We understand how difficult and time-consuming it can be to stay updated with marketing technologies. As digital marketers ourselves, we're always looking for tools and platforms to streamline our efforts and boost results. HubSpot is one of the leading all-in-one marketing solutions out there, but between learning the basics and truly mastering it, there's a lot to cover.
That's why we made a full guide on how to use HubSpot in 2023. Whether you're new to the free CRM and want to try it out, or you're ready to fully use the Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub suites, we have advice and guidance to help you start successfully. HubSpot has many helpful features to help your business grow and stay ahead. By using this tutorial you ensure that you use them effectively.
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for businesses. It contains lead generation, social networking, analytics, and email marketing functions. Businesses can manage their marketing, sales, and customer support initiatives using HubSpot. As a result, processes may be simplified, generate more leads, and solid customer relationships can be developed easily.
HubSpot started as a CRM platform for marketers in 2005. Over time, the company evolved its offerings to support the entire breadth of business functions, including marketing, sales, operations, service, and content management system (CMS). Today, HubSpot is a comprehensive all-in-one platform that offers five main suites of solutions to help companies excel at each of the five major business functions:
- Marketing Hub
- Sales Hub
- Operations Hub
- Service Hub
- CMS Hub
Marketing Hub
The Marketing Hub offers comprehensive content creation, tracking, and reporting solutions. Whether you want to create powerful content for your website, blog, and social media accounts or create marketing campaigns aligned to specific buyer personas, the Marketing Hub has you covered. You can even use its nifty SEO tools to optimize not just your content but your site architecture and more.
Sales Hub
The Sales Hub provides excellent sales optimization tools and integrates seamlessly with the HubSpot CRM. With the ability to track when leads open emails, submit forms, or take any other action on your website, you always have instant access to the most important sales information to take the right decision at the right time. You also have solid lead-nurturing features like automated email workflows to follow up automatically with the most promising leads.
Operations Hub
The Operations Hub enables businesses to automate, customize, and streamline their internal processes across various departments like finance, HR, and IT. This suite is designed to help businesses improve their internal operations so that they can focus on growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
Service Hub
The Service Hub is designed to help businesses provide excellent customer service. It includes features like a ticketing system, live chat, and knowledge base. These features allow businesses to quickly and efficiently resolve customer inquiries and provide a positive customer experience.
CMS Hub
The CMS Hub is a content management system that helps businesses create, manage, and optimize their website. With CMS Hub, businesses can easily create and publish new pages, manage their content, and optimize their site for search engines.
HubSpot Pricing and Plans
HubSpot offers various plans for individuals, small teams, and businesses. The basic plan is free and includes core features like 1 marketing automation workflow, email marketing, landing pages, and basic analytics. Paid plans start at $18/month and go up to $5000/month for large enterprises. The prices vary based on the number of contacts and included tools. Many find the Professional or Enterprise plan, ranging from $800-$3600/month, has the best balance of useful features at an affordable price for small to mid-sized businesses.
Free & Paid Plans (Monthly Pricing)
| tools | Basic | Starter | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | $0 | $18 | $800 | $3600 |
| Sales | $0 | $18 | $450 | $1200 |
| Customer Service | $0 | $18 | $450 | $1200 |
| CMS | $0 | $23 | $360 | $1200 |
| Operations | $0 | $18 | $720 | $2000 |
Hubspot provides the option to create a customized plan called Bundle tailored to our needs, with the perfect amount of contacts and tools included. You can also choose the CRM Suite, which offers a combination of all tools at $30/month for starter and $1600/month for professional plan.
Why choose HubSpot?
My team and I have been using Hubspot for years and love how easy it is to use. Some of our favorite features are:
- Blog hosting and design tools: Creating blog posts is a breeze with drag and drop templates and pre-made color palettes. Your blog will look professional in no time.
- Email marketing and automation: Easily design email newsletters, send targeted emails to your contacts and leads, and create automated email sequences to nurture leads.
- CRM and sales tools: Keep track of your contacts, deals, tasks, and meetings in one place. Send quotes and invoices directly through Hubspot and get notifications when people open your emails.
- Analytics and reporting: Measure how your marketing and sales efforts are paying off with Hubspot's robust analytics and reporting tools. See how people are engaging with your website, blog, and emails so you can optimize for the best results.
- Integrations: Hubspot integrates with many of the tools you already use like Gmail, Outlook, Dropbox, and LinkedIn. No need to manually transfer data between platforms.
- Affordable pricing: Hubspot has options for small businesses on a budget all the way up to large enterprises. You only pay for the features you need so you can get started for little to no cost.
One of the best things about HubSpot is that it provides email tracking, email campaigns, landing pages, live chat, sales pipeline management, meeting scheduling, and more for completely free.
The free HubSpot CRM offers unlimited customer data and contacts up to 1,000,000. This makes it an excellent choice for small firms that are just starting and want to spend less money while still having access to the best CRM.
If you're looking for a way to organize your marketing in one place, we highly recommend giving Hubspot a try. The free tools and resources they offer are perfect for any business owner to utilize. Why not sign up for a free trial and see how much easier inbound marketing can be?
Creating your free HubSpot account
You'll first need to create your free account to get started with Hubspot. Here's how:
- Go to hubspot.com website.
- Click the "Get Started" button.
- This will take you to the signup page.
- Enter your email and password to sign up form.
- Alternatively, you can sign up with a Google account.
- Choose your starter package (Basic or Professional or Enterprise).
- Lastly, add your business information to help Hubspot to understand your needs.
You'll be able to select between the Basic, Professional, and Enterprise packages. For most small businesses, the Basic or Professional options should work great. You can always upgrade your plan later as your needs change.
Navigating the Hubspot Dashboard: A Quick Tour
Now that you’ve signed up for Hubspot and logged in, it’s time to explore the dashboard. This is your central hub for managing your Hubspot account and accessing all its features.
At first glance, the dashboard can seem a bit overwhelming. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a quick tour to help you get oriented:
Contacts
This is where you'll manage all your contacts - your leads, customers, subscribers, etc. You can view contact details, add new contacts, import contacts, segment your lists, and more. Think of this as your master address book for everyone connected to your business.
Deals
Use the Deals section to manage your sales pipeline from lead to close. You can create deals for potential opportunities, log calls and meetings, update deal stages, assign owners, and forecast revenue. This helps ensure no lead slips through the cracks and gives you insight into your sales performance.
Marketing
The Marketing section is the heart of Hubspot. Here you’ll find tools to build your website, create blog posts and pages, design email campaigns, set up forms, analyze SEO, and run ads. You can also view analytics on your marketing performance, like how contacts are engaging with your content. This section allows you to attract new leads, convert them into customers, and grow your business.
Reports
Want data and insights on how your marketing and sales efforts are performing? The Reports section provides analytics and dashboards to visualize key metrics. See how contacts flow through your funnel, which channels are driving the most traffic, how your ads or email campaigns are doing, and more. Use these reports to optimize your strategies and gain valuable business insights.
Settings
Finally, the Settings section allows you to customize Hubspot to your needs. You can add users, define company info, set up integrations with other tools, customize the dashboard, and manage billing details. Think of this as the behind-the-scenes section that keeps Hubspot running for your business.
With some exploring, the Hubspot dashboard will become second nature. Let us know if you have any other questions! We're here to help you get the most out of Hubspot.
Hubspot for Email Marketing and Newsletters
Hubspot's email marketing and newsletter tools are some of the best in the business. We use Hubspot to create, send, and track the performance of all our email campaigns. Here are some of our top tips for getting started:
Choose a template
Hubspot has tons of beautifully designed email templates to choose from. Pick one that matches your brand and the purpose of your email campaign. You can easily customize templates by adding images, changing colors, rearranging blocks, and of course adding your content.
Build your list
The key to a successful email campaign is having a targeted list of engaged subscribers. Offer a lead magnet like a free guide, webinar, or coupon to capture email addresses on your website. You can also encourage social media followers to sign up for your newsletter. Segment your list based on interests and engagement to send the most relevant content to each contact.
Create a newsletter workflow
Use the workflow feature to schedule a series of automated emails to go out over time. Welcome new subscribers with an introductory email. Then set up a nurturing workflow to send additional emails over the following weeks with helpful resources and content. You can also create promotional workflows to re-engage old contacts or promote an upcoming product launch.
Track and optimize
The real power of Hubspot lies in its analytics and reporting features. See open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes for each email campaign. Look for trends over time and see how your contacts engage with different types of content. Make changes to improve the performance of future emails. You may want to test different subject lines, templates, or send times. Continually optimizing your email marketing strategy is key to success.
Stay compliant
Hubspot has built-in tools to help you comply with anti-spam laws like CASL and GDPR. Double opt-in, unsubscribe links and consent management features ensure your contacts actively agree to receive your emails. Make sure you have a privacy policy on your website that outlines how you collect and use email addresses. Stay up-to-date with the latest email compliance regulations to avoid potential legal issues.
Setting Up Landing Pages and Forms with HubSpot
Hubspot's landing pages and forms are where the magic happens. This is how you'll capture leads and convert visitors into contacts. As a marketer, you know that every lead and contact matters. That's why setting up your landing pages and forms correctly in Hubspot is so important.
To start, you'll want to create a landing page template. Hubspot has drag-and-drop templates to choose from, or you can build your own from scratch. Add eye-catching images, bold headlines, and clear calls to action to capture your visitors' attention. Keep your content focused on your offer and make it easy to take the next step by including a form.
Speaking of forms, you'll need to build those next. Hubspot has form templates for everything from email signups to requests for proposals. Choose fields that capture the information you need from your leads. Keep your forms short, around 5 to 10 fields. The easier they are to fill out, the more leads you'll generate.
Once your landing pages and forms are set up, it's time to drive traffic to them. You can link to your landing pages from your website, blog, and social media. You can also run Hubspot's built-in A/B tests to optimize your pages for the best conversion rates.
A few final tips for setting up landing pages and forms in Hubspot:
- Keep your content focused. Don’t try to accomplish too much on a single page.
- Include social proof like testimonials, client logos, and case studies. This builds trust in your offers and services.
- Make your calls to action clear by using contrasting colors and sizes. Tell people exactly what you want them to do.
- Test different versions of your pages to see which ones resonate most with your audience. Even small changes can lead to big improvements.
- Review your landing page and form analytics regularly to see what’s working and make changes to underperforming pages.
- Pair your landing pages and forms with automated workflows to nurture new leads. This helps move them through your sales funnel.
With optimized landing pages and forms in place, you'll start attracting more high quality leads. Keep experimenting and improving them over time for the best results. Remember success needs time so wait a few days after making changes to see accurate results.
Hubspot CRM to Manage Your Contacts and Deals
Hubspot's CRM allows you to organize all your contacts and manage your deals in one place. We use it to keep track of everyone we're connecting with - leads, customers, partners, you name it.
Adding Contacts
Adding a new contact in Hubspot is super easy. Just click the "Contacts" tab and then "Create contact". Fill in details like the contact's name, email, company, job title, address, etc. You can also add custom properties to track extra info. Each contact gets assigned a score based on their level of engagement. This helps us see at a glance who our hot leads are.
Managing Deals
The deals feature lets you move contacts through your sales pipeline. We create a new deal for any active opportunity we're working on. Deals can have multiple contacts attached to them, like decision makers at the company. You add products, timeline, deal value, and the stage the deal is in (new, meeting scheduled, sent proposal, won or lost). This gives us an overview of where all our deals stand so we know what needs follow-up.
Segmenting and Filtering
Hubspot makes it simple to view just the contacts and deals you want to see. You can create segments based on properties like industry, deal stage, contact score, etc. Just click "Create segment" and select the filters you want. Need to check on healthcare clients in the East? No problem, just filter for that segment. You can also save frequently used filters to quickly see different views.
Reporting and Dashboards
The reporting features provide insights into your contacts, deals, and overall sales performance. Hubspot automatically tracks metrics like new contacts added, pageviews, email clicks, and deal value won. You can build customized reports and dashboards to monitor the KPIs most important to your business. The data helps us identify any areas that need improvement so we can optimize our sales and marketing efforts.
Between contact management, pipeline visualization, segmentation, and reporting, Hubspot gives us a powerful set of tools to build relationships and close more deals. Our sales team stays on top of every opportunity and nurtures leads efficiently Thanks to this all-in-one CRM platform.
How to Use Hubspot Ads to Reach New Audiences
Hubspot Ads is a powerful tool for reaching new audiences and driving more traffic to your website. Here are some tips for using Hubspot Ads effectively:
Choose Your Goals
First, determine what you want to achieve with your Hubspot Ads campaign. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Generate more leads? Drive sales? The goals you set will determine how you optimize and measure the success of your campaign.
Select Your Audiences
Next, choose the audiences you want to target. You can target by location, demographics, interests, and behaviors. Your chances of reaching audiences who will connect with your message increase as you become more precise in your targeting. However, you also want to make sure your audience sizes are still large enough to drive meaningful results.
Design Compelling Ads
Now comes the fun part - creating your ads! Hubspot Ads supports text ads, image ads, video ads, and more. For the best results, test different ad formats and creatives to see what resonates most with your audiences. Keep your messaging focused on the benefits and solutions you provide to capture attention.
Set a Budget
To effectively utilize your budget, decide how much you want to spend on your Hubspot Ads campaign. Even starting with a small daily budget of $10 to $20 can help a lot. You can then optimize your campaign based on its performance.
Track and Optimize
Finally, keep a careful eye on how your campaign is doing so you can adjust as necessary to increase outcomes. Look at metrics like impressions, click-through rate, cost per click, and conversion rate. See what's working and make adjustments to your audiences, ads, landing pages, and budget allocation.
With regular optimization, Hubspot Ads can become one of your most effective tools for driving new high-quality traffic to your website. By starting with clear goals, targeting well-defined audiences, creating engaging ads, setting an initial budget, and continuously optimizing based on performance, you'll get the most out of your investment.
Hubspot Content Tools to Create and Promote Blog
Hubspot's content tools make creating and promoting blog posts a breeze. Here are some of our favorite features:
Blog Post Editor
Hubspot's blog post editor has everything you need to craft high-quality content. You can easily add images, videos, callout boxes, embed social media posts, and more. The editor also has built-in SEO and readability analysis to help you optimize your posts.
Once your post is live, you'll want to promote it to drive traffic. Hubspot's social media integration lets you automatically share new posts to all your connected social profiles with the click of a button. You can also see how much traffic each social network is driving to help focus your efforts.
Blog Topic Pages
Grouping related posts into topic pages is an easy way to provide value to your readers and improve your site's SEO. Hubspot automatically generates topic pages based on the categories and tags you assign to your blog posts. Readers can browse all posts on a given topic, and the pages are optimized for search engines.
Blog Performance Reports
See how your blog is performing with Hubspot's blog reports. Track pageviews, new visitors, and sources of traffic over time. See which topics and posts are most popular. Track how your blog impacts your overall site traffic and lead generation. Use these insights to refine your content strategy and become more effective.
Blog Subscription Options
Make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your blog so they never miss a new post. Hubspot offers multiple blog subscription options like email, RSS, and social media. Offering multiple ways to subscribe improves the chance that visitors will opt-in. Blog subscriptions are a key way to build your audience and increase return traffic.
With the right tools and strategies, your business blog can become a valuable asset. Hubspot's content tools provide everything you need to create a high-quality blog, promote your posts, analyze performance, and build your readership over time. Your blog will soon be driving new visitors, leads, and customers!
