Interview with Brian Halligan, Co-Author of Inbound Marketing

Podcast interview with Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot.

I interviewed Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot to discuss his new book, Inbound Marketing, Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs, which Brian co-authored with his co-founder and fellow MIT alumnus Dharmesh Shah. First, I asked Brian to briefly describe HubSpot. In full disclosure, Find and Convert is a HubSpot partner.

HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company which is about three years old now. HubSpot helps companies transform their marketing strategy from the ground up through a methodology which is implemented and managed on their web-based software platform. HubSpot software helps marketers run their organic search engine optimization, PPC and social media strategies with analytics and lead intelligence to measure results.

Inbound Marketing – The Book

Brian describes his new book as a cookbook for marketers that provides the transformation from old style marketing to the new inbound marketing. The book describes how marketing has changed over the past 5 years. In his book, Brian and Dharmesh outline the five steps in becoming an inbound marketing centric business.

1. Create lots of content
2. Optimize that content for Google and social media
3. Spread that content
4. Measure results
5. Convert website visitors to leads and customers

A New Mindset

If you’ve read my blog before or listened to any of my recent podcasts you’ve heard me say that the new marketing is a mindset. It’s a new way of thinking. It’s all about creating content and building relationships through your content. As Brian points out in his book, marketers need to make the shift away from interruptive marketing to inbound marketing. He says the modern marketer is half a traditional marketer and half a content creator. When a marketer creates “remarkable” content, other content producers will remark about your content. In fact others will link to your content. And, links are the currency of the web which will produce traffic to your website. In fact, Brian says the modern marketer’s content becomes a magnet to their website hub.

Not Your Father’s Marketing

I asked Brian how marketers can embrace inbound marketing? In response he takes us on a trip down memory lane (you may not be old enough to remember his story). He says that marketing hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years. But, during the past 5 years it’s changed a lot and will continue to change in the coming years. In 1965 television ads worked exceptionally well. People had to watch the ads. They had no choice. In fact, they had few choices in their media consumption. Today, consumers can block out ads across most media platforms including television, radio. email and web browsers. In short, consumers can filter out most advertiser’s interruptions.

Are You Worthy?

In years past any company with a healthy budget could advertise and sell products. Even bad products could be marketed and sold with a big budget.  Today, the friction is far less for great ideas with less money required to get the word out. Good products with good positioning and happy customers can sell by spreading the word around the web. Bad products (unworthy) can’t hide anywhere in the current marketing paradigm.

Measuring Results

A common question asked by marketers about inbound marketing is how do you measure results? Not surprisingly, Brian and Dharmesh devoted a chapter to this question. Their advice is to look at campaigns using the funnel metaphor. Study the flow of visitors to your website hub, the conversion to leads, to opportunities and ultimately to customers. Study all the web channels that filled your funnel and see which ones have produced the best results in the funnel. The ones that work best you should  “double down” on and nix or revise the ones that don’t.

What’s Remarkable Content?

I asked Brian how does a widget manufacturer produce remarkable content? One of the case studies in his book is Whole Foods. They are a natural and organic grocery food retailer. As part of their inbound marketing strategy one of their buyers blogs during his trips to France.  He blogs about his meals during his trips, and the cheeses he bought on his trips. He cites another example of a fishing rod manufacturer who creates lots of content about the industry, not about the product. The magic sauce of inbound marketing is not to sell your product through your content. He says marketers should turn their website into a magnet about your industry to attract people. Invite customers, analysts and others interested in industry topics to engage with your content. Allow your content to become a magnet and engage people in ways that can convert into leads. It’s a very common mistake when marketers jump on the web and create content all about their products.  Marketers can be very successful inbound marketers if they talk about industry issues and watch others link to your content.

Watch Your Competition

Marketers can easily watch their competitors in the age of social media and tools like Google Alerts. HubSpot created a series of tools under the Grader brand. Marketers can use Website Grader to measure their own websites, as well as their competitors side by side.  Other Grader tools such as Twitter Grader and Facebook Grader allow marketers to watch their competitors on a frequent basis with a lot of transparency. Marketers can watch the competitive trends. Startups can be very aggressive by watching competitors closely.

Why Now?

In this chapter Brian and Dharmesh stress that marketers should not wait to embrace inbound marketing.  The barriers to entry to beat the top content producers are high. The longer a marketer waits to become an inbound marketer the harder it will be to catch up. All the great content that marketers produce will generate links back to their website hub. The content becomes a permanent asset on the web.

