VIDEO 1: WHY IS BECOMING A TIERED PARTNER IMPORTANT?

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1 VIDEO 1: WHY IS BECOMING A TIERED PARTNER IMPORTANT? Hi there, I m Angie from the Partner Marketing team. Welcome to Growing with the HubSpot Agency Partner Program. This is part of the Grow section of the Agency Partner Methodology and in this class, you ll learn all about the Tiers Program. What s this program all about? The Partner Tiers program is designed to acknowledge top Agency Partners who have not only brought the inbound message to the most clients, but also executed inbound marketing services to the highest standards. But it doesn t just serve as recognition, the tiers program also rewards this remarkable inbound work with greater growth opportunities and higher levels of support. There are four tier levels: Silver, Gold, Platinum and the top tier, Diamond. Tiers are achieved through a combination of sold and managed metrics. That means your agency gets credit for all the clients you have brought to HubSpot, as well as all the existing HubSpot customers whose marketing or sales efforts you manage. Lastly, there s a threshold in place to measure the quality of services delivered within those accounts. You ll learn all about how this is calculated in the next video. But, before we dive into the specifics, why is it beneficial to become a tiered partner? Joining the tiers program unlocks new benefits for you as a HubSpot Agency Partner. We ll highlight some of our team s favorite benefits for each tier in this video, and you can see the full benefit breakdown in the additional resources. First on the list is Silver. When you reach this tier, your agency can now be listed in HubSpot s Partner Directory. The Partner Directory is a marketplace that current customers and prospective customers turn to when looking to hire a marketing agency who specializes in inbound. When you hit silver, you ll see a new drop-down in your partner portal that asks questions about your agency and this data is fed into your agency listing. Next up, Gold. Becoming a Gold-tiered partner unlocks many benefits. One of the most exciting is the blogging benefit. Once you reach Gold, you ll be qualified to become a contributor to 1

2 HubSpot s world class marketing blog. This is a great opportunity to build thought leadership and drive qualified traffic to your agency. When you ascend to the Platinum Tier, you ll be qualified to apply to the Agency Partner Speakers Bureau, where you ll receive notifications about ongoing speaking opportunities. Public speaking is a great way for your agency to build credibility, get established as a thought leader, and land new business opportunities. And last but not least is one of the most notable tier benefits, the Agency Growth Fund. It can take serious capital to scale your agency, which is why Platinum and Diamond partners are qualified to apply for an interest free loan from HubSpot worth up to $300,000. And that s not all, there are additional benefits at each tier, like access to Beta products, free tickets to the INBOUND Conference and HubSpot s annual Partner Day. Overall, becoming a tiered partner gives your agency another point of differentiation amongst your competitors. You ll be able to show prospective clients that not only are you a HubSpot Agency Partner, but you re a top partner with proven results. Excited to join our top partners in the tiers program? Jump into the next video where we ll go over the details on how this program works. VIDEO 2: HOW DOES THE TIERS PROGRAM WORK? Now that you know what to look forward to as you move up through the tiers program, let s talk about how the tiers program works. Let s start with the requirements for becoming a tiered partner. There are two basic thresholds every partner must meet before entering the tiers program first, you must have an active HubSpot Agency Partner Certification, and second, you need a median of 5 apps being used across all your accounts. Why these requirements? The HubSpot Agency Partner Certification, which you re going through right now, ensures that all partners have been fully onboarded to the partner program, and are set up to deliver amazing inbound marketing and sales retainers for their clients. 2

3 Using a median of 5 apps ensures that your HubSpot clients have active and healthy portals, and are conducting inbound marketing campaigns with their HubSpot tools. On the screen you ll see the full list of apps that contribute to this number. Once those thresholds are met, you re qualified for tiers. From that point forward, your tier is determined by two metrics sold and managed. Now this can get a little complicated but don t worry. You can always reach out to your Channel Consultant if you have specific questions regarding your tier status Ok, so let s dive in. Sold refers to all the clients you bring to HubSpot. This means the lead originated with your agency, and you were involved in the sales process for their HubSpot account. Managed refers to all of the HubSpot accounts you actively manage on behalf of your clients. The way we measure this is based on log in information from the past 90 days. When an employee from your agency logs into a client portal and does work on their behalf, it registers that client as a managed account. The thresholds for each level are shown here. Your employee must log in using an address that is on the same domain as your agency name that s how we can track it back. It s also important to note that multiple agencies can manage one client. When that occurs, we do an even split in the revenue credit between the agencies who are managing that account. While it s important to understand which metrics are being counted towards tiers, you don t have to worry about doing the math. You can check your tier status right within your HubSpot Portal. Just select Partner from the drop down in the upper left hand corner. This will bring you directly into your Partner dashboard. Here you ll see your current tier status, your Agency Partner Certification status, and your median app usage on the left-hand side. If you re new to the HubSpot Agency Partner program, your tier likely says tier up! After at least one person in your agency completes the Agency Partner Certification, you ll see that checked off. Then, once you re certified, you ll want to get your median app usage up to 5 across all your sold and managed accounts. Once you have that, you re ready to get tiered. This is where the visualization on the right comes in. This visualization helps you track how close you are to specific tiers. It s important to note that it will show you where you are in real time, but HubSpot only updates and grant new tiers on a 3

