Can You Successfully Run Inbound Marketing Without HubSpot?
Google “how to generate leads.” Go ahead, we'll wait.....
How does that make you feel? Nervous, Anxious...perhaps flustered?
That is completely understandable. You’ll find so much content about generating leads that it will almost be impossible to wrap your head around.
Business owners and marketers alike have published content on Facebook and Twitter, published some blogs here and there and perhaps even written some white papers and eBooks. Their target audience might even be engaging. So where are all the leads everyone talks about when you begin to dip into inbound marketing?
Let's explain.
You are posting blogs, sending emails, using social channels and writing white papers. But, is this all you need to run a successful inbound markting campaign? It's definitely moving in the right direction, but a strong strategy and process on how you are delivering that content needs to take place first. Next, you need to anaylize your marketing efforts and how it's working so you can make tweaks where necessary.
That's where marketing automation solutions come into play!
So, what is marketing automation?
A marketing automation solution allows companies to streamline, automate and measure marketing tasks and workflows, so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue at a quicker rate.
Marketing automation services can be expensive and you might think ROI isn't there for your business.
But, ask yourself these questions:
- Do I have an efficient content strategy mapped out that focuses on my buyer personas?
- Do I have a proven lead nurturing strategy that continues to educate my leads?
- Do I really know how my visitors are interacting with my website?
If you answered "No" to one of those questions, a marketing automation solution is a must if you want to be attracting visitors to your website and generating quality leads.
Let’s take a look at blogging and gated content - AKA content that is downloadable upon entering some information about yourself. Companies that blog generate 126% more leads than those that don’t, and marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy a positive ROI. Equally important, 80% of B2B content-marketing assets are gated. Companies that have employed these tactics are more likely to produce visits/leads than those companies that do not. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to measure those leads if your business is already utilizing blogging and gated content?
For any business, inbound marketing efforts are simply not viable unless you can see some hard data backed with research. Without marketing automation services, how can you determine what’s working and what’s not? Managing your business effectively and efficiently requires the best tools available. And leveraging those tools to streamline and magnify marketing and sales efforts are especially important for small businesses with limited resources. But, tools cost money and it becomes arduous to maintain a cost-effective strategy while also trying to increase productivity.
So, HubSpot or no HubSpot?
Social media, email marketing, writing and designing content, layout of landing pages and blogs - there is a lot that goes into creating compelling content that visitors will want to download AND share, while at the same time, designing it, placing it strategically on your website to create a fabulous user experience and then promoting it. Sure, this can all be done via a variety of tools and professionals. And some tools can even provide some data. But, to do everything you need to do in order for inbound marketing to truly be successful, you might be looking at using and managing up to 8 different tools. No Thanks!
In comes HubSpot - This marketing automation software solution incorporates a series of specific tools to handle virtually every aspect of your marketing, delivery, reporting and evaluation and they all work nicely together!
Using just one tool to create all of the necessary things you need to run an effective inbound marketing campaign relieves that anxiety you may have experienced in the beginning of this blog when you googled "how to generate leads". And, in the grand scheme of things, this route is much more cost-effective and time efficient.
In Conclusion:
Undergoing an inbound marketing campaign is doable without HubSpot, however, to measure your marketing efforts effectively and have everything you need in one location is what will leverage your business towards the goal you are hoping to achieve!
Want to get your feet wet without getting into a one-year contract with an inbound marketing agency? Talk to our inbound marketing superstar, Lisa McDermott. She will answer all of your questions regarding HubSpot and can discuss a mini-inbound marketing campaign at Stratus Interactive without the huge commitment financially.
Dip your feet in the inbound marketing water!
