Complete Review of Hubspot

Looking for a full-stack marketing solution? If so, then you should check out Hubspot.

Unless you’re really new to digital marketing, you’ve probably heard of Hubspot. It’s a popular brand that boasts more than 73,000 customers in 120 countries.

Companies that rely on Hubspot for online outreach include Subaru, Doordash, Atlassian, and SurveyMonkey.

The suite of tools that the company offers will help you with marketing, sales, and customer service.

In this review, I’ll go over Hubspot’s features. I’ll also cover some of its pros and cons so you can make an informed decision about whether or not it’s right for your business.

The Five Tools

Hubspot includes five tools within its marketing stack:

• Hubspot CRM – Helps you track leads and build better relationships with potential customers. Keep in mind: this tool is free.
• Marketing Hub – Enables you to increase traffic to your website, boost your conversion rate, and manage a complete inbound marketing program.
• Sales Hub – Provides deeper insights about prospects and automates mundane tasks.
• Service Hub – Helps you exceed customer expectations and convert ho-hum customers into brand evangelists.
• Hubspot CMS – Makes it easy to create blog posts and landing pages.

The good news is that you don’t have to take all the tools together. You can save some cash by getting started for free. Then, add the tools you need as your business grows.

In the next sections, I’ll cover the features of each of the tools in detail.

Hubspot CRM

Hubspot offers a CRM solution that goes well beyond contact management.

Sales reps can kiss spreadsheets and routine tasks goodbye. They’ll enjoy the increased productivity – and increased commissions – that Hubspot brings them.

According to the company website, the tool takes just minutes to learn. In other words, it’s sophisticated enough to offer a rich feature set and yet it’s still user-friendly.

Reps can use the tool to organize deals into their own pipelines. Then, they can create tasks to remind them about important deadlines.

Hubspot CRM also tracks calls, emails, and meetings automatically.

The tool will even notify users when a lead opens an email.

Sales leaders will also appreciate Hubspot CRM. They’ll never again have to wonder if their teams are meeting quotas.

The tool shows leaders the entire sales pipeline in an easy-to-read layout. It also offers detailed reports on sales activity and individual performance.

Marketers will love Hubspot CRM because it will help them grow their databases and nurture leads.

The tool includes ad management features and lead generation forms that capture qualified prospects. Additionally, the software organizes and tracks contacts.

Hubspot also offers a live chat tool so users can connect with potential customers in real-time.

It’s also got a built-in bulk mail feature so marketers can distribute marketing messages to current leads. That part of the software also includes an analytics component so you can see which emails or landing pages are giving you the best bang for your buck.

Finally, business owners will enjoy Hubspot CRM because it streamlines marketing efforts.

The tool makes it easy to organize all customer relationships in a single source so users don’t have to fumble through piles of business cards or go search for “that important contact” on LinkedIn.

Entrepreneurs can also use Hubspot CRM to monitor website activity and identify future customers who visit the site.

Hubspot promises that its CRM tool will always remain 100% free. The caveat is that you’re limited to 1,000,000 contacts.

For many businesses, though, that’s more than enough.

Marketing Hub

The goal of the Marketing Hub is very simple: to help you grow leads and increase conversions.

For starters, it enables you to create content without the assistance of a professional web development team. Just drag and drop the elements you like to your landing pages and email templates.

Then, publish or email your fabulous design in a jiffy.

Marketing Hub will also offer real-time SEO suggestions so you can produce a content marketing strategy that reels in visitors who are likely to become future customers.

The tool will even help you develop calls to action that resonate with your target audience.

Marketing Hub also provides a testing feature so you can spit-test different landing page designs. After you’ve run through your test, pick the clear winner and maximize your conversions.

The software also connects with Hubspot CRM so you can track and organize key interactions that visitors have with your brand. You can also integrate with Salesforce.

All the content produced by Marketing Hub is optimized for mobile devices as well as desktop platforms. So potential customers will see a polished, professional layout no matter what kind of hardware they’re using to view your content.

Sales Hub

“Here’s how we’ll add time to your day…”

That’s the promise of Sales Hub, a tool that optimizes outreach efforts at every stage of the sales funnel.

First and foremost, Sales Hub offers marketing automation. That’s the part that’s going to add time to your day.

