HubSpot, a leading growth platform, celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the launch of its Agency Partner Program. What started as an agency reseller program has since evolved and grown into a full ecosystem of service providers and app developers that help customers succeed with and extend the capabilities of HubSpot. The company also announced today that it is relaunching its Agency Partner Program as the Solutions Partner Program. The program will make it easier for customers to find the right service providers for their business and will enable marketing agencies, web developers, CRM and IT implementers, and more to partner with HubSpot to help customers grow better.

“The evolution of the Agency Partner Program has mirrored the evolution of HubSpot. As we’ve diversified our business over the past decade, our partners have shared in that growth by broadening their expertise to meet the changing needs of our customers,” said Katie Ng-Mak, VP of the Solutions Partner Program at HubSpot. “Since joining HubSpot in 2009, I’ve seen firsthand how our partners have played such an important role in supporting our mission of helping millions of businesses grow better. I can’t wait to see what we’re able to achieve together over the next 10 years and beyond.”

According to new research from HubSpot, the majority of companies use at least three service providers to manage their business day to day, and that number is only growing. This proliferation of providers has given companies more options, but has also added complexity as it becomes harder to find the right partners and apps for their specific needs. In fact, the top pain point for companies using multiple service providers is friction that’s caused by a disconnect between their business goals, the providers they hire, and the software they use. By managing their entire collection of apps, data, and solutions partners from one easy to use software suite built on an easy to navigate ecosystem, they can create better experiences for their customers.

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Celebrating 10 Years of the Agency Partner Program

HubSpot introduced the first iteration of its Agency Partner Program in early 2010 to help marketing services firms adopt the inbound methodology, which was still in its infancy. As HubSpot started to diversify its products beyond marketing, so too did it expand the partner program. In 2017, the company introduced two major changes. First, it launched the Sales Partner Program, a new partnership option tailored to the needs of CRM implementation companies and sales consultants. Later in the year, the company introduced the HubSpot Partner Advisory Council (PAC), a group of partners that act as advisors to help improve the partner program as a whole. The program has grown globally as well, with partners from more than 110 countries around the world. Most recently, the company launched a redesigned version of the HubSpot Agency Directory to help partners market their business and attract more inbound leads.

Over the past 10 years, many partners who traditionally provided marketing services have expanded their offerings to support HubSpot’s growing customer base. The Solutions Partner Program will reflect the broader skill sets and specialties represented in the HubSpot service provider ecosystem and will make space for new partners who offer services outside of marketing. In addition to offering new ways to partner based on the level of commitment, the program also enables partners to differentiate themselves based on their expertise with specialized credentials. Customers will be able to search the Solutions Directory based on those credentials, making it easier for them to find the right partner for their specific needs.

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Extending the Capabilities of the HubSpot Platform with App Partners

While HubSpot has long integrated with a variety of popular apps, the company dialed up its focus on growing its platform and developer community in 2017, starting with bringing marketing technology thought leader Scott Brinker on as the VP of platform ecosystem. The company added more than 65 new integrations that year, kicking off three years of steady growth. The program now features nearly 400 integrations that customers can easily find and connect in the newly redesigned HubSpot App Marketplace.

“The past 10 years have seen exponential growth in the number of apps available to businesses for every facet of marketing, sales, and customer service,” said Scott Brinker. “But harnessing that innovation to deliver remarkable customer experiences isn’t just a function of individual app features. It’s how well your stack of apps work together, in concert across your entire customer journey. By giving you the freedom to choose from an ecosystem of hundreds of integrated apps, HubSpot lets you tailor unique customer experiences and business capabilities that are seamlessly connected through a common platform.”

To further expand the power of its platform, HubSpot announced earlier this year that it has acquired PieSync, an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) solution that gives businesses a consistent view of their customers across virtually every piece of technology they use.

“HubSpot’s ecosystem allows us to create an integrated and contextual experience for our prospects and customers,” said Brandon Rafalson, Head of Editorial at Bizzabo. “In addition to having access to an abundance of applications that seamlessly integrate with our HubSpot platform, we also worked with a solutions partner to elevate the digital experience of one of our biggest launches of the year. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without our partners.”

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