I’m going to make a bold statement: HubSpot would be nothing without humor. Ok, maybe nothing is too strong a word but the company is certainly more successful because of humor.
How did HubSpot do this? Simply put, they took their humor public. Early on the company made a decision to let humor become part of the company’s official corporate identity. If you don’t know what I mean, just watch this.
It was a risk but it was a risk worth taking. HubSpot’s public display of humor helped differentiate the company from its competitors and even land new customers. Yep, that’s right. Turns out there IS an ROI for humor.
Recently, I spoke with Mike Volpe, HubSpot’s VP of Inbound Marketing, to explore how humor has defined and helped the company:
Q: To what extent does HubSpot use humor internally/externally and why?
We use humor whenever it helps communicate and spread our content. Adding humor to your content makes it more likely that people will forward it to their friends and share it online. Most business content is really boring, so by not being boring you instantly stand out.
Internally, we work really hard and have an intense focus on results, so we also like to laugh to break up the stress. We have a whole section of our internal wiki dedicated to chronicling the funny things that happen at the company. There have also been a few internal pranks in the company…one that went sort of public and viral and ended up generating a bunch of leads and even a new customer.
Q: Do you feel that humor has helped to define the HubSpot brand and corporate culture?
I think it has become part of our brand for sure. People often mention to us that they like our funny videos or our cartoons when they talk to us. I think it helps make the company a lot more human, which makes the interactions with our customers and prospects a lot better. It also helps when we make mistakes – people don’t expect us to be perfect, because we make fun of ourselves and others, and the company has a personality.
Having a brand that stands out among all the other boring brands out there does help you grow. We have accumulated over 300,000 views on our YouTube videos, and a lot of that is driven by the funny ones. We also see traffic spikes most of the time when we publish our cartoons. This humorous content really spreads far and wide online, and helps build our brand and also generate traffic and leads and sales.
Q: Do you believe humor has helped HubSpot retain and get new customers?
Yes! I know for a fact that some customers mention our humorous videos as a reason they contacted us when they talk to our sales people. And we get a lot of virtual fan mail for people who like our loose and humorous style on our HubSpot TV marketing podcast.
Q: Why do you think humor has flourished at the company?
I think being a startup helps because we are not encumbered with an older and more “buttoned-down” culture. We were able to take some risks, because we had less to lose, and now that risk-taking is part of the culture. We are also encouraged to do it internally and people have come to expect it externally.
Q: Do you think there is a risk of integrating humor into PR and/or marketing programs?
There’s always a risk that things will backfire or be misinterpreted, but I think the bigger risk is not trying new things! Sticking with your old marketing techniques and mediocre results is safe, but you’ll never break out and really grow by only doing the things proven to work over the past 20 years.
Q: Do you agree that humor can generate serious business results?
Yes! People like to laugh. Anyone who takes themselves too seriously seems like they have something to hide. In a world dominated by boring business gobbledygook and where online content and social media award authentic personality, humor is a great way to stand out.
Q: Who in your opinion is HubSpot’s reigning class clown?
Wow. That’s a tough one. There are a lot of strong contenders…but I guess if I had to pick one it would be Rebecca Corliss just because she has sung and acted for most of our music videos about marketing. Dharmesh Shah might be the runner up since he has worked on the majority of our cartoons, but he’s a co-founder so he already gets lots of airtime so I’ll stick with Rebecca as the #1 class clown!
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andrew [at] newsvetter [dot] com
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The video on your home page is excellent. I want to request the wmv file for a persontation that I’m giving next week (all internal TSRI people), it makes a great point with terrific humor!
Thanks,
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