MediaPost Martech Blog

HubSpot Onboarding: every step you take, every move you make, we’ll be guiding you

Written by Adrian Alexandrescu | Aug 23, 2021 6:00:00 AM

If you are reading this, chances are you’re considering HubSpot. You might be asking how you'll set up your team on HubSpot, how you'll link your existing tools to HubSpot, and how quickly you'll be able to use HubSpot successfully. 

Mediapost Martech is here to help! We provide onboarding services to assist you in getting set up on HubSpot and ensure that you're getting the most out of the platform.

This is what our onboarding service entails: 

  1. HubSpot Anything and Everything: Marketing, Sales & Service Hubs
  2. Buying a HubSpot Licence
  3. HubSpot Implementation & Integrations
  4. Content Strategy & Content Creation
  5. HubSpot Automations (templates & workflows)
  6. Trainings & Setting you up for Success

Onboarding is a period of time spent establishing your company's immediate goals, creating projects to fulfill those goals, and engaging with a variety of resources to execute those tasks, all while learning HubSpot software and best practices.

When it comes to onboarding with HubSpot, you have two options: buy straight from HubSpot or buy onboarding services through one of their partner agencies. The most significant distinction between the two alternatives is who does the majority of the tasks. HubSpot will set you up with a consultant and an action plan, but you will be responsible for keeping up with that action plan. The scale of work with a partner agency like Mediapost Martech may vary based on your company goals, but we'll usually be conducting some technical setup.

1. HubSpot Anything and Everything: Marketing, Sales & Service Hubs

Let’s understand what HubSpot has to offer. It started out as a CRM software, but now it’s a comprehensive platform because it has all the tools and integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. Each product in the platform is powerful alone, but the real magic happens when you use them together - as they say on their website

Furthermore, it comes with a methodology: inbound marketing. This is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have.

The result: you'll expand your business and encourage clients to purchase more, stay with you longer, recommend you to their friends, and tell the world they love your brand. This is the power of combining the inbound methodology with HubSpot software.

 

2. Buying a HubSpot Licence: HubSpot Free, Starter, Pro, and Enterprise

HubSpot offers a lot of features, and many of them cost more money than you might have right now, so how can you figure out what to budget for? We’ll help you analyze your business needs, decide on an implementation plan, and choose the best HubSpot licence you need to scale your business. Whether you buy it yourself directly from HubSpot, or require our services to do the acquisition for you, here are the types of licences HubSpot has to offer. Let's walk through the different modules and what to expect of each, because it is important to budget for the future.

HubSpot has the CRM, the Marketing, and the Service module. Recently, they introduced the Operations Hub - everything you need to connect your apps, sync/ clean customer data, and automate business processes. Like most hubs, it also comes with some free tools.

A lot of people choose HubSpot for its free CRM. Adding the Marketing, Service and Operation free tools you can get a ton of value out of the platform. For example, you can manage all of your contacts, and have live chat on your website, for the cost of $0.

Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise - each one of these modules comes with different functionalities and is priced individually. So, if you need a certain functionality you can add it in at the level that makes sense for your company. Keep in mind that if you buy through an agency like Mediapost Martech, you can almost certainly negotiate a better deal. It's not guaranteed, but you never know when you could get lucky.

Free is fine, but upgrading to the Starter edition will allow you a little more freedom, more emails sent, and additional options, such as call tracking inside the Service Hub or sequences with Sales Starter.

When you switch to Professional, you'll have access to an infinite number of sales templates in the Sales tool. At this level, you get all of HubSpot's marketing automation features, including workflows, a variety of integrations, and a knowledge center.

Each of these tiers has a cap on the amount of contacts you may have, and you'll only be charged for those who exceed that number. That is not the case with Enterprise, here you're not limited by the number of contacts, so you can master the inbound methodology, and make sure you’re getting the most out of your tools.

If you're thinking of getting all of these together, make sure to check out HubSpot’s recommended bundles and get access to every Starter, Professional, or Enterprise product, bundled together at a discounted rate.

 

3. HubSpot Implementation & Integrations: from “all-in-one” to “all-on-one”

You have the licence. Now what? It all starts with an analytical process. Your representative works with us to identify one or 2 immediate goals you'd like to accomplish with HubSpot. These goals are then turned into self directed projects within your HubSpot portal and serve as a written guide throughout Onboarding. We recommend allocating someone for at least 15 hours per week for implementation!

