Do I have to have HubSpot to do Inbound Marketing?

It’s a valid question and one we get quite often so we wanted to clear things up about inbound marketing from service to software. HubSpot does not do inbound marketing as a platform it’s simply software that acts as a hub for inbound marketing activities, analytics, reports, a CMS and a CRM. HubSpot is not required for inbound marketing.However, the platform and methodologies provide intuitive and strategic scheduling, executing and reporting.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is based on the idea that traditional or outbound marketing tactics are no longer effective. Today, when we want to buy something or learn more about a school or business, we take to our laptops or mobile devices to research whatever it is we’re interested in. Blogs, eBooks, customer reviews, social media posts and insights from other customers or students allow us to further understand our topics of interests and help us make decisions.

How do I do it?

Inbound marketing is nothing without discovery and strategy. Just like any other marketing tactic; research is vital. Every industry, business, college and university has it’s own unique marketing goals and requirements. Before any inbound marketing efforts take place we must first define our audience, goals and message.

What are user personas? Why are they important?

To define our audience we will create up to five personas per client. These are models of the ideal candidate or customer. Personas allow us to dial in our messaging and communication principals. For example, some of our clients’ personas prefer emails after 7pm and do not take part in Facebook, while others prefer SMS messages with email follow ups and are engaged on social media from sunrise to sunset. Understanding these details about personas allows us to craft messaging strategies to use the preferred method, time and channel of communication.

Goals are important to each inbound marketing campaign. Inbound marketing is measurable where traditional marketing methodologies were not. We will set realistic and reachable goals. Each month we review activities to see what’s working and what’s not. Through HubSpot we are able to see touch points throughout the buyers journey or the enrollment journey. These are the touch points from the first interaction with your brand to sale or enrollment. Monthly reports will show us if we are hitting the goal and how to adjust for more success the next month.

Once the personas and goals are established, the campaign is ready to get started!The campaign is a message that will be carried through the inbound marketing channels. Each campaign’s key message is communicated through social media, blogs and possibly landing pages or emails. Each inbound effort is tracked and the HubSpot dashboard will give you an overview each campaign’s digital footprint and success. At the end of the month, we analyze which campaign performed the best.

That sums up an inbound marketing campaign. At the end of the day, inbound marketing is online marketing that pushes content out to allow customers to come to you. Marketing with a magnet and not a sledgehammer. HubSpot is helpful when planning and analyzing inbound campaigns. There are other ways to collect data – Google Analytics, Sysmos, and Moz are just a few examples of other analytics tools.

So to answer your question… no, HubSpot is not necessary for inbound marketing, but we think it’s an amazing tool to enhance your campaigns and to train your team on inbound methodologies.

To learn more about inbound marketing feel free to schedule an inbound site assessment here! One of our inbound marketing specialists will be in touch soon!