From Scattered Systems to the Single Integrated Platform from HubSpot
Updated January 29, 2017

From Scattered Systems to the Single Integrated Platform from HubSpot

Arun C Devan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Professional

Overall Satisfaction with HubSpot

HubSpot is being used by our entire organisation. Every team member is inbound certified and some of us are certified in other areas - such as HubSpot, sales, design, email marketing and soon contextual marketing.

We purchased HubSpot to escape from the disorder of scattered solutions. In the past, our website was on Wordpress with several add-ons, CRM with Zoho CRM, email marketing with MailChimp, multiple social media distribution & monitoring tools and many Excel sheets for data collation and reporting. I kept track of HubSpot for more than 2 years - mostly through their blog posts & the use of their Marketing Grader app (currently replaced by Website Grader) before we became a HubSpot subscriber. HubSpot has helped our company transition to a single integrated platform to effectively support our inbound marketing, CRM and sales activities. Data is entered once in a easy to use system, notifications can be setup as required, details can be monitored on mobile apps and reporting is intuitive with the in-built dashboards.

Pros

  • A single integrated platform to manage inbound marketing, CRM and sales for the entire company. Many companies start deploying disparate solutions organically. The time will come when it will make sense to migrate the scattered solutions onto a single platform.
  • It is relatively easy to set up with the guided user interface. The HubSpot Academy is rich with educational resources - structured logically - simple short initial video to get the idea across > a more detailed video that goes into the details > finally ending with another video showing how the HubSpot tools can be used to achieve the desired objectives.
  • It is easier to manage a team that is aligned on a single solution. It is easier to make sense of the data that we generate since we do not need to reconcile data from separate systems.
  • HubSpot support is quick to respond to our queries.

Cons

  • Include additional social media channels being monitored - eg. YouTube
  • The ROI has been good. The key impact has been on improving our team's efficiency on several fronts - planning, executing, monitoring & communicating - all off one platform.
  • It has helped us keep our contacts database updated & is one of the factors that has led to better engagement with our audience.
  • We have not experienced any negative impacts as yet.
We selected HubSpot over the others for the following reasons:
  • More complete for the functions we needed
  • Truly inbound - they generate a ton of useful content that resonates with our team
  • Free tools to improve engagements - Website Grader for example
  • Easy to set up & use
  • The HubSpot Academy helps us keep our skills updated
At the moment, the inbound methodology seems to be the ideal way to attract, engage, close and delight leads and customers in a more 'natural' and non-interruptive manner. So, HubSpot is well suited to companies of all sizes who embrace this methodology. Many companies may hesitate to start with HubSpot due to the somewhat hefty price tag. Marketing automation with HubSpot supports the marketing, CRM and sales processes in an optimal manner. With optimisation, it becomes easier for companies to plan, execute, communicate and monitor their performance. There are programs for startups as well as scalable plans at several price points.

HubSpot Marketing Hub Feature Ratings

9.1
WYSIWYG email editor
9
Dynamic content
9
Ability to test dynamic content
9
Landing pages
9
A/B testing
Not Rated
Mobile optimization
10
Email deliverability reporting
9
List management
9
Triggered drip sequences
Not Rated
9.5
Lead nurturing automation
10
Lead scoring and grading
9
Data quality management
9
Automated sales alerts and tasks
10
9.0
Calendaring
9
Event/webinar marketing
9
9.0
Social sharing and campaigns
9
Social profile integration
9
9.7
Dashboards
10
Standard reports
10
Custom reports
9
8.5
API
Not Rated
Role-based workflow & approvals
9
Customizability
8
Integration with Salesforce.com
Not Rated
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

Using HubSpot

3 - They represent the following business functions:

1. Management

The dashboards offer quick insights into the team's performance in marketing and sales. From these dashboards, we are able to drill-down into the details for additional analytics. The reporting features are also very helpful here.

2. Marketing, Sales & CRM

For our inbound marketers, the HubSpot platform provides the resources to plan ongoing activities and monitor these on a regular basis. The HubSpot iOS app is an excellent resource to monitor progress on the go.



1 - The ideal candidate would have some relevant digital marketing experience and familiarity with marketing automation tools.
Ideal skills the candidate can bring to the job can include:
  1. Manage technical aspects of key marketing systems (marketing automation, CRM) used to generate, distribute, and report on leads.
  2. Establish and maintain scalable processes that ensure best practices in campaign and lead management.
  3. Create and maintain metrics reports on marketing and sales activities, effectiveness, and business impact.
  4. Analyse marketing and sales data to develop insights and make recommendations on areas for optimisation.
  5. Monitor and maintain data quality within the marketing database.
  6. Evaluate new technologies and add-on applications to improve and optimise marketing team performance.
  • Marketing planning, execution and analytics
  • Sales lead creation, tracking and pipeline monitoring
  • CRM contact nurturing with content distribution
  • The use of workflows have improved the efficiencies of our internal processes
  • The dashboards offer excellent analytics and the capabilities to dig deeper for details
  • Making use of some of the integrations - especially the integration to our ERP system
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.

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