HubSpot Business Software – For Marketing, Sales & Service

PJ ABEGAIL V. LARGO
ADONIS ALPUERTO

Study Outline Submitted to College of Industrial Engineering

University of Southern Mindanao – Kidapawan City Campus,
Sudapin, Kidapawan City

April 2023
 INTRODUCTION

Business management software, by definition, is an application or set of

programs that help businesses support, improve, and automate their processes. Such
software assists in eliminating errors, completing business tasks, reporting activities,
and increasing overall efficiency and effectiveness.

All in all, a business management tool or company management system is

designed in such a way that it meets the requirements of business processes in the
most effective manner.

HubSpot is a comprehensive inbound marketing and automation software

platform that allows businesses to execute, manage and measure all their inbound
marketing activities. Essentially, it's everything you need to run successful campaigns
with no hassle.

So many businesses looking to take new marketing campaigns to the next level
are trying out inbound marketing as an alternative to the traditional outbound
marketing strategy they’ve been following for years. Marketing has shifted dramatically
over the last 10 years, and business owners have been challenged to adapt and thrive
within this new marketing environment. Choosing the right platform is how you start
seeing the results you’re chasing and finding more qualified leads. HubSpot uses the
information from all your online activities and provides you with data to drive your future
campaigns and activities.

Quite often, content marketers, strategists, or business owners do their research

and know what they need to achieve inbound marketing success. Obstacles often
present themselves when implementing these new measures. When faced with large
volumes of scheduling and data collection activities that help guide inbound success,
they find themselves fumbling. A platform like HubSpot gives you an automated
approach to managing difficult tasks, such as scheduling and data collection. The
insights gleaned when using HubSpot give you clarity regarding how your marketing
efforts are faring.
Objectives of the Study
The general objectives of the study of inbound marketing are to have a defined
path to go to obtain new customers, strengthen relationships with current customers
and clients, increase sales, improve retention and increase brand awareness.

Software not only makes your computer hardware perform important tasks but can also help
your business work more efficiently. The right software can even lead to new ways of working.
It is therefore a crucial business asset and you should choose your software carefully so that it
matches your business needs.

HubSpot Features
HubSpot provides the following key features that can enhance your business growth:

1. Contact Management
2. Reporting, Dashboarding & Visualizations
3. Task Management
4. Automatic Data Capture Management
5. E-Mail & Meeting Scheduling

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter reviews underlying related studies of inbound marketing, sales, and
service software. To be more specific, this review discusses different inbound
marketing.

Evolution of Inbound Marketing

Evolution of Inbound Marketing In 2005, Brian Halligan used the term “Inbound
marketing” for the first time (Halligan and Shah, 2009; Pollit, 2011 – as cited in
Bezhovski, 2015). The term inbound implies attracting and drawing in customers.
According to the pioneers of inbound marketing, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah,
“the need for such holistic approach aroused from the fact that the marketing tactics
used successfully in the past didn’t produce the desired results anymore” (Halligan and
Shah 2014 – as cited in Bezhovski, 2015). Disadvantages of traditional marketing In his
study, Todor (2016) has listed out the disadvantages of traditional marketing, which
have led to the development of inbound marketing:

 Difficulties in measuring: the results are not easily measured, and in many cases
cannot be measured at all.
 High costs: traditional marketing is in most of the cases much more expensive
than digital marketing.
 Static: with traditional marketing there is no much interaction with the audience if
any in many cases. It means throwing information in front of people and hoping
that they decide to take action.
 Timing: in this case companies use static text or advertising commercial to
promote the product/service. If changes occur the content cannot be changed
fast enough.
 Customization: when using traditional marketing methods for advertising it is hard
to target a specific customer. Segments of the market can be targeted, but not an
individual. For example, an ad may target young women. In comparison, digital
marketing techniques can track a viewer field of interest and suggest similar
products.
 Pricing options: in traditional marketing, it is difficult to offer complex pricing,
meanwhile in online marketing the information can explain all the different pricing
variations that may appeal to buyers (Todor, 2016).

According to Bezhovski (2015), the idea behind the Inbound marketing is to use
marketing tactics that will “try to earn the interest of the prospects and pull (bring) them
to the company (the company’s website) rather than trying to push the advertising
message to them and wait for their reaction”. The attention of the potential customers is
earned by developing high-quality content and sharing this content through multiple
online channels including search engines and social media. In internet marketing,
‘content’ refers to a variety of formats, including news, web articles, videos, white
papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, photos, etc. (Bezhovski,
2015). The founders of Hubspot, Halligan and Shah (2014) say that inbound marketing
is equivalent for pulling the customers to the seller (as cited in Kalliosaari, 2018). The
author also says that in order to get noticed by possible customers, a company must
provide helpful information on its channels. Today, information is readily and widely
available via the Internet, and usually, before purchase decisions, the Internet is the
primary source of information seeking. Usually purchase decision starts by conducting a
search via Google or other search Journal for Research on Business and Social
Science (ISSN (Online) 2209-7880) Volume 3 Issue 4 3 April 2020 Issue |
www.jrbssonline.com engines. That is the reason why it is often said that no company
exists without a webpage or other kind of online presence (Kalliosaari, 2018). According
to Bezhovski (2015), one of the primary elements of the inbound concept is the
company’s website where “the visitors are converted into leads by optimizing landing
pages and subscription forms, and offering content baits in return for the contact
information”. The leads are converted to first to customers and then to long-term loyal
customers by using email marketing and sound customer relationship management
systems (CRM) (Bezhovski, 2015).

