And, I assure you that you are more savvy and experienced with technology than most people. HubSpot is focused on the millions of people that are much less technically adept than you are.

Cheers.

First, a quick point of clarification: For customers that use HubSpot for content management, we do not own the content — our customers do. We’re not unique in this regard — if you build a site on WordPress.com, the content is yours, WordPress doesn’t own it. You don’t actually have to own/control the servers your content runs on in order to own it.
Second, most of our customers use their own domain name to host their site. As a result, they control where that domain points to (and can change it later).

In terms of a content management system, you really can’t beat WordPress. I’m a big fan of it. And, it’s hard to complain about the price. :) Having said that, HubSpot is not a CMS, it’s an integrated marketing platform that includes several applications. You’ve mentioned several in your article.

For many businesses, WordPress is an excellent choice. It’s free and works well. However, many businesses value the simplicity and integration of HubSpot by having everything under one roof. Though it’s not impossible to take WordPress, add an analytics package (like Google Analytics) a forms system, a database for leads, an email nurturing system, a social media monitoring tool, etc. — that’s not for the faint of heart. It takes time and expertise to do that — neither of which are free.

This is why almost 3,000 companies have chosen HubSpot to improve their online marketing. Most of them know about the other alternatives, but pick HubSpot because they find it does what they need it to do, all under one roof.

In case you have not visited us recently, may I bring your attention to

- http://www.edocr.com/tour shows key functions
- http://www.edocr.com/benefits
- http://www.edocr.com/prices

edocr.com not just allows you to get great publicity for your business through your documents, but can actually show where traffic came from, what activity they performed, and download list of people who viewed your documents.

Best place to start with is http://www.edocr.com/tips

Look forward to your engagement with us.

Best regards
Manoj

I looked through your blog and the good news is that I have come to the conclusion that you are pretty darn smart and quite tech savvy! Having said that, you are probably not representative of the general population of business owners and marketers are all pretty new to all this stuff. …I have 4 “clickers” for my tv with over 100 buttons in aggregate. I use about 7 of these buttons and live in mortal fear that someone will visit my house and click a button and put my system in some sort of state that I can’t get out of. We built HubSpot for mere mortals like me!

Prior to starting HubSpot, I was a vc trying to help startup companies transform the way they market from doing traditional outbound advertising, cold calling, and email spamming. In that process, I had a heck of a time with the mere mortals I was working with in helping them get going with WordPress, Google analytics, Google webmaster tools, lead management (i.e. Eloqua to aweber), helping them figure out Compete/Alexa, Technorati rank, etc, etc, etc. The problem was multiple logins, multiple ui’s, not enough “handholding”, no human support to call, the systems didn’t
“talk” to eachother, etc. The nice thing about HubSpot is we pull all this stuff together in one system, with one login, with one ui, with handholding (knowledge transfer), and with a real human you can call and ask questions. The additional benefit to doing this is you get a 1+1=3 effect with all the integration. For example, when you create a blog article, it “checks” your seo work automatically before you publish…when you publish it sends it to your RSS subscribers, email subscribers, Twitter followers, and Facebook page automatically. Another example is that because we understand all your keywords, we then “listen” for conversations for you in Twitter, LinkedIn, the blogosphere, etc and surface those conversations for you to engage in.

I think your analysis is fine, but by breaking HubSpot into little pieces and comparing it to the individual system it competes with, you are ignoring the exact reason we built it — the integration.

Brian.

In fact, one of my companies is an inground swimming pool company and using the Hubspot inbound marketing system now for roughly 16 months has turned my site into the #1 swimming pool builder website in the country. Our blog gets prolific traffic. By following exactly the ‘system’ of Hubpsot I’ve experienced tremendous success.

Although nothing you say here Zach is necessarily wrong, I think you’re greatly suffering from a case of ‘The Curse of Knowledge’. What I mean is that you speak of plugins and tools and analytics like most small biz owners really get what your saying. In reality, about 95% of all small business owners in the country would not understand much of the vernacular found within this article. So many tools to use and implement can be very, very confusing–especially for ‘non-techies’.

This is one reason Hubspot is so special. They offer, bar-none, the best all-in-one SEO powercenter for a small business on the web today, all the while allowing them to create their own content through their super simple CMS. And even better, their entire focus is empowerment—they ain’t about creating reliant clients, as most ‘webmasters’ are. Their goal is to empower through knowledge so that all ‘techies’ and ‘non-techies’ alike can control their inbound marketing destinies.

Wordpress is great, no doubt. Like I said, my Sales Lion blog is wordpress. But the ease of CMS design with WP isn’t nearly as easy as Hubspot, unless you’re code savvy. Personally, I designed all 275 pages on my swimming pool website without almost a lick of code understanding. Notwithstanding, I paid someone to help me with my wordpress set-up because I’m just not at that level yet.

You see Zack, I’m an average Joe business owner. I need something that is simple yet effective. I need all-in-one. I need help immediately if I have questions….a live voice. That is why Hubpsot is so special and that’s why I think their fees are piffle. In fact, I laugh when small biz owners debate on whether their system is worth it.

On a final note, one DOES get to keep their own content. Hubpsot doesn’t chain anyone down, as that would be a really dumb move and they know it. Again, they empower, not enslave. Also, although Google Analytics is good, I frankly like the Hubpsot Analytics way more, and I have both to look at each night, yet 99% of the time I use HS.

Again, I thank you for discussing this topic. I’m clearly NOT a Hubpsot employee. Their system has changed my business and my life, and I frankly feel just about every small business owner should be embracing it as well.

Marcus Sheridan
Owner
River Pools and Spas