Updates from My Neglected Hubspot Site

I told myself that if I was going to blow $200/month on a Hubspot inbound marketing web platform, I'd get everything out of it I possibly could. Oh, how life happens...Despite my neglect, check out this progress.

Hubspot is known for its success in getting sites to rank organically. I've kept up blogging once or twice a month and made very minimal tweaks to my site since December, but look! Nearly a 200% increase! For a site that started at ground zero, I am pleased.

I thought these analyzitics were interesting because I did low budget, paid advertising on Yelp and StumbleUpon in December for the holidays. I am rarely disappointed by Yelp. I was less excited by StumbleUpon. Though I did see a significant boost in traffic, traffic was all it was.

More to come - I promise...

Love What Hubspot Does for My Mobile Web Site

As you know, I've recently signed up for Hubspot's basic inbound marketing software package. My site is live, and I'm addicted to fiddling with it. I never doubted I would be, but I am really enjoying the freedom to do what I want when I want without doing too much html or going to a zillion different web sites for my social media, analytics, etc.

But my new favorite part about Hubspot's inbound marketing software is what it does for my mobile site!

If you even think for even one second getting your site functioning well for mobile is not a priority, think again. There are a ridiculous number of studies done that prove otherwise.

I love this mobile marketing stat:  There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. Or this one: Many mobile web users are mobile-only, i.e. they do not, or very rarely use a desktop, laptop or tablet to access the Web. Even in the US 25 percent of mobile Web users are mobile-only.

The problem is that, according to recent marketing research, nearly 50 percent of survey respondents said that a "poor experience on their initial use of the mobile web made them "reluctant to access" either the site - or the Internet in general - on their mobile phones again."

I'm with the 50 percent. I HATE surfing the web on my smartphone. While the web is easier to access on my iPhone than my Blackberry, it's still often frustrating and squint-worthy.

But Hubspot is magic. My site is clean, the font is big enough to read, and instead of a menu bar rendered as it would be on a computer, visitors are able to use simple, iPhone-inspired menus.

The best way to demonstrate how great Hubspot's mobile sites are is to send you to see one. Grab your iPhone and go to my massage web site. Got a Blackberry? I'd love to hear about your user experience.

365 Days with Hubspot

I did it. I signed a contract with Hubspot.

Hubspot is an inbound marketing content managent system that allows small businesses - and some. big ones - to manage their web marketing efforts with one platform. I've worked with the software since 2008 and really believed in the principles and the overall product. I've taken bad jobs and paycuts just to be near the Hub'.

Recently, I got frustrated at work, and somewhat impulsivly but not regretably signed myself up for 365 day, basic Hubspot package at a whopping $200/month. I say whopping because I don't actually HAVE much of a small business to run. I have a very dead massage website that hasn't been updated since 2009 when I went into marketing full time. And it's terrible.

So that's the challenge. For the next 365 days, I have to make $200/month doing massage to cover the cost of this software. At least. (I'd like to quit my desk job, too, of course.) I plan to post regular updates, screenshots and more to track my progress and to entertain whomever is out there reading.

Here goes nothin'...

HubSpot says CREATE CONTENT!

To anyone who has heard me talk about my job, it's no secret I am a big fan of Hubspot and Hubspot's message - INBOUND MARKETING. See what HubSpot TV has to say about creating content. Fast forward to 3:30 mins to get the bulk of the discussion on content. (Perk: Get HubSpot's scoop on the next hot marketing book).

For the Content Late-comers

For those of you who are not building content and don't know why you should bother, and unfortunately there are quite a few of you still out there, according to Wikipedia, "content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases...Delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action." What company bottom line doesn't want that?

Most marketers will tell you that creating valuable content for your clients and web visitors is not a new marketing tactic. Seth Godin, who regularly champion-blogs about the unexpected, often Purple Cow value certain companies create, and David Meerman Scott, who interviews any and every successful by-chance marketer in the world, have been talking about it in their blogs and books for ages. Check them out immediately if you are a late-comer to the concept of creating content. Hey, then get on point. Create something valuable!

For the Content Bandwagon Riders

For everyone else, for my fellow veteran, content-creators, this post just a redundant hooray, a broken-record-pat-on-the-back and an admitted effort to support the awesome marketing gurus at HubSpot.

By the way, HubSpot, good for you!

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An inbound marketing pioneer, today Hubspot is the number two fastest growing software company according to Inc Magazine. The founders of HubSpot^® met at MIT in 2004. Both were interested in the transformative impacts of the internet on small businesses and were early students of Web 2.0 concepts. And they wrote a book!
Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs

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