Marketing fundamentals that can help teams build their first marketing strategy

Marketing fundamentals are the foundation of every great marketing strategy. Think of them as marketing 101 — the essential principles that help marketers connect the right product with the right audience at the right time.

→ Click here to download our free guide to digital marketing fundamentals [Download Now].

According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report, 87% of marketers using HubSpot said their strategies were effective in 2024, proof that strong fundamentals, backed by connected tools, drive measurable success.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the 7 Ps of marketing, explore proven frameworks like the 7 Times 7 Rule, and show how tools like HubSpot Marketing Hub and Breeze can help you implement these concepts.

Table of Contents

• The Fundamentals of Marketing
• What are marketing fundamentals?
• Key Marketing Principles
• What are the five marketing concepts?
• How to Find Cost-Effective Marketing Channels
• How to Build Your First Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Tools to Level Up Your Marketing Strategy
• Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Fundamentals

The Fundamentals of Marketing

Marketing fundamentals are the essential principles that help businesses connect the right product with the right audience at the right time — and do it in a way that consistently drives growth.

They form the foundation for every marketing strategy, ensuring that decisions are guided by:

• Clear goals.
• Customer insights.
• Measurable outcomes.

When teams understand the basics of marketing, they can move from reactive, one-off campaigns to a repeatable system for attracting and engaging customers.

The Theory Behind Marketing Fundamentals

Marketing fundamentals are the theoretical backbone of every successful marketing strategy. Each principle stems from decades of marketing research and practice.

When put into action, the 7 Ps of marketing help teams understand:

• Customer behavior.
• Value perception.
• Marketing positioning.

At their core, these fundamentals rest on three foundational ideas:

1. Customer orientation. Marketing starts and ends with the customer. Every decision, from product design to messaging, should be tailored to customer needs and expectations.
2. Value exchange. Effective marketing creates mutual value. The business earns revenue or loyalty, and the customer gains a meaningful solution to their problem.
3. Integrated strategy. Success depends on alignment. When product, price, promotion, people, and process all work together, marketing becomes more efficient and effective.

Teams that internalize these principles shift from short-term tactics to long-term systems thinking. Instead of asking, “What campaign should we run next?”, the question becomes, “How does this campaign fit into our overall marketing ecosystem?”

Pro tip: Revisit your marketing fundamentals each quarter. Markets, technology, and buyer expectations evolve, so your foundational strategy should evolve with them.

What are marketing fundamentals?

The 7 Ps of Marketing

Think of marketing fundamentals as a seven-layer framework. Let’s call it “the 7 Ps of marketing,” with each important component starting with the letter P: product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.

The 7 Ps of marketing guide how teams plan, execute, and evaluate their strategies. Understanding these elements helps marketers adapt to shifting markets, make data-driven decisions, and build campaigns that drive sustainable growth.

Successful marketing isn’t something that’s gatekept by huge budgets. In fact, some of the most effective marketing strategies don’t cost a fortune — they just focus on the basics.

Let’s spell it out.

1. Product

Your product is the starting point for every marketing decision. It’s not just what you sell, but the value it delivers to your customers. To market effectively, you need to understand:

• What makes your product unique.
• The problems it solves.
• Why it matters.

HubSpot tip: Use customer feedback and data from your HubSpot CRM to uncover what features or outcomes customers value most. The insights you collect can inform your messaging, positioning, and product roadmap.

2. Price

Price communicates value. It affects how your audience perceives your brand and determines your ability to compete. Setting the right price requires:

• Balancing customer expectations.
• Production costs.
• Market trends.

HubSpot tip: Analyze competitor pricing and use tools like HubSpot’s reporting dashboards to track how price changes impact lead conversion and retention. A well-defined pricing strategy sets the stage for profitability without sacrificing growth.

3. Place

Place refers to how and where your product reaches customers. Whether it’s a physical location, an ecommerce store, or a digital marketplace, accessibility is key.

