HubSpot yesterday unveiled HubSpot 3, which it calls a "re-envisioned and rebuilt version" of its marketing software that makes "Amazon.com-like personalization achievable for the rank-and-file businesses that power our economy." HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah made the announcement at the Inbound2012 conference in Boston.

What's The Fascination With Amazon?

HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe told DM News that the new level of personalization gives marketers the ability to personalize the way Netflix and Amazon do in their marketing. He described that how Amazon's e-commerce site makes individualized recommendations based on past interactions, and something HubSpot aims to provide with the new release.

Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff famously held up Amazon.com as his inspiration for Salesforce.com. Never mind that Amazon.com was a consumer-facing portal for finding new and used books. Benioff felt that it had mastered the personalized user experienced; mastered cloud-based solutions; and that yes, Salesforce.com was a customer-relationship management (CRM) solution for enterprise, and enterprise software was traditionally difficult to implement and use. But why should it be, when Amazon.com proved you could create a sophisticated application that anyone could navigate?

Halligan, the HubSpot CEO, said at the Inbount conference that "HubSpot 3 lets marketers tailor their websites, their marketing and even their calls to action to the unique interests and experiences of prospects, leads and customers to deliver the most targeted, relevant experience."
Shah took a nod from Benioff’s pugnacious playbook in declaring "Today we're throwing down a challenge to the entire marketing industry to make marketing that people love."

What Exactly Is New?

HubSpot 3 adds 10 new or fully rebuilt tools to what the company calls its "all-in-one software arsenal," each tool aimed at making highly personalized, relevant marketing easier for HubSpot customers.

At the core of the new software is a dynamic contact database that compiles all visitor, lead and customer interactions - whether on a company's website, social media, CRM system, email marketing or lead generation, which enables marketing functions to adapt to customers' needs over time. In theory, each individual website visitor can receive personalized calls to action, images, emails and web pages based on their relationship to the company. Marketers in turn can track how all of their marketing actions perform, and follow up with extraordinary relevance, based on what social media they responded to or which piece of content they were interested in.

Running down the list of enhancements:

• Social Segmentation. Track not only the website and email activity of your contacts, but their social media activity as well, including who clicks on your company's social media posts and if they become leads and customers. Marketers can use this social contact data for segmentation and personalization of Smart Content, Emails and other interactions.
• Contacts Database with Dynamic Lists. HubSpot calls a database of contacts and leads an "ever-evolving information portal on a company's audience." HubSpot 3 is supposedly the brain of the new platform, with lead and customer profiles adapting automatically based on their changing preferences and interactions with the company.
• Mobile App. Available for free in the Apple app store, HubSpot has released its first-ever mobile application, which includes a view into a marketer's lead generation flow and a quick reference of contacts in the HubSpot platform.
• Landing Pages with A/B Testing. Landing pages have been rebuilt to be closely integrated with the Contacts database, CRM systems, email, dynamic components, and social media. Using the new landing pages marketers can build, implement, and measure a full multichannel campaign in one place. The new landing page templates have responsive design to optimize for different devices and browsers.
• Smart Content. Smart content in HubSpot 3 comes in the form of Smart CTAs, Smart Images and Smart Fields. Built off the Contacts database, HubSpot 3 enables users to show dynamic images and CTAs that adapt to reflect the interests and stored qualities of the person viewing them. Smart forms adapt and minimize over time: As a company gathers contact information about a given lead, the forms remove fields that have been satisfied in past submissions, making for a better user experience.
• Intelligent Email System. The email system is closely integrated with the contacts database, workflows social media, smart content, and landing pages. It includes templates that have been tested across browsers and platforms, personalization using any detail from the contact database, and robust analytics.
• Workflows. Workflows leverage the enormous amount of data in the Contacts database and a series of rules set by the marketer to create dynamically evolving segments and automate marketing actions. More than email automation, workflow enables marketers to trigger campaigns, change contact profile properties, score leads, send notifications, and sync to a CRM system based on when a lead has met a set of conditions.
• App & Service Marketplace. First launched in 2011, the marketplace has now grown to include more than 100 providers and 60+ add-ons to HubSpot.
• Training & Education. HubSpot has launched HubSpotAcademy, ongoing training with templates, webinars and other content aimed at helping companies of every size get the most out of their inbound marketing efforts.

HubSpot 3 is available now. New customers can purchase the newly released platform at current HubSpot prices until September 1, when prices are slated to increase.