Training and Support Resources
To use HubSpot effectively, you need to know about the training and support resources available. These resources help you use the platform well, no matter how experienced you are. Here are some key training and support options:
1. HubSpot Academy
HubSpot Academy offers free and paid courses on many topics like marketing and customer service. They have beginner courses like how to use the website, and advanced courses like how to optimize and automate. The courses include videos, downloads, and quizzes to help reinforce what you're learning. By completing these courses, you can improve your knowledge and skills in using HubSpot efficiently.
2. Knowledge Base
The HubSpot Knowledge Base is a massive collection of articles and guides that provide comprehensive details on various components, tools, and functions of the platform. It functions as a go-to reference point for locating answers to common inquiries or solving problems. The articles are divided into categories, facilitating effortless navigation and allowing users to immediately find relevant information.
3. Community Forum
Users can connect with other HubSpot fans, exchange insights, and ask questions in the HubSpot Community Forum. It's a useful forum for exchanging best practices, getting advice, and learning from other users' mistakes. HubSpot specialists and staff continuously monitor the forum to make sure you get accurate and prompt answers to your questions.
4. Help Documentation
HubSpot's help documentation covers everything from tutorials to screenshots and videos. This includes instructions for different processes and tasks, so you can fix an issue or set up a feature quickly.
5. Customer Support
HubSpot provides a lot of customer support choices. You can contact the support staff via email, live conversation, or phone to handle technical matters, invoicing questions, or any other issues.
6. Webinars and Events
HubSpot hosts webinars and events on a variety of marketing, sales, and customer service topics regularly. These courses include professional views, industry trends, and practical suggestions. Participating in webinars and events can expand your expertise, keep you up to date on the newest advancements, and give networking opportunities.
Conclusion
That's it for our complete guide on how to use HubSpot in 2023! We've walked you through setting up your account, customizing it to meet your needs, leveraging the powerful marketing, sales, and service tools, and optimizing it for maximum impact. HubSpot is an incredibly powerful platform, but by starting with the basics and building up from there, you will be leveraging it like a pro in no time. Here's to a successful 2023 filled with more leads, happier customers, and growth for your business!
FAQ about HubSpot
Do HubSpot emails go to spam?
This depends on your email service provider and their spam filters. However, HubSpot has several features to help avoid it, such as avoiding spammy words and providing an unsubscribe link. Additionally, you can use HubSpot’s email deliverability score to monitor your email’s reputation. There are a few best practices you should follow:
- Use an informative subject line that clearly states the content or purpose of your email. Avoid spam triggering words like "free" or "get rich".
- Include your business name and contact information in the email. This builds trust and credibility.
- Keep your content relevant and avoid large images or graphics that could be mistaken for spam.
- Monitor your email analytics to see if certain contacts report your emails as spam. You need to remove them from your contact list.
- Stay on top of spam filter trends and update your email templates accordingly. What was ok last year may now be flagged as spam.
How to invite someone to hubspot?
Inviting a new user to your HubSpot portal is easy. Here are the steps:
- Log in to your HubSpot portal and go to Settings → Users & Teams → Users.
- Click the "Invite user" button.
- Enter the new user's email address and select a user role that matches the required level of access.
- Customize the invitation email and add a personal note if needed.
- Review the new user's default permissions and make any changes before sending the invite.
- Click "Send Invitation". The new user will receive an email with instructions to log in and set up their account.
- Once they log in, you may need to walk them through the portal and features based on their user role.
Does hubspot integrate with squarespace?
Yes, HubSpot can integrate with Squarespace. You can find instructions for this integration in the HubSpot Help Center. To set up the integration, you'll need to connect a HubSpot tracking code to your Squarespace site and configure your HubSpot account to receive the data from Squarespace.
How to mass email in hubspot?
Sending a mass email in HubSpot is easy! First, make a contact list of the people you want to email using the contact list builder or a CSV file. Next, create your email using the email editor. Finally, use the email workflow tool to send the email to your contact list. This way, you can reach many people, track email performance, and manage contacts all in one place.