Just got HubSpot? Or perhaps you've had it a while but know you could be doing more with it?
Upgrading HubSpot is worth it when you want your marketing to do more than collect contacts. Paid tiers let you nurture leads automatically, score how interested they are, track deals against targets and report on which content actually wins work. For consultancies, that's the difference between "we think our content is working" and knowing it is.
With so many jobs to juggle, it's hard to find the time and energy to make HubSpot part of the fabric of your business. But it's really worth it.
First, congratulate yourself. You've chosen a fantastically powerful bit of software that can help you:
And that's just Marketing Hub and Sales Hub. HubSpot grows with your business, giving you more automation and greater efficiency as you scale.
HubSpot's free tools give you only very basic automation, such as a simple thank-you email when someone fills in a form.
Paid versions give you more marketing automation. From Professional upwards, you can build workflows that nurture leads with a series of emails and other follow-up activity. That means you can run content marketing campaigns, one of the most effective B2B lead generation techniques there is.
When a prospect wants to download "gated" content from your website, such as a guide or report, they share their email address. They're added to your HubSpot CRM and, with their consent, receive your targeted follow-up emails.
Professional and Enterprise also include lead scoring, which tracks how many of your marketing activities each lead engages with. That score shows you how interested they are in your services, so your consultants know who to call first.
For one management consultancy, connecting content to HubSpot helped deliver 71 leadership influenced deals in 12 months. See how the strategy worked.
Paid versions include sales automation, custom reporting and performance tracking, so you can work more efficiently and see how sales are progressing. You can monitor progress against individual and team targets, which makes reward and recognition easier too.
Reporting in the free version is pretty basic. Professional lets you build custom reports and dashboards around your business's needs, so you can see which campaigns create leads and which content influences deals.
Paid versions offer higher limits on email sends, templates and other features, so HubSpot can scale as you grow.
With the free version, HubSpot branding appears on the forms on your website and at the bottom of your emails. People can tell you're using the free version, and that can affect how credible and professional you look. Even the Starter tier removes it.
HubSpot charges by seat. You pay for the people who need full access to build campaigns, run reports or manage deals, and colleagues who only need to see the data can have free view-only seats. So if most of the firm just needs to look at the pipeline, you don't need to pay for everyone.
Marketing Hub is also priced on your number of marketing contacts, the people you actually send marketing to. Keeping your database tidy, and only marking contacts as marketing contacts when you need to, keeps your bill under control.
HubSpot changes its plans and prices regularly, so check HubSpot's pricing page for the latest before you upgrade.
The best HubSpot set-up is the one your team actually uses. Start with the features that solve your biggest headache, whether that's following up leads or proving marketing ROI, and build from there.
Want to get more out of HubSpot? I offer HubSpot support for consultancies and B2B firms. Book your POWer half-hour to find out more.
It's a great place to start. The free CRM lets you store contacts, companies and deals in one place. Once you want automated nurture emails, lead scoring or reports that link marketing to deals, you'll need a paid tier.
Starter removes HubSpot branding and adds simple automation. Professional is where workflows, lead scoring and custom reports come in. If content marketing is a big part of how you win work, Professional is usually where HubSpot starts to pay for itself.
You pay per seat for people who need full access, and view-only seats are free. Marketing Hub is also priced on how many marketing contacts you have.
Yes, if it's set up so your content, contacts and deals are connected. That's what lets you see which guides, webinars and emails your new clients engaged with before they signed.