HubSpot Profile: Inbound Marketing Software

At first you might be mistaken in believing that HubSpot is just another website design and marketing firm, the likes of which you find in any major U.S. city. A look at the rapid growth of HubSpot in the last few years and the pedigree of its founders, however, suggest there is something more going on here. So what is HubSpot, and what do they have to offer?

HubSpot Overview

HubSpot was founded in 2006 by MIT grads Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Halligan, who generally acts as the spokesperson for HubSpot, is perhaps best known for his book, Inbound Marketing­­, a guide that helps businesses with web marketing. “Inbound marketing” is the marketing idea that focuses on drawing clients in with content rather than traditional marketing’s notion of brand building. It is HubSpot’s guiding philosophy as well.

HubSpot is an internet marketingsoftwareprovider. “Software” is the word that should stand out here. Internet marketing is by this point old hat. As I have already mentioned there are a slew of website design firms of varying sizes and abilities who will claim to offer internet marketing for businesses. Typically, these services involve creating a website design and then setting up a separate marketing campaign which the web design and marketing firm handles—for a fee of course.

How is HubSpot different?

HubSpot’s software attempts to put the client in the driver’s seat. The software simplifies the SEO process for clients, allowing them to do their own marketing through an easy to use, all-in-one web-based platform.

The Benefit of HubSpot’s Software

The idea is simple: Instead of having an SEO consultant research keywords via Google’s keyword tool, optimize page tags with HTML, install a CMS like WordPress onto the client’s website, and analyze the effectiveness of particular landing pages with Google Analytics or similar programs—HubSpot’s software streamlines this process so that customers can do all this on the HubSpot platform.

For example, clients seeking to do their own SEO are often daunted by the difficulties of keyword optimization on individual pages. Even if they are good writers, they will not know about keyword density, how to tag the HTML for headers, or how to insert optimized links.

The HubSpot software is partly a CMS like WordPress in that it allows users to easily create, delete, and edit pages (as well as add photos and videos to them) without having to know much about web design or HTML. What it adds is a built in SEO function that helps guide writers to make optimized content. That is, the software helps writers to get the right keyword density within content, to make the most of headers, and to make sure links are properly optimized. Again, HubSpot software does this without the user having to understand SEO beyond the very basics—that’s its added value.

Is HubSpot’s Software Effective?

HubSpot looks like a great option for companies that would rather do their own marketing but who are not technically savvy. It eliminates the cost and hassle of having to hire an internet marketing consultant (although HubSpot does offer training packages for the software, which suggests it is not completely intuitive). This cost aspect could open up more options, especially for smaller companies. HubSpot still does require, however,a fair amount of labor on the client’s part. In other words, someone will still have to produce the website’s content and do the actual work of creating the marketing campaign. For some businesses, this may still be a too much of a drawback.

About the author: Greg Henderson – an Internet Marketer and SEO Associate for public records and genealogy reference sites: RecordsProject and GeneaLinks.

Image by HubSpot / Flickr