Posted by Jody Raines
Hub
spot, the award winning software that enables small and mid sized businesses to compete with large corporations on the Internet had a webinar today for partners and prospective partners. Brian Halligan, co-founder and Pete Caputa, Partner Relations Director shared their vision of how marketing is evolving and suggested that today's marketer's must evolve as well.
Partially based upon personal observations that traditional promotional methods and advertising were not working, and partially based upon the experience of an Internet program that was working, Halligan and his to-be partner, Dharmesh Shah put together the foundation of a strategy that would become the prototype for Hubspot. Halligan and Shah met while attending MIT.
According to the website "The founders of HubSpot® met at MIT in 2004. Both were interested in the transformative impacts of the internet on small businesses and were early students of web2.0 concepts. The discussions and early work were on-going for two years and in June of 2006 the company was officially founded and funded."
So, although Hubspot was founded just three years ago, the company has experienced geometric growth to it's present level of 2,300 subscribers. Part of the success of the program is based the (killer software) "marketing application and great advice Hubspot offers to small businesses enabling them to leverage the disruptive effects of the internet to "get found" by more prospects shopping in their niche and to convert a higher percentage of prospects into customers.
Most small businesses have a website that behaves like their old paper-based brochures, but just sitting online. It is rarely updated, is not given significant visibility by the search engines, has low traffic levels, does not encourage return visits, does not enable/track conversions, etc. What HubSpot does is transform that relatively static website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right leads and helps convert a higher percentage of them into qualified opportunities."
During today's presentation, Halligan described his experience with media and his observations of how much it's changed; In the mid 1970's, he shared how his family would gather around to watch television together. When a commercial came on, they would watch it, and perhaps even comment to each other about the commercial. Companies like Procter and Gamble and McDonald's built their brand and were very successful with broadcast advertising.
However, fast forward fifteen years later, there was his father, 'clicker' in hand, and when a commercial came on, the channel surfing began. No longer was the commercial king of the airwaves.
Today's marketers, must adopt an inbound marketing approach. Inbound marketing is a combination of search engine optimization, careful keyword rich content creation, link building, ongoing evaluation of performance and massaging the content, blogging, social media including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, YouTube, Flikr, Digg, press releases, pod casts, landing pages and compelling call-to-action offers. Content that is found and which appeals to the target audience, so much so, that they volunteer their contact information in order to be added to mailing lists and rss feeds.
A lead nurturing program is also incorporated into the software, which makes it a system that has a provable ROI.
The focus of the announcement today is for a special section where Hubspot Certified Partners can share their expertise with businesses who want the power of the Hubspot platform, yet don't have the expertise or the time to devote. Programs are offered, such as "Do Hubspot For Me", with pricing and metrics for customers to select a marketing partner to work with.
Disclosure: WebMarCom is a Certified Hubspot Partner and we are excited to be associated with such a professional organization. As an independent Marketing Agency, we can elect to work on any platform. We are honored to be one of 30 Hubspot Certified Partners, and to offer our services to clients and potential clients who would like to experience the power of the Internet through a trial. WebMarCom is the only Hubspot Certified Partner in Voorhees or Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and in the Philadelphia Metro Area.
Posted by Jody Raines
Congratulations to Jody Raines, President of WebMarCom.net and newest certified partner for Hubspot. "There are approximately thirty partners across the US, said Raines, and it's truly an honor to be among this elite group". The Partner Certification means that Ms. Raines has passed a rigorous test that measures knowledge of Search Engine Optimization, Internet strategy, website design, social media marketing, blogging, public relations on the Internet, creating effective websites, generating leads through online marketing and the components of an "Inbound Marketing" program.
"My frustration with doing the things the old way was the catalyst for starting WebMarCom.net. Many of the 'Old School' web companies are still just building pretty sites. A website has to be an effective tool for the company, otherwise, why invest in fixing it?"
Raines started WebMarCom.net in November, and it has already rising in Alexa rank to one of the top nine percent in the United States. This means that it's outranked over 91% of the websites that are out there. "I use the same techniques for my clients that I use on my site" Raines stated. "They are effective and they work."
The goal for a website is to become a "lead generation magnet". It's first important for the site to be found, by practicing great search engine marketing. This is an ongoing process - if you can imagine, with all the blogs and new websites and updates every day, nothing is static. A website should continue to change and adapt to maintain ranking. In addition, it's not enough just to be found - once the site is sound, the content has to be excellent. Plus there has to be a call-to-action or reason for a potential client to ask for you to contact them.
'I'm gratified and excited", Jody shared, "and I'm ready to work with businesses, not just in Philadelphia, Cherry Hill and Voorhees, but in the entire south Jersey region as well as Philly metro who recognize that their website is not working and they want to make it into a 'lead generation magnet'."