Welcome to the Inbound Marketing Certification Prep Kit! This guide is tailored specifically for Junior HubSpot Administrators. While this certification is usually aimed at marketing managers and staff, understanding inbound marketing theory is crucial. However, as a HubSpot Administrator, you'll need to focus more on the technical aspects and practical application within HubSpot.

Objectives By the end of this prep kit, you will:

• Grasp the core principles of inbound marketing.
• Differentiate between inbound and outbound marketing.
• Create and manage effective buyer personas.
• Develop and distribute content aligned with the buyer’s journey.
• Master customer segmentation and behavioural marketing.
• Apply marketing automation and AI to enhance marketing efforts.
• Understand marketing attribution to track and optimise campaign performance.

Exam Outline

• There are 60 questions.
• The exam takes about 1 hour to complete.
• You must answer 45 questions correctly to pass.
• You must wait 12 hours between attempts.
• You have 3 hours to complete the exam.
• Check your answers before submitting. You can’t go back and change them after you click submit.

2. Study Guide

Lesson 1: Inbound Marketing Fundamentals

Lesson Description: Inbound marketing is a strategy that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Unlike outbound marketing, which interrupts your audience with content they may not want, inbound marketing forms connections they are seeking and addresses problems they already have. This lesson will help you adopt a customer-centric mindset, enabling you to grow and scale your marketing efforts.

Key Topics

• Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing
• Applications of the inbound methodology in marketing
• Variations of inbound marketing across different channels and industries
• Importance of a CRM in marketing
• Role of the marketing technology stack

Technical Focus for HubSpot Administrators

• Creating Workflows: Automate tasks based on inbound marketing principles.
• Content Management: Use HubSpot's content management system to create and optimize content.
• Tracking and Analytics: Set up tracking to measure the effectiveness of inbound strategies.
• CRM Utilisation: Ensure proper use and integration of HubSpot CRM to support inbound marketing efforts.

Questions You Need to Know to Pass the Exam

• What is inbound marketing?
• How does inbound marketing differ from outbound marketing?
• What role does content play in inbound marketing?
• Why is it important to understand your potential leads and customers before marketing to them?
• What is a CRM?
• What components make up a marketing technology stack?

Lesson 2: Getting to Know Your Customer

Lesson Description: Understanding who your ideal customer is crucial for effective marketing. Studies show that 60-70% of content created by marketing departments goes unused. This lesson focuses on creating accurate buyer personas to ensure you are crafting content that your target audience truly needs. You will learn how to conduct research to develop your buyer personas and use HubSpot tools to make this process easier.

Key Topics

• Components of buyer personas, including demographic and buying insights
• Creating a limited number of buyer personas
• Curating stories to humanise your buyer personas
• Interviewing customers and potential customers to gain insights
• Ensuring your entire company is familiar with your buyer personas

Technical Focus for HubSpot Administrators

• Persona Setup: Configure buyer personas within HubSpot.
• Data Collection: Use HubSpot forms and analytics to gather and analyse customer data.
• Segmentation: Set up segmentation rules based on persona data.

Questions You Need to Know to Pass the Exam