The goal here is to meet customers where they already spend their time.

HubSpot tip: Audit your distribution strategy regularly. Review which channels drive the most engagement and conversions using HubSpot’s analytics. Then, optimize your presence in the spaces that generate the highest ROI.

4. Promotion

Promotion is how you communicate your value to customers. You’ll promote your product or service through:

• Content.
• Advertising.
• Email.
• Social media.
• Partnerships.

Promotion really boils down to telling the right story, in the right place, at the right time.

With 92% of marketers planning to maintain or increase brand-awareness investments this year, it’s a good reminder that consistent promotion remains one of the strongest fundamentals.

HubSpot tip: Use an integrated approach. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub connects your channels, allowing you to see which campaigns perform best and where to double down. Consistency across every channel builds brand trust and recognition.

5. People

Every person who touches your brand shapes the customer experience, from marketing and sales to support and service.

You’ll want to make sure your people can deliver consistent, on-brand experiences. This attention to detail and consistency is mission-critical to growth.

Pro tip: Align internal teams around shared brand values and customer insights. When everyone understands the “why” behind your message, your external marketing becomes more authentic and effective.

6. Process

Process covers the systems and workflows that bring your marketing strategy to life. It’s the behind-the-scenes steps that define how your team operates. Process covers everything, including:

• Content creation.
• Lead nurturing.
• Customer onboarding.

The more efficient your processes, the better.

Pro tip: A smooth process keeps campaigns consistent and customers satisfied. Map the customer journey end-to-end and identify friction points. Then, automate repetitive tasks using tools like HubSpot workflows.

7. Physical Evidence

The proof is in the pudding. Physical evidence provides tangible proof that your brand delivers on its promises. This could include:

• Packaging.
• Testimonials.
• Reviews.

The overall look and feel of your website also counts as physical evidence — don’t neglect it!

HubSpot tip: Feature case studies, ratings, and social proof prominently across your digital touchpoints to generate more interest. Use HubSpot CMS to showcase real customer success stories and reinforce credibility throughout the entire buyer journey.

Need a platform to turn theory into execution? Get started with HubSpot Marketing Hub, your all-in-one system for putting marketing principles into measurable action.

Key Marketing Principles

Key marketing principles help marketers craft better strategies to effectively reach their target audience and bring in leads. They include the “7 Times 7 Rule,” branding, and market research and analysis.

The 7 Times 7 Rule

The 7 Times 7 Rule explains how often and how consistently your message needs to appear before it drives real impact. It’s a classic marketing principle that reminds us of a simple truth: People rarely take action after a single interaction with a brand.

On average, a potential customer needs to encounter your message at least seven times across multiple channels before deciding to engage, click, or buy.

This repetition builds familiarity, trust, and recognition — the ultimate recipe for persuasion. Consistent exposure helps your brand stand out amongst the competition.

Why it works:

• Repetition creates memory. Seeing or hearing your message repeatedly helps encode it in long-term memory.
• Familiarity builds trust. Customers are more likely to choose a brand they’ve seen before, even subconsciously.
• Consistency drives clarity. Delivering the same message across platforms strengthens your positioning and avoids confusion.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot’s Campaigns tool to coordinate your emails, ads, and social content under one message. Tracking all touchpoints in a single dashboard helps you see how repetition drives awareness and conversions.

Branding

If marketing fundamentals are the backbone of strategy, branding is the heartbeat. Branding is how your business shapes perception, builds recognition, and earns trust over time.

Branding goes beyond visuals. When done right, it is the emotional connection that turns a casual buyer into a loyal advocate.

At its core, branding is a marketing fundamental because it influences how every other “P” in your marketing mix performs. A strong brand:

• Helps your product stand out.
• Supports premium pricing.
• Drives preference in crowded markets.
• Creates consistency across all customer touchpoints.

