Should You Use HubSpot to Manage Your Online Presence?

You’ve probably heard of inbound marketing, a digital marketing strategy popularized by HubSpot in 2005. Inbound marketing basically consists in creating a user journey to ATTRACT the consumer, CONVERT them into a prospect, CLOSE a sale with them and ensure they’re DELIGHTED to make them an ambassador. My goal today isn’t to explain the advantages of this approach (which have been proven), but rather to tell you more about HubSpot, the creator of the strategy, and help you establish whether it is still a good choice for managing your online presence.

 

It would be easy to think that as the inventor of inbound marketing, HubSpot does it best. As you know, Henry Ford pioneered the automobile manufacturing supply chain to produce the famous Ford T. Do you consider Ford cars to be the best in the world? Probably not. However, they are still excellent cars whose popularity is likely due to their affordability. In terms of value for money, it’s a winning choice for many people.

I view HubSpot very similarly. When choosing a platform for managing your website or complete digital ecosystem, with HubSpot, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. Here is a brief overview of the main modules it offers:

 

HubSpot CRM

In an era where data is king in marketing, a CRM system has become an essential for companies both big and small. There are many CRM platforms, including the widely known Salesforce. HubSpot’s CRM tool is absolutely terrific in my opinion. Firstly, it is free, so there is no reason to go without it. You might be thinking: “It probably won’t work miracles since it’s free.” But that’s where you’re wrong! This little gem of a CRM includes features that rival those of many other popular platforms. If you’re not currently using a CRM system, you should consider HubSpot as a contender. It’s free, but it’s still one of my favourite CRMs.

Among its notable features:

• Unlimited number of users;
• Flexible contact manager;
• Tools to learn more about your user journey;
• Visual sales cycle management (Kanban mode);
• Sales team performance tracking;
• Intuitive dashboards;
• Tool to facilitate scheduling appointments;
• Free chat tool;
• Advanced follow-up tools;
• And more.

HubSpot CMS

A CMS is an online content management tool. When it comes to choosing a CMS, WordPress often comes to mind because of its huge popularity. HubSpot also includes a CMS with innovative features. It allows you to manage your website, create landing pages, manage your blog content, and even design email templates. It also has the advantage of working with your CRM system to tailor your webpage content to different audiences. This is called “smart content”. It also offers great tools for improving your SEO results, and creating advanced forms without requiring any technical knowledge, as well as tools for optimizing your mobile presence.

HubSpot marketing

HubSpot’s marketing portion allows you to fully manage your online campaigns. Depending on your plan, this module allows you to manage your online advertisements and social media, and gives you the possibility to create automated marketing processes, test different content variations on your landing pages, and track the different marketing actions that help convert a prospect into a sale. In short, it’s a very interesting tool for applying inbound marketing concepts properly.

HubSpot sales

The goal of the HubSpot sales management module is to help your team close more sales. The module includes tools that will undoubtedly improve your sales team’s performance. Among its features:

• Sales follow-up automation;
• Notification tool for read emails, link clicks, and document downloads;
• Follow-up and sales goal management;
• Automated prospect assignment system;
• Automated customer qualification sequence;
• Prospect point system;
• Work team management;
• Etc.

HubSpot customer service

This last module, but definitely not the least, seeks to provide your customers with a quality sales experience. It includes tools such as:

• A ticket management system;
• A knowledge base tool;
• Customer satisfaction survey tools (including NPS);
• Customer service team performance reports;
• Etc.

What are HubSpot’s disadvantages?

Each online platform has its disadvantages, and HubSpot is no exception. If I were to list the tool’s three main shortcomings, I’d choose the following:

Being locked into a platform

Choosing HubSpot means becoming its prisoner in a way. Yes, you could create your website outside of HubSpot and decide to use it only as your CRM, and to manage your landing pages, blog, and online ad campaigns. This would offer you a certain independence, but whatever you create in HubSpot won’t be able to exist without it. On the other hand, once your online presence has been established, it is safe to assume it will live on for a considerable number of years. Considering all the platform’s development possibilities, it might not be such a bad thing.

It’s not a magic recipe

Many people think that by choosing HubSpot, they’ll be able to manage everything themselves, but they’re mistaken. Designing and managing an online platform with HubSpot offers a lot of independence, but you’re bound to need a certain amount of technical web development knowledge sooner or later. Having access to expert digital marketing strategists is crucial if you want to take full advantage of all the platform’s tools. Luckily, HubSpot has a wide network of certified partner agencies that can give you a hand if the need arises.

Specialized tools sometimes perform better

HubSpot offers many tools, all centralized on a single platform. In fact, no other platform gives you as many possibilities within one single tool. However, if you compare each module to other specialized tools, you’ll realize that HubSpot doesn’t always compete. A well-known example is HubSpot’s chat and chatbot system, which is seriously behind compared to tools offered by its competitors. A very affordable platform such as LiveChat offers many more possibilities in terms of chatting. WordPress’ content management tools are also much more intuitive than HubSpot’s in my opinion. On the other hand, when you put all of HubSpot’s centralized prospect tracking features together, it turns out to be an extremely powerful platform. In the end, it all depends on your needs and business goals!