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
Wow. One more inch and we'll have a new record! After 27 inches of snow on Saturday, why is Mother Nature adding another snow/rain mix for us?
So, what's a snowed in business owner to do? Bemoan the weather or be proactive? Here's a list of 5 things you can do to promote your business while snowed in!
1. Sign up for Twitter. Connect with people you've not had a chance to connect with. Yes, it's frightful out side, but you are not the only person who is snowed in! Plus there is a whole part of our nation where the weather may be sunny and warm. If you haven't started, try downloading my podcast- How To Tweet Like A Master. It's full of ideas for managing your Twitter account as well as how to develop a Twitter following, how to connect with others, what to say on Twitter, how to say it, and how to create a custom background for your Twitter profile.
2. Create a Facebook Page for your Business. It's not a difficult thing to do, but it can be confusing. Today is the day that you can take the time to work through your Facebook Page setup. If you already have one - post some comments. Your Facebook page should be informative and helpful.
3. Use YouTube. It's the 2nd most popular search engine. Take a video of your snowfall and post it on YouTube. It's not difficult. If you have a video record function on your mobile phone, you can take the video on the go... Today's a great day to learn how to use it! For a fun exercise, try uploading pictures to animoto.com and select from their music to create a custom thirty second video. Then upload the video to YouTube. Here's an example of one that I did.
4. Explore Live Streaming video. I love UStream and it has some neat functionality. One of the best users of this technology is Adam Sokoloff and the team at Sunrise Signs. They took live streaming video of a vehicle wrap, and they are adding new content on an ongoing basis. Check their stream out: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sunrise-signs-live
5. Set up your blog. A blog is a great way to add new content to your website. As a Hubspot Certified Partner, we are always looking for methods to improve conversion and generate leads. A recent Hubspot study shared the following:
"A study of 2,168 HubSpot customers shows that businesses that published at least 5 blog articles in the last 7 days draw 6.9 times more organic search traffic and 1.12 times more referral traffic than those who don't blog at all."
So after you've done your first round of shoveling, take a few moments and enjoy exploring Social Media Marketing and Inbound Marketing with some of these neat programs. As always, please add comments or thoughts, and start today, while you are snowed in, to take your business to the next level...