4 monthly basis. So, what you see in the dashboard is what you re on track for at the close of the month. Below the visualization you ll also see a listing of all your sold and managed accounts. Here you can dig into which accounts have high or low app usage. If you re trying to increase your median app usage, check out the client s who have low app usage. When you hover over the apps icon you ll see all the apps you are not getting credit for. This can help you think through the types of activities and campaigns that you can run for this client that will drive success in their portal. So what happens when you reach a new tier? Tiers are run on a monthly basis and announced roughly 15 days into the next month. When you ascend a new tier, a couple things happen. First, all of the users on your agency s account will be notified automatically via . This will link out to a listing of all the new benefits you are qualified for. Inside your portal, your partner dashboard and partner resources page will update to reflect your new tier and benefits. Of course, this is also an appropriate time to celebrate. Break out into your happy dance and take a moment to bask in your success. Next, all newly achieved tiers will be announced publicly on the Partner Broadcast, and again in the next edition of the Partner Newsletter. Oh, and your Channel Account Manager and Channel Consultant will also be notified, so you can expect a big congrats from them, too. Once you reach a new tier, it s time to show off your shiny new badge! Promote your new tier status by embedding the graphics on your website. You can also write a press release to announce your new tier status. Use the press release template and follow the promotion guidelines included in the additional resources. There you have it folks. Everything you need to get started with the tiers program. Remember, you must have a valid HubSpot Agency Partner Certification and a median apps usage of 5 in order to qualify for the tiers program. Once these are met, tiers are measured through sold and managed metrics and you can keep track of your progress through your partner dashboard. By applying everything you ve learned on how to market, sell, and deliver inbound and HubSpot services to your clients, you ll be well on your way to growing with the Agency Partner Program. Want to see it all in action? In the next video we ll take a look at how Scholes Marketing, a top agency partner, ascended tiers and leveraged the HubSpot Partner Program Benefits to help them grow. 4

5 VIDEO 3: WHAT DOES THIS JOURNEY LOOK LIKE? Working with thousands of HubSpot Partners, we ve seen hundreds of inspiring stories along the way. One of those stories is from Scholes Marketing, one of our longest standing agency partners. Whether you re a brand new partner, or just looking for some renewed motivation, let s take a look at how Scholes Marketing rose to become a Platinum tiered Partner today. Scholes Marketing is located in Andover, Massachusetts and has 10 years of experience helping B2B tech startups succeed. They started working with HubSpot back in 2008, before we had an official agency partner program! In 2009, they were one of the first 12 partners to become certified agency partners, which helped them differentiate their agency, and build credibility as a trusted advisor of inbound marketing. Once they achieved silver tier, Scholes was listed in the HubSpot Partner Directory. This has been a great source of referrals for their agency. Jeff, the agency s founder, notes that one of his current clients found him through the directory, and they ve had a retainer agreement for the past 4 years. When Scholes Marketing reached gold, in 2013, they were invited to the first ever Partner Day, hosted at HubSpot. Scholes has attended Partner Day ever since, as they find it s the best way to see where the HubSpot product is going, and how their agency can align with that vision. The Scholes team has also attended the INBOUND conference every year, using the free partner passes they ve earned through the tiers program. Jeff brings the whole team, and he says the challenge after leaving INBOUND, is deciding what to do first once they get back to the office! Lastly, now that they ve reached the Platinum tier, they re working on a client case study which will be hosted on hubspot.com. Scholes Marketing has not only been a great HubSpot partner, they ve also been a true partner for their clients. As their client Capsule Tech says, Scholes Marketing started with us to get our inbound marketing strategy off the ground and provided the expertise needed to take it to the next level. Their team is always incredibly responsive and really enjoyable to work with. They are proactive by coming up with next steps so we are constantly adding fresh ideas to the marketing mix which helps us improve overall performance. They are a true partner. While the HubSpot Agency Partner team provides useful resources and benefits, there s no silver bullet with inbound marketing. Every partner s journey will be different, and it s up to you define your own vision of success. But with time, effort and dedication, you too can be on your way to growing your agency. We ll be there to help every step of the way. 5