Apex HCM's Partnership for Marketing + Scalable Growth
Thank you for your interest in partnering with The Gist. The team and I are grateful for the opportunity to work with Apex HCM. We believe we can help you accelerate your growth by embedding scalable growth systems into your organization.
This proposal will outline our plan for accomplishing just that and explain our experience in the payroll and HCM industry and why we believe we're an ideal partner in marketing and growth.

Goals
What outcomes are we trying to drive? What are we doing this all for?
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Increase quality Marketing Qualified Leads through targeted ad campaigns.
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Concurrently build an inbound growth system that increases website traffic, email subscribers and qualified leads, organically.
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Optimize HubSpot and its integration with Salesforce to foster stronger alignment between marketing and sales.
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Develop analytics that provide better visibility into organizational growth.
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Consolidate agency operations into one partner for efficiency, accountability and deep experience in the payroll and HCM industry.
Objectives
What, specifically, are we going to do to achieve our goals?
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Design and implement an effective marketing strategy with organization-wide visibility to the extent its wanted.
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Run smart, creative ads across various platforms to generate leads.
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Ensure the website aligns with Google's best practices for website optimization.
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Increase the number of qualified ranking keywords for specific target pages based on competitive research within the organic landscape.
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Optimize key static pages to ensure a positive user experience and increase conversions.
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Publish 3 quality blog articles per month. Share them on social media and with our current clients and subscribers via marketing emails.
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Launch an organic content offer campaign (i.e., webinar, ebook, ROI calculator, etc.) each quarter to increase more MQLs.
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Send an additional promotional email each month to a segment of our list.
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Dedicate 10 hours per month to optimizing HubSpot including CRM data audits, list segmentation, marketing asset organization, report dashboards, Salesforce integration settings and more.
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Provide ongoing strategic consulting and project management.
Implementation
We'll get this done in two phases. The first will take a month and will focus on refining the strategy and building the foundation. Then we'll implement it.
Phase One
This will take 1 month. It will include the following:
SEO
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Audit website and backlink profile
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Research keywords and competitors
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Benchmark the current state
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Develop strategic SEO and content plan
Ad Campaigns
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Refine ad audiences
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Develop creative concepts
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Ad platform strategy
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Create campaign assets
Inbound Marketing
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Finalize campaign calendar
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Create landing page template(s)
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Create marketing email template(s)
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Interview subject matter experts
HubSpot + CRM
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Audit HubSpot
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Audit HubSpot <> Salesforce integration
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Create HubSpot action plan
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Build new marketing reports
Phase Two
Starting with month 2 and continuing for the duration of the engagement. We will deliver all of the following:
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End-to-end ad campaign management
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Advanced Search Engine Optimization
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1 content offer campaign per quarter
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3 blog articles per month
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1 monthly email newsletter
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1 monthly promotional email
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10 hours of CRM maintenance per month
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Monthly campaign and marketing repots
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Ongoing strategic consultation and project management
Structure
We've got systems in place to keep it all organized.
Commitment
Once a proposal is accepted, we send you a formal agreement to sign and get a kickoff meeting scheduled on the calendar. For some engagements we may ask you to complete a brief intake questionnaire to help speed up the onboarding process.
Kickoff
The kickoff meeting is when our engagement formally begins. We will accomplish a lot during that meeting, including:
- Confirming project scope, objectives, deadlines, etc.
- Introducing teams, discussing roles and communication preferences
- Introducing our project management assets, including the client portal
- Scheduling our recurring meetings as necessary
- Actually beginning the work!
Project Management
We're not fire killers. We are fire prevention specialists. That means we take project management very seriously and we know organized processes and clear communication is the foundation of success for any engagement. We have tools in place to make it so.
Like your campaign planning workbook, a collaborative tool we'll use to plan our campaigns on a monthly and quarterly basis. We maintain it but you'll always have access to it to leave a comment, capture an idea or just look something up.
Increase quality Marketing Qualified Leads through targeted ad campaigns.
- Concurrently build an inbound growth system that increases website traffic, email subscribers and qualified leads, organically.
- Optimize HubSpot and its integration with Salesforce to foster stronger alignment between marketing and sales.
- Develop analytics that provide better visibility into organizational growth.
- Consolidate agency operations into one partner for efficiency, accountability and deep experience in the payroll and HCM industry.
Check out your marketing portal.
Below we've embedded the project roadmap we've started. This is how we'll keep all initiatives organized on track. We'll refine this together during the first month of the engagement. You can also view it here.
Investment
This is a 12-month engagement that carries a flat monthly fee of $13,000* per month, due on the first of each month. Click the button below to see our formal price quote.
*This cost does not include ad spend.
Team
The Gist is a small, experienced and flexible team that will implement all projects and tasks included in our engagement. Your team will include:

Phil Smith
Account Management

Kelly Kerl
Content Manager

AJ Hilton
HubSpot

CJ Maurer
Strategy

Kevin Owens
SEO

Sam Martin
Ad Campaigns

Brian Cleary
Ad Campaigns
Communication
We will conduct two standing monthly meetings for the duration of our engagement to update you on our progress and stay familiar with the needs of you and your team(s). We'll also be accessible by phone and email if you have any questions or concerns.
"They are so good at breaking down complex business challenges and finding both quick-wins and long-term solutions."

Allie Rocovich | HubSpot
"They make the process easy and enjoyable, providing great recommendations on how to optimize HubSpot for our business."

Sonya Ahola | Ahola HR Solutions
"The Gist greatly shortened the time-to-value of our inbound marketing strategy on HubSpot."

David Marshall | Mongoose
"We weren't using HubSpot to its full potential. They took over our website and doubled our traffic. Prospects are constantly finding us on Google."

Kyle Masengale | ASAP Payroll
"There is no one on earth that I trust more when it comes to all things HubSpot."

Joe Peluso | Complete Payroll















Thank You.
We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Apex HCM on this initiative. Based on our past history and core expertise, we've supremely confident we can help generate more quality leads and propel scalable growth.