When your brand is clear and consistent, customers know exactly what to expect. That confidence in your brand is exactly what fuels growth. Let’s take a look at brand identity, voice, experience, and equity.

1. Brand Identity

Your brand identity is the visual and verbal expression of who you are, and it includes:

• Logo
• Typography
• Colors
• Tone
• Design elements

These cues make your business recognizable and signal credibility before a customer even interacts with your product.

HubSpot tip: Keep your identity consistent across every channel. Use HubSpot’s Content Hub to manage templates, images, and messaging guidelines so every campaign looks and feels unified.

2. Brand Voice

Your brand voice is how your company sounds. It conveys your values, personality, and point of view through language and tone, whether that’s confident and direct or warm and conversational.

A distinct voice makes your brand human. It gives your content a rhythm that builds emotional connection and reinforces trust.

Pro tip: Document your voice and tone in a brand style guide, and use it across every email, landing page, and social caption. HubSpot’s AI content tools can help you maintain tone consistency at scale.

3. Brand Experience

Your brand experience is the sum of every interaction a customer has with your business — from your website and social media to your sales process and post-purchase support. It’s where your identity and voice come together to create something memorable.

A strong brand experience delivers on the promises your marketing makes. It should be intuitive, reliable, and aligned with your customer’s needs at every stage.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot’s CRM and Service Hub to collect feedback and track satisfaction metrics. Turning real customer insights into brand improvements ensures that every interaction reinforces trust.

4. Brand Equity

Brand equity refers to the value your brand builds over time. It’s built on awareness, loyalty, and trust, and it’s the payoff of showing up consistently and delivering value across every channel.

HubSpot tip: Monitor brand sentiment and engagement trends in HubSpot’s analytics tools. Tracking these long-term indicators helps you see whether your brand is strengthening or losing traction.

Market Research and Analytics

Market research and analytics are the foundation of data-driven marketing. Together, they help validate assumptions, making it easier for teams to understand their audience and measure performance.

Where market research uncovers what customers want and why they behave a certain way, analytics reveal how they interact with your brand in real time.

Market research and analytics give marketers the ability to make informed decisions backed by data, not guesswork. HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report backs this up. Marketers who rely on data report:

• 35% greater audience precision.
• 34% higher ROI.
• 32% better media-mix planning.

Here’s what’s involved.

1. Audience Research

Audience research identifies:

• Who your ideal customers are.
• What motivates them.
• How they make buying decisions.

This involves collecting both quantitative data, like demographics and engagement metrics, and qualitative insights, like customer interviews or surveys.

A clear understanding of your audience helps shape your messaging, channel selection, and product positioning. This way, every campaign starts from a place of empathy and insight.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot’s Buyer Persona Generator and CRM data to analyze behavior patterns and refine your audience profiles over time.

2. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis examines how your brand stacks up against others in the market. It helps you understand your competitors:

• Strengths and weaknesses.
• Pricing.
• Positioning.
• Customer engagement tactics.

This process reveals whitespace opportunities, or areas where you can differentiate your brand or deliver more value.

HubSpot tip: Track competitor activity and market share trends using HubSpot’s reporting dashboards or connect third-party data sources for real-time insights.

3. Performance Measurement

Performance measurement closes the loop between strategy and outcomes. It involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:

• Website traffic.
• Conversion rates.
• Engagement.
• Return on investment (ROI).

Consistent analysis ensures your marketing fundamentals are working. If something’s not working properly, you can pinpoint exactly where to adjust.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot Marketing Hub to integrate data across all channels. With unified dashboards, you can see how every campaign contributes to your larger goals.

4. Continuous Optimization

The most effective marketers treat research and analytics as an ongoing process, not a one-time step. As markets evolve and customer behaviors shift, new data reveals opportunities to iterate and improve.

Pro tip: Build quarterly reporting cadences to review performance, identify patterns, and refine your marketing mix. HubSpot’s automation and reporting tools make it simple to scale this process as your organization grows.