Marketing Crystal Ball

I asked Brian what’s in his marketing crystal ball? To answer this question, he referenced the large old style marketers like P&G who have allocated big money to advertising over the past 50 years. This approach to marketing built Madison Ave. Brian predicts that in the next 50 years inbound marketing will flip Madison Ave on its head. Advertisers have fewer media outlets to turn to because consumers are watching less television and reading less print. Instead consumers are going online using Google, social media and blogs. Brian predicts the next group of companies that will become Google-size success stories are those who engage on the web through remarkable content. The next Coke will not be an interruptive marketer. The next Coke will be content producers with a great product. I partially disagree. I think this will happen in the next 5 or 10 years. It won’t take 50 years. Just look at Zappos.

Two Real World Examples

I asked Brian for two great examples of inbound marketing. But, I required that he describe his own company as one of them. You may think this was a softball. But, the truth is that HubSpot is a poster child for inbound marketing. I asked Brian to describe their success with HubSpot TV. He described the early days of HubSpot before the product launched.  He was actively blogging about inbound marketing several times each week.  He rapidly adopted the mindset of constantly creating content. So, it started even before HubSpot launched version one of their software product. This approach eventually led to the development of their free Grader products (great content) described earlier. One day one of HubSpot’s product developers, Karen Rubin, suggested starting a TV show! Though some people initially laughed, she convinced V.P. Marketing Mike Volpe, himself a prolific content producer. The rest is history. HubSpot TV is more than one year old now with a loyal and sizable audience. It airs live every Friday at 4pm eastern and is syndicated in iTunes ranking #1 for inbound marketing and other related terms. Shameless plug: I was a guest on HubSpot TV in August. I had a blast!

The other success story Brian told is from his book about a company called 37Signals. I learned that this company has long provided inspiration to HubSpot. They are a small software company out of Chicago with really great products. They created a wildly successful blog called Signal Versus Noise. This blog was once a top 100 blog. They also created a book, and their reputation spread very quickly. I pointed out (unknown to Brian) that we are a 37Signals customer. We use their Basecamp product in our client engagements. And, we learned about Basecamp through word of mouth. Proof positive that inbound marketing is for real.

At the end of my interview with Brian he said something which I believe is profound in its simplicity and its reality. Brian said “Inbound Marketing is not rocket science. The sooner you do it the better off you are!”

Brian, I couldn’t agree with you more…I wish you and Dharmesh success with your new book, Inbound Marketing which is available everywhere.

Bernie Borges on HubSpot TV

I recently had the privilege of being a guest on HubSpot TV. If you’re not familiar with HubSpot TV, it’s a weekly video podcast that airs live each Friday at 4pm Eastern, U.S. The show is also syndicated on iTunes. HubSpot TV is hosted by Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin. Each week Mike and Karen discuss news items of the week pertaining to marketing topics, most notably Internet marketing topics. And, they have a lot of fun doing it!

The week I appeared on the show Karen Rubin was on vacation. Rebecca Corliss filled in for Karen. And, she did a mighty fine job, I might add! The premise for my guest appearance was to promote my new book, Marketing 2.0.

I am honored that Mike Volpe wrote the foreword in my book. So, when Mike asked me on the show why I wrote the book, I think he was a little surprised by my answer. He also asked me to summarize the key take-away message from my book, and what makes my book different than other books on social media marketing.

Of course, I was happy to answer these questions. We had a boat load of fun during this interview. We even sipped a little beer during the show, which is SOP on HubSpot TV. Of course, we also discussed other topics pertaining to Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter and measuring online marketing results.

During this interview we announced a special book giveaway offer available only for a limited time, as well as how to buy Marketing 2.0 on Amazon. Check out the video below and let me know if I should have gone through with my promise to dress like a certain singer/celebrity and what that might have looked like.

BTW, I kidded Mike off the air that if you search “inbound marketing” in iTunes, my inbound marketing podcast ranks #2 behind HubSpot TV. I’m keeping the pressure on.

Mike Volpe Podcast Interview on Inbound Marketing

In this podcast, I interviewed Inbound Marketing guru, Mike Volpe, V.P. of Marketing at HubSpot. Below is a summary of the podcast interview.  The interview is 28 minutes long and worth every minute (IMHO).

