Episode 309: HubSpot Fundamentals

Welcome to HubShots Episode 309: HubSpot Fundamentals

This edition we dive into:

• Quick Wins for new HubSpot Users
• CRM fundamentals
• Marketing Hub fundamentals to use
• Sales Hub fundamentals to use
• Key Settings to enable
• AI tools to start with
• Consider getting access to Enterprise features (at the cost of just a single seat)

You can watch this episode on our YouTube episodes playlist. Or listen on our Spotify channel.

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Recorded: Wednesday 11 September 2024 | Published: Friday 13 September 2024

🌱 Shot 1: Growth Thought of the Week

Get the Foundations in Place

As we record this, INBOUND is just a week or so away. There’ll be a ton of new features and announcements (view them here). Exciting times, but also potentially very distracting times.

Why?

Because, often the biggest gains aren’t from new features, instead they come from ensuring the basics are in place.

So it’s even more timely that in today’s episode we focus back on the fundamentals.

We’re going to touch on some of the basics that we’ve been training clients with recently. Sometimes a few quick refresher training sessions are all a team needs in order to increase productivity. You can access our entire set of training decks from here.

If you’ve downloaded our HubShots Framework, then you’ll be familiar with Stages 1 and 2. These are the fundamentals to get in place.

One final comment: we’ve trimmed this down to just the bare essentials - and it was hard leaving a ton of the basics out. But based on our experience, these are some of the quick wins we ideally want to see every HubSpot user being across.

✨ Shot 2: Quick Shots of the Week

Before we jump in, here’s a quick update to be across:

Understand the new navigation menu 

Where have some things gone - plus, using Bookmarks 

The new menu has caused some confusion for users, but most seem happy with it - they’ve embraced the change with minimal issues.

A few quick notes:

• Be sure to use the Bookmarks feature - you can easily mark a few common tools as bookmarks to make them easier to navigate to
• Target Accounts: this is ‘hiding’ in the Companies View (top right)
• Meetings is now under the Library menu

Aside: Understand the default HubSpot properties

• Or put another way, DON’T create new properties until you understand the default HubSpot properties that come out of the box (link to knowledge base) 
• One of the fundamental errors we see in new portals is users adding in lots of new properties - that aren’t needed, and just make things complex later

✍️ Shot 3: HubSpot CRM Fundamentals

[1] Using Views

Views (KB article) are the ‘secret’ to using HubSpot efficiently. We say ‘secret’ because even though they are easy to use once you know how, most of the portals we audit don’t have many (or sometimes any) Views set up. (Conversely, whenever we look in a portal and see lots, perhaps hundreds, of Views we know they are an advanced user.)

When we show users how to Save views it’s like a productivity unlock.

They’re really easy once you know how. 

There’s four main features of Views to be aware of:

• Filtering,
• Setting columns 
• Saving/cloning 
• Sharing 

Use the Advanced filters section to filter down your view of contacts based on any of the (hundreds of) contact properties.

One quick tip for using the Filters in Views - you can filter your View to use a List. Often marketing teams build complex lists (lots of specific criteria), in Views you can simply filter using that list - very handy:

For an example of setting columns for a marketing view, see this quick video we prepared.

For Sharing, you can easily choose from Views that others have created:

[2] Viewing All Properties

When viewing an individual contact (or company or deal etc) you initially only see a few default properties.

However, there are hundreds of properties available (out of the box) to view.

You can easily view all of these by choosing from the Actions menu:

You can also view complete property history of all properties (which can be overwhelming just FYI).

When Viewing all properties you’ll be able to view every single property on a contact, and also search (if you know the name/label of the property):

[3] Viewing history of a property

You can also view the complete history of an individual property by hovering over the property and clicking the Details button:

🚀 Shot 4: HubSpot Marketing Hub Fundamentals

Assuming you have the CRM fundamentals above in place (ie being able to use Views and properties), from the marketing side you should next focus on making sure all the marketing activities are being tracking in HubSpot (so that you can analyse attribution):

[1] Tracking Script in place

If your website isn’t on HubSpot (eg you’re using WordPress or Shopify or some other platform) then you should ensure you insert the HubSpot tracking script on the site.

This will allow you to track website visits, sessions, bounce rates etc as well as enable attribution for which channels are generating leads.

You can get your tracking script from Settings > Tracking & Analytics > Tracking Code

[2] Connect Advertising Accounts

Next, if you’re using paid advertising channels such as Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads, or LinkedIn ads - make sure you have these connected into HubSpot.

Note: you may have to reconnect them every few months.

Once connected, this will feed into attribution reports so you can measure how your ad spend is working.

[3] Using Lists

Get up to speed on using Lists (with Contacts, Companies, Deals and Tickets).

Lists are the building blocks of HubSpot. For further details please see our episode 280 which has a deepdive into best practices for using Lists in HubSpot.

Next Steps

Comfortable with the above? Great, next you can started on the following areas:

• Understand how to use personalisation tokens 
• Start looking at built in reports
• See more recommendations for next steps in the HubShots Framework (especially Stages 1 and 2) 

💰 Shot 5: HubSpot Sales Fundamentals

[0] Use Views

See the above Marketing section for the fundamentals on using Views - they apply to Deals as well.

In terms of some common columns to use in a Sales View, please watch this quick walkthrough video.

[1] Connecting Personal Email Inbox and Calendar

One of the first things sales reps should do is connect their Inbox and Calendar into HubSpot, in order to easily track email and meeting activities into HubSpot automatically.