What are the five marketing concepts?

Now that we’ve covered the core marketing principles, we need to talk about marketing concepts. Marketing concepts outline how businesses think about creating and delivering value. Each concept represents a different philosophy, from production efficiency to customer satisfaction and social responsibility. They include concepts for production, product, selling, marketing, and societal marketing.

Understanding these concepts is a marketing fundamental because it helps teams identify why they market the way they do and how to evolve as customer expectations change.

To make it easier to understand, let’s break this down into five core concepts.

1. Production Concept

The production concept is the oldest marketing philosophy. It’s based on the idea that customers prefer products that are widely available and affordable. Businesses operating under this concept focus on efficiency, scale, and cost reduction.

While production-driven strategies can lead to high output and low prices, they risk overlooking customer needs and differentiation.

Example of production in action: Large-scale manufacturers or subscription-based businesses may apply this concept to maintain low costs and a consistent supply.

2. Product Concept

The product concept assumes customers will favor products that offer the best quality, features, or performance. Companies driven by this philosophy focus heavily on innovation and continuous improvement.

While valuable, this mindset can lead to what marketers call the “better mousetrap fallacy.” This fallacy assumes that a superior product automatically leads to higher demand. Without clear positioning or communication, even great products can go unnoticed.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot’s feedback and analytics tools to validate which features your customers actually value, not just the ones your team is proud of.

3. Selling Concept

The selling concept centers on persuasion. It assumes that customers won’t buy enough of a product unless they’re actively convinced to do so through promotion and sales tactics. This approach prioritizes conversion over retention. It’s useful for short-term results but risky for long-term growth if customer satisfaction isn’t addressed.

HubSpot tip: Pair sales-driven strategies with post-purchase nurture sequences in HubSpot Marketing Hub to keep customers engaged beyond the initial sale.

4. Marketing Concept

The marketing concept shifts the focus from the product to the customer. It’s built on understanding customer needs and delivering solutions that satisfy them better than competitors.

This philosophy underpins most modern marketing strategies. It focuses on research, segmentation, and alignment to better understand what customers want and how the company delivers.

HubSpot tip: Use data from HubSpot CRM to align your marketing, sales, and service teams around a single view of the customer. This ensures consistent experiences from first touch to long-term loyalty.

5. Societal Marketing Concept

The societal marketing concept expands the marketing concept by balancing company profits, customer satisfaction, and societal well-being. It’s about doing well by doing good, and is the driver behind marketing decisions that also consider ethics, sustainability, and community impact.

According to HubSpot research, 65% of marketers who addressed social issues in campaigns saw stronger brand performance. Companies that embrace this approach often see stronger loyalty and advocacy from customers who share their values.

HubSpot tip: Highlight sustainability initiatives and social impact stories across your marketing channels. HubSpot’s CMS and content tools make it easy to tell these stories authentically and consistently.

How to Find Cost-Effective Marketing Channels

If you’re asking, “Which channels should I focus on first?” start with one or two channels that map cleanly to your goals and audience, then expand as results prove out.

Consider options like content marketing, email, social media, online advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Marketing Channel	Why It Matters	Tools That Can Help
Content Marketing	- Builds trust and authority by providing valuable, relevant information. - Attracts and engages target audiences organically over time. - Supports SEO and other marketing channels by generating shareable content.	HubSpot – for content planning and analytics. Canva – for designing visuals and infographics. Grammarly – for improving writing clarity and tone.
Email Marketing	- Offers a direct, personal way to reach your audience. - Delivers strong ROI through targeted, automated campaigns. - Helps nurture leads and retain existing customers.	Mailchimp – for email creation and automation. ConvertKit – for managing subscriber lists and funnels. HubSpot Email Marketing – for CRM-integrated campaigns.
Social Media Marketing	- Increases brand awareness and engagement through daily interactions. - Builds community and customer relationships. - Drives traffic and conversions through organic and paid strategies.	Hootsuite – for scheduling and monitoring posts. Buffer – for managing multiple social accounts. Sprout Social – for analytics and engagement tracking.
Online Advertising	- Quickly drives targeted traffic and conversions. - Enables precise audience targeting and measurable ROI. - Complements organic marketing efforts for faster results.	Google Ads – for search and display advertising. Meta Ads Manager – for Facebook and Instagram ads. LinkedIn Ads – for B2B lead generation.
Search Engine Optimization	- Improves visibility and rankings on search engines. - Attracts high-quality, long-term organic traffic. - Builds credibility and trust through a better user experience.	Ahrefs – for keyword research and backlink analysis. SEMrush – for competitive analysis and site audits. Google Search Console – for tracking search performance.

