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We Are Joining HubSpot!

Posted: August 18th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Startups | 19 Comments »

Today, my company oneforty is thrilled to officially announce we are joining inbound marketing software company HubSpot. You can read the release from HubSpot here and a note from my CEO Laura Fitton on the oneforty blog.

I’m here to tell you a little more about what’s next for me and why I’m excited to join HubSpot. I am honestly, genuinely happy to join them. You’d have to see the goofy grin on my face in person when talking about it to probably fully believe and appreciate that, but I am truly fired up about it.

For those of you who don’t know what HubSpot does, they make software that helps marketers get found by customers through blogging, social media and SEO. Since their Performable acquisition, they now include even more tools that help with “MOFU” or middle of the funnel activities like email and A/B testing. This video helps explain:

Ever since I learned about the company in 2009 and visited HubSpotTV, I’ve chugged the HubSpot Koolaid hard. I read David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR on spring break in Cancun and Brian and Dharmesh’s Inbound Marketing Book on the T in Boston. I’ve downloaded me some eBooks, graced my followers’ streams with many a HubSpot blog post and gazed longingly into the slides of Dan Zarrella’s science of social media webinars. I am a fangirl who has learned a ton from the free content they offer their community members and tried to replicate that with some things for oneforty.

For me, HubSpot is a great personal opportunity and I feel really lucky to have this in front of me. First off, I look good in orange. :P Also, I’m looking forward to working with and learning from marketing pros Mike Volpe and Jeanne Hopkins. I will also still get to work with my friends and oneforty co-workers Mike Champion, Laura Fitton and Jeremy Crane. I will gain experience in inbound marketing at a much more massive scale. They generate upwards of 40k leads a month and it’s a chance for me to grow in areas like metrics and social media, working with an even wider audience. I hope we prove ourselves with content and customer service to the community I built with oneforty and show them why they should come along for this journey with us.

Throughout the past year at oneforty I’ve learned so much about marketing, building community and startups. Working last night I stumbled into old notes from back in April when we were still thinking of a name for SocialBase.

I gotta be honest with ya, this piece of scrap paper might be my new favorite material thing. It represents a time to me when we were building something from nothing. This. Is. Startup.

It’s not parties with brogrammers at SXSW, launch day when you get that one big press hit because you got funding and everyone loves you or anything at all like the movie The Social Network. This is hard work. It’s confusing. Like slow dancing in middle school. Know what I’m saying?

Most days in startuplife are unremarkable and they aren’t for the faint of heart. It means being up at midnight thinking about the name for a new product or coding. If the idea of the everyday and the creativity doesn’t excite you, with or without the glamour of press and “startup” label, then this isn’t for you. (And that’s ok.)

At oneforty I, along with my amazing freelance team, have written a lot about the tools you should use to manage and measure social media strategy for the oneforty blog. Blog posts have included:

I have something to admit: none of this actually matters. Tools, timing, keywords and ROI aside – community is really about making people feel like they are a part of something special. You need to understand people to do marketing and build community. The rest is details, but without this foundation, you’re screwed.

People want to feel validated – People not only want answers to the questions they have, but they like feeling as though you have had the same questions yourself before. Being a community manager is about striking the balance between being the thought leader and the informed friend.

People want fantastic customer service – On social media, just being responsive can win. For years we have emailed customer service “contact us” emails and not gotten so much as a peep. We’ve waited on hold. Twitter is real-time – it feels more immediate. Just feeling heard by a company when you’ve got a question or you’re complaining about an issue goes a long way. Usually in my experience, those who take the time to complain have also taken the time to thank us, publicly. It’s social proof.

People want you to have an opinion – It surprised me when our negative blog posts highlighting “common mistakes” or “things to avoid” did so well, but then as I learned about people more, it really didn’t. People want to know specifically what they should or shouldn’t do. They want actionable takeaways. B2B? Tell them what email marketing tactics suck. B2C? Tell them what nutritious food to buy to lose weight or what clothes to buy to “get the look for less.” Tell them. That’s why they visited your site.

Joining HubSpot means joining an organization that lives and breathes this. These are the cornerstones of inbound marketing. They have an opinion, offer educational content that helps community members learn about marketing long before the sale and deliver incredible customer service. They get people, engage them and help people with their businesses. I’m thrilled to be a part of an exploding company that aims to be nothing less than the “Salesforce of marketing” and can’t wait for this next chapter to begin.

To close, I would just say thank you to the oneforty community. Getting to know many of you one-on-one has been a joy and continuing our friendships with the HubSpot community will be a fun journey to take together. And last, but most importantly I offer an admittedly vague “thank you” to my (*real*) friends and family, as you know who you are. Regardless of any professional success, there are people who loved me when I was an unpaid intern and a waitress. There are new people in my life who didn’t know me then, but would love me no matter what I did for a living. Those people have encouraged me and supported me throughout this journey. I’m like a freaking walking Hallmark card, but I love you to the moon and back.

“Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

To the next chapter!


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Janet - congrats!  I actually just received an email from HubSpot and it had your name on it.  I wasn't familiar with your work *cough!*loser!*cough!* but reading here, your story's remarkable.  

I'm just a family guy blogging for life, an affiliate marketer and living on the dividends, but you describe a process of startuplife that is remarkably close to what it's like as an affiliate.  It's playing for keeps, challenging, and rewarding / frustrating all at once.

Love your style, congrats and the best to you and your team.  

Congratulations, Janet! You are a class act, and your passion shines through. I'm so excited for you and Laura and the rest of the team. Couldn't have happened to better people. Oh yeah, and HubSpot ain't so bad either :)

xoxo

- @themaria 

You are too kind. Thank you for always supporting oneforty and yeah I agree HubSpot isn't awful :) 

 Thrilled to be on the same team with you.  We've been admiring your work for some time now!

Aw thanks Brian! The meeting yesterday got me so fired up to join! Love the vision we are going after and can't wait to attack this. 

I am absolutely thrilled to have you and the rest of the @oneforty:disqus  team join HubSpot's merry band of misfits.  We are pursuing what we think is an important and noble cause.  Look forward to working with you and watching you do amazing things.

Thanks Dharmesh! Having fun on my first day of school, appreciate the warm welcome.

Congrats Janet! You should have that sheet of paper framed and put on your desk =)

Great idea :) thanks for reading and for Crowdbooster's support during oneforty's journey.

You are going to rock Hubspot's socks off! :)

Pam - you're a great friend and like I've said, such a great part of oneforty. :) 

Thanks :) Love u KD!

So excited to have you here. Can't wait to start working together!

Can't wait to work with you! :) 

Great post, Janet. Loved what you had to say about community being what it's all about. Completely agree! Good luck paving those new roads!

Yay! Congrats, Janet! You're a rockstar.