2009 was a great year for my business and I am really excited about 2010! Sometimes I feel very guilty being upbeat when peers ask "how's business?". Many of them have been hit hard by the recession while I have been able to expand. As with any business during hard times there are many factors that contribute to success or failure. A couple of factors that contributed greatly to the success of my small business are embracing Inbound Marketing with HubSpot and becoming a member of HubSpot's Service Network. While many of my peers struggled during 2009 and early 2010, I was getting qualified leads from HubSpot and generating leads of my own using Inbound Marketing. Rather than cut back I have been able to expand my company and build relationships with other companies in the Service Network.
I networked recently with local HubSpot Users and Partners at the HubSpot Central Mass Users Group meeting. HubSpot Certified Partner, Susan LaPlante-Dube of Precision Marketing Group and I were speaking to a couple of business owners who are working to become Partners and join HubSpot's Service Network. They had questions and concerns about the program. The underlying question was "am I really going to get referrals from HubSpot"? Susan and I assured them that if they passed the certification exam and proved themselves as quality providers they would get referrals. It struck me at the time how unusual it is to be in a room with several competitors, be at ease, and encouraging others to become competitors as well.
Susan's company is one of several agencies that I have collaborated with on projects. Although we had to demonstrate proficiency in all aspects of Inbound Marketing to pass HubSpot's certification exam, we each have our strengths. I've worked with agencies outside of the HubSpot Service Network but have not been as comfortable in the relationship. Why? Susan summed it up when she said "there is plenty of business for everyone".
Pagetender has been fortunate to be a partner since the inception of the program. I have become comfortable building relationships with other HubSpot Partners because we really aren't competing in a traditional sense. HubSpot is a software company, not a service company. Rather than building an infrastructure to provide a wide range of services to their customers, they put their money and energy into developing a group of Partners (VARs or value added resellers). Partners are required to pass a rigorous certification exam and to meet a standard of excellence. HubSpot measures their success using their internal measurement scale CHI, Customer Happiness Index. HubSpot can focus on innovation and build their customer base trusting their Partners to provide high quality services. The HubSpot Service Network is a win for HubSpot, HubSpot customers and Inbound Marketing Agencies like mine.
Need help with Inbound Marketing? Visit the HubSpot Service Network and contact a Certified Partner. Working to become a Certified Partner? I look forward to working with you.
The folks at HubSpot are very bright and hard working. You wouldn't suspect how hard they work if you saw one of their videos though. They seem to have so much fun! They are all about inbound marketing - internet marketing may be a term you are more familiar with. What is it exactly? Inbound marketing leverages internet technologies such as your website and social media to draw potential clients to you. Traditional outbound marketing pushes information about your products or services to the marketplace hoping that the right people notice. There is no one better at describing inbound marketing than the marketing team at HubSpot. They just released a new video titled "You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing. If you haven't seen it, check it out here and then go to YouTube to see their other videos. They are all very entertaining...at least to us internet marketing geeks.
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