David Cummings on Startups

HubSpot, Marketing Automation, and Content Marketing

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David Cummings

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After yesterday’s Notes from the HubSpot S-1 IPO Filing, there have been a number of interesting blog posts on the same topic including Louis Gudema on HubSpot’s S-1, BetaBoston on HubSpot’s S-1, and David Raab on HubSpot’s S-1. One of the points that I think is missed is that as part of HubSpot moving away from the small business market and into the mid-market, there’s also a shift from blogging with SEO tools to full marketing automation. With Marketo’s Q1 growth at 64% year over year, there’s huge money in marketing automation.

Content marketing is hard due to the need for fresh content on a regular basis. I like how Louis Gudema defined running a content marketing program as publishing at least six pieces of content, of any length, per month. While I’m a fan of content marketing, one key point is that customers of HubSpot (and most any other provider, including Pardot) can still get tremendous value from the software through the marketing automation functionality.

Marketing automation, while still requiring content for landing pages, drip programs, autoresponders, and more, doesn’t require fresh content. Companies can invest in content periodically, without having dedicated people on staff, and see a huge return on investment (ROI) from marketing automation. In addition to the ROI, there’s real benefit in sales and marketing alignment, closed loop reporting, and improved marketing accountability.

The key takeaway: HubSpot understands the continual production challenges with content marketing and demonstrates value to customers via marketing automation, such that customers still have a strong ROI even without content marketing.

What else? What are some other thoughts on HubSpot, marketing automation, and content marketing?

Comments

4 responses to “HubSpot, Marketing Automation, and Content Marketing”

  1. Gregg Freishtat Avatar
    Gregg Freishtat

    We are dur for a catch up. I live in the epicenter of content marketing….”

    Lmk I when you have time/interest.

    Hope all is well and you are enjoying the last of summer.

    Reply
  2. Doug Calahan Avatar
    Doug Calahan

    David – this is great. I was wondering if you could do a Part II to this post and walk through an example. For those of us that don’t have a marketing automation system in place, yet, an example would make this very real.

    Reply
  3. joemktg Avatar
    joemktg

    Market penetration rates are still low for marketing automation vendors (see Raab, others for varied estimates), so there’s plenty of opportunity out there.

    As 3rd party email service providers begin to creep into the marketing automation space (see MailChimp), the low end will be flooded, so it makes sense for HubSpot to shift its emphasis towards the middle and drive more revenue/client.

    The mid and upper tier of the market will need the next gen of marketing automation tools, e.g., predictive analytics. These tools are a bit too much for the lower end.

    Scott Brinker’s emphasis on marketing apps applies to HubSpot: there’s an opportunity to open their client base up to 3rd party ISVs that will reduce churn and drive more client acceptance.

    Reply
  4. billnussey Avatar
    billnussey

    David – your S1 analysis of Hubspot, like so many others, is well done and appreciated. For the deep number geeks, Tom Tunguz goes into the Hubspot S1 in great detail and benchmarks it across a number of key SaaS metrics. http://tomtunguz.com/hubspot-ipo/

    Reply

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