By Eimear Marrinan, Director of Culture at HubSpot

It’s been said that raising children ‘takes a village’. And until I had my own two girls, Aoibhin (4), and Fiadh (2), I didn’t understand how true that phrase actually was. During the pandemic, though, much of that village is out of reach. With schools and daycares still closed in many locations, and social distancing regulations enforced, the support of family, friends and babysitters I often relied on has been replaced by phone conversations and Zoom meetups. Needless to say, it’s not quite the same.

Parents today are not only juggling the usual chaos that comes with parenthood, but we’ve also been thrown unprecedented challenges — from explaining to our kids why they can’t go outside and play with friends, how to learn through a screen, and why we seem to play with our laptops right now more than we play with them. That’s why this year I find myself incredibly grateful that in a world of unpredictability, there’s one thing that’s stayed constant: the village of incredible parents and families at HubSpot. …

By Nicholas Holland, VP of product at HubSpot

HubSpot was founded during a time when people were under constant attack from aggressive outbound marketing tactics.

I’m sure nobody misses the unwanted ads, spam emails, and cold calls that used to interrupt their day back in the mid-00s.

Ad retargeting wasn’t a thing, so we all had to settle for repeatedly seeing the same ads for products we had absolutely no interest in.

Marketing has changed a lot since then. Thankfully.

Nowadays, companies have the ability to develop engaging advertising campaigns that complement their inbound strategies and speak directly to their audiences’ needs. The concept of journey-based advertising has been widely adopted and marketers can now create customized content for individuals at every stage of the buyer’s journey. …

By Dharmesh Shah, Co-Founder & CTO at HubSpot

Pricing is a feature of your customer experience.

Brian Halligan, HubSpot’s CEO, often says: “It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell.”

If you’re scaling a SaaS company, your product matters. This is pretty well understood. But today, companies win and lose based on their customer experience — and the product is just one part of that experience. Buyers are vocal when dissatisfied, products are often easily replicable, and trust in businesses is eroding. Delighted customers are more powerful and influential than any marketer, salesperson, or service rep could be alone. …

By Anthony Roldan, Director of Engineering at HubSpot

“It could be worse.”

“Let’s focus on what we’re grateful for.”

“At least the weather’s great this week.”

For most of us, putting a positive spin on things has become the norm at work, especially if you’re a manager or leader. In ordinary times, being the team cheerleader is an unspoken requirement of the job. Leaders are expected to be upbeat, to help their teams find opportunities even during tough times, and to remind people that even against setbacks, they’ve “got this” and will “crush it.” …

By Bradford Coffey, Chief Strategy Officer at HubSpot

Companies today have become more customer-focused than ever.

But, companies often think of the customer experience as the sum of interactions with their front-office teams (marketing, sales, and customer service). At HubSpot we’ve gotten tripped up on this as well. The reality is that customer experience covers every part of the business. No matter how seamless your front office operations are, it doesn’t matter if the experience becomes uninformed and counterintuitive once the customer gets into payments and billing. …

By Beth Dunn, UX Operations Lead at HubSpot (and remote work enthusiast)

In 2019, 69% of employers offered remote work. While that number sounds pretty high, the fine print isn’t as flexible as one may think at first glance: They offered remote work on an ad-hoc basis to at least some employees. That’s a pretty low bar. And while some companies operate fully remote — Zapier and Automattic, for example — many companies have been operating as office-first, remote second. This year, most companies moved very quickly to being 100% remote. While the future is still foggy, one thing that’s clear is that remote work will continue to be foundational in how we all operate. …

By Brian Halligan, Co-Founder & CEO at HubSpot

We are fast approaching an important election in the U.S. In November, we will choose our next legislators and leaders in the midst of a global pandemic, in the wake of social unrest, and in the face of continued economic uncertainty. Most of us will vote in person, some of us will vote by mail, but too many of us will not vote at all.

At HubSpot, we want to do our part to make sure that every eligible voter is able to have their voice heard in the upcoming general and local elections. And we are encouraging you — our customers, partners, and fellow companies — to join us in helping to drive registration and increase participation in November. …

By Meghan Keaney Anderson, VP of Marketing at HubSpot

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a plethora of paradoxes.

As the rate of employment has gone down, the stock market has surged. As we find ourselves more socially distant from one another, we’re connecting more than ever with friends and family. And as growth has slowed for many companies, their digital transformation has accelerated. Dramatically.

Companies in nearly every industry have urgently adopted remote tools to allow them to support employees working from home. Millions of marketers have quickly signed up to automation software to help them move their entire marketing strategy online. …