Mike has been a marketing geek for about a decade. I can legitimately call him a marketing geek because his background is in investment banking where he did marketing with a very analytical perspective.

Mike has transferred his analytical skills to HubSpot, an inbound marketing software system sold primarily to small/medium business. HubSpot is an all in one inbound marketing system that, when used to its full potential helps businesses produce more leads. Find and Convert uses HubSpot for ourselves and for our clients. We implement inbound marketing strategies for clients using HubSpot as a toolset as a one-stop-shop platform to manage all inbound marketing campaigns.

The term Inbound Marketing is a relatively new buzzword. It stems from the trend that marketing is transitioning from outbound marketing – broadcasting messages, interruption based tactics hoping that a small percentage respond – to an inbound strategy where you are doing the right things to get found and contacted by prospective customers through good content and relationships on the web. Buyers now have numerous tools they can use to block unwanted outbound marketing tactics such as caller ID (cold calling), spam filters (email blasts),  RSS readers (print advertising), TIVO (television advertising).

A survey conducted by HubSpot in January called the State of Inbound Marketing, cites several compelling findings  including:

• Inbound marketing channels deliver a dramatically lower cost per sales lead than outbound marketing channels. The study cites a 61% lower cost per sales lead through inbound marketing channels!
• Blogs lead other social media categories in terms of importance to business.
• Small businesses are most aggressively allocating lead generation budgets to blogging, social media and search engine optimization.

I often ask clients how they buy products/services. The common response I hear is by searching on the Internet and asking their friends/network for recommendations. So, it’s not hard to understand why Inbound Marketing makes sense in contemporary marketing.

HubSpot co-sponsored the The Inbound Marketing Summit in 2008  in Cambridge (which I attended). This year New Marketing Labs has launched 3 Inbound Marketing Summit events. Both HubSpot and Find and Convert are sponsors at all three events. The theme of IMS 09 is Turn Strategy Into Action.

Mike Volpe wrote the foreword in my forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0. I invited Mike to write it because we are very aligned on inbound marketing strategies. Mike believes that my book will provide a tactical resource to marketers in the “why” of inbound marketing and “how” to do it, for small/medium size businesses (SMB). Of course, I agree.

I have observed many SMB CEOs starting to use LinkedIn and Facebook at an accelerated pace. CEOs are saying “I can’t ignore this, I need to be a part of the social media movement.”

When I speak to anyone about inbound marketing, I try to answer the question “show me the money.” There is a gap between sellers and buyers. That’s a fact…I talk about how marketers can bridge that gap. Conventional marketing is still relevant to some extent but less so. Relationship building has always been important, but now it’s important online. Inbound marketing strategies allow marketers to start building relationships online long before the prospect can become a customer.

A case in point…Mike Volpe and Bernie Borges met online before we ever met in person. When we met in person we already had an online relationship which was strengthened when we met in person. Staying in contact online allows the relationship to continue rather than relying on the traditional, but rare phone call to stay in touch. We can stay in touch easily and productively by following our respective activities through platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mike also discussed HubSpot TV, which is is a live a video stream every Friday at 4pm at www.hubspot.tv. The weekly show is hosted by Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin. They pick stories that occurred during the week. Sometimes they have a special guest (like MC Hammer who dropped by one day). The studio is in the HubSpot office and is very low cost. They originally spent $400 on a video camera and a $100 microphone.  Any company can do a live web TV stream. HubSpot hopes to add more subscribers. More guests may be coming in the future (maybe me?).

The point of inbound marketing is not about budget. It’s about taking the initiative, anyone can do it!

Predictions from Mike Volpe: Search will become more personalized over time. People will use more than search engines. For example, Facebook delivers relevant results within Facebook. Mike’s prediction is exactly what I’ve previously blogged about: SEO should become SO. This means that people need to have a presence in social media, not just in search engines as technology comes available to deliver search results across many properties on the web. Broaden your footprint on the web where your content and relationships exist on the web so you can increase your ability to be found. Search results will become more personal and will not be limited to search engines.

I will see Mike in San Francisco at the first IMS09 event.

You can find Mike Volpe on Twitter: @mvolpe

You can find me on Twitter: @berniebay

If you’re planning to attend IMS09 in any city, make sure to connect so we can meet up. If not, follow along on Twitter with the stream #IMS09.