Although business at inbound marketing firm HubSpot was good, but founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah has come to realize that their business is at a crucial juncture (Steenburgh, Avery & Dahod, 2014). In order to continue on the path of growth, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah must make some decisions regarding the direction of their company. To achieve the company’s goals of growth acceleration and maximum profit, HubSpot realizes they need to overcome a few challenges inbound marketing presents.
The case study states (Steenburgh, Avery & Dahod, 2014) HubSpot‘s inbound marketing did not target a specific type of customer. In other words, the company was lacking a niche market focus. As a result, HubSpot found itself attracting a diverse set of customers which made planning strategically somewhat difficult. Since the needs of its diverse customer base are different, HubSpot cannot possibly cater to all these needs effectively. Having a mix of customers presents a challenge in terms of cost in HubSpot’s sales and customer service areas. By narrowing its scope, HubSpot can meet the needs of their customers more efficiently. Therefore, it would be in the best interest for HubSpot to cease efforts of being all things to everybody and concentrate its focus to one type of customer.
Ideally, your target audience should be early adopters, heavy users and can be acquired at low costs (Kotler and Keller, 2016). When focusing on a specific target market, single out the group
SWOT analysis is a systematic thinking and strategic management tool that helps managers to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in their organizations, with the aim of identifying areas that need improvements (Blayney, 2013). Knowledge gained from SWOT analysis informs resource allocation and deployment, hiring needs and other strategies for improving overall efficiency. At the same time, SWOT analysis helps an organization to gauge its market position compared to competitors, and what it needs to do to achieve a competitive edge. Marketing campaign is one of the major challenges in promoting a certain product. It is crucial to assess every detail of the marketing plan in order for the business to
In the past business focused only in targeting one type of customer. Now change in the customer buying behavior is inevitable. To be able to succeed companies need to constantly change their target since the buying behavior of customers sways every year. (Docters, 1997)
Markets consist of buyers that differ in their needs, wants, resources, locations, buying attitudes and buying practices. To reach customer insight, it is important to understand the needs of different segments and to communicate pertinently to them (Brown L, Brown C, Gallagher SM, 2008).
This allows for us to determine our specific target audience, and how we can reach them.
The more specific your description of your customer, the better. First, define a range of people that you think your product and service will resonate with best. And be specific. Let's say your selling a new technology for people to listen to music in their cars. It's a physical product that you keep in your car that enables the music on your smartphone to play through your radio. Now, a non-savvy marketer may define their audience as, "All adults who drive, or who are passengers in cars." But that's too broad.
Table Of Contents 1.0 2.0 3.0 Introduction Executive Summary Situation Analysis 3.1 Identification Of The Problem 3.2 Market Analysis 3.3 SWOT Analysis 3.4 Target Market Marketing Communication Strategy 4.1 Marketing Communication Plan/Objectives 4.2 Marketing Budget 4.3 Schedule for Key Marketing Communication Activities 4.4 Promotional Strategies 4.4.1 Advertising Strategies 4.4.2 Promotion and Public Relations 4.4.3 Sales Force 4.4.4 Comprehensive Support Program 4.5 Product Strategies 4.6 Distribution Strategies 4.7 Pricing Strategies 4.7.1 Potential Customer 4.7.2 Sales Forecast 4.7.3 Return on Investment (ROI) Conclusion
For example, installation of software services for all its clients can be done by Geek Squad. In addition, Best Buy can partner with some of the software giants such as Microsoft and Google to offer software exclusive to Best Buy. The fees for the installation can be medium range. However the updates installation can be priced on a higher end, as these are the consumers who have already used a product and like it enough to want an upgrade.
Inbound marketing was coined by HubSpot founders to “describe marketing strategies and practices that pulled prospective customers toward a business and its products, through the use of Web 2.0” and its applications. By contrast, traditional marketing (also referred to as outbound marketing), reaches out to a client’s customers using marketing techniques such as print advertising, radio advertising, TV advertising, cold calling, direct mails, and trade shows. HubSpot observed that traditional marketing techniques were becoming less and less effective at bringing in new business. Three factors
None of [the old rules of marketing] are true anymore. The Web has transformed the rules, and you must transform your marketing to make the most of the Web-enabled marketplace of ideas. — David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR Business was good at HubSpot. Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah were thrilled with the progress their young company had made in the two years since they began their journey to convince corporate America that the rules of marketing had changed. To be successful in the marketplace, HubSpot needed to be much more than just a software company. Its founders had to become
Now, one of the many ways that most businesses and mediums find their target audience, is that by narrowing down the audience/customers/consumers to find the specific target audience that they want, it’s always best to find a demographic that fits the profile on what medium they are producing for. Resulting in better results and better profit and an overall success, but this doesn’t ensure that large groups of their target audience are interested
I recommend that HubSpot pursue a narrower segment in order to focus on a particular expertise and better serve its target market. Trying to serve all customers means diverting more resources and too much marketing dollars to acquire customers and that seems like a bad investment for a startup company. HubSpot can increase switching cost to the customer by adopting a subscription base pricing to allow a longer retention. They should continue to put less emphasis on outbound marketing and put more emphasis on inbound marketing. HubSpot should try to understand the needs of the customers at all levels and design systems that best address these needs and engage with the most profitable customers.
E-Marketing is part of an organization’s e-business activities. It is the use of information technology in the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to the customers and for managing customer relationships in way that benefit the organization and its stakeholders (Strauss and Frost, 2010). According to Michael Porter (2001), he said that “The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology-companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive-but how to deploy it.” E-Marketing strategy need to provide consistent direction for an organization’s e-marketing activities that integrates with its other marketing activities and supports the overall objectives of the business. E-Marketing strategy includes segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning. It is also known as Tier 1 strategies (Strauss and Frost, 2010, p.51).
3. Do They Take the Time To Understand Your Target Market and the Platforms Where They Reside?
HubSpot has diverse customer segments such as businesses selling to other business (B2B), business selling to consumers (B2C), small business owners (Owner Ollie) and marketing professionals (marketer Mary). Since every marketer doesn’t like the same product, HubSpot should do more to differentiate it products. For Instance, B2B were much sophisticated web users than B2B companies. Another difference is that B2B customers seemed to derive greater value from inbound marketing than B2B did. Other differences were that Ollies were less knowledgeable and sophisticated than marketer Mary.
So far, you’ve learned what marketing is and about the importance of understanding consumers and the marketplace environment. With that as background, you’re now ready to delve deeper into marketing strategy and tactics. This chapter looks further into key customer-driven marketing strategy decisions—how to divide up markets into meaningful customer groups (segmentation), choose which customer groups to serve (targeting), create market offerings that best serve target customers (differentiation), and position the offerings in the minds of