, and supported long after they’ve made the decision to purchase to ensure continued customer success.

    At this point, you will need to continue to engage with them while collecting feedback on how they found success and what aspects you need to improve to understand how you can continue to serve their needs.

What to look for in an inbound marketing agency

Inbound marketing is always a worthwhile investment and is one of the best ways to generate long-term growth for your business. 

However, it requires a strategic mindset and a long-term vision to achieve the right results. But it takes time to achieve those results, which means you need plenty of patience, as well.

With that in mind, it’s also important to consider different qualities when choosing an inbound marketing partner. After all, you’re not only investing your money into your inbound marketing efforts — you’re also investing your time.

So, it’s important to consider the following factors when choosing an inbound marketing agency:

  • Services provided

    As one of the most important criteria for selection, it’s important to consider what types of services the agency offers to know whether these are services you need. Consider their service packages and pricing. But above all, take a look at what services are included in those packages since you might end up paying a premium for redundant services.

  • Expertise & experience

    Make sure the agency you’re considering has the knowledge, resources, and experience in implementing successful inbound marketing campaigns. Look at their track record and review their certifications to know if they are well-equipped to handle the unique challenges and opportunities in your field.

  • Agency-client fit

    In many cases, an agency may tick all the right boxes but are simply not just the right fit. This can happen when they typically do not serve businesses in your industry or if their approach is not applicable to your target audience. Ask for a free or limited trial to determine if they are the right fit. 

The takeaway

Inbound marketing is a simple-yet-complicated field that requires plenty of strategic thinking (and perhaps a little bit of luck). 

With so many approaches to inbound marketing, it’s important to work with the right partner that can steer your marketing efforts in the right direction and direct your business to success.

With the above list, we’ve shared the top inbound marketing agencies we personally vouch for to kickstart your search. These companies are simply some of the best in the industry whose quality of work, industry experience, and commitment to client growth are worth looking into.

And as the agency at the top of this list, we look forward to you considering us as your inbound marketing agency of choice. If you have any questions, shoot them over to us and we’ll be happy to offer our assistance.

Get in touch with HawkSEM today.

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EJ Velos

EJ Velos

EJ is a passionate writer and storyteller with over five years of content marketing experience. He is a home cook, an artist, a musician, and a lover of all things pop culture.