Hubspot - worth the high cost?

[willhunting]

We have X amount of cash in our business and are deciding to plough it into marketing. It has been sugested to us that Hubspot might be a good platform to use and we would likely push this through a fully outsourced marketing agency. To us, this seems like a high cost £60-70k for a 12 month contract. Does anyone have any views on eother the return/limitations of Hubspot and/or any views on what a very small business should do with spare capital?

 

[stevebrownlie]

Hubspot is a content marketing and marketing automation platform. To feed the beast it needs A LOT of content and effort to go along with that, which is why it's a significant investment.

Full disclosure I work with and recommend Hubspot competitors but don't work with them (mostly due to their pricing, and other things about how they handle agency partnerships).

It's definitely not a given that you need something as powerful as Hubspot, especially if the budget is a significant concern for you. If you get a good agency you'll almost certainly get a return on your money, but a smaller business can often get into content marketing, and get the wheels moving without going 'all out' initially to make sure it's working for you and you're happy with the progress before you scale up and consider more advanced tools that do the things you are saying 'wow this is going great, but I wish we could....'.

 

[fisicx]

W...and are deciding to plough it into marketing.

What it is you are marketing and to whom?

There may be better ways to market whatever you are selling than churning out hubspot generated content.

 

[willhunting]

Hubspot is a content marketing and marketing automation platform. To feed the beast it needs A LOT of content and effort to go along with that, which is why it's a significant investment.

Full disclosure I work with and recommend Hubspot competitors but don't work with them (mostly due to their pricing, and other things about how they handle agency partnerships).

It's definitely not a given that you need something as powerful as Hubspot, especially if the budget is a significant concern for you. If you get a good agency you'll almost certainly get a return on your money, but a smaller business can often get into content marketing, and get the wheels moving without going 'all out' initially to make sure it's working for you and you're happy with the progress before you scale up and consider more advanced tools that do the things you are saying 'wow this is going great, but I wish we could....'.

Ok, so the situation is that if we go with the Hubspot agency solution within 8 months (and without any further sales), the business will be out of money. So, for me, I am concerned that if the marketing excercise doesn't work, that's pretty much it. That being said, if within this time and expenditure, if we don't make a sale then it's probably not worth continuing the business anyway. I am wondering if there is an alternative direction that we should be taking (?)

 

[NewGardenStyle]

You would get much better feedback if you indicate what you sell, and to whom it is targeted

 

[Tin]

Ok, so the situation is that if we go with the Hubspot agency solution within 8 months (and without any further sales), the business will be out of money. So, for me, I am concerned that if the marketing excercise doesn't work, that's pretty much it.

That's a very tight spot! If it were me in that spot I'd be speaking to Ammon Johns first. In my opinion he's probably the best marketing guy I can think of and he speaks with an honest, and massively experienced tongue.

Good luck.

 

[fisicx]

A second vote for Ammon

 

[stevebrownlie]

Ok, so the situation is that if we go with the Hubspot agency solution within 8 months (and without any further sales), the business will be out of money. So, for me, I am concerned that if the marketing excercise doesn't work, that's pretty much it. That being said, if within this time and expenditure, if we don't make a sale then it's probably not worth continuing the business anyway. I am wondering if there is an alternative direction that we should be taking (?)

You can probably (assuming your site is fairly good) get some sales right away with Facebook ads and it'll give you an idea how well your product is going to sell to your perfect target audience (you can really narrow it down on there). You probably need some kind of automation but you can start with a simple campaign on something like Aweber (the new campaigns are a lot better than a simple autoresponder) and not pay much to test your concept then start shopping around for marketing automation solutions if you really need more features to sell your stuff.

The best place to start is with some Christmas reading - Gary Vaynerchuk's book 'Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook' is excellent as well as being short and to the point on social media.

Also if you want convincing/motivating jump on youtube and watch a few episodes of the Ask Gary Vee show and he'll get you fired up to do some Facebook dark posts (just the old name for unpublished posts/advertising only posts).

Don't listen to anyone who says you can't sell things on Facebook either - you just have to really focus on doing ads 'differently' - stick up a buy now banner and it'll bomb (unless your product is so amazing for the niche you're advertising to they buy anyway!); think about what type of content is native and works on Facebook, build resources on your site to help convert them, and you'll get results in almost any niche.

