Marketing Essay on HubSpot

Do you agree with HubSpot that the rules of marketing have changed?

Traditional marketing strategies were more concerned with pushing the products to customers, even those that were not interested in the products as opposed to the new strategies which seek to pull only the interested customers towards the products. Thus, it would be correct to state that the rules of marketing are changing as opposed to they have completely changed. HubSpot through its creators developed and revolutionized the notion of inbound marketing. This is a concept that aims to get clients interested in a product by pulling them in using web 2.0 technology which is more effective as compared to the traditional push methods. As such, due to the advancement and the rapid adoption of the internet technology, many of the marketing strategies are inclined towards the internet with marketers turning to internet tools such as blogs, search engine optimization and Facebook pages to market products. Thus, with inbound marketing, which relies on the fact that customers looking for a particular product will do the necessary research, all a company has to do is have a presence on the internet in order to market its product. Thus, inbound marketing has indeed changed the rules of marketing as the rules of doing business have been enhanced by the requirement of communication avenues that are in line with inbound marketing.

Is HubSpot finding and serving the right set of customers? Given they are a startup should they focus on Marketer Marys or Owner Ollie or both?

HubSpot has classified its customers into two categories, the small business owners or the Owner Ollie and the marketing professional customers or the Marketer Mary. The Owner Ollies are entrepreneurs with less than twenty-five employees, and these were the customer HubSpot primarily targeted. As a startup and in the initial stages, HubSpot was finding and serving the right set of customers as the cost of acquiring them was relatively low and the objective was to develop the maximum leads which Owner Ollies would facilitate as they do not have a defined marketing department. However, as HubSpot expands, it should concentrate more on Marketer Mary. Although the cost of acquiring marketing professionals is higher, they are likely to invest heavily as being knowledgeable on new age strategies and marketing tools, Marketer Marys are only interested in the reports and analytics provided by HubSpot. Furthermore, unlike the Owner Ollies who required training in order to efficiently utilize HubSpots tools, Marketer Mary do not require such training.

Should HubSpot stay with only inbound marketing or do any outbound marketing as well?

The term and strategy of inbound marketing are unique to HubSpot in that it was devised and sold by HubSpot. As such, HubSpot faces a conflict of interest if it adopts outbound marketing. By adopting outbound marketing, HubSpot would no longer be able to justify selling their inbound marketing solutions to its customers. Furthermore, the adoption of outbound marketing strategies would lead to the infusion of more capital into marketing in which case there would be an increase in the cost per lead generated. Furthermore, HubSpots market is huge as compared to the small products they are offering. Under these conditions, and with a market that is mostly composed of small and medium-sized enterprises which are HubSpots greatest customer base, the potential for growth in terms of maximizing profits is great. As such, inbound marketing is the most appropriate strategy as it generates measurable income while optimally utilizing financial resources.