Last week in a press release, we announced signing an agreement with HubSpot, Inc., to resell their online marketing software platform and provide inbound marketing services to interested customers looking to increase qualified leads.

For those who are not familiar with Inbound Marketing, we thought we’d weigh in on what it is and how it fits in your marketing mix.

Background

Many of our clients are in high technology industries such as optics, advanced manufacturing and engineering services in which their competitive advantage comes from innovation. In these specialized industries, finding and educating the right buyers can be a challenge, but a content-driven inbound marketing strategy is a very effective way to increase revenue.

Most clients practice some form of inbound marketing – from website SEO, or social media prospecting, or email campaigns. The HubSpot platform provides a better way to measure the impact and ROI of marketing on their businesses. HubSpot’s integrated suite of tools to generate, track, and convert leads from the web and its tight integration with Salesforce and other popular CRMs, makes HubSpot a key component to creating a sustainable sales pipeline.

PLS Launch Solutions Becomes HubSpot Partner

In January 2012, we began using the HubSpot platform for our own inbound marketing efforts and effective immediately, HubSpot is available to current and prospective clients.With the addition of the HubSpot platform and PLS’ industry and technical expertise, we are able to further improve the effectiveness of the marketing strategies we create and execute for our clients.

Inbound Marketing Defined

Inbound Marketing is a strategy to attract qualified prospects by earning their attention and trust. You do that by offering helpful and valuable information to the prospective customer and engaging them through their buy cycle - to ultimately convert them to customers when they are ready to buy. An inbound marketing engagement leverages online marketing tactics including SEO, email campaigns, landing pages, and social media interactions to be found on the web.Inbound Marketing Defined

Inbound marketing platforms like HubSpot makes it easy to perform the activities that really impact sales.

Integrated Marketing Mix & Inbound Marketing

For an integrated marketing mix, Inbound Marketing is a critical part of growing your business. Why?

Being in front of prospects before a sales rep ever talks to them is essential: In a recent Forrester Research study of more than 1,000 technology businesses, the corporate website was ranked first in determining whether a purchase would be made. That means that prospects are researching your company and solutions before they ever communicate with you. This B2B purchase behavior raises the importance of targeted messaging and reaching out to prospective customers where they hang out online -- with relevant content. When they do come to your website, you want to offer an engagement that supports their research with valuable content.

Converting a website visitor to a customer requires multiple touches and according to the National Sales Executive Association, 80% of sales are made on the 5th through 12th contact. An Inbound Marketing platform can help manage touches through nurturing campaign outreach, tracking leads, and helping determine which leads are hot and ready for sales to pursuit.  For most of our clients, we find an integrated marketing approach that includes inbound marketing practices and other marketing activities such as tradeshows, PR, and paid media provide the appropriate mix of activity and marketing channels to attract, nurture, and convert prospects into customers.

Intrigued or have questions?

Contact me or my business partner Michele for more information on inbound marketing or HubSpot.

About the HubSpot Platform

The HubSpot platform improves website traffic and its conversion to sales, and provides real-time metrics and recommendations to improve marketing ROI. HubSpot software is used by over 5000 companies to generate, track, and convert leads from the web.