Do you know how hard it is to run a marketing agency? 

If you don't run one, you probably don't know. 

I had no idea until I started working with agencies on a daily basis. During the two years as a Channel Consultant at HubSpot, I was exposed to over 200 agencies working closely with the owners and their challenges, opportunities and successes throughout the development and scale stages of their businesses. 

From thinking about where the next new client is going to come from to filling that open account manager role, these are some of the endless thoughts that go through agency owners' heads. 

But what's even harder is that there is no one-size-fits-all playbook that has all the answers. The only way agencies learn is from their own experiences or from those of other agencies. 

That agency-to-agency learning is what we try to facilitate for our agency partners at HubSpot because we know how valuable it is for them which is why I'm excited that we launched the Marketing Agency Growth Report just last week - a survey of over 1,000 agencies on their top challenges and provided solutions to them from experts in the field. 

Today, I want to share with you my key learnings from the benchmark data. 

Today’s consumers, be it of products, news, pitches and really any type of content, are fundamentally different.

Nobody wants to feel “marketed to;” we want to make our own choices based on our own research and experiences online. When problems arise, we demand answers on social media, directly engaging the company in front of a global audience.

We are the most empowered, sophisticated customer base in the history of our existence (so far). 

Unfortunately, PR hasn't yet adjusted to this new reality at scale. There are some who are doing great but most traditional PR strategies are falling by the wayside.

PR professionals must draw upon an enormous breadth of skills and techniques to serve their clients’ interests and those efforts are becoming increasingly ephemeral and difficult to track using traditional metrics.

Enter Inbound PR - the technique that allows you to combine content and measurement with revenue-aligned goals and a target persona-driven content approach that meets your business needs and your customer needs. 

Did you know that after watching a video, 64% of viewers are more likely to make a purchase? 

No wonder then that video has become a favourite content format for consumers and professionals alike. It's much easier and more enjoyable to consume than text or some images and it certainly keeps the attention for longer (when done right). 

Read any article about 2018 trends in marketing or communications (like this one) and you'll see video in there. Video can not only help you increase awareness about your brand, but also drive a ton of conversions and leads to your business. 

Every minute, 300 hours of video are being uploaded on YouTube. With that rate, within a year video will account for 70% of all Internet traffic. 

I've long said that visual content is king, however, only a few years later I think I need to rephrase that to video content is king. 

"Firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something." - this is the definition of trust in the Oxford dictionary. 

The Edelman TRUST BAROMETER is the biggest study of trust. I cover it every year. 

The 2018 research reveals yet again a world of seemingly stagnant distrust where people’s trust in business, government, NGOs and media remained largely unchanged from 2017 — 20 of 28 countries surveyed now lie in distruster territory, up one from last year.

But 2018 marks a number of interesting shifts such as the return of experts, increased trust in journalists and bigger faith in CEOs. 

Let's take a look at the key learnings that I took from the research. 

9 Things You Need to Know About Trust in 2018: 

As companies grow, scale and expand in international markets, the need for cross-cultural sensitivity and communication ability increases.

In fact, communication is what underpins both stakeholder management and change management - two areas without which a company cannot function or grow.

However, when we add cultural differences to how people make decisions and follow orders, organisations face a tremendous challenge to getting things done.

Two Areas for Consideration

There are two key areas that companies should be strategically looking into when operating in a cross-cultural setting: