Mariano Galvez University of Guatemala

School of Management - Graduate School

Master of Business Administration
Management Marketing II Course
Teacher: Licda. Claudia Mejía de Castro

HubSpot
HubSpot Case: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0

Group No. 8

Davinsky Roel de León Ronquillo 3290-19-8569

Lesdy María Alejandra González Ramírez 3290-16-305

Mesvin Ariel Vásquez Sicajac 3290-15-15114

Guatemala, March 2021

 Index

Mariano Galvez University of Guatemala.............................................................................1

HubSpot............................................................................................................................................1
HubSpot Case: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0.........................................................................1
Group No. 8...........................................................................................................................1
Index......................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................4
1.1 Relevant facts..............................................................................................................4
1.2 Business definition......................................................................................................5
1.3 Key business success factors......................................................................................5
1.4 Differentiation.............................................................................................................6
1.5 Positioning..................................................................................................................6
2. Diagnosis........................................................................................................................8
2.1 What problems were detected?...................................................................................8
2.2 What problems could arise?........................................................................................8
2.3 What is the situation of the company?........................................................................8
2.4 What should the company's situation be?...................................................................9
3. Analysis..........................................................................................................................9
3.1 Matrices and situational platforms..............................................................................9
Closing of the sale...................................................................................................................10
3.2 SWOT Analysis........................................................................................................10
4. Alternate action plan proposed by the team.................................................................11
4.1 Objectives.................................................................................................................11
4.4 Contingency plan......................................................................................................15
4.5 Evaluation and control..............................................................................................15
5. Conclusions..................................................................................................................16
6. Recommendations........................................................................................................17
1. What is Hubspot's challenge? Analyze in depth..........................................................18
2. How could the challenge be met? Analyze and justify. Minimum 5 recommendations.
18
3. What is Inbound Marketing? Why is it important today? Analyze in depth................18
4. Keys to Inbound Marketing success.............................................................................19
5. Provide 1 example of application of Inbound strategies in Guatemala and explain
specifically how it was applied?..........................................................................................19
6. How would you apply it in a B2B company? And how would it apply to a B2C?......20
 4

1. Introduction
1.1 Relevant facts
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded Hubspot in 2006 to serve as an Inbound
Marketing platform.

Halligan and Shah found that: a) they had to define the person they were targeting, b)
update their pricing, and c) decide whether they should supplement with outbound marketing. In
reality, they didn't want to use outbound marketing at all, but only inbound marketing. They did
not want to be like companies that used outbound marketing, interrupting people to attract them
with unwanted advertising, but to attract customers with quality content.

Therefore, they started to write attractive content, with the right use of keywords to be
easily found in Google and also tried to build a community of followers to support and replicate
the information they were providing. As they put it into practice, they realized that generating
customers in this way was functional and even five to seven times cheaper.

Hubspot allows you to classify customers as a Lead, Prospect or Opportunity. In 2009,

Hubspot already had 1,000 customers, and to acquire them, Hubspot applied the same process it
offered its customers to obtain customers.

Over time they did several things such as implementing a tool for improving their clients'
websites, as well as improving their own ranking algorithms. They divided their clients into:

a) Ollie - representative of small companies with between 1 and 25 employees. You

are at
companies needed quick solutions and the cost to get them was approximately $1,000.

b) Mary - representative of medium-sized companies with between 25 and 100

employees. You are at
companies needed more specialized or higher-level solutions because they had marketing
departments within them. The cost to obtain them was approximately $5000.

The largest proportion of Hubspot's customers were Ollie and the smallest proportion
were Mary. Although they had a greater effectiveness impact on Ollie, they tended to have
longer-term relationships with Mary-type clients.
 5

1.2 Business definition

Hubspot seeks to meet the marketing needs of its
clients, whether small or medium-sized businesses, through a
platform for the distribution of high quality content and
effectiveness measurement tools.

1.3 Key business success factors

As part of the key success factors are the innovative entry techniques for acquiring
customers, i.e., this was designed to help companies attract candidates, qualify their potential and
convert them into revenue-generating customers. This process was divided into three clear skills.

1. Write persuasive content that would attract customers. With useful content for
customers and not just an advertising message.
2. Ability to distribute such content so that potential customers will find it easily when
using search engines, which required a sophisticated understanding of search engine
optimization.
3. Attract and engage a community of followers to interact with the content. Generate
dialogue and transmit it to others.

Differentiation in relation to its competitors. HubSpot focused on inbound marketing by

creating content that attracted only those customers who were interested in the product or service,
this made it more profitable relative to its competition.
 6

1.4 Differentiation
Hubspot is dedicated to educating small and medium-sized business owners on how to use
their website and Internet tools in a way that attracts potential customers by getting them to
search for the product or service. This marketing strategy is called "inbound marketing" or
inbound marketing, where it is achieved by causing curiosity in the customer and making him/her
look for information, giving him/her the necessary tools to find what he/she is looking for.

There are currently more than 211 automatic Inbound Marketing programs like Hubspot
on the market, but what makes this solution different is the following:

Hubspot pays a lot of attention to educating its customers, potential customers and anyone
who comes to its website with the intention of learning more about inbound marketing. They
have a HubSpot Academy, their blog posts in different languages, their webinar repository and
their courses are of very good quality.

They teach by example. All the principles they explain in relation to content creation,
social media management, lead capture, lead nurturing, etc. are applied in practice and show their
results. There is a lot of research done and shared such as the valuable State of Inbound 2015.

The integration of everything you need in one place makes your work easier. The
platform's structure and internal design is very user-friendly. You don't need to be a programming
genius to operate it.

Today we live in a world where technology is everything. Companies that do not get
involved in the Internet will lose great chances of success, which is also true for marketing.
People prefer new styles of communication, such as blogs, social networks (like Facebook and
Twitter), search engines and their search engine optimization, etc. Instead of interrupting
audiences with TV ads, inbound marketing creates videos that potential customers want to watch,
gets them to sign up for blogs that they want to read, and creates tools to make it easier for
customers to search.

1.5 Positioning
Hubspot builds software that helps companies run inbound marketing programs to replace
or replace their traditional marketing methods. They are leaders in the Web 2.0 space and coined
 7

the term "inbound marketing."

Hubspot promotes the idea that inbound marketing should be used to acquire customers
instead of traditional marketing. In the case of the former, it is the user who finds the brand
because it has a solution (the content says so) and reaches the website through search engines,
social networks and other resources. In the second, the user is offered advertising information
through the media, the Internet, telemarketing and other techniques. Sales are less personalized
and communication reaches users who are not interested or users who are not interested in our
brand.

In Hubspot's case regarding the focused market segment, it has the following options:
there are the "Owner Ollies", which make up 68% of Hubspot's consumers, which are small
businesses, whose owner is in charge of everything from finance to human resources. They are
looking for a quick and easy marketing solution as they do not have the time to dedicate 100% of
their time to marketing, but it still needs to be effective, as it is the consumers who will determine
the success or failure of the company. On the other hand, there are the "Marketer Marys", who
make up 31% of consumers, which are larger companies where there is a dedicated marketing
department, with professionals who are more demanding, more interested in the analysis and
reporting that Hubspot can provide, and as they already have Web experts, they are looking for
more robust and sophisticated tools.

Owner Ollie customers have the following characteristics:

• 1 to 25 employees
• The "owners Ollies" are small business owners who are very busy because they
had to manage the PR area. HR, finance, sales and marketing of their companies.
• They do not have a professionalized marketing staff.
• Lack of experience in the use of Web 2.0
Marketer Mary: "The marketing professional sellers" clients have the following
characteristics:

• They work in companies with between 26 and 100 employees.

• They are supported by a Marketing team.
 8

• Increased experience in the use of web 2.0

2. Diagnosis
When envisioning the future, the desire of Hubspot's two founders was to accelerate the
company's growth rate and increase its profitability.

2.1 What problems were detected?

• Hubspot did not have identified the customers it was going to focus on as it is not
focused on a specific type of customer and that to date is a problem to be solved.

• There is no strategy on the pricing model in place to attract new customers to use
its platform.
• They had some uncertainty as to whether a sufficient proportion would be
achieved through inbound marketing efforts or whether traditional methods would
continue to be used.

2.2 What problems could arise?

• The theft or leakage of confidential customer information by hackers who want to

use this information maliciously or for extortion purposes.
• Loss of customers due to late processes to acquire services.
• Competitiveness with other companies that may offer similar services

2.3 What is the situation of the company?

Hubspot is currently a leading company in the Web 2.0 market that is designed to provide
help and services to companies that need attention from potential customers and thus convert
them into potential consumers and thus increase their sales, generate more profits, receive more
profits and thus Hubspot has a high profitability.
 9

2.4 What should the company's situation be?

Hubspot must stay in the market as it has done to date, maintaining its position as the
leading Web 2.0 company using the inbound marketing base, but at the same time it must have a
more specialized approach to the type of client it is going to work with and for this it must carry
out an exhaustive analysis to determine which pricing strategy is the best and thus have greater
sales and a specialized service.

3. Analysis
3.1 Matrices and situational platforms
Hubspot Customer Opportunities

Visit

Candidates

20,00%
10,00%

Oport.

60.00%

40,00%
20,00%
60.00%
40,00%
20,00%

Hubspot Competitive Field

 1
0

Closing
of
the sale

Source: Case preparers.

3.2 SWOT Analysis

Strengths Opportunities
• Innovative industry • Large market
• Team committed to the customer • Good approval of the customers
• Easy-to-use products • Emergence of new customers
• Leaders in low prices • Technological growth
• Pioneers in inbound and web 2.0 marketing
Weaknesses Threats
• Complexity in retaining small customers • Increased competition
• Discrepancy in decision making • Prices are becoming increasingly competitive
• There is no well-defined strategy for • Large industries are developing their own
each type of customer software
• Marketing is not considered from the outset • Social networks are becoming more and more
output as part of the philosophy competitive

Analysis: By analyzing the endogenous and exogenous variables, gaps are identified that in the
long term may affect HubSpot, likewise opportunities are identified to be able to grow in the market
The company must take advantage of the capacity of its staff to generate more value to customers and
 1
1
improve their products, as well as the advice they provide, to continue to maintain a solid positioning
in the market, so broad in which they develop their activities. It should be noted that internal objectives
should be well defined in order to translate them into a better global strategy, since due to the diversity
of customers it is sometimes difficult for them to reach an agreement on products and prices. It is also
important that they do not lose sight of the constant generation of new ideas, especially when
belonging to the marketing and technology industry, two very changing areas.

4. Alternate action plan proposed by the team

4.1 Objectives
Based on Exhibit 6 of the case description, it is noticeable that, as of December 2008, the
largest percentage of Hubspot customers are Ollie Owners, who usually leave within a few months of
signing up for the service. As mentioned above, a smaller percentage is from Expertas Mary, but these
companies have longer and more stable service contracting periods.

Exhibit 6 HubSpot's customer portfolio as of December 2008

Number of Percentage of
customers customers

Ollies Owners 694 73%

Marketing experts
Marys 255 27

Total B2B 647 68

Total B2C 302 32

Total > 25 CMS 21 2

Total < 25 CMS 122 13
No CMS 806 85

Total 949 100%

Source: Exhibit 6, Hubspot Case description.

It has therefore been decided to have a greater focus on Ollie customers as a strategic theme,
with the following strategic objectives:
 1
2
Type of target Target
Financial Increase annual revenue from Ollie customers

Customers Using a new service (free/paid feature)

Internal processes Implementing a new key service for Ollie customers

Learning and growth Learn what additional service Ollie's customers would like to see

4.2 Strategy formulation

Strategic objectives Measurement Goal Initiative Cost

Financial Increase the The income 50 customers Ollie N/A N/A

half-yearly revenues semi-annual by use the
from Ollie customers customers Ollie paid feature of the new
are increased by means service
of the paid feature. (In
parallel you can
study yes this
produced a longer
retention time for Ollie
customers).