Content Marketing

Content marketing provides valuable content to a target audience. These include blog posts, videos, podcasts, ebooks, and more. Unlike a pop-up ad, this type of marketing isn’t disruptive. It’s supposed to feel natural, organic, and helpful.

Pro tip: Start with one content type you can excel at, rather than trying to do everything at once. If you’re great at writing, start with a blog before diving into video content.

To take it one step further, include a sign-up form for a free trial of the offering at the top of every article — giving readers a chance to convert into customers.

Content marketing is a long-term investment. But with patience and the right strategy, marketers can drive brand awareness and nurture customer relationships without significant financial strain.

Email Marketing

Marketers reach people who’ve already expressed an interest in a business with email marketing. This puts businesses in a great position to build relationships, promote products, and share offers.

Email marketing is relatively affordable compared to other marketing channels. Many email service providers offer free plans or tiered pricing to appeal to different budgets. For example, HubSpot’s email marketing software is easy to use, secure, and free.

Marketers can also set up trigger emails when someone completes an action, such as making a purchase or downloading a content offer.

Pro tip: Looking to bulk up your email list? Check out this helpful guide.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms (like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, LinkedIn) to promote products, services, or brands. It involves creating and sharing content, engaging with audiences, running paid ads, and analyzing performance to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate sales or leads.

These days, consumers expect brands to have an online presence. Social media can help brands get in front of buyers wherever they are. Businesses and marketers should create business profiles on a few social media sites to drive that exposure.

Once business profiles are up and running, marketers can begin to share content. Teams should experiment with different types of content until they have a better idea of what gets the most traction. Remember that social media is all about connection, so interact with customers, initiate conversations, and leverage user-generated content.

HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report found that short-form video now delivers the highest ROI (21%), followed by images (19%) and live streams (16%) — making it a smart focus for marketers optimizing on a budget.

These tactics can help businesses foster relationships and build loyalty around a brand without spending a dime. However, if teams decide to run paid ads, social media offers incredible reach that can generate immediate results.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn provide advanced ad targeting, enabling marketers to narrow down the audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. And with flexible budgeting options, teams can allocate their budget strategically and maximize their ROI.

Online Advertising

Online advertising is the use of the internet to promote products, services, or brands through paid digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, and apps. It includes formats like display ads, search ads, video ads, and social media ads to reach targeted audiences and drive specific actions, such as clicks or purchases.

One of the biggest benefits of online advertising is that it’s often cheaper than traditional advertising. Consider TV ads, which cost anywhere from thousands of dollars to even millions. Now, think of an ad running on social media for $1 a day. Digital marketing allows small businesses to advertise for a fraction of the cost.

Online advertising encompasses a few areas, including:

• Display ads. These include banner ads, images, and videos bought on Google Ads.
• Pay-per-click. PPC is an advertising model that falls under search engine marketing. These ads appear at the top of search engine results, and businesses only pay when people click them.
• Social ads. These are ads that appear on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Marketers set a budget and specify their target audience.
• Remarketing. This involves tagging website visitors and targeting them with content after they leave the site. Think of an email from an ecommerce store reminding a shopper of an abandoned cart.

