What is HubSpot?

Why HubSpot? 

New 2021 guided tour of HubSpotting 

What is HubSpot?

Going back to the start of HubSpot: who, where and when? 

Please allow me to introduce (if not the, then at least) a dynamic duo:

“Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah are the co-founders of HubSpot. While attending business school at MIT, they came to the realization that the world needed a better way of marketing and selling. They defined inbound marketing as a much better way for companies to attract visitors, leads and customers and launched HubSpot in 2006.”

Why Hubspot? What problem were they solving? 

Want the long view in a short time?

Interested in a brief history of marketing but lack the time to study? 

Then click here for a fascinating infographic to put yourself in the picture regarding what life was like B.H. (that is Before HubSpot).  

And what was it like?

An inferno of outbound marketing.

So what is it? 

In the HubSpot blog, Brian Halligan explains that: “Outbound marketing is a traditional method of marketing seeking to obstruct potential customers....

...trade shows, seminar series, email blasts to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and advertising. I call these methods "outbound marketing" because marketers push his or her message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack. ”

So it’s a bit like spitting out the window and hoping it hits someone?

Something like that. Well, it is annoying, even if it doesn’t land on you. But Brian has a slightly more sophisticated comparison:

“The best analogy I can come up with is that traditional marketers looking to garner interest from new potential customers are like lions hunting in the jungle for elephants.  The elephants used to be in the jungle in the '80s and '90s when they learned their trade, but they don't seem to be there anymore.  They have all migrated to the watering holes on the savannah (the internet).  So, rather than continuing to hunt in the jungle, I recommend setting up shop at the watering hole or turning your website into its own watering hole.” 

Why did outbound marketing go out of fashion? 

It drove me out of my mind!

“I think outbound marketing techniques are getting less and less effective over time for two reasons.  First, your average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller ID, spam filtering, Tivo, and Sirius satellite radio.  Second, the cost of coordination around learning about something new or shopping for something new using the internet (search engines, blogs, and social media) is now much lower than going to a seminar at the Marriott or flying to a trade show in Las Vegas.”

Shopping shifts, HubSpot Origins and Inbound Marketing

A micro-story straight from the HubSpot horse's mouth:

“As fellow graduate students at MIT in 2004, Brian and Dharmesh noticed a shift in the way people shop and buy. Consumers were no longer tolerating interruptive bids for their attention — in fact, they'd gotten really, really good at ignoring them.

From this shift, a company was born: HubSpot. It was founded on "inbound", the notion that people don't want to be interrupted by marketers or harassed by salespeople — they want to be helped.

Today, the inbound movement continues to empower businesses around the world to stop interrupting, start helping, and return their focus to the customer.”

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a software marketing tool dedicated to the newish (2005) methodology of Inbound Marketing.

It was designed as a tool that brought together all the necessary functionalities for SEO (Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving a website's visibility in the organic results of different search engines), social network strategy and advertising.

Later it evolved to offer sales, customer service and customer relationship management (CRM).

How to start? 

A walk through the HubSpot hotpots (in a good way) 

A HubSpot journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Register

When you register you will receive more than just a warm welcome, you will be offered your own free guide around the site:

“I'd love to give you a personal tour of Marketing Hub, and explore how similar companies are using HubSpot today.  Please reserve a time to speak 1:1 at a time that works for you. If you'd prefer to connect online, you can chat with one of my colleagues now.”

If you get Sofia, say hello from me. 

Alternatively, if lockdown has left you feeling a little less sociable than usual you can fly solo with the User guide: 

If you click Open slideshow you will find a pithy panorama of Customer Relationship Management.

A chicken and egg argument

What comes 1st: CRM or inbound marketing?

Why is CRM necessary for effective and successful inbound marketing?

"Reasons for Switching to HubSpot Marketing Automation: Needed a CRM that could store and track conversations between consumers and sales team."

From a review by Norma C., Customer Relations Director, Textiles, 501-1000 employees

The importance of CRM for inbound marketing (and vice versa)

The perfect couple

Two sides of the same coin

Can’t increase your sales? Nothing works? 

The use of CRM in the inbound marketing process can give you the answers you are waiting for. To carry out good inbound marketing we need to know our customers extremely well if we are to accompany them, effectively and efficiently, throughout the purchase decision-making process.

This valuable information can be found in a CRM.

Without any fear of exaggeration, you could say that CRM is the soul mate of inbound marketing.

The question is: how to get the most out of this couple with so much potential?

And which is the better half?

On HibSpot’s blog, Doug Davidoff, CEO of Imagine Business Development, writes the following: “What should you focus on first, building an effective inbound marketing/lead generation process or implementing a CRM to manage your sales and customer acquisition process?  While both are important, the question is should you focus on one before the other?   To be clear, both are very important to making growth predictable, sustainable and scalable. If you have the resources and bandwidth you should be pursuing and enhancing both of them simultaneously. However, if you must choose between them, the decision you make will have a significant impact on your growth outlook…

...Investing the time, money and energy into inbound marketing first, puts you in a stronger position to both implement an effective CRM initiative and to accelerate growth.”