What is HubSpot’s Marketing Hub?
It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that HubSpot has a Marketing Hub. Why? Because HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah literally wrote the book on inbound marketing.
Although today HubSpot is a powerhouse in the CRM world, it was their marketing automation platform that initially drew many people to them. From day one, HubSpot has been the place to turn for marketing automation, innovation, and transformation.
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub allows you to store all of your marketing tools and data in one place. With features such as blog, SEO, social media management, and ad tracking and management, it is the go-to platform for any company that is serious about attracting and converting more leads.
It’s Time For Your HubSpot Marketing Onboarding Plan
There may be no easier decision than the one to go with HubSpot for all your marketing needs. When you want the best, you go to the best. To take full advantage of all HubSpot’s Marketing Hub has to offer, it’s also an easy call to choose to invest in an onboarding plan.
Skipping out on onboarding is kind of like purchasing a Fender Stratocaster (world’s best guitar, I’ll fight anyone who disagrees), but not taking any lessons. When you invest in purchasing the best, you need to follow up by learning how to best use it. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is no exception.
As is the case with any of HubSpot’s hubs, the process of onboarding can either be handled by HubSpot itself or by a HubSpot agency partner.
Let’s first tackle how HubSpot chooses to administer their onboarding services for their Marketing Hub.
Marketing Hub Onboarding with HubSpot
When you choose HubSpot as your onboarding guide, you take the guesswork out of which agency partner to select. Also, you know that you’ll be working with someone that is knowledgeable regarding all that HubSpot has to offer. Those are the pros of choosing to onboard with HubSpot.
The cons of onboarding with HubSpot include the fact that they will provide less services than an agency. If many in your company are brand new to HubSpot or if you really want to “dive deep” into the platform, then these will be things worth taking into consideration.
Here’s what to expect when you choose to onboard with HubSpot for their Marketing Hub:
Account and Tech Setup
HubSpot actually refers to this as “Phase 0” because it's really all about getting familiar with the platform itself and its foundations. This phase is less about getting into the real meat of the Marketing Hub, and more about creating an understanding of how the software works so that everyone on the team is comfortable as the onboarding process progresses.
For anyone who has painted a room before, this stage is sort of like taping the trim, measuring, and laying down drop cloths before the actual painting begins. It's all about setting your team up for success down the road. Some of the areas you’ll receive guidance on in this stage include:
- Connection of subdomains and configuration of settings
- Installation of the HubSpot tracking code
- Setting up your email sending domain
- The importing of contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and notes
- The importing of your marketing opt-out lists
- Configuration of email types
- Connecting your social accounts
- Consideration of integrations
Primary Goals
The following three stages will involve the completion of three primary goals. These goals can vary from company to company, but in general they tend to revolve around leads and automation.
Completion of First Goal (sample: Capture and Convert Leads)
Devising a strategy to successfully capture and convert leads is the core of any good marketing plan. If you choose to onboard with HubSpot, one of your three primary goals should be, in some way, related to this sample. Here’s what to expect with a goal similar to this one:
- The creation of personas to gain a better understanding of the variation you will see in your customer database
- Exploration of forms and pop-up forms
- Creation of customer properties to help qualify leads when filling out forms
- Lead scoring setup
- Using your own qualifications to define each Lifecycle Stage
Completion of Second Goal (sample: Engage and Nurture Your Leads)
A good second goal is one that revolves around the continued care of your leads. The degree to which you engage and nurture these leads will be key in determining the upward trajectory of your business. A goal revolving around this concept would receive guidance on the following:
- Creation of a nurturing process flow map
- Defining lifecycle stages so that contacts go through different nurturing tracks depending on their stage
- The creation of your first welcome flow series for a new lead
Completion of Third Goal (sample: Automate and Personalize Your Marketing)
Do you want to streamline your workflows, increase efficiency, and grow your revenue faster? If not, then...that’s strange. If you do want those things, then you want a goal related to automation as part of your HubSpot onboarding process. Here’s what to expect when receiving guidance on a goal like this:
- Automating manual tasks in HubSpot
- Developing workflows
- Exploration of smart content
- Connection of your social and ad tools (automating tasks)
- Building target lists by using custom properties
Onboarding Completion/Transition
Following the completion of your three selected primary goals, your onboarding process is essentially complete. During this period, HubSpot will work with you to determine appropriate future goals to ensure that you are getting the most value out of your Marketing Hub purchase.
Marketing Hub Onboarding with a HubSpot Agency Partner
While a Marketing Hub onboarding plan executed directly through HubSpot can have its advantages, many choose to onboard instead with an agency partner. Here are some reasons why:
Bandwidth
Sometimes a company simply doesn't have the bandwidth to complete the myriad of tasks that are required to successfully get everything set up. Onboarding directly with HubSpot means that a lot of the work will be done by the company itself with HubSpot serving more as a guide or consultant in the process.
Onboarding in this manner means valuable company time and manpower will need to be devoted to this task, and that means less time spent engaging with customers. Time, not money, is often a company's most valuable resource, and if you onboard directly with HubSpot you often end up burning through a lot of it.
When you onboard with an agency partner, many of the tasks will be completed by the agency, which, in turn, frees up time for you.
Taking a “Deep Dive”
Onboarding directly through HubSpot involves a more cookie-cutter style approach to the process, whereas onboarding with an agency partner means the approach will be tailored more towards the specific needs and capacities of your company.
If you have purchased the Professional or Enterprise level Marketing Hub packages (yes, HubSpot IS an Enterprise CRM!), this is definitely something to consider as these will be more labor intensive and intricate.
Agency Level
When you choose to onboard with an agency partner, you have a wide variety to choose from as not all agency partners are the same. Deciding to onboard with an agency partner gives you the freedom to assess which partner best fits your needs. To aid in the decision making process, HubSpot has established four tier levels: Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Elite.
Speaking of Elite, if you’d rather focus your energy on driving revenue instead of implementing HubSpot, then RevPartners is an easy choice. Why?
- We are the most technical HubSpot Solutions Partner (over 700 certifications) in the world
- We are the only Elite partner who specializes in CRM implementations
With a wide array of HubSpot onboarding services, including “white-glove, 1-on-1 onboarding, implementation, and support”, we take the burden off of you and let you keep your company running at full speed while we ensure everything is properly implemented. At RevPartners, we only win when you win. Come win with us.
