HubSpot CRM Review

The HubSpot Platform

Let's begin by examining what HubSpot entails. HubSpot is a comprehensive 'business growth management platform' or, more plainly, a Customer/Contact Relationship Management tool (CRM). It not only oversees your contacts but also handles sales, pipeline management, digital marketing, and lead nurturing.

Comprising multiple tools and 'hubs,' HubSpot allows users to purchase them individually or as a package. Adding a layer of complexity, there are also freemium options available for download and immediate use. The suitability of these options depends on your specific business needs.

Let's delve into the CRM Hub.

CRM

At the core of HubSpot is a CRM platform that facilitates the tracking of leads and customers at various stages of their journey. HubSpot's CRM is offered for free and includes tools like live chat, dynamic lists, lead capture forms, and email marketing.

Through proper migration and population, you can establish a unified customer view, tracking their connection with the relevant company, colleagues, activities, correspondence, list membership, and engagement, among other factors. The integration of this single customer view across the platform stands out as one of HubSpot's significant strengths.

Forms play a pivotal role in HubSpot, enabling data capture into the CRM from your website, social media platforms, or landing pages. HubSpot allows the capture and storage of diverse data, ranging from prospect behavior on your website to personal information and a historical record of their interactions with your brand.

However, the true potential of HubSpot emerges when you integrate one or more of the paid versions of the tools, known as 'hubs,' based on your requirements.

HubSpot CRM Services

Marketing Hub

The Marketing Hub introduces advanced tools, such as logic-based automated workflows and chatbots, depending on the chosen package. These tools automate processes like segmenting, nurturing, and qualifying leads within the CRM.

Workflows stand out as a key tool, enabling everything from intricate content-driven nurture programs to automating internal tasks like lead assignment and audience segmentation.

Key HubSpot marketing tools include email automation, lead capture forms, live chat, chatbots, attribution reporting, lead nurture, lead scoring, qualification, data enrichment, and audience segmentation.

Sales Hub

Similar to the Marketing Hub, the Sales Hub presents more advanced tools, allowing the automation of processes centered around your sales pipeline. Instead of dealing directly with contacts, the Sales Hub revolves around deals at different stages associated with both contacts and companies in your CRM.

HubSpot excels here by providing a single source of truth, enabling the creation of intelligent automated programs that align the efforts of your sales and marketing teams, ensuring complete transparency throughout your organization.

Key HubSpot sales tools include managing multiple sales pipelines, sales performance dashboards, automated 1-to-1 email sequences, integrated calendars and emails, a centralized view of prospects, account-based marketing tools, and automated task management.

Service Hub

Including the Service Hub in your package ensures that your sales representatives have a comprehensive view of a contact when reaching out. Service Hub allows automation of elements such as customer satisfaction surveys and ticket assignment, contributing to the single customer view. Each customer will have associated Service Hub interactions, along with every other interaction with your brand, recorded in detail.

Key HubSpot service tools encompass a centralized inbox, automated ticketing, service performance dashboards, automated feedback surveys, a knowledge base, and a centralized view of customers.

CMS (Content Management System) Hub

The latest addition to the HubSpot suite is the CMS Hub, enabling you to build and manage your website while leveraging HubSpot's inbound marketing tools. While hosting your website with HubSpot is not obligatory to use the CRM and other hubs, it streamlines campaign alignment, tracking, and lead capture by consolidating everything in one place.

The CMS hub introduces valuable marketing tools, including Smart Content, allowing dynamic changes to the website's front end based on audience segments.

Business Benefits of Using HubSpot

Assisting Businesses in Growing Better

A prevalent misconception is that HubSpot is merely an email platform. While the Marketing Hub features an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, HubSpot is a comprehensive suite of enterprise-grade marketing and sales applications designed to scale your business. Its real strength lies in the seamless integration across functions.

Marketing Automation

An essential element for business growth is marketing automation. Utilizing HubSpot tools like Workflows and Sequences, personalized communications can be sent to prospects and customers on a one-to-many scale. This functionality allows segmenting your audience using CRM-captured data to trigger automated processes and send personalized messages to contacts. This is invaluable not only in lead nurturing but also in streamlining administrative processes, saving time, and allowing teams to focus on business-building activities.

Reporting

Adopting all HubSpot hubs provides access to robust reporting tools. Unlike platforms like Google Analytics, HubSpot offers direct access to your leads, allowing you to delve into reports, observe all contact touchpoints, and gain a comprehensive understanding of their customer journey.