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TANK-INVOQ-MERGE
ThadJun 1, 20187 min read

TANK New Media and Invoq Marketing Company Join Forces

Growing Better, Together.

At TANK New Media, we never stop asking how we can better align our capabilities to serve our clients and create exceptional experiences. We’re always analyzing new ways to help clients advance beyond their most ambitious business objectives. This constant asking and analyzing has led us to make a strategic move. We are growing by acquiring and merging Invoq Marketing Company into TANK.

 

We think TANK and Invoq joining forces is a winning combination all around. Why?

Because Always Improving Is How We Roll

TANK New Media was founded in 2009 by Thad and Krista Ankenman around two core competencies–branding and web design. However, it wasn’t long before our digital-first approach began radically transforming the way our B2B services and manufacturing clients did business. Recognizing the potential impact that exponential business growth could have for our clients, we have spent the better part of a decade strategically expanding our in-house capabilities to meet or exceed the anticipated needs of our clients evolving business challenges.

In 2011 we began offering SEO, PPC, email, and social media marketing. In 2015 we doubled down on the inbound marketing methodology and became a Certified HubSpot Agency Partner, further expanding our content marketing capabilities to include blogging and sales enablement services. In 2016 we began building an in-house video production team to better serve our inbound marketing clients and became a Gold Wistia Agency Partner in less than a year. In 2017 we became a Gold HubSpot Partner, successfully implementing inbound marketing programs for a number of clients. With the acquisition of Invoq, delivering increased capacity and expertise in Sales, CRM, and Service Hub, and our continued focus on video services, we expect our most engaged clients to see continued growth and success in 2018 and beyond.

We’re Taking TRACTION to a Whole New Level

TANK New Media exists to help growth-minded organizations generate the marketing and sales TRACTION they need to succeed in today’s digital world. Acquiring Invoq accelerates our ability to do this, and moves our business forward.

Why Invoq?

Invoq Marketing Company was founded in 2015 by Jon Martin as a social media and inbound marketing agency in Lancaster, PA. Jon’s professional network and sales experience in the commercial printing industry allowed him to quickly grow Invoq into a small team of capable data-driven inbound marketers in under three years. Thanks to Jon’s leadership, Invoq became a Gold Tier HubSpot Agency Partner in 2017.

I first met Jon in 2017 at the INBOUND conference in Boston and immediately connected with him as a like-minded agency owner. The guy is as transparent as they come and is authentically helpful in every way. In a nutshell, he’s the walking definition of what an inbound sales consultant should be.

After INBOUND, Jon and I had a few random conversations on Slack talking shop and exchanging ideas. At one point, I almost floated the idea of starting an inbound agency exchange program with Invoq as the pilot. While that could have been awesome, the idea never materialized. Little did I know, those few conversations would later turn into an opportunity for TANK and Invoq to join forces. When Jon started thinking about selling his agency in mid-March, we got in touch and I knew immediately that this opportunity was the reason something had clicked when I met him at INBOUND. A few months later, we were successfully transitioning clients and officially acquiring the company.

As a part of the acquisition, TANK welcomes Jon Martin, Invoq’s Founder and CEO as our new Director of Sales & CRM. Jon brings 9+ years of sales and customer service experience in the manufacturing and B2B Services verticals to our team. He also brings the valuable perspective of an incredibly humble, but vastly capable sales leader who managed to grow a young inbound agency to Gold status in just three short years. In addition to directing our sales and CRM consulting practice, Jon will also serve as a key member of TANK’s leadership team where he will be responsible for driving revenue growth improving sales processes and revenue acquisition for both our agency and client sales teams.

Kristen May has also joined our Lancaster, PA office as a Client Success Manager. Prior to joining TANK New Media, Kristen worked as a Content Strategist at Invoq Marketing Company.

Where We Are Headed

For TANK, this strategic move will allow us to diversify our client accounts, grow our team and expand our agency footprint to two locations, double down on our HubSpot partnership, and better leverage modern technology to streamline our clients' marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

This deal is a game changer for our agency and it has already accelerated our ability to drive real business results for many of our clients.

Combining TANK’s strategic vision, team, and capabilities with Invoq’s proven sales, CRM and inbound marketing chops will move our combined agency revenue up and to the right, allowing us to better serve all of our clients.

Together, We’re Doubling Down on our HubSpot Partnership

With the acquisition of Invoq, TANK’s HubSpot expertise will be unmatched in the Kansas City region, moving us towards our goal of becoming the leading growth stack agency in the midwest, and nationally within our specific niche markets over the next few years.

At TANK, we leverage the HubSpot growth stack as a flexible platform for business growth at all levels, starting with your CRM data at the core.

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  • Free HubSpot CRM  - The core of your prospect and customer data
  • HubSpot Marketing - The platform to communicate with your prospects and customers via websites, email, social media and blogs
  • HubSpot Sales - The suite of tools to take the efforts of your sales team to the next level.
  • HubSpot Service - The suite of tools to improve customer satisfaction and customer retention and take your customer service department from a cost center to a profit center.
  • HubSpot Integration Partners - With over hundreds of integration partners, leveraging HubSpot as your core platform has never been more flexible.

 

Why HubSpot?

When the growth stack is implemented as your platform of record, HubSpot offers unparalleled transparency, continuity, and consistency along the entire journey that your prospects, customers, and raving fans experience. Building your tech stack around the HubSpot platform provides a 360-degree view of actionable, automation-ready marketing and sales data that we can use to deliver more sales for your business.

Technology Partner Alignment

Aside from briefly connecting with Invoq and inadvertently opening the door to this deal, another highlight of INBOUND 2017 was Dharmesh Shah’s keynote. It highlights the real reason why we are joining forces, and why our team aligns so well with Jon and Kristen from Invoq. If you have the time and have ever wondered why we are proud to partner with HubSpot, it is worth watching the Keynote below all the way through.

This story about meeting Elon is also the reason Krista didn’t try to take a selfie with Dharmesh when we sat by him at Partner Day. He might be a co-founder of a wildly successful tech company, but in person Dharmesh is a humble guy that shares many of our beliefs about people, business, marketing, and technology. He also has a man crush on Elon Musk that only true entrepreneurs can appreciate.

“Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors.” – Elon Musk

 

Aligning Vectors: How to Scale a Business [46:44] 

When what you believe, what you say, and what you do are in alignment, you grow better.

– Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot

 

Business Moving Forward

All of us at TANK are thrilled to bring on a number of new clients, more like-minded team members, and a new office in Lancaster, PA. However, we are most excited about the positive impact this will have on our clients. As an extension of our clients' teams, we understand the importance of being aligned tightly with their businesses so we can deliver maximum impact every day.

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WE believe that when our clients, our agency (TANK New Media + Invoq Marketing), and our tech stack (HubSpot as a Platform + Integration Partners) are in alignment, we ALL grow better. Together.

Interested in how TANK New Media or HubSpot can help you grow your business? Book a call today or email hello@tanknewmedia.com.

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Thad

Co-founder & CEO at TANK New Media

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