As a strategic advisor, Mediapost Martech guides you in HubSpot’s tools, capabilities, best practices and will provide guidance on how your business should be using HubSpot based on your goals. We are available to meet within 1-2 business days and assist you with any strategic questions that might be preventing you from completing your to do list.

The first order of business: Data! How many tools does your company use in a day for their marketing efforts? How about Sales or Customer Support? But, most importantly: where does all the data and insights that these tools are collecting go? The answer should be HubSpot! We make sure that all your data is captured in the same place and nurtured to fruition.

HubSpot is evolving from an “all-in-one” suite into an “all-on-one” platform. That’s because, with each day, businesses use more kinds of software, not less, and they all need to work together. For you this means flexibility, success in better reporting and understanding of your prospects, leads and customers. HubSpot app partner ecosystem (The App Marketplace) features over 500 third-party tools that users can integrate with their accounts. Google, Salesforce, Asana, Outlook, MailChimp and even Amazon’s Alexa can integrate easily with your HubSpot account.

If you’re using a custom app, you don’t have to worry about integrations because we can build you a custom solution.

Now sit back and enjoy all the data and insights your entire team has at their fingertips!

 

4. Content Strategy & Content Creation: good content is the foundation of inbound marketing




Now that the CRM is up and running and we have follow-up leads, we need to plan the HubSpot content strategy. Great content is at the heart of effective inbound marketing: we’re talking content that is informative, in-depth, valuable and is intended for customers who have problems that your company can solve. Sometimes it may feel like giving away your secrets, but this is what will build a solid and trustworthy relationship with your prospective consumers.

You can write the content yourself or we can write it for you. Regardless of your choice, we should follow the flywheel, write pieces of content for different audiences (buyer personas) and keep in mind their user journey.

Flywheel

HubSpot changed their funnel model to a flywheel model in 2018, understanding that consumers can be a driving force in helping your business develop. Take a look at the basic diagram below:

 

Buyer personas

Every decision you make as a marketer should be made with your buyer persona in mind. Just because you appreciate a particular marketing strategy doesn't imply your consumers will enjoy it as well.

Knowing your audience is one of the most basic marketing fundamentals. It's true to say that it's the most essential principle. More significantly, it keeps your customers at the center of everything you do. 

Inbound marketing defines buyer personas as semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on quantitative and qualitative analysis. Market research, conversations with customer-facing team members, and data from your real customer base are all used to create the ideal buyer personas (through interviews and surveys).

Buyer’s journey

The buyer’s journey is the process your customers go through before purchasing a product or service. Each of your potential clients will be in a different stage of the purchasing process.

When it comes to making a purchase, every potential buyer is focused on defining their problem, knowing what solutions may solve their problem, and comparing their top choices. You can assist prospects come closer to completing a purchase by knowing their buyer's journey and providing them with the information they need via meaningful content.

5. HubSpot Automations (templates & workflows)

Marketing automation is a crucial component of any inbound marketing strategy since it allows you to automate processes and maintain timely contact with the individuals with whom you're building relationships.

Marketing automation may be used in a variety of ways by inbound professionals for their businesses. As well as a variety of marketing automation technologies. The HubSpot automation tool is one example. Workflows are a type of tool that consists of a sequence of automatic activities that are triggered by a person's actions or contact information. Like receiving an “Welcome email” when enlisting on a website or a reminder when you left an item in your shopping cart without completing a purchase. 

It can be used for lead nurturing, to help internal communication or in specific campaigns. In HubSpot you can create workflows from scratch or using templates.

Speaking of templates, they are a powerful tool in HubSpot. You can find a template for everything: forms, sales email, design, landing pages, even copywriting templates. Do you need a Social Media content calendar template? HubSpot has it! How about an On-Page SEO template? You guessed it, HubSpot has your back.

6. Trainings & Setting you up for Success

We won't say goodbye until we're confident that you and your committed team are completely comfortable with HubSpot and the inbound methodology. We are available for any necessary training or follow-up questions.

It’s now time for the team to execute on the campaign, hit the goal, and exceed expectations.