Not more than a decade ago, didn’t all business owners wish there were a magic solution that made their job, like, 80% easier? And today we have CRM platforms that integrate with sales, marketing, and other areas of business – a full-fledged bundle of happiness for anyone with entrepreneurial genes. Thinking of CRM platforms, there is one in particular that takes the stage – HubSpot. We are all familiar with the name, right?
If you have been flirting with the idea of buying their package, worry no more. We are here to help. In this in-depth review, let’s go over everything that comes with the bundle, its features, and pricing. But more importantly, let’s find out whether your business really needs it.
Are you ready? Then, let’s begin!
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and inbound marketing solution. Since its inception in 2006, it has come a long way, adding tons of features and integrations that businesses of all sizes use on a daily basis.
The HubSpot CRM platform has been designed into separate tools called ‘hubs’ – Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, CMS, and Operations. Each hub serves a different purpose and yet can be found in the same place as the other hubs. Besides, there is a suite of free tools with forever-free access for anyone.
Marketing Hub
Part of the HubSpot unified experience, the Marketing Hub is a full-fledged marketing suite that you need to bring in new customers. There is a ton of automation powered by AI. So you can streamline routine tasks, save time, and still see the results you want to see. You can also create multi-language SEO-optimized content with AI and schedule it for going live later. Besides, there is support for collaboration tools including an integrated marketing calendar and in-app comments.
With HubSpot, you can create and manage marketing campaigns across social media, email, website, and chat. Other features include blogs on the same domain as your website, ad retargeting, Facebook Messenger integration, email reply tracking, forms, chatbots, landing pages, and user management. And hey, let’s not overlook the analytics and reporting aspects.
Sales Hub
It's designed to help you close more deals, foster better relationships with customers, and manage your pipeline like a pro. With handy tools at your disposal, you'll have access to features like email templates, email tracking, and call recording, all to make sure your team delivers a cohesive message every time.
But wait, here is what else you can do with the Sales Hub:
Prospects can schedule appointments that sync right up with your calendar, saving you the hassle of going back and forth trying to find the right time.
You can automate your sales process while still maintaining that personal touch, making it efficient and effective.
Live chat conversations are directed to the right salesperson, ensuring you build stronger connections with your customers.
Managing your pipeline is a breeze too, just a single click and all your important deals are right there, organized and under control. Having all these useful tools in one place will only make your business thrive, giving you more time to focus on what matters most - your customers.
Service Hub
It might give you the impression that the Service Hub offers pretty much the same as the Sales Hub. But that is not the case. Well, for starters, it does not focus on bringing customers in and converting them into sales.
The Service Hub is about giving your customers a quality experience – making them feel heard, helping them out every time they run into a hurdle with a product or service, and so on. In today's changing landscape, customers expect 24/7 support with a personalized touch. And HubSpot helps you achieve that – by fetching all your customer data and communication channels in one place.
Here is more! The Service Hub gives you the tools to set up a smart help desk with an automation-powered ticket-handling system. You can create a detailed, online guide to help your customers troubleshoot the issues they might be facing. Plus, did we mention unified communication? That means all your team’s emails, live chat, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger are in one place so you get full visibility of all your communication. How cool is that?
CMS Hub
So, how do you go about providing valuable advice to your audience without giving away too much for free? That's where a Content Management System (CMS) comes in handy!
HubSpot's CMS Hub is a fantastic option that lets you create and manage website pages effortlessly. You won't need to be a coding expert because it offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. Plus, the best part is that your content will automatically look great on different devices, so you don't have to worry about it losing its appeal.
Here is what else you get with this CMS:
First off, you get SEO recommendations to help you get noticed and put your business on the map.
There are pre-built website themes available, making customization a breeze.
If you want to reach a wider audience, no worries! You can easily create content in multiple languages.
And if you're curious about how your website is performing, HubSpot's CMS also provides contact attribution reporting to help you understand its impact.
Worried about security? With 24/7 security monitoring and threat detection, you can rest assured that your site is safe and sound.
Operations Hub
All growing businesses often face a common problem. With more customers and teams, they have to deal with more data and manage more processes. Sounds hectic, doesn’t it?
Well, the Operations Hub is an excellent solution to this ever-present problem. This toolkit boasts some powerful features such as programmable automation, data curation or cleaning, data sync, data quality automation, and more. So you always keep all your apps and data in sync, ensure the efficiency of your teams with automation (custom or otherwise), extend your workflow with third-party systems such as Slack or Zoom, and curate your data into datasets that are ready for custom reporting. Pretty smooth, don’t you think?
Free Tools
A great thing about HubSpot is that anyone can get a taste of pretty much everything the platform offers– for free. Of course, it is limited but as long as you are a small business or an individual, you should be just fine. Now that we have already covered most of it, let’s just give you a quick list of what you get as part of this free package:
Meeting scheduler
Email template builder
Live chat software
AI email writer
Contact management
Call tracking
Company insights
Pipeline management
Form building
Ad management
Lead generation
Landing page builder
Help desk
Conversations inbox
Team email
Data sync
Sales automation
Prospect tracking
Ticketing
Document tracking
And oh, you don’t need to fill in your credit card details, to avail all these free features.
Pricing
Thinking of pricing, HubSpot is not cheap. There is a lot of flexibility though. For example, you can either buy all the hubs individually or as a package under the CRM Suite, which also has two sets of pricing plans. One set is for individuals and small teams with three plans – Free Tools (free as seen above), Starter ($30/mo), and Professional ($1600/mo). The other set is for businesses and enterprises with two plans – Professional ($1600/mo) and Enterprise ($5000/mo).
For plans of individual products such as the Marketing and Sales hubs, check out the pricing page on the official HubSpot website.
Final Verdict
There is little doubt that HubSpot is a monster of a product. There are so many functionalities, so much customization. But no product comes without a few caveats, however small. And for HubSpot, it is the pricing and the learning curve. Well, you can not expect a product as broad as HubSpot to be easy to learn but their team has made their best efforts to ensure that there is enough learning material available. Plus, they offer 24/7 support with live chat, so you must be just fine.
Coming to the pricing, it seems it is best suited for large-scale businesses. For small businesses or individuals, it is in their best interest to stick with the free tools or purchase a product individually based on what they need the most because the CRM Suite seems kinda out of reach.