HubSpot Co-Founder and CEO Brian Halligan discusses how inbound marketing favors the attacker, the future of marketing in a social world and why your business won't survive if you can't make this shift in your marketing strategy.

Brian Halligan clearly remembers the moment when he realized traditional marketing strategies wouldn't work anymore.

What is the Inbound Marketing Experience?

Before he co-founded HubSpot, Halligan was working as a venture capitalist. For one particular business they were backing, Halligan sat down with the founder and the head of marketing to discuss ideas on how to grow their company.

With a budget of $1 million, the marketing manager outlined her extensive plan for a telemarketing operation, an email campaign from a purchased list, a large trade show promotion and a few other initiatives. But a different thought occurred to Halligan.

"I said, 'Just for fun, let's see how you're doing on Google,'" Halligan recounted.

When they searched for the company's core service offering, the company's website didn't appear until the fourth page of search results. That's when it all crystalized for Halligan - businesses needed a different approach.

"We're interrupting thousands of people who don't care about your offering, when there are thousands of people actually caring and searching for this service and you're invisible," Halligan told the marketing manager.

After that meeting, Halligan worked with co-founder Dharmesh Shah to create HubSpot, an all-in-one inbound marketing software platform to address the rising tide of a different kind of marketing strategy