Discover the five steps to follow for a successful HubSpot implementation from a HubSpot Diamond Partner agency.
When you’re investing in HubSpot, you want to get all of the benefits for your business as soon as possible - which means the implementation process is so important. A successful implementation will enable you to hit the ground running and start seeing results sooner rather than later.
It’s also important to get the implementation right because this will help you to maximise your return on investment. HubSpot has so many useful tools that it can completely transform your marketing - but only if you know how to use them! Without proper implementation, your teams may struggle to effectively use all of the features and tools available in HubSpot, hindering their ability to attract, engage, and convert leads.
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a comprehensive inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform that helps businesses attract, engage, and delight customers. It integrates various marketing and sales tools, including a CRM, website builder, email marketing, social media, and more, into one platform.
HubSpot can enable your business to effectively manage and automate your marketing and sales processes, helping you to save time and resources while improving your overall results. With HubSpot on board, you should find it easier to attract, engage, and convert leads into customers, and then delight them with personalised experiences and exceptional customer service.
How to successfully implement HubSpot
As a HubSpot Diamond Partner agency, we have helped businesses of all shapes and sizes to implement HubSpot and use it to take their marketing to the next level. In this blog, our certified HubSpot specialists share the secrets to a successful HubSpot implementation so you can learn how to effectively implement and use HubSpot to achieve your marketing and sales goals.
We’ll take you through a step-by-step process to:
- Define your business objectives
- Build your implementation team
- Follow best practices
- Optimise your implementation
- Stay ahead of the latest updates
1. Define Your Business Objectives
A successful HubSpot implementation starts with a clear understanding of your business objectives. Aligning HubSpot with your business goals is essential to ensure that your implementation is focused and effective, and that it helps you achieve your desired outcomes.
It can also help you prioritise and focus your implementation efforts on what is most important for your business. In doing so, you can ensure that your implementation supports your overall business strategy, and that it is aligned with your long-term goals.
For example, if your goal is to increase your lead generation, your initial focus may be using HubSpot to create targeted landing pages, run email campaigns, and optimise your website for lead generation. Or if your goal is to improve customer engagement and loyalty, you may first use HubSpot to create personalised experiences and exceptional customer service.
So before you begin to implement HubSpot, it’s important to clearly identify and define your objectives in bringing the platform into your business. Start by reviewing your overall business strategy and goals and identifying which of these goals HubSpot can help you achieve.
You can then start to define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives for your HubSpot implementation. Prioritise your objectives based on their impact and urgency - where do you want to move the needle first? There are so many areas that HubSpot can help you in that it can be tempting to aim for all of them at once, so it’s worth taking the time to align your implementation with your business’s current objectives.
2. Build a Strong Implementation Team
Once you have defined which business objectives you hope to achieve through HubSpot, it’s time to put together a team of people who will be responsible for ensuring a smooth implementation process.
The size and composition of your implementation team will depend on the size and complexity of your business and implementation. However, typical roles and responsibilities for a HubSpot implementation team include:
- A Project Manager, who is responsible for overseeing the implementation project and ensuring that it is aligned with your business goals and objectives.
- A HubSpot Expert who can efficiently set up and configure HubSpot to meet your needs, and provide support and training for your team.
- A Marketing and Sales Lead, responsible for developing and executing marketing and sales campaigns and initiatives, and for measuring and reporting on your results.
- A Website Designer/Developer who can design and develop your website and landing pages, and for ensuring that they are optimised for lead generation and conversion.
- A Customer Service Lead who is responsible for ensuring that your customers receive exceptional customer service and support, and for using HubSpot to manage and track customer interactions and feedback.
With all of these people on your implementation team, you can ensure that the needs of every team that will use HubSpot are heard and that the platform is set up to support each and every one of them.
If you don’t have an internal HubSpot expert, you should seek the support of a HubSpot agency partner, as they will help you to ensure that it is aligned and focused on your business objectives. They can also work with your internal teams to upskill and empower all departments to get the most out of HubSpot.
