At EnquiryLab, we don’t hide the fact that we’re huge HubSpot fans. As a partner, we don’t just use HubSpot with our clients, but also for our day to day marketing activities too.
When you’re looking around for marketing software, HubSpot is probably one of the first options you’ll come across. With HubSpot there are so many different options it can sometimes be hard to figure out exactly what you need. On the client side of things, a question we often get asked is – what hub do we need? And more often than not, we recommend the Marketing Professional Hub, especially to B2B tech companies.
In terms of tools, Professional has everything marketing teams need to prove ROI, run automated campaigns at scale and collaborate flawlessly alongside the usual marketing features such as blogging, social media, video hosting, and SEO.
While the Free and Starter options have some excellent features, the functionality gap between Starter and Professional is significant. With Professional, you get everything included in Starter, plus things like automation, analytics and custom reporting. Professional has features to help you:
- Ensure your potential clients are finding you online
- Automate your marketing
- Add personalisation to your automation
- Optimise conversion
- Accurately measure website data
In the matter of the most important features, in our opinion, automation is the key to any serious growth plan. Any business that’s planning to scale its marketing and in turn its revenue needs to be able to automate time-consuming manual processes. With HubSpot, you can use workflows to trigger actions based on various criteria which allows you to scale smoothly and save valuable time.
For example, when a website visitor becomes a lead, as opposed to someone having to find some spare time to manually compose an email and reach out to them, HubSpot automation will do it for you. All you have to do is create a workflow and set up the email or email series you want to send to the lead when they meet the workflow criteria. The ability to branch contacts when they take a specific action e.g. opening an email or downloading a piece of content means you can make the most of every lead coming through with automated nurture flows and tasks.
While you may think automation is only useful for bigger companies, smaller companies can also see a big return on a HubSpot Professional investment as the automation allows them to streamline their processes. With this in mind, it’s important to note that Professional can still be a great option for those on a tighter marketing budget, as automation means you can spend significantly less manpower chasing your leads.
With all of this automation going on, it’s vital to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. This is where the advanced analytics and reporting tools come in. Custom reports allow you to track the metrics that are important to your company.
While all of these features are great, they don’t necessarily mean that Professional is the right fit for your business. To find out if it is, ask yourself the following questions:
What are your marketing goals?
If you have clearly outlined your marketing goals for the future, then you’re one step closer to a successful marketing strategy. If you’ve got clear marketing goals and you’re committed to growth, then the next natural step is advanced marketing software such as Professional to help you achieve your targets.
What is your monthly marketing budget for software?
Consider this carefully in line with the growth you’re hoping to see from your software investment. Also bear in mind that your marketing software budget doesn’t include things like ad spend or agency costs. As we’ve mentioned, Professional doesn’t have to be limited to those on a larger budget as long as you’re using the available automation to your advantage.
What problems are you hoping the new marketing software will solve?
When you consider this, think about your current marketing plan and the limitations involved. For example, does your sales team spend too much time manually sending out emails? This is a problem marketing automation can easily and effectively solve. However, if the problem is that your sales team aren’t very good at talking to clients… no software, no matter how good, can make up for that!
Do you have the resources to make the most of the features?
HubSpot is a platform that supports your marketing sales & service strategies but of course, you do then need those strategies to be there in the first place! You also need a team to produce the content, plan and implement the campaigns etc, whether that's internal or external. This is an especially important factor to consider before making any financial commitments, as without the right people resource available you won’t be able to properly use the features you’re paying for. If you don’t have the resource then naturally it won’t be the right choice to jump in with a more advanced option. But of course, if you do have the resource available, then there’s a host of benefits in Professional just waiting to be utilised!
What is your commitment to inbound marketing?
If you’re brand new to inbound marketing or a seasoned pro, then this will influence your choice. While a long list of features can look appealing, if you aren’t fully committed to a successful inbound strategy then you won’t reap the benefits. On the other hand, Professional and inbound marketing are a match made in heaven if you’re dedicated to making the most of it.
If you’d like to discuss the pros and cons of Professional in more detail, why not get in touch with us at chris@enquirylab.com or on 01327 368378.
