How Do I Use HubSpot Marketing?

Being Big Brother (Data Collection & Tracking)

HubSpot is an excellent CRM tool. HubSpot creates a customer profile displaying who, for example, signed up as an email subscriber. It then tracks, in an aesthetically pleasing and easily digestible template, what CTAs they have clicked, how many times they have opened your site, and more. 

HubSpot automates and organizes the tasks you need to do as a content creator and digital marketer. HubSpot also boasts traffic analytics and reporting tools - so you can watch how your strategy is performing over time and know what to change for better performance. 

HubSpot Features

There is so much you can do with HubSpot. It is a very centralized tool - and especially when working remotely - that can keep your team collaborative and communicating. 

Free Tools:

• CRM
• CTA Form Builder
• Live Chat
• Reporting Dashboards

HubSpot Paid Tools:

• Email
• Blog
• Landing pages
• Workflows
• Custom reporting
• Lead scoring
• Smart content
• Hubspot video
• Certification courses 

These are just some of the fantastic tools HubSpot offers. They also have an interface that connects to partner apps (think Gmail, Zapier, and Canva), so you can extend HubSpot far beyond its features. 

Other fun tricks include scoring and prioritizing your leads (to save time!) and segmenting your databases - again, a time saver. 

The Popularization of Inbound Marketing

We at electrIQ are big fans of HubSpot because of its many helpful tracking, organizational, and collaborative tools (We use the CRM, CMS, sales, and marketing hubs). HubSpot has created a name for itself in the marketing world because of its tools but also because it popularized inbound marketing. 

I’m Ready! How Do I Setup HubSpot?

First Steps

1. Install your tracking code
        a. If HubSpot is not the host, you have to integrate the tracking code into the header to use analytics. 
2. Google Analytics tracking
        a. Yep, you are going to need this too. Don’t worry; it’s free. 
3. Subdomains
        a. Ask your tech folks on this one.
4. Social accounts
        a. Connect your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to start managing your accounts. 
5. Email Domains
        a. Don’t get lost in the Spam folder! Make sure your email is optimized to go to your client’s inboxes.
6. Import your contacts
        a. Do this right away.
   

What to Tackle Next

1. Importing contact properties 
        a. HubSpot makes it easy to create your contact properties on Lists, making it easier to target particular customers.
2. Settings
        a. There are a lot of settings. Customize them to your liking. 
3. Company records
        a. HubSpot has a feature where it creates company records for you based on the email domain - use this. 
4. Add your Team!
5. Blog settings
6. Privacy law settings
        a. Turn on GDPR settings if necessary.
7. Install your 3rd party integrations
        a. Shopify, Salesforce, and other connected partners.
8. Get comfortable with HubSpot analytics

Organization Plan

You have to be organized on HubSpot. Period. If not, you will end up scrolling through 50 untitled forms and wanting to cry. 

Some Tips from us at electrIQ:  

1. Purge your contacts
        a. When someone is inactive for a long period of time.
2. Lists
        a. This could be the best part of HubSpot for us. The lists feature organizes your contacts for easy targeting for automated emailing. 
3. Create a naming system for forms, CTAs, and workflows 
        a. Use very specific naming to keep track of the date, type, and web page positioning. CTAs and forms are so easy and quick to create you may catch yourself with dozens of versions. By naming strategically and structured, you can prevent the dreaded search. 
4. Folders
        a. Put emails (and images!) into folders.
   

HubSpot Academy & Getting Certified 

Do you miss college? Don’t we all. HubSpot Academy gives you that classroom-based learning experience that goes way beyond Googling the answer to every small question. The certifications include video lessons and online quizzes to learn all about HubSpot and different marketing skills. There are user guides, certification courses, and lessons. 

Everyone on your team should take advantage of Hubspot Marketing Certification. Get certified! There are dozens of comprehensive courses you can enroll in, free with your HubSpot Marketing Professional subscription or higher. They are online classes set up like a college course and leave you with a fancy certificate at the end. 

How to Maximize Your Investment in HubSpot

Maximize not only your monetary investment but your time and energy invested into HubSpot. HubSpot works best if you fit these qualifications:

1. Someone is “in charge” of inbound marketing.
        a. A team member is going to have to run the software. As much as HubSpot is a platform for collaboration, we have learned it is best to have a leader guiding the team’s usage and goals. 
2. You have to be a continuous learner.
        a. One pro - but could be a con - about HubSpot is that it is ever-changing in its tools and resources. This can be difficult, though, when the UX design changes overnight and you can’t find your go-to tool anymore. You have to be committed to learning with the tool as you both grow. 
3. You have a small-to-medium sized team.
        a. A vast corporate team will struggle with HubSpot because it was created for small businesses and keeps that integrity even as it has grown. (Recent HubSpot developments have made it an enterprise tool that keeps the usability associated with small business software!)

HubSpot Isn’t Perfect: Some Issues You May Have 

• Technical Difficulties
• Software FOMO (...but my old software could do that) 
• Importing Contacts 
• Transitioning your forms
• Changing client emails
• Organizational issues
• Being intimidated

Strategies

Lead Nurturing Strategy

1. Email 
2. CTA for your email
3. Forms for conversions
4. Workflows to automate the emails, CTAs, and forms
5. Content plan
6. Campaigns to track your success!
        a. What’s a HubSpot campaign again? Campaigns allow you to see all your assets, all at once. Emails, landing pages, website pages, and social posts can be analyzed as part of a singular performance.

Content strategy

Another thing you just have to organize. You never want to catch yourself saying, “What are we going to write today?” Have a running excel sheet, Google Doc, or task management system (we love Monday.com) with content ideas for you and your team to act on. 

More HubSpot Stuff

Dashboard Reports

Be goal-oriented in your dashboards. If you are a data nerd like many of us at electrIQ, it can be fun to create all these boards and watch the data flow. Don’t get sidetracked because less wish-wash is better when it comes to analytics. Also, wait on creating your dashboard reports until you have been on the software for at least 30 days; you need actual data for these to be worthwhile!

Contact Engagement Lists

Purging static contacts should be part of your routine clean-up (think Spring cleaning, but for emails). At electrIQ, we suggest you should have three categories:

1. Highly engaged
2. Moderately engaged
3. Unengaged

These categories can be defined to your will, but definitely separate the people who have never opened a single email separate from the highly engaged. 

When contacts are unengaged, re-engage them.

We recommend you create a workflow to re-engage your database of static contacts. Allow your contact to opt-out of email automation or a friendly “hey, you still there?” This will benefit the customer from unwanted marketing emails and keep your lists clean and on the path to be potential buyers. 

How Much Does HubSpot Cost?

There are different subscription levels with HubSpot - and each tier essentially matches how big your company is and what sort of features you’ll need:

• Free subscription - free!
• HubSpot Marketing Starter - $50/month
• HubSpot Marketing Professional at $800/month includes blogging, landing pages, SEO, social media, CTAs, video, certifications, email marketing automation, other automation tools, A/B testing, and more. 

From Marketing Professional, your cost will rise as your company grows. Remember, HubSpot is a tool that grows with you!