Unlike traditional advertising, online ads offer powerful analytics. Marketers don’t have to wonder if an online ad is effective since they can track metrics like impressions, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of SEO is to boost a website’s presence in search engines like Google. While SEO trends come and go, the key principles stay the same:

• Create and publish valuable content online.
• Strategically insert keywords in the content.
• Improve the website’s page speed.
• Offer a great user experience to website visitors.

Like content marketing, SEO is a long-term game. However, 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of search results. So, SEO becomes a critical strategy for driving traffic and generating leads.

How to Build Your First Marketing Strategy

Creating a marketing strategy is simple but necessary to effectively market your goods and services. It can be broken down into five steps: Set your goals, understand your target audience, decide your marketing mix, monitor relevant KPIs, and keep iterating on it. Let’s get into each one.

1. Start with your goals.

Before teams can build a marketing strategy, they first need to set clear goals. What does the business want to accomplish? Are marketers aiming to increase brand awareness? Generate leads? Or enhance customer loyalty?

Goals provide direction and purpose for the entire marketing operation. Plus, they determine the effectiveness of a team’s efforts.

When defining marketing goals, ensure they align with business objectives. For example, if a main business objective is to build brand awareness, their marketing goal might be to reach X number of social media followers in the next six months.

Further Reading:

• The 9 Goals to Consider When Creating a Marketing Strategy
• Free Template: Determine Your SMART Marketing Goals

2. Know your target audience.

Knowing the audience is key to building effective marketing strategies. The more marketers know about the audience, the better they can craft compelling messages that respond to their interests, needs, or preferences. So, who is the customer? What are their challenges or pain points? Are they price sensitive? Do they shop online?

Target audiences will also play a huge role in influencing which marketing channels a team decides to leverage. For instance, suppose a business sells home security devices and its target audience is adult homeowners. Based on this information, they might pass on Snapchat, where nearly half the user base is under 25.

Further Reading:

• Target Audience: How to Find Yours
• How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business

3. Decide your marketing mix.

Once you’ve set clear goals and defined your target audience, the next step is deciding how to reach them — that’s where your marketing mix comes in. Your marketing mix is the combination of tactics, channels, and resources you’ll use to promote your product or service. It puts strategy into action by determining where, when, and how you’ll connect with potential customers.

To build your marketing mix:

1. Start with your customer journey. Identify the key touchpoints — awareness, consideration, and decision — and select channels that make the biggest impact at each stage.
2. Align channels with your goals. Use content marketing for brand awareness, paid ads for quick conversions, and email or automation to nurture long-term relationships.
3. Budget intentionally. Allocate more resources to high-performing channels and test new ones gradually. HubSpot’s Campaigns tool makes it easy to track performance across all channels and adjust your mix in real time.
4. Keep it consistent. Every message, design element, and offer should align with your brand identity and value proposition.

A well-balanced marketing mix prevents your team from spreading efforts too thin or chasing every new trend that comes along.

HubSpot tip: Use HubSpot’s Marketing Hub to connect all your marketing activities in one place. Revisit it regularly to ensure every channel and message still supports your overarching strategy.

Further Reading:

• The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Strategies
• How to Write a Great Value Proposition [7 Top Examples + Template]
• How to Launch a Successful Multichannel Marketing Strategy

4. Monitor the right KPIs.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) serve as benchmarks that reflect progress toward goals. By tracking them, marketers can pinpoint which strategies are working and which need improvement. Establish a system for tracking and analyzing the results of marketing efforts. For instance, email marketing campaigns might track open rates, click-through rates, and subscribers.

Further Reading:

• What is a KPI? How to Choose the Best KPIs for Your Business
• Marketing Effectiveness: How to Measure It & Present to External Stakeholders

5. Evolve.

The marketing landscape is always evolving. In the last decade, we’ve seen the rise of TikTok, artificial intelligence, and smart devices. And 92% of marketers are already seeing AI reshape their roles.

