Why HubSpot is Winning

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Disclaimer:
I am a converted HubSpot customer.

I use their software to increase the number of inbound warm leads and convert more qualified visitors into sales opportunities.

They call it Inbound Marketing. I call it my Life Saver Marketing platform.

It’s easy to use and at a tip of a finger, I can blog, optimize keywords, create new promo landing pages, send emails or check who is talking about us on the social sphere – all from a single tool. Most importantly, with its seamless integration with salesforce.com, Hubspot offers a complete closed loop reporting providing both marketing and sales with a single source of truth. That’s huge from an accountability and time saving standpoint.

But this is not what most impresses me.

As a product marketer, I am really fascinated by how this company is marketing, selling and enabling its customers. And yesterday’s announcement of the $32 million Series D round from Salesforce.com, Google and Sequoia is no surprise to me. Here is why and what we can all learn from it:

  • They have a clear understanding of the space they play in. Rather than competing with the big players in the marketing automation software market, they took early on a different approach by building an easy-to-use, multi-purpose one size fit all platform focused on generating more leads and targeted to the SMB space.
  • They are careful with only taking on board customers they can satisfy. Yes you read this correctly. When I bought HubSpot, they were very open with the limitations of their email marketing offering. That’s actually what sealed the deal for me. They were the most transparent vendor I had ever dealt with. Honesty pays!
  • They are maniacally focused on the success of their customers. They don’t stop to show the love with the PO. They will do anything to get you, the new customer, up-to-speed and delivering value back to your organization. They understand the power of happy customers. And one way they do it very well is by providing their customers with many avenues to share feedback and become a beta tester.

Even more fascinating is the strong marketing community they’ve been able to build. In the last month alone, they’ve generated over 30,000 leads (yes that’s in one month) and their marketing blog, webinars, resources etc are a great source of tips and best practices for any marketer. Most importantly they’ve set themselves as a trusted source before potential buyers even consider investing in their software. This is a huge competitive advantage that they’ve developed and can leverage through their customers’ buying cycle journey.

Now, I am a big believer that @bhalligan and @dharmesh have been planning all along to take over the larger players in the marketing automation and other adjacent markets. People who still believe that HubSpot is only playing in the SMB space are dead wrong (here and here). And for a simple reason – they solve a problem that marketing organizations all around are facing: do more with less resources and be more accountable.

It’s only a question of time before we see them expanding in the larger accounts. Something I am pretty sure Salesforce.com, Google and Sequoia would agree with.

What’s your take on HubSpot winning strategy?

PS: I really encourage you to review the presentation on Agile Marketing: The HubSpot Way that Kirsten Knipp presented at the last ProductCamp Austin. Another fascinating example of how HubSpot is leading the pack.

Image Credit: sleepychinchilla

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Josh Duncan
Director of Product Marketing currently working at a software startup. Excited about product marketing, technology, customer experience, and the impact of social media and content marketing.

1 COMMENT

  1. I believe they see a big opp in the small business space. That’s the least penetrated for marketing automation software. Hence their pricing is lower. Plus they spend a ton on customer education — this is focused on the newbie. Moreover, the better educated customer begets better results which can then spur more sales. Classic example is the guy in this post Hubspot review. Larger companies have marketing staff, SEO and CMS. This is not to mean that they won’t go after such accounts later, they just have a lot of runway in SMB for the moment.

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