Effects of Inbound Marketing communications on HEI’s brand equity:

the mediating role of the student’s decision-making process.
In a German study, Royo-Vela and Hünermund discuss the effects of inbound
marketing on brand equity of higher education institutions. This article addresses the
issue of highly competitive markets in higher education, and how schools can utilize
inbound marketing to build connections with prospective students, increasing the
chances they will apply and enroll. Through their work they conducted interviews and a
quantitative survey with prospective and current students to discover how schools can
be successful in their recruitment. Their findings indicate that interactive marketing tools
are an effective way to recruit and help students in the decision making process. The
authors also found that the perception of the university is impacted by the marketing
tools utilized. The authors, Royo-Vela (2016) and Hünermund state, “A market- and
marketing-oriented university focuses on current and potential students – its customers
– and tries to meet the needs or wants of the target audience by coherent marketing
activities” (p. 143). They go on to say how there needs to be a deeper understanding of
the target market and current consumers by universities so that they can create content
that is relevant. The authors are attempting to address the gap in knowledge about how
students make decisions about their education, and how schools can build brand equity.
They define brand equity as, “intangible assets such as organization name, symbols
and slogans, as well as associations, perceived quality Page | 16 - sustainable
competitive advantage - value of brand formed by effect on customers (Royo-Vela,
Hünermund, 2016, p. 146). The importance is placed on the perception of the students
and prospective students. The authors review the various types and channels that
schools can utilize for inbound marketing, and what the benefits of this increasingly
interactive media is.

Royo-Vela and Hünermund (2016) state, “However, it is important to market the

brand in the right channel with the right tonality and content; thus, irrelevant information
could be counterproductive in consumer decision-making” (p. 147). That is an important
clarification that not all inbound strategies will work, it reinforces the focus on the
desires and needs of the target market. The results of their surveys and interviews have
a number of implications, including that students’ are digital natives and thus are
participating in information gathering on social media sites. Students reported that they
visited the school’s website and social networking sites to gather information and make
a decision. General searches on Google, were also counted as a frequent way to find
out whether a school was right for them. Royo-Vela and Hünermund (2016) state in
Table 1, “They are typing specific keywords inside, for instance a specific course and a
city, language or degree as well as explicit course contents or alternatively particular
types of sessions or professors” (p. 153). These search criteria are also important in
decision making criteria for the students as they consider coursework and geographical
location. Students also found blogs and microblogs published by the schools to be
useful in making their decisions. Ultimately, their research confirmed that inbound
marketing strategies are an attractive way for schools to increase engagement with
prospective students and increase their brand equity through creation of positive
perspectives of their institution. Page | 17 Co-Creation of Value in Higher Education:
Using Social Network Marketing in the Recruitment of Students In a Norwegian study,
Authors, Fagerstorm and Ghinea argue that social network marketing is an effective
strategy to engage consumers in participation. Their research considers interaction in
Facebook groups created by a Norwegian university designed to engage prospective
students within their niche academic interests. The authors attempt to change traditional
views of marketing for higher education institutions. Fagerstorm and Ghinea (2013)
refer to traditional marketing when they write, “From this viewpoint, customers are often
seen as passive responders to various marketing activities rather than active
participations in the value creation process” (p. 46). They advocate this shift in
marketing ideology and putting it into practice with more engaging inbound strategies.
The researchers note that college students and consumers in general tend to gravitate
towards personal rather than formal information. Individuals want to engage with
organizations and their peers, and social media is an ideal platform in which those
exchanges can take place. The article then discusses the specific social media
recruitment campaign deployed by the Norwegian School of Information Technology
(NITH). The university was seeking to increase their conversion rates, and sought out
opportunities on social media to engage consumers. They decided to target prospective
students based on their interest in one of their six bachelor programs, and a Facebook
group was created for each program.

The marketing department recruited a contact person for each group, and
allowed conversation and interaction to develop naturally. The authors, Fagerstrom and
Ghinea (2013) discuss the success of the groups when they write, “The dialogue in
each Facebook group was totally transparent. All members of the group could take part
in the other’s experience” (p. 48). That success translated to their conversion rates, and
members of the Facebook groups were much more likely to be Page | 18 applicants to
the university. The study goes on to emphasize dialogue as co-creation when they
write, “Dialogue thus includes, the conversations between consumers, and the
institution of higher education to jointly define and solve the consumer’s problems, while
the institution at the same time acquires knowledge about the consumer” (Fagerstrom
and Ghinea, 2013, p. 50). From this quote one sees that the benefit from this dialogue is
mutual to the students and university, and allows schools to better serve their
prospective students. The implications for inbound marketing are that not only should
schools be putting out relevant content, and utilizing those same channels to
communicate and co-create with current and prospective students.

METHODOLOGY

Inbound sales organizations use a sales process that is personalized, helpful,

and directly focused on prospects' pain points throughout their buyer’s journey.

The inbound methodology can be applied in three ways:

1. Attract: drawing in the right people with valuable content and conversations that
establish you as a trusted advisor with whom they want to engage.
2. Engage: presenting insights and solutions that align with their pain points and
goals so they are more likely to buy from you.
3. Delight: providing help and support to empower your customers to find success
with their purchase.

Conclusion
If you are looking for a CRM application that creates an organized structure and
enhances your sales process with automatic information on your leads, HubSpot is a
strong contender. It's free, quick to learn, and easy to use.

With intuitive features, you can focus on closing deals rather than organizing them.
HubSpot CRM’s strength lies in inbound marketing, and its core features can match and
even surpass other paid CRM applications all for free.