Specifically, the tool enables you to create a sequence of follow-up emails for prospects who showed an interest in what you’re selling. Those emails, by the way, will get delivered at the right times depending on where the prospect is in the decision-making process.

Sales Hub will also give you reminders about important activities. That way, you can manage your pipeline without missing key deadlines.

Also, all your leads’ contact info, landing page clicks, and email opens get logged automatically. Say goodbye to manual, tedious data entry.

The tool also automates other time-sucking activities, including task creation and lead rotation.

Beyond automation, Sales Hub also integrates with Hubspot CRM so you can track deals that you’ve won or lost. You can also see which deals are currently in progress.

The tool will also help you create email templates and show you which designs perform the best.

Service Hub

While lots of tools will empower your marketing team to identify leads and close sales, many of them don’t offer a component that helps you keep existing customers happy. That’s where Hubspot stands out.

Service Hub helps you deliver first-class support to people who’ve already made a purchase.

It all starts with the Conversations inbox. That feature brings all your communication channels (live chat, online forms, emails, Facebook messenger, etc.) into one place.

All those conversations are enhanced with Hubspot CRM. So you’ll have important details about the customers you’re interacting with.

Service Hub also includes a complete help desk solution. Use it to turn existing chats into tickets that you can track to ensure customer satisfaction.

Additionally, the tool also enables you to send out surveys to gain insights about customer satisfaction.

Remember: negative feedback is your best friend. Use it to improve your business.

Service Hub even automates customer service processes with ticket routing and escalation to second-level support.

The tool will also help you turn those most-frequently asked questions into a knowledge base. Customers can access that library of info on their own so they won’t need to contact the support team for answers.

Finally, Service Hub includes a chatbot that you can use to provide automated responses.

Hubspot CMS

There isn’t a whole lot on the Hubspot website about Hubspot CMS. In fact, the company doesn’t promote it as one of the tools in its tech stack.

I’m not sure why that’s the case. Probably because most people will stick with WordPress as their content management system (CMS) of choice.

Still, if you’re really looking for an all-in-one solution, Hubspot CMS might be the way to go. It helps you create landing pages and blog posts quickly.

The tool also assists with SEO and offers advice about a content strategy.

And yes, you’ll have access to all the bells and whistles that you’d expect to find in any powerful marketing tool. Hubspot CMS includes calls to action, smart content, live chat, lead gen forms, and chatbots.

Pricing

The pricing structure for Hubspot is a bit complicated. It’s probably best if you visit the Pricing page yourself to determine exactly how much you’ll pay.

Let’s start with the good news: Hubspot CRM is completely free. So you won’t pay anything for that tool.

Marketing Hub is a different story. Prices start at $50 per month for the Starter package and go all the way up to $3,200 per month for the Enterprise package.

But that’s not the whole story. The price could increase based on the number of contacts you want to track.

That’s why it’s best to visit the page and check for yourself.

Sales Hub ranges from $50 per month to $1,200 per month. However, that’s only for one user. If you want more than one user, you’ll pay extra.

Similarly, Service Hub ranges from $50 per month to $1,200 per month but will also increase if you want more than one user.

Hubspot CMS starts at $300 per month.

What They’re Saying About Hubspot

As we’ve seen, plenty of people rely on Hubspot to improve sales. Many of those users have a thing or two to say about their experience with the tech stack.

Here are some of the pros and cons that they’ve identified.

First, the pros:

• A fabulous “Swiss army knife” for digital marketers
• Powerful enough for experienced marketers, yet user-friendly enough for neophytes
• Lots of integrations available
• Outstanding customer support
• Great documentation
• Easy to create email campaigns with corresponding landing pages
• Makes it simple to create beautiful emails even if the user doesn’t have a background in design
• Outstanding pixel integration and tracking

Next, the cons:

• Occasional bugs when uploading a blog post or social media update
• Sometimes too aggressive about rolling out updates or patches
• Unusual sales cycle managements not supported very well
• Excel integration only works for simple documents
• Sometimes difficult to determine which questions should be addressed to Hubspot support vs. community support

Wrapping It Up

Should you or shouldn’t you? That’s a question you’ll have to answer after giving the software a test-drive.

Fortunately, you can get started with that for free. Just grab Hubspot CRM and check it out.

If you think it will work for your business, reach out to the sales team to learn more about the other products that Hubspot offers.