HubSpot released some big news today – the announcement of their new Value Added Reseller Program (VAR Program), as well as a HubSpot Service Marketplace. If you haven’t read the announcements on their blog it means that HubSpot is attempting to explode their reach by changing the way inbound media marketing services are distributed. I signed up for the webinar at noon today and realized HubSpot could soon become the inbound marketing superpower.
A Brief on Inbound Marketing:
Inbound marketing is, essentially, the future of advertising and marketing. Consider the alternative: interruption marketing aka popup ads and TV commercials. CEO Brian Halligan made a great point early in the webinar, saying that interruption marketing started to die with the invention of the television remote control. I won’t rehash the whole story but basically people are done being interrupted by ads because there’s way too much other content to see. Are you going to sit through television ads when you have 300 other channels to check out? Probably not.
The same is true of the internet. Sites that just try to sell a product are not interesting. That’s why you create genuinely interesting content, and let the consumers come to you (welcome to inbound marketing).
As you know, HubSpot has established themselves as the authority on inbound marketing, both educating marketers, and providing them with an easy-to-use software pack. Now they’re employing two new features that will rocket their brand to a new level.
The VAR Program Trains and Recruits
HubSpot is not in the services industry – they don’t want to be in the services industry. They want to sell their software and, though they do offer some service personnel, the idea is that the software is comprehensive enough that you can do it yourself.
Many marketing professionals have taken advantage of this, learning the HubSpot ways and employing it for clients that don’t have the time or savvy to do it themselves. This is the primary way HubSpot was racking in software sales. Until now…
The reseller program allows these marketing service providers and others to become certified HubSpot partners upon completing an extensive HubSpot exam (compare to the Google Advertising Professionals Program?) Here’s the good part: any partner receives a 20% margin of whatever HubSpot bills the client for the software. The partners are thus incentivized to sell HubSpot to clients, and they get rewarded quarterly for their efforts. HubSpot takes no cut in individual service fees, and payouts continue as long as the client pays for the software.
Remember Yifei Zhang and his website (er, online application) called, HeyHubSpot.com? He got picked up by oneforty, but if he still thinks he’s an inbound marketing whiz, he can now join the ranks and get quarterly payouts (granted he sells the software to clients).
The Marketplace Rallies the Troops
Paired with the VAR program, the marketplace unifies this otherwise fragmented set of HubSpot-trained service providers by creating a centralized listing of inbound marketing experts. Complete with client lists and ROI-driven ratings, the marketplace will give businesses a hub (if you will) for all of their inbound marketing service needs. Individuals are organized by expertise, current categories being blog writing, marketing video creation, modern website redesign, landing page creation, call to action button creation, and “do inbound marketing for me” with “do social media for me” and “do lead nurturing for me” soon to come.
To continue the military metaphor, if the reseller program is recruitment, the marketplace is the barracks, and HubSpot leads the charge into a new era of marketing services industry.
What’s your take on HubSpot and the inbound marketing revolution? Let us know by dropping a comment.
