If you work in the marketing world, you’ve probably come across HubSpot. They created the term ’inbound marketing’ and have shown us all why inbound is such a powerful way to reach customers. And they live by their own rules. Constantly creating a whole ecosystem of content that marketers love and demonstrating how the products they offer can grow your business.
Read on to learn why HubSpot has been so successful over the past 15 years. I’ll look at what sets them apart from their competitors and how HubSpot’s innovative inbound marketing strategies can help you reach your business goals.
A Quick History Lesson.
HubSpot started as an idea in 2004, thought up by two MIT graduate students, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. They noticed that the principals behind successful advertising were shifting. Traditional in-your-face tactics just were not doing the job anymore, and people were not paying attention to aggressive advertising tactics. Part of this shift was because of the internet. People now had the power to do their own research about what products could help them, instead of listening solely to what advertisers told them. Customers wanted help and solutions for the problems they had in their lives, not an influx of products they didn’t really need.
Inbound marketing was born out of this idea, and was put into writing in 2009 in the book “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs.”
HubSpot’s unique methodology and software solutions haven’t stopped evolving since 2004. They currently (June 2020) offer their flagship CRM, along with marketing software, sales software, customer service software, and a high-powered content management system to get everything done in one place.
And HubSpot continues to grow, with its revenue in 2019 totalling $674.9 million, up 32% compared to 2018. These are tangible results that show that inbound marketing works, not only for HubSpot’s customers but for HubSpot itself.
What Makes HubSpot Different?
There are a lot of software options for marketers available today, but HubSpot continues to dominate the market, and there are a few reasons for this. For one, they stick by their principals. Inbound marketing is a marketing tactic that puts the decision-making power back into consumer’s hands. When given the right information, they can make a choice about which products they want to buy. Some of the most effective inbound marketing strategies involve creating helpful content that helps consumers make informed purchase decisions, and HubSpot lives up to this. Just one look at their blog reveals a deep library of resources aimed at helping marketers do their job better.
HubSpot uses its blog to show potential customers that they are a trusted source of information. And HubSpot Academy offers hundreds of hours of free training courses and certifications so anyone can become well-versed in inbound marketing topics. All of this is aimed at helping users to get the most success with their HubSpot subscription.
In addition, HubSpot offers a whole suite of tools aimed at growing your business. You can handle your marketing, sales, and customer service all in once place, instead of using many different tools that don’t integrate with one another. And when your business needs to use tools outside of what HubSpot offers, it conveniently integrates with many different apps and platforms.
HubSpot has gained popularity because it’s extremely quick to learn, with a simple, easy-to-navigate layout that is friendly, even to those who aren’t tech-savvy. There are a ton of built-in templates and tools that can help you get started growing your business even if you’re an absolute beginner. Their customer service is top-notch, so if you ever have a problem, they’ll be there to help.
Tools And Features That Help Build Success.
Part of HubSpot’s success is down to the suite of tools they offer users. Some of their most popular tools can be used to help make marketing more streamlined. Here are some things HubSpot can help your team with:
- Email marketing – HubSpot offers a few great tools for making your email marketing work better for you. The ability to create new templates lets you save time when putting together emails, and automating email workflows can make sure your customers get the right email at the right time. Segmenting your lists can allow you to send more personalised emails, and a reporting tool allows you to closely track opens, clicks, and the demographics to those who are engaging with your emails.
- Blog optimisation – HubSpot will give you on-page SEO suggestions to make sure your content is getting your message out there to the most people possible. And you can use their calendar tool to schedule blog posts (along with emails, social media posts, etc.)
- Social media – HubSpot integrates well with all social media platforms, allowing you to keep your content organised. You can automate posting to save your team even more time.
- Reporting – you’ll never know the success of your marketing campaigns if you don’t track your results, and HubSpot makes this easy. They can help you see your most important KPIs in one place, so you can easily compare how your campaigns and strategies are doing. This will help you make better marketing decisions in the future.
How You Can Embrace Inbound Marketing?
HubSpot has proven again and again that inbound marketing works well for businesses across many industries. And the best part is, getting started with inbound marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. Though it may take a little time at first to build up the content library that’s necessary to provide your audience with the information they’re looking for, it will pay off in dividends over time.
If you’re ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level, take some time to browse through the tools that HubSpot offers, or take a few courses on their academy. Learning all you can is the first step towards finding success with inbound marketing. With the tools available, you can quickly and easily get started making your marketing goals a reality for your business.