All this to say, a good marketing strategy is one that’s adaptable. Be open to testing new ideas, experimenting with different tactics, and adapting the team’s strategy.

Further Reading:

• The Top Marketing Trends of 2025 & How They've Changed Since 2024 [Data from 1000+ Global Marketers]
• The 2025 State of Marketing & Trends Report: Data from 1700+ Global Marketers

Marketing Tools to Level Up Your Marketing Strategy

Even the strongest marketing fundamentals need the right tools to bring them to life. Here are four tools that can help you elevate your marketing strategy, from managing complex campaigns to uncovering fresh insights and staying ahead of the competition.

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

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HubSpot Marketing Hub is a complete marketing software platform that helps businesses attract the right audience, convert more leads, and measure success all from one unified workspace.

Marketers can manage content, email, social media, paid ads, and reporting without ever switching tabs. Its automation tools make it easy to personalize outreach at scale, while robust analytics connect every campaign to real ROI.

Best for: All-in-one marketing automation and campaign management.

Key Features:

• Centralized campaign management across all channels.
• Built-in CRM integration for a unified customer view.
• AI-powered content and reporting tools.
• Comprehensive analytics dashboards for tracking leads, conversions, and revenue.
• Free tools for small teams and scalable tiers for growing businesses.

Pricing: Free CRM tools available. Paid plans start at $15/month and scale with features and contacts.

What I like: Marketing Hub’s biggest advantage is how effortlessly it connects data, automation, and analytics in one platform. The CRM integration eliminates silos between teams, giving you visibility from first touch to closed deal. That’s something most standalone tools can’t match.

HubSpot’s Marketing Hub in Action: How Reed Used HubSpot Marketing Hub to Align Sales and Marketing

Reed, one of the U.K.’s leading recruitment firms, used HubSpot Marketing Hub to unify its marketing, sales, and customer data. Before implementing HubSpot, marketing and sales teams worked in silos, making lead tracking and follow-up inconsistent.

After adopting HubSpot:

• Marketing gained a real-time view of lead activity, passing higher-quality leads directly to sales.
• The company created automated nurture workflows that improved conversions and freed up time.
• Reed achieved faster, more transparent communication between teams, resulting in a better customer experience and measurable growth.

Read the full case study

2. Breeze

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Breeze is HubSpot’s AI-powered assistant that helps teams save time and work smarter. From automating campaign planning to powering customer agents inside Service Hub, Breeze uses predictive insights and instant responses to reduce manual tasks and improve conversions.

Key Features:

• AI-driven campaign and workflow recommendations.
• Instant customer support and lead response capabilities.
• Seamless integration with HubSpot Marketing Hub and Service Hub.
• Designed to improve efficiency across marketing, sales, and service teams.

Best for: Streamlining workflows and improving customer engagement with AI.

Pricing: Included with select HubSpot plans. Standalone AI features are available for eligible accounts.

What I like: Breeze combines HubSpot’s trusted data ecosystem with AI-driven speed. Whether it’s routing a task, generating content, or answering a customer question, it acts like a proactive teammate that keeps your marketing engine moving.

Breeze in Action: How Football Play Card Used Breeze to Convert Faster and Save Time

Football Play Card, a sports technology company, implemented the Breeze customer agent in Service Hub to solve customer information gaps and reduce response times. By configuring the AI to provide instant answers to product questions, the company achieved:

• Faster response times to improve customer satisfaction.
• Higher conversion rates, as leads received instant answers.
• More time for growth, freeing the founder to focus on scaling the business.

The Breeze customer agent became a key part of their conversion process, helping the business engage customers instantly and scale more effectively.

Read more Breeze customer success stories.

3. Canva

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Canva enables marketers to create social graphics, presentations, infographics, and ads with an easy drag-and-drop editor. The tool offers thousands of templates, brand kits, and AI design suggestions that make visual storytelling faster and more consistent.

