November 30, 2019

How to Use Hubspot for Online Small Business Stardom

Tags

  • Small Business Marketing

  • Small Business Technology

However, just buying Hubspot isn’t going to do much for your business. You have to understand how to use Hubspot’s CRM and its many other software solutions, which is easier said than done. Depending on the level of Hubspot you purchase, you’ll likely need help making full use of all its features. Of course, even with Hubspot, your success will depend largely on your strategy and execution.  Fortunately, we wrote this post to show you how to use Hubspot for online small business stardom. 

What is Hubspot

HubSpot is a platform which consists of marketing, sales, and customer service software. They also offer a free customer relationship management (CRM) system. Essentially, Hubspot is a combination of software and tools that can provide everything you need to run your business. This includes your marketing, sales, and customer service departments. HubSpot breaks these tools into three “hubs” which they call:
  1. The Sales Hub
  2. The Marketing Hub
  3. The Customer Service Hub
Each one of the hubs is in addition to the free CRM system. In addition, there are various add-ons you can purchase. Also, in addition to marketing software, Hubspot provides paid consulting hours.

Features and Benefits of Hubspot

The first thing that stands out about Hubspot is that it’s an all-in-one solution. Considering the sheer number of tools available, being able to consolidate them is why many businesses love Hubspot. Within the platform, you can manage your website, track deal stages, route support tickets, run ads, build email workflows, and more. Plus, as of this writing, Hubspot provides more than 200 integrations with all sorts of marketing, sales, and service software. Still, because it's an all-in-one solution, Hubspot’s individual tools aren’t as sophisticated as some competing companies. Another significant feature is Hubspot’s support team and content which can help you learn how to use Hubspot’s CRM, Sales, Marketing, and Service Hubs. In addition to its popular and informative blogs, Hubspot has a large knowledge base. This includes support content, community forums, and free online training. Assuming you have the time, Hubspot’s content can teach you just about everything you need to know about using Hubspot. Also, through their programs and agency partnerships, Hubspot has built up a large network of professionals. This network can help you make the most of your Hubspot software.

The Importance of Contact Management

Contact management is at the core of Hubspot’s value proposition, and for good reason. Contact management is critical if you want to grow your business because it affects how you manage the customer relationship lifecycle.  By using a tool like Hubspot for contact management, you'll gain invaluable insight into the behavior of your prospects and customers. This will help inform your marketing, sales, and service strategies and determine how to create the most value for your customers. You can also use smart contact management to automate otherwise tedious administrative tasks like sending onboarding or nurture emails.

Hubspot for Email Marketing

Although it’s been around for a long time, email is as effective as ever for businesses of all sizes. With a Professional or Enterprise plan, Hubspot gives you everything you need to be successful with email. If you’re using Hubspot’s free CRM, their email marketing tools will be even more useful. By having their email marketing tools, you can integrate them with your CRM solution.  However, Hubspot’s Starter plan lacks important features like marketing automation and A/B testing. This forces you into a Professional or Enterprise plan. If all you need is an email marketing tool, there are more affordable options such as Mailchimp.  Assuming you have a Professional or Enterprise plan, though, you can use Hubspot to do the following:
  • Create email templates
  • Automate email workflows
  • Segment lists
  • Score leads
  • Personalize email
  • Conduct A/B tests
  • Analyze results
In addition to their tools, Hubspot Academy provides courses that you can use to educate yourself or your employees. The topics on Hubspot Academy covered on include their inbound marketing strategy, email marketing, SEO, and more. By thoughtfully planning out your email automation and segmentation, you can use Hubspot to create highly effective email campaigns. The key is to use Hubspot’s analytics and testing tools to find the recipe that works best for your business. Hubspot for Social Media Management

Hubspot for Social Media Management

Though it varies depending on your business and industry, social media is undoubtedly a critical marketing channel for many businesses. However, most companies struggle with tracking the impact social media is having on their bottom line. With so many different potential channels to choose from, this is a serious issue. This is because it makes it difficult to tell how you should invest your social media marketing budget. Fortunately, you can use Hubspot for social media management to solve the issue of tracking ROI. Their social reports enable you to break down performance by platform, campaign, and publishing times. Also, you can simplify the work that goes into social media marketing by connecting your accounts to Hubspot. By doing this, you can publish everything from one place. Plus, by scheduling posts ahead of time, you can establish a consistent cadence of high-quality content. Finally, because Hubspot centralizes everything, you can optimize your messaging tactics by analyzing your post's performance and setting up keyword monitoring streams.  As with email, you can use other tools such as Hootsuite and QuickSprout instead of Hubspot to manage your social media marketing. That said, if you’re using Hubspot’s other software it’ll be more efficient to keep everything in one place. Hubspot for Web Development

Hubspot for Web Development and More

In addition to everything mentioned above, Hubspot can also serve as a content marketing management system (CMS). By using a CMS, you can develop your website. Choosing a CMS is a big deal because it’s what everyone in your company will use to maintain your website. It’s critical to find a CMS that strikes a balance between usability and sophistication. That way, less-technical people can use it, but so can your developers. Hubspot’s CMS can help you strike this balance. Because it integrates with other Hubspot software, you fully understand prospects and customers’ interactions with your company. If you’re committed to adopting the inbound methodology, Hubspot's web development tools will help you align your efforts. For example, you can tailor website content in Hubspot’s CMS based on information stored in Hubspot’s CRM. Although you could use sites like WordPress or SquareSpace to develop your website, you may have to add other integrations. Due to this, using Hubspot can make the process simpler.

Advanced Hubspot Tips and Tricks

With such a broad range of tools, Hubspot can help you improve your marketing, sales, and service operations. In fact, even the most experienced Hubspot users will discover new tips and tricks hidden in the platform. Here’s a few to get you started.

Customer Life Cycle Customization 

Use Hubspot’s flexible CRM to ensure your marketing and sales teams are aligned. With their CRM, you should be able to determine what customer behaviors mean to the organization.  For example, should a sales rep reach out after a prospect downloads an ebook? Or should that prospect be placed into another nurture email workflow? Once you answer those questions, you can customize Hubspot to automate those tasks.

Customize and Automate Your Workflows

As effective as it is as a marketing tool, Hubspot can also enhance your project management. In fact, you can set up customer fields for different marketing or sales stages. By doing this, you can automatically generate specific tasks that must be completed.

Look for Integrations

You can go to the Hubspot App Marketplace to search among hundreds of common tools you probably already use. In many cases, it’s free and easy to set up integrations with your existing providers. Want to keep learning about marketing tools like Hubspot? Sign up for our email list and you’ll receive regular tips on how to run a successful small business. [cta-newsletter]