When you’re looking for a partner, check their experience and expertise. HubSpot makes it easy by ranking their partners - for example, Cognition CRM is a HubSpot Diamond Partner agency, which demonstrates that we’ve helped hundreds of customers to implement and optimise the platform.
The right partner will also be able to put in place a streamlined process that will ensure the implementation runs smoothly and successfully. They should also ensure that the implementation is fully aligned with your overall business strategy and goals.
3. Follow best practices
Over the years, our HubSpot experts have learned a lot about how to implement HubSpot successfully. In their experience, it’s vital to follow best practices such as:
- Ensuring a seamless integration with other tools and platforms.
By integrating HubSpot with your existing tools and systems, you’ll be able to maximise your teams’ efficiency and save time across your business. Start by conducting a thorough analysis of your tools and platforms and identifying any potential challenges and opportunities for integration. HubSpot integrates with many tools, from events platforms like GoToWebinar and analytics tools like HotJar to communication tools like Slack, so you should find that many of your existing systems will connect seamlessly. However, it’s crucial to check that all data is properly synced and updated across all integrated tools and platforms.
- Migrating your data
Data is one of the most valuable assets your business has, which means effective data management is crucial for a successful HubSpot implementation. Some best practices for data migration and management include conducting a thorough audit of the existing data to identify any potential issues or inconsistencies, and developing a detailed data migration plan that outlines the process for transferring data from your existing system to HubSpot. This should ensure that all or your data is accurately and efficiently migrated to HubSpot.
- Optimising the user experience
It’s important to create a user-friendly interface that is easy to use and navigate, so that your teams feel comfortable in using HubSpot. So while you’re implementing HubSpot, create an optimised user experience by conducting user testing - this will enable you to gain insights into the user experience. You can use this insight to develop a clear and intuitive navigation structure that makes it easy for users to find what they need. It’s good practice to continue this even once HubSpot is fully implemented, so you can understand how your teams are using HubSpot and continually improve the user experience over time.
4. Monitor your success
As a platform, HubSpot is very intuitive, however that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to take the time to train your teams. There are so many tools and features within the platform that it’s important to ensure everyone knows how to use the features that will help them in their everyday tasks.
Once you have fully onboarded your teams it is crucial to track and measure key metrics, to ensure that HubSpot is helping you to achieve the goals you defined in the first step of the implementation process. This will help you to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions about how to optimise your implementation for better results. Some metrics that you may want to track include website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and customer engagement.
With this information at your fingertips, you can accurately track your ROI and make changes to your HubSpot configuration if needed. As HubSpot is always changing, it’s also wise to regularly update your teams’ training when new features are released. This way, you can maximise the value you get out of HubSpot.
5. Stay Ahead of the Latest Updates
HubSpot is a powerful and versatile platform that is constantly evolving, with new updates and features being released all the time. So don’t disband your original implementation team, as they can work together to stay up-to-date with any new features or functionality.
By remaining at the forefront of new changes, you can take advantage of the latest capabilities and improve your overall performance. New updates and features can greatly improve the functionality of HubSpot, and make it easier for you to achieve your business goals and objectives.
It can also give you a competitive advantage, as many businesses are using HubSpot to power their marketing these days. However, not all of them are utilising the platform to its full potential - by keeping up-to-date with platform changes, you can ensure that your business is getting the most out of it. And as many of HubSpot’s new features are added to help you strengthen your marketing, improve your sales processes and provide better customer service, educating yourself on these features will help you achieve your business goals.
To stay informed of the latest updates, you should regularly check the HubSpot blog, sign up for email updates, and attend their webinars and events. If you’re working with a HubSpot Partner like Cognition CRM, you can also rely on our HubSpot experts to let you know about any new features that are released and help your team to get to grips with them.
Start your HubSpot implementation today
Whether you are looking to streamline your sales and marketing processes, increase your website traffic, or drive more conversions, HubSpot has the tools and capabilities you need to succeed. But it all starts with a successful implementation - and that can be complex if you don’t have an internal HubSpot expert.
Fortunately, our HubSpot experts are on hand to help you smoothly and successfully implement HubSpot into your business. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.
