Pros and Cons: DIY HubSpot vs. Working With a HubSpot Partner

Company executives and marketing experts are ditching their traditional marketing guidebooks. Chasing down buyers has become a thing of the past. Why? Because the proven marketing methodology of the digital age, inbound marketing, is currently running the show. 

Unless you're a new kid on the inbound marketing block, the odds are you've heard about HubSpot. This is "all-in-one marketing software" that makes a wide range of tools designed to help businesses streamline their marketing, sales, and customer service processes. HubSpot ensures your inbound marketing strategies are expertly planned, so you can grow your business effortlessly and quickly.  

If you're contemplating taking marketing to the next level with HubSpot, you're probably wondering if you should implement the marketing software by yourself or you should partner with a HubSpot Partner. To make your decision easier, we've highlighted both the pros and cons of both approaches.

Pros of the DIY Approach

Complete control over your marketing campaigns

When you set up and implement HubSpot in-house, you are in charge of all the aspects of the process. You get to control the voice, tone, and visual look. You also have the liberty to convey your opinions and inject your expertise into more facets. In other words, you run the show.

Faster decision-making

Inbound marketing requires effective strategic decision-making at several levels. When more people are involved in the decision-making process, decisions tend to take longer to make. One of the benefits of taking the DIY approach is that it leads to faster decision-making as only a small team of in-house experts is involved in the inbound marketing process. 

Better understanding of the platform

Since you will build the inbound marketing system from the ground up, you will have a better understanding of how it works. With that understanding, it will be easy for you to make necessary amendments when the need to do so arises. 

Cons of the DIY Approach

Steep learning curve

Inbound marketing has many moving parts. As such, you must accept that there will be a steep learning curve as you figure out how inbound marketing using HubSpot works. Not only is there a learning curve that requires a time investment on your part, but there is also a trial and error period. 

While doing it yourself is the surest way to develop a strong understanding of the HubSpot platform, the reality is it usually takes significantly longer to reach an effective command of the platform without the help of a Certified Solutions Partner.

Longer time to start seeing value

If your in-house marketing team is not familiar with inbound marketing or lacks the expertise needed to implement HubSpot solutions, they may have to undergo training on the onset. Since your marketing team requires time to understand how HubSpot works, it will take longer for your company to set up and implement the marketing software. The time you'll spend training your marketing team about inbound marketing and how to implement HubSpot is valuable time that your marketing team could have spent on other beneficial marketing endeavors. 

Overhead costs

You may assume that you will save money because you won't hire an agency to do the heavy lifting. But as you know, time wasted often translates to money lost. Since your in-house team will need some training, your company will incur some costs associated with the training.

Furthermore, your competitors may already be utilizing the software, gaining more leads and converting more customers. The more time you take to implement the software, the more customers you may end up losing to your competitors and the more revenue your company may end up losing.

Pros of Working with a HubSpot Partner

HubSpot offers a partnership program for digital marketing agencies to enable them to help their clients get started and grow their businesses using the inbound marketing methodology. Working with a HubSpot partner affords you significant benefits, including:

A faster set up 

For a digital marketing agency to enter into a partnership with HubSpot, it must demonstrate its prowess in digital marketing. As such, a HubSpot partner doesn't need to spend time figuring out how HubSpot works. Once you hire one, you can expect a faster set up that puts your business on the competitive edge. Many HubSpot Solutions Partners, including The Gist, can help you build a fully-operational HubSpot CRM in 1-2 months.

Quick and seamless implementation

To ensure they offer the best inbound marketing services efficiently, HubSpot partners employ professionals in all forms of digital marketing. These professionals can rapidly optimize your website design, produce website content, and manage social media campaigns with ease. A HubSpot-certified agency allocates team members to handle all these tasks simultaneously, saving significant time and money. 

Access to more inbound resources

In addition to having a team of highly skilled professionals, HubSpot partners have direct access to the cutting-edge web design technologies and resources for inbound marketing available today. Their professionals have what it takes to utilize these resources to solve nearly every marketing problem their clients may have. And they also have relationships with key employees at HubSpot who can be leveraged when needed to optimize your success on the platform.

Cons of Working with a HubSpot Partner

Although working with a HubSpot partner has its perks, there are a few small downsides. The following are the disadvantages of working with a HubSpot partner:

It costs money

Hiring a HubSpot partner costs money. While the costs vary from one HubSpot partner to another, most partners base their pricing around their billing rate and the number of hours per month they will dedicate themselves to your inbound marketing campaign. 

However, if you purchase Marketing Hub Pro, one of the most popular HubSpot licenses, you'll still have to pay a one-time onboarding fee of $3,000 to HubSpot. This will give you access to an Implementation Specialist for a period of 8-10 weeks to walk you through the initial build-out of your HubSpot instance. When you purchase HubSpot with the help of a partner, this fee is waived. But most experienced partners will charge more than HubSpot's $3,000 implementation fee (however the onboarding services provided are typically much more comprehensive).

Summary

For those who lack the time, resources, or expertise to execute a strong inbound marketing campaign, working with an inbound marketing agency makes perfect sense. If your company is looking to attain scalable, sustainable growth across sales, marketing, and customer service functions, you should seriously consider hiring The Gist.

We are a leading Buffalo-based, remote-enabled inbound marketing agency that's dedicated to helping B2B companies leverage powerful sales and marketing platforms like HubSpot properly. We help our B2B clients with everything they may need, from onboarding and technical support to comprehensive inbound marketing campaign management. 

Contact us today to schedule an introductory call and begin to leverage the benefits of working with a HubSpot partner.