Likelihood to Recommend As I said previously, I was not a fan at the beginning because, like everyone, I don't take change so well. Once I started following leads through HubSpot Marketing Hub, I integrated it with my email and created templates for what I needed, I started to see the positives immediately. My time working was better spent as I eliminated time put in routine tasks. I was able to track all communication in HubSpot Marketing Hub, we created systems in the office assigning tasks to one another and, through HubSpot Marketing Hub, our leads were able to book meetings in my calendar automatically. To be honest, if you are in sales and marketing, I cannot think of scenarios where HubSpot Marketing Hub cannot help. All I would like to say is, when using templates, pay attention to where you send them - you may need some personalization. I would encourage the management of HubSpot Marketing Hub to create short tutorials for beginners like me who need to configure and start using various features: setting up deals, templates, and dashboards.
Read full review I think Sendgrid is a great tool for sending out emails of all types. I've primarily used it for transactional emails as we've had other solutions for marketing emails, but I'm sure it would do just a good job - there is a "Marketing" section within the app you can use. Sendgrid integrates really easily with the development frameworks I've used, such as Laravel and Lumen; I've also integrated it with Moodle with ease.
Read full review Pros All-in-one software - the main thing HubSpot does well is the breadth of functionality. Easy of use - personally, I find it more intuitive than Marketo, which is the other MAP that I know well. Ads - I like that we can drill down on ads by channel, ad group, campaign, and even create and see performance data at each level. Read full review Managing email lists / audiences is easy with features like groups and segments. They provide pre-built email templates that are very easy to modify. It is also super easy to create new email templates with their drag-and-drop email builder. Provides clear / easy-to-read analytics of email campaigns. I can easily import large email contact lists all at once or add a user manually one-at-a-time, when needed. Read full review Cons While Hubspot has added some collaborative tools, I think this could improve. I'd like to see more options to comment on emails and ways of being able to share out changes as well as approval channels. The ability to update ads via the calendar is pretty cumbersome. There's no good way to bulk edit or update. You have go into each one individually. Real time edits would be nice. If you have multiple people working on the same thing, you'll get kicked out and your changes might not be saved. Read full review Not necessarily their Email API but their email in general - they are currently in beta for automated email sequences but are still bare bones. Much more work is needed before it can be used mainstream and be able to convert everything to SendGrid. Helping with warming up our dedicated IP for the best-sending score. We seem to hit the promotions folder a decent amount (maybe the IP problem above) and even a lot of their emails hit my spam or promotions folder (whether they be transactional or marketing) which isn't a great sign when trusting an ESP. Transactional email sequences would be a huge plus. Now that Twilio owns SenGrid, having an integrated platform where you could see all our transactional emails together. Better reporting and split reporting between transactional and marketing emails. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Our business relies on the HubSpot platform to manage our marketing, sales and CRM processes. HubSpot marketing automation helps us define our activities and streamlines them in a cohesive and efficient way. Without HubSpot, we will have to revert to the 'old way' of doing everything with a variety of disparate systems.
Read full review Usability While there are some frustrating things that pop up unexpectedly ("wait... I can't do X?"), I have found HubSpot to be easy to use and extremely helpful to my daily work. The documentation is really good, and when it's not helpful, the support staff have been amazing.
Read full review It has the potential to be really cool. However, it feels as if it was created by developers for developers (and I work with developers, yet even for me the instrument was somewhat not easy to use - just read SendGrid's help manuals...) However, if you are into data and your way of thinking is more mathematical rather than lyrical, you'll enjoy this instrument
Read full review Reliability and Availability They have had issues with system availability over the course of days. Sometimes the system is unusable, other times updates simply take a long time to show up. It's better now but, from a reliaibility standpoint, HubSpot is not Salesforce.com yet. Still great software though.
Read full review Performance With all the new features in HubSpot, the system can get a tad slow sometimes... That said, most of the time it is lightning fast and I have no problems. Because most of the integrations are API, they silently work in the background. I have not had trouble with lag due to HubSpot integration
Read full review Support Rating During the few times I've needed it, HS support has been accessible, helpful and efficient. Often rolling up their sleeves to make changes for you as opposed to leaving you with a list of instructions to decipher on your own.
Read full review Twilio SendGrid Email API is everything we want it to be, and we have no reason to look for any other solution. Features and pricing match exactly what we need. As developers for SaaS products, Twilio SendGrid Email API provides a great service. I hope that they stay this way and don't inflate the service with too many marketing oriented features, because there are other tools for that and Twilio SendGrid Email API is a API for sending email first and foremost.
Read full review In-Person Training I did the 2-day classroom at HubSpot's corporate office in Cambridge. First off, it was amazing to see their corporate office in general. They have such a cool office environment. But it was also great to have the ability to learn in a workshop format with other HubSpot users and meet my Account Manager/ Inbound Marketing Consultant in person.
Read full review Online Training I went through Inbound Marketing University in 2006. Great training and helped my transition from traditional (outbound) marketing to inbound marketing that I've been able to apply to a number of businesses from wastewater and water reuse, to professional services and SaaS. Share information of value to build awareness and trust. Answer customers' questions in a transparent way to generate more qualified leads. Understand the difference between a marketing qualified lead and a sales qualified lead and put together a lead nurturing program. Your sales and marketing efforts will see significant ROI.
Tom Smith Strategist | Digital | Analytics | Marketing Automation | Content Marketing | Integrated Marketing |
Read full review Implementation Rating My biggest piece of advice for those who are implementing Hubspot is that you need to devote the time up front and learn how to use the product. Once you learn how to use Hubspot, it will be much more effective as well as much easier to use in the long run
Read full review Alternatives Considered Other competing software such as Zoho and
Boomtown may have more bells and whistles, but it is too cumbersome and has many parts that only advanced users can operate. With HubSpot, each function is within reach of the average agent. It doesn't overpromise and then makes you feel incompetent when you can't use it all...
Read full review If given a choice between the two, I would pick
Mandrill over SendGrid.
Mandrill is slightly more expensive but the data & reports that you receive from it make the service worth it.
Mandrill lets you export reports over a period of time, view the actual content of emails that you've dispatched and the customer support is way better. If you can bear the slightly higher cost,
Mandrill would be a better choice.
Read full review Scalability HubSpot is addressing this more and more. Currently you can assign tasks to designated sales teams, which grow as you grow. They've added free baseline products for those just getting started. These and more contribute to the scalability of HubSpot - so I gave it an 8 and am hoping for more in the future!
Read full review Return on Investment HubSpot has helped us increased our lead generation. HubSpot has allowed us to continue to grow our customer base without having to spend a ton of marketing dollars on advertising. HubSpot has allowed our company to standardize our process and bring the company onto one platform for sales and marketing. Read full review Our clients experience significant ROI from their web forms - without receipt of forms, many of them would not still be in business. As a solution for clients' sites, we find SendGrid is a fast installation and a 1 stop problem solver, saving us man-hours. Read full review ScreenShots HubSpot Marketing Hub Screenshots