Customers Use a new Promote the new 100 customers Ollie Generate content $2,500
service service to customers in use the new from
general (Not just Ollie free service (Mary inbound marketing
(from customers, as, although customers using the for
free/paid feature) they are the main service will be a plus, promote the
focus, the service can but will not be part of new service
also be available this strategy)
for customers Mary)

Internal Implement a 1 new service with 1 new service 1 new service, $10,000
processes new key service for free/paid features tested y developed in the
Ollie customers running first 6 months of
2009
 1
3
Learning and Learn what additional 248 Ollie* customers Conclude what the Survey a $2,500
growth service Ollie's fill out a satisfaction service is additional statistical sample
customers would like survey, including a expressed by Ollie of 248 customers,
to see ask from what customers with a $10 bonus
new services they per customerthat
would like to get from the
Hubspot fill

* Statistical sample of a universe of 694 Ollie customers in December 2008, with a confidence level of 95% and a margin
of error of 5%.
 1
4
4.3 Implementation plan
Initiative Cost Milestones Target date Responsible

Generate inbound $2,500 1. Learning the new tool or 1. 20/Apr Marketing and
content marketing service Planning management team
to promote the new 25/Apr
service 2. from 2.
content (video, blog
entries, podcasts) 10/May
Elaboration from the
3. contents 3. 12/May
Launch from the
contents 15/Jun
4. 4.
Attention to Ollie
customers who are testing
the new service 20/Jun
5. 5.
Review of results of the
1 new service, $10,0001. initiatives
Communicate the start of 1. 15/Feb Software development
operating at the end of the project team
the first half of 2009 Proposal development 20/Feb
2. Proposal approval Proposal 2. 25/Feb
approval Pilot 15/Mar
3. 3.
implementation and start-
20/Mar
4. up Analysis 4.
30/Mar
from
5. Pilot performance 5. 10/Apr
Improvements in service
after pilot Documentation
Sample survey 6.
$2,500 1. Generate the baseline y 1. 6. 05/Jan Team
statistics of 248 2. survey
Focus group to test the 2. 10/Jan innovation
customers, with a $10 survey
bonus per customer Launch from the 15/Jan
who fills it out. 3. survey 3.
Analysis of results 20/Jan
Decision management 05/Feb
4.
in this regard at 4.
5. new
5. 10/Feb
product Communicateresult
at
team of development of
 1
5
4.4 Contingency plan
As in any project, there are some risks associated with each of the proposed activities, so the
following contingency plan is proposed:

Initiative Risk Contingency plan

Generate content from inbound The risk in this activity is very low as N/A
marketing to promote the new service Hubspot is an expert in this type of
content generation.

1 new service, operational by the end of The software development team takes A slack time will be given between each
the first half of 2009 longer than expected to build the new of the initiatives, and there will also be a
service. time from clearance foreseen
Specifically for the development of the
new tool or service.

Statistical sample survey of 248 clients, Failure to reach the goal of 248 The survey will be launched to 300
with a $10 bonus per client who fills it completed surveys. people and the first 250 to fill it out will
out. be rewarded with a $10 bonus on their
next service.

4.5 Evaluation and control

Due to the nature of this strategy, limited to 6 months and with a focus on the development of a
new tool or service, there will not be a list of indicators, but it will be managed from the point of view
of management supervision for the achievement of objectives, evaluation, and control of progress and
achievements.
 1
6
5. Conclusions

• Hubspot is considered a thought leader in the web 2.0 space thanks to the inbound
marketing it has worked with, as opposed to traditional marketing that overwhelms or
seeks out the customer by offering them products they are not interested in.

• In the case of inbound marketing, it is the customer who, through various technological
and digital tools, searches for the supplier that offers them a solution to their needs.

• Hubspot has reached the 1,000 customer mark at this point in its development, but it is
now necessary to define which approach will bring the best results.
• Hubspot has the advantage of being an example of how inbound marketing works.
 1
7
6. Recommendations

• Hubspot should focus on its potential customers to reduce its costs and optimize and
innovate in technology, this will help it to maintain its price level and establish a better
collection strategy to increase its profitability, maintain a portfolio of customers and
maintain a constant flow.

• Hubspot is advised to focus on Ollie Owners in the first phase, as most of its customers
are Ollie Owners.
• As this case is being developed during the month of December 2008, a strategic
recommendation is proposed for the first half of 2009.
• It is also recommended that Marketer Mary type clients continue to be served, but with
the knowledge that the main emphasis should be on Ollie Owners.
 1
8
Case questions

1. What is Hubspot's challenge? Analyze in depth.

After reading the case, it was concluded that Hubspot faced the following challenges:

• Should Hubspot focus on only 1 type of customer? Deciding between Ollie and Mary
• They have always wanted to grow quickly. Should they slow down?
• They have a monthly payment system. Should they change that to annual?
• Hubspot has never wanted to use outbound marketing. Should I use it in conjunction
with inbound marketing?

