I've been running this blog for five and a half years. 

As my audience started to grow, I began receiving emails from people either sharing content that I might like and want to use or pitches for guest posts. 

I was so excited back then! They liked my blog and wanted to be part of it! They wanted to contribute for my audience! 

With time and with the growth in traffic and subscribers, the number of pitches increased, especially after my talk at INBOUND16. 

Which I'm happy about for sure, however, my inbox now gets flooded with bad emails. Really bad emails. 

Pitches that are spammy, mass emails that were clearly not just for me, untargeted or irrelevant suggestions. 

Because I worked in PR and specialised in blogger relations, I'm amazed at the terrible pitches I'm getting so I want to show you some examples of what not to do and give you some tips on what to do instead.

I recently finished listening to The Coaching Habit: Say Yes, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier. (It's funny to say "listening" instead of "reading" but hey, in our busy lives we optimise everything and so when I walk to work, I often listen to books. Thanks, Audible!) 

The book was written for managers to help them be better leaders, communicate more effectively with team members, provide better support and coaching and so have more impact. Achieving this comes down to seven key questions that the author identifies as the essence of leading. 

I believe, though, that these seven questions can be an effective technique in any business relationship that requires communication. 

When speaking to customers (especially over the phone or Zoom or skype), these seven questions can help you get to the bottom of what the problem really is and how you can help. The same applies to consulting. I've always said that the best form of consulting is question-asking.

The State of Inbound is out!

It's a yearly survey we do at HubSpot and it reveals the top challenges and priorities facing businesses today in the realms of marketing and sales and changing consumer habits.

The survey also looks at the future to highlight new trends and channels that will soon affect the way we all do business. 

You can grab the global report here, however, I want to look at the EMEA results and share with you 17 about that you need to know now to plan the rest of your year and 2018. 

17 Facts About The State of Inbound That You Need to Know Now: 

1. 62% of marketers say their top challenge is generating leads. 
2. 63% of marketers believe their organisation's marketing strategy is effective. 
3. 73% of C-level executives believe their organisation's marketing strategy is effective. 
4. 55% of individual contributors believe their organisation's marketing strategy is effective. 

Organisational structure inefficiencies, lack of documented processes and standardised service packages, no plan for new hire training and onboarding as well a lack of visibility into overservicing are some of the key challenges that agencies face when they start to scale.

We covered them in part 1 and part 2 of these series.

Today, we'll look at the last set of agency growth challenges, namely: 

• Stepping back as the agency founder or CEO and allowing team members to make decisions on their own is an internal struggle that can stall sustainable growth.
• Growing the team, the customer base and the service offerings often leads to a leadership and an identity and positioning crisis internally that inevitably has the potential to slow growth as it expands externally too.
• Showing the real value the agency brings to clients is a constant struggle, particularly with year two or three renewals, so agencies need to think about developing a delight programme that also includes the identification of upsells.

Let's take a look at each challenge in more detail.

This is a guest post by Belle Ballace. 

Did you know that seventeen films with the word "story" in their titles have won Oscars?

From the movies to your business, storytelling is one of today’s most powerful content marketing tools.

And no wonder. Storytelling provokes emotions and creates a connection between companies and their audience in a way that no simple ad can.

Moreover, it’s not all about the company and showcasing their products or services.

Storytelling shows real life experiences that we all can relate to as individuals, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues etc.

Creating such a connection is what makes brand stories unforgettable and successful because they manage to catch your heart or mind. And if you can't catch people's hearts or minds, they are not going to pay attention to you. 

Crafting a compelling story is an art and with some appropriate techniques it can be mastered. 

5 Effective Business Storytelling Technique You Need to Try Now