Designed to help small and midsize businesses “get found online,” HubSpot officially launched its user-friendly Internet marketing system yesterday.
The program, which does not require any IT staff, is designed to help businesses drive more traffic to their Web sites, according to Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot, Cambridge, MA. A beta version of the program was first launched last year.
HubSpot helps small businesses get their arms around all the modern tools they need to get found on the Internet, Halligan said. The program is targeted at companies with five to 500 employees.
“It’s a modern marketing system to help small business grow and take advantage of the Internet,” said Mike Volpe, VP of marketing for HubSpot.
The program also allows businesses to track and analyze Web traffic, and helps them start their own blogs and build their own landing pages with lead forms.
A start up fee of $500 includes the cost of training and getting a company up to speed, Volpe said. Pricing then starts at $250 a month per company Web site.
The outbound marketing tactic of spreading messages far and wide has become less and less effective, Halligan said. People have developed ways to block out these interruptions — whether utilizing Spam protection or listening to satellite radio to avoid hearing commercials, he said.
Now, more people rely on the Internet to find the information they need when making purchasing decisions, Halligan said. As a result, older forms of marketing like print advertising, cold calling, and trade shows are not as effective as they once were, he said.
“I think at the end of the day, the way people learn and shop today is a heck of a lot different than they used to,” Halligan said.