Happy to have a quick 15-30 minute chat to give you some tips to get started. Once you get rolling with some sales it'll take the pressure off your budget decisions.

 

[fisicx]

Don't listen to anyone who says you can't sell things on Facebook either - you just have to really focus on doing ads 'differently'

They do sewer repairs. Don't think it's going to be a winner on FB now matter how great the advert.

 

[stevebrownlie]

They do sewer repairs. Don't think it's going to be a winner on FB now matter how great the advert.

Lol well obviously I didn't know that as they don't have a sig and they didn't say anything in the thread. Though now I'm busy dreaming up crazy advertising ideas. Knew it was too early in the day for a Baileys... but then it is the holidays in 20 minutes...

 

[singhabhishek251]

I do not think that you should go heavily on Hubspot rather you can try for a short term plan and see how well things are moving for you. There are Google Adwords and Facebook ads too test your product response and see what is the improvement needed for the same.. Once, you have complete idea and you think that Hubspot will definitely add value to your sale then only go for a large campaign based on Hubspot.

 

[Aspens Marketing and PR]

You need to focus on converting marketing activity into sales and that always will mean a mix of marketing activity, measuring what works and tailoring effort into what works best. If you have a budget of £60K plus then you will have lots of opportunities for different types of marketing including PR and content, adverts and tailored approaches to your target audience. Before you spend a single penny on marketing with anyone you need to really have a handle on your various target customers. Start with the analysis of your customers first before you start tactics.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

It depends on many factors. The size of your team, what you want to use it for, how much content you produce, how many campaigns you'll run.

HubSpot is a great tool for analysing your marketing and bringing campaigns and teams together... but it's not going to create successful marketing campaigns on its own. I'd say it's something that forms the backbone of succesful marketing campaigns.

If signing up risks you going bust in 8 months then I think it's clear what you should do!

 

[boring-friday]

What is it you do? Unless you're turning over 7(more like 8) figures a year then definitely not.

If you are turning over 7 figures a year, still probably not

After reading the thread and seeing you do sewer repairs, you can't be serious?

 

[DrFixit]

We have X amount of cash in our business and are deciding to plough it into marketing. It has been sugested to us that Hubspot might be a good platform to use and we would likely push this through a fully outsourced marketing agency. To us, this seems like a high cost £60-70k for a 12 month contract. Does anyone have any views on eother the return/limitations of Hubspot and/or any views on what a very small business should do with spare capital?

I am an old time lurker, just decided to post. I am into SEO for past 10 years, last two years I worked as an SEO manager in digital marketing agency in London.

Going through your requirement and this thread, it seems you want to cover all aspects of marketing, social, ppc and most importantly seo. With the budget in your hand, you can get pretty decent results, however, most of agencies are equipped with people who are good at talking and setting your expectations high, but it is very rare to come across people who can actually execute.

Online marketing is quite technical, it used to be easy, but that is not the case anymore. You will need a specialized boutique agency who are good at execution, ask for actual road map and what sort of things they will do to further your presence in search results. If they only offer consultancy, avoid them, if their plan includes low quality backlinks run away. If they can deliver you decent backlinks, build your brand on social media and help fix on page problems, then they are decent fit. You can also hire a full time SEO guy in house who can manage your presence online, alternatively you can engage freelancers as well, that will save you a great deal of money and head ache, but finding one can be challenging job, you can ask recruiting companies to recruit one for you, you will have number of people you can select from.

As a freelance SEO, I can look into your site and give the advice, I can also get you published on some of the best sites out there that can help build your brand and improve search results, sites such as Huffingtonpost Forbes Entrepreneur.com and 100s more.

Get in touch maybe?

 

[neils3]

I certainly don't think it's end of the world if you don't have hubspot, more important to have an inbound marketing agency.

Without knowing your business/ audience it's difficult being specific but given your situation I would focus on one or two things to start off with, get results and push on from there. Don't try and conquer everything or even throw your whole budget at it, marketing is def an art and every business is different. My advice is to speak to a digital marketing expert and get an idea of quick wins and more strategic marketing tasks. Early results will give you the motivation and knowledge of what to do next.

 

[fisicx]

Online marketing is quite technical...

No it isn't.

You will need a specialized boutique agency...

No you don't.