Best for: Quick, professional design at any skill level.

Pricing: Free version available. Paid plans start at $10/month for teams.

What I like: Canva makes it possible for marketers to stay lean and move forward without relying on a full design team. It’s especially useful for social content production and campaign testing when you need polished visuals fast.

4. Semrush

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Semrush provides powerful insights into organic search, paid traffic, backlinks, and content performance. It’s an essential tool for marketers focused on improving visibility and identifying new keyword opportunities.

Best for: SEO, keyword research, and competitor analysis.

Pricing: Plans start at $139.95/month, with custom options for agencies and enterprises.

What I like: Semrush offers incredible visibility into your competitors’ strategies. The keyword tracking, site audit, and backlink data give you actionable direction, not just data, for content and SEO planning.

Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Fundamentals

What are the seven principles of marketing?

The seven principles of marketing, also known as the 7 Ps, are:

• Product.
• Price.
• Place.
• Promotion.
• People.
• Process.
• Physical evidence.

These elements work together to create a comprehensive marketing strategy that addresses every aspect of the customer experience. When marketers align all seven elements, they can create campaigns that resonate with audiences and drive results.

What is the 7 times 7 rule in marketing?

The 7 times 7 rule suggests that prospects need to see a marketing message at least seven times before they take action. In today’s multi-channel world, this might mean encountering brands on multiple channels, like social media, email, content marketing, and more.

What are the five main concepts of marketing?

The five main marketing concepts that guide business strategies are:

1. Production, which focuses on efficiency and wide distribution.
2. Product, which emphasizes quality and innovation.
3. Selling, which involves aggressive promotion and sales tactics.
4. Marketing takes a customer-centric approach to meeting needs.
5. Societal marketing balances profits, customer needs, and social responsibility.

Most modern businesses operate under the marketing or societal marketing concept, putting customer needs and social impact at the center of their strategies.

What are the four basics of marketing?

The four basics of marketing refer to the original marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. While the framework has expanded to include People, Process, and Physical Evidence, these four elements remain the foundation of any marketing strategy.

Understanding these basics helps marketers answer fundamental questions, including:

• What are you selling?
• How much does it cost?
• Where can customers find it?
• How will they learn about it?

How do I choose the right marketing channels for my business?

Start with your goals and target audience, then map the customer journey across the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. Choose one or two channels for each stage and run small tests to see what performs best. Focus your budget on what converts, and pause what doesn’t. Use HubSpot Campaigns and attribution reporting to understand which efforts truly drive pipeline and growth.

How can I measure the success of my marketing efforts?

Connect every marketing activity to KPIs that align with real business outcomes — for example, awareness to reach and traffic, demand to MQLs or CPL, and revenue to pipeline, ARR, or ROI. Review results weekly to stay agile, dig deeper with a monthly roll-up, and do a full strategy refresh each quarter to keep your goals and data in sync.

What tools do I need to get started with marketing?

Start with an all-in-one marketing platform like HubSpot Marketing Hub to manage your channels, automation, and analytics in one place. Add an AI assistant such as Breeze to speed up planning and customer response. Use a design tool like Canva for quick, on-brand visuals, and an SEO suite such as Semrush to research keywords and track your visibility over time.

Bring your marketing fundamentals to life.

The best strategies are built, tested, and refined over time — and they all start with solid fundamentals. Experimentation is key, especially when marketing teams are just starting out.

Don’t be afraid to test different marketing channels, tactics, and strategies to find what resonates best with the target audience. Put yours into action with HubSpot Marketing Hub to plan, automate, and measure every campaign in one place, and use Breeze to work faster with AI.

TL;DR: Marketing fundamentals are the core principles behind every great strategy. At the center is the 7 Ps of marketing — Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Mastering these basics helps you reach the right audience, choose effective channels, and measure what works.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in June 2023 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.