In a Nutshell
pros
- Full digital marketing service
- Customized SEO strategy
- Fully-designed and loaded websites
cons
- Pricing is not published online
- No email marketing
Hibu Marketing Tools at a Glance
Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses, local businesses
Key uses: Digital marketing, SEO, social media marketing, search marketing, reputation management, ad campaigns
Price: Tailored pricing plans
Free trial: No
SEO
When it comes to search engine optimization, Hibu has it all. Off-page SEO, on-page SEO, social SEO, you name it. The various tools within the software allow companies to engage with their followers, target customers according to activity, and deliver website content that is relevant. Add links, create a social media presence (we’ll get to that in a minute), and include content that points back to your site for better SEO all through the Hibu platform.
Hibu has two SEO plans to work with: SEO Premium and SEO Elite. Premium is geared towards local businesses and focuses on boosting their search engine rankings. This way, the company gains visibility, and more people will see their site. Premium provides important features like optimized page content, the appropriate Google tags, social media account setup, online SEO dashboard, and reputation monitoring. You'll also get a professional consultation once every quarter to discuss your personalized SEO plan, what needs to be tweaked, and what's been working well.
The Elite plan is more exhaustive, delivering custom campaigns for really improving visibility and reach. You’ll get even more optimized content, social media posts, social bookmarking, and the other tools available from the SEO Premium plan. Plus, you’ll get monthly consultations (not just quarterly).
Social Media Marketing
There's plenty to do in terms of social marketing if that's where your business focus is right now. Whether you want to create a consistent ad campaign to run across your various social media channels, retarget customers, or collect data using a social survey, Hibu provides the tools you need to direct those social media efforts into concrete results. We were pleasantly surprised by how much Hibu can do for a company via social media. Some of the features we liked best include:
- Building a social presence: Hibu will create a Facebook Business Page for you, including your company details, photos, and logo so that you can start getting recognized online.
- Create ad campaigns: Social campaigns can be run in Facebook News Feeds, Facebook Messenger, Marketplace, and Instagram for as much visibility as possible.
- Social optimization: Hibu uses smart technology to target the right ads at the right customers to keep you at the front of their minds.
You’ll also get social analytics, a measurable way to see your campaign results. Hibu does this really nicely, allowing you to create reports based on measurements and goals you are interested in.
Website Design
Hibu offers web design services, which are surprisingly fast for a company that is not exclusively a website builder. Hibu can churn out a professionally-designed and fully-functional website in less than 10 days (the average is seven days). What’s even more impressive is that Hibu takes care of everything from start to finish (even content!), so you can get a really dynamic website without any coding, design, or writing skills. And of course, Hibu tosses in the SEO aspects your site needs to rank.
Hibu uses what it calls Smart Site designing. This is a fancy way of saying that the sites are built to communicate directly with Google, providing a lot more information than most sites do. So, the website is generally more "attractive" to the search engines. This translates to better rankings and more visibility. There are other perks involved in the Smart Site design like engagement menu, synced third-party apps, and smart content generation. It's like taking the best of all worlds based on real-world data.
The designs themselves are attractive and obviously created by professionals, you can see that clearly from the end product. Designs are fully responsive, working on both tablets and mobile devices.
Digital Marketing
Hibu offers several forms of digital marketing. In addition to those already mentioned, businesses can take advantage of Hibu's digital marketing blog feature to build a dynamic blog site for their customers.
Hibu can also provide you with timely PPC campaigns that are customized to your audience, niche, and brand. This company works closely with all of the big names, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Facebook, so you've got your bases covered. You can build multiple campaigns, set goals for those campaigns, and, most importantly, track their success.
Other digital marketing tools Hibu offers include search marketing, online reviews, local business listings, reputation management, listing management, and more.
Pricing
The real beauty of working with Hibu is the personalized attention. SMBs generally don’t have the expertise of a marketing professional nor the budget to hire one, so they often make rookie mistakes or don’t even know where to begin creating a marketing campaign for their website. Hibu offers local businesses a personal account manager who will work hand in hand with you to build a customized marketing strategy that includes various digital marketing tools and solutions. This type of one-on-one customer service is worth its weight in gold.
The upside? You get personalized services, tailored pricing, and a real customized experience. The downside? You can’t get a concrete price quote to compare with other services. Truth be told, though, most online marketing services work with this same type of pricing model. You can call a representative directly or fill out the contact form and have a Hibu rep get in touch with you to discuss a tailored pricing plan for your business needs.
Hibu also has a flat rate limited-time pro for website building. You can get a custom-built smart site for $99. This plan comes with select digital marketing features, though which ones is not clear from the offer.
Customer Service
Hibu offers customer support through several channels, including phone, email, and even live chat. You can also check out the digital marketing blog that has lots of tips and ideas about all things marketing and SEO. Or you can delve into the large library of videos and infographics Hibu has put together for the benefit of business owners.
Additionally, Hibu offers its customers loads of free marketing tools. Things like a Facebook calculator that lets you see how many people in your immediate area your Facebook ad will reach or the online listings tool that will show you how a web page will look to your customers (this is great for seeing your site through your customers’ eyes and also for checking all the information on the page). There’s even a neat marketing quiz to test your digital marketing know-how.
Bottom Line
From basic business listings and display ad campaigns to content generation and full website design, Hibu has a tremendous range of digital marketing tools for local businesses to grow their web presence. The personal marketing plan will definitely help brands differentiate themselves from the competition, and all the local ad work can be a major boost for small businesses. Add to that search campaigns and reputation management, and it’s not hard to see why so many businesses trust Hibu with their digital marketing needs.