2. How could the challenge be met? Analyze and justify. Minimum 5 recommendations.
a. Although both types of customers are important to Hubspot, it is recommended by means
of the strategy presented in this paper that a pilot project of strategic attention be carried
out focused only on the majority type of customer, which are Ollie-type customers.
b. All growth takes time. If they want to grow faster it could be done by injecting outbound
marketing, i.e. a more aggressive advertising campaign to get more customers. However,
this is precisely what they do not want to do.
c. It is recommended that the 6-month pilot program be replicated after its conclusion, in
order to respond not only to the challenges presented by Ollie clients, but also with Mary
clients, but with a broader project scope.
d. Regarding the payment method, it is recommended to continue with the monthly payment
option as it has been partly the factor that has contributed to the growth in the number of
Ollie customers. It is in the nature of things that an Ollie customer will prefer to pay
monthly rather than annually. Therefore, if you want to retain them longer, you must offer
them innovation and not just more of the same.
e. Although Hubspot opposes the idea of outbound marketing, you could experiment with
using it sparingly, as it is proven that a combination of inbound marketing and outbound
marketing produces the best results.
 1
9
3. What is Inbound Marketing? Why is it important today? Analyze in depth.

Inbound Marketing is undoubtedly one of the best tools available to achieve success in today's
business world. For this strategy to be carried out correctly, it is necessary to evaluate from different
points of view the situation and the environment in which the organizations are immersed, as well as
the strengths and weaknesses they are currently facing or could face in the future.

Today, the customer is more informed. Compare because you have the option to do so. It is not
easily swayed by misleading advertising. Therefore, inbound marketing is of great importance today
because it brings something valuable to the customer who is already looking for a certain type of
service.

4. Keys to Inbound Marketing success.

• It is a lead generation tool that brings together all the functionalities of

necessary to do so from a platform.

• Blog Administration
• Creation of intelligent forms
• Statistics for all sites.
• Generate campaign URLS
• High return on investment
• Attracts the customer

5. Provide 1 example of application of Inbound strategies in Guatemala and explain

specifically how it was applied?

A few years ago, Tuti Furlán became known in the Guatemalan media, starting with her
participation in a morning show and then with her own talk show. However, as she moved to a
different stage of her career, she began to promote herself individually, no longer linked to television
but in digital media.

His profile always included a positive personality, trying to advise people who view his free
content from his way of seeing the world. But was he going to produce free videos forever?
 2
0

In recent months, she has presented her new audiobook "Happy Imperfect Life" and also
proposes a program of deep transformation in 21 days. Her free videos continue to be featured through
Instagram, but they attract people who identify with this type of positive content, to lead them to a
transformational program or a book where they can delve deeper into precisely the content they
already want to learn. This is an excellent example of inbound marketing.

6. How would you apply it in a B2B company? And how would it apply to a B2C?

Inbound marketing for B2B

Although the most common medium for presenting inbound marketing is usually web 2.0, it
can also be presented in specialized media, such as magazines. There are magazines that do not reach
the general public, but rather specialized niches such as manufacturers', industrial or commercial
guilds. In these magazines, content is placed that can benefit not the end consumer, but the companies.
The same concept could also be implemented at conferences or trade fairs. This would be a good
combination between the 1.0 world and the 2.0 world, which, as has already been proven, is the best
thing to do: to combine both strategies.

Inbound marketing for B2C

In this case, social networks should definitely be used. People spend time on your social
 2
1
networks every week and that is where you should concentrate your efforts to present them with
valuable information that will attract them to the product you want to offer them and that they are
already looking for.

For this, it is necessary to have a good content generation strategy for social networks. It is not
enough to replicate the same content in all networks; it is necessary to personalize the content
depending on the medium in which it is being published.

Additionally, segmentation by age and customer type could help a lot to properly select the
social network to use for the dissemination of inbound marketing content for B2C.