You can connect your Inbox from the Profile section (note: each User has to do this individually):

You can connect Google Workspace and Office 365 accounts (including using Outlook).

One ‘gotcha’ to be aware of: Outlook often forces you to login again every 2 weeks to keep your email connected to HubSpot - this can be kinda frustrating - but something to be mindful of.

Make sure you enable Inbox Automation

When you connect your inbox, make sure to tick the Inbox Automation checkbox:

Inbox Automation (KB article) is a handy feature that when ticked, allows HubSpot to scan your emails and automatically pull out contact details from email signatures etc. See also the Settings section later for enabling AI tools.

Connecting your Calendar is a separate item - access this from the Calendar tab in your profile: 

[2] NeverLog settings

Once you’ve connected your Inbox, you’ll almost always want to add some NeverLog settings.

These are emails and email domains that will never get logged into HubSpot (eg I have my wife’s email as a NeverLog setting so that I never accidentally log my emails to her into our HubSpot portal).

They can be set for each person individually, and also on a company portal wide basis.

[3] Sales Tools

Once your Inbox and Calendar are connected, you can start making use of Snippets and Templates - not only within HubSpot, but they’ll also show up in Outlook or GSuite.

• Templates - prepared sections of text, including personalisation tokens, that you can easily add into emails and notes
• Snippets - similar to templates, but a baby version (and doesn’t include rich text formatting)

Next Steps

Got the above all sorted? Great, you’re on your way - next, you can start diving into the following:

• Tasks
• Queues
• Sequence enrolments
• Seeing your companies and key information about it, like associated contacts, deals last engagement, last activity

We won’t dig into them in this episode, but you check out some of our previous episodes for details.

Plus:

• Start looking at built-in reports
• See more recommendations for next steps in the HubShots Framework (especially Stages 1 and 2)

Using the HubSpot mobile app

Did you know that HubSpot has a mobile app? Many users don’t.

It’s especially useful for Sales reps who are on the move, and want quick access to contact details.

A few quick tips and common usage scenarios:

• Having views setup makes it easier to find things on the mobile app
• Card scanning
• Logging activity
• Dashboards
• Taking photos and adding it to meeting activity quickly

👨‍🔧 Shot 6: HubSpot Service Hub Fundamentals

[0] Use Views

I know, I know, we’ve mentioned Views in Marketing and Sales above.

Tickets are no different - getting up to speed on using Views will unlock the efficiency of your Customer Success teams.

That’s actually all we’re going to say about Service Hub fundamentals for now. Just use Views well.

Sure, we could talk about surveys and knowledge bases, but they aren’t quick wins - they deserve their own episode. For now, if you’re using Tickets, just make sure you know how to use Views well!

🔧 Shot 7: HubSpot Settings

There are so many settings in HubSpot it can be overwhelming. Here are a few of the key settings we always check in client portals:

[1] Settings > Companies > Company auto-creation

This setting tends to be ticked already in most portals we review, but always worth checking in yours.

This setting saves a ton of time - every time you add a contact HubSpot will automatically check the domain of the email address and ensure there is an associated company (and if there’s no company already it will create it for you). Such a time saver! And yes, it’s smart enough to ignore for free email addresses (eg Gmail, Hotmail, etc).

Aside: Quick tip for Importing Contacts

Import Contacts first (ie before importing Companies)

• Why import contacts first? Because you can have a company auto created from the domain and associated to the contact import (but make sure you have the setting above turned on before you import)

[2] Settings > Contact > Assign company owner to contact

Another time save, which most portals (but not all) will want to enable.

This will automatically assign a contact owner to be the same as the associated company.

There are some cases however when you may not want to have this enabled eg if you work with large corporate accounts that have multiple departments, or Government departments, you may want to keep the assigning of owners to be a manual process (or perhaps managed via a workflows), since these accounts tend to have different owners for different divisions.

Bonus: note the Fill contact details with HubSpot AI setting - another handy option to enable - it goes hand in hand with the Inbox Automation setting (from Shot 2 earlier)

[3] Settings > Contacts > Lifecycle stages

We didn’t used to mention Lifecycle stages as a fundamental to get in place, but these days we do. 

Why? Because having an understanding of lifecycle stages is a key to helping teams prioritise their activities.

For Sales reps it helps focus on the highest priority prospects and customers, and for Marketing teams it helps highlight the key areas to focus on (eg awareness, lead gen, nurture, decision, etc) 

One of the first things we check in new portals is if they are assigning lifecycle stages to contacts (and in turn companies).

Often we find portals with every contact marked as a Lead, and only they only change if a Deal is created of they are converted to a customer - and nothing in between. These portals are always an opportunity for quick improvement.

💡 Shot 8: Connected Apps

HubSpot ‘integrates’ with almost everything these days…

There’s three main integration paths:

[1] Native App integrations

Find these on the HubSpot App Marketplace  and in your Connected Apps settings area

Some common apps we use include:

• Google Search Console
• Zoom / Teams / Google Meet
• Xero
• Also, WhatsApp and LinkedIn Sales Navigator

[2] External connectors

Eg Zapier and Make

These third-party platforms can be used to connect a huge selection of other platforms in with HubSpot.

[3] Custom integrations (via API)

This isn’t a topic we’ll be covering in this episode - we’re just mentioning it for completeness in terms of integrations.

🏈 Shot 9: AI Features

AI Assistants 

There’s no shortage of AI tools and features rolling out - and these alone can be overwhelming.

Some however are simple and easy to add to your usage:

• Content prompts - eg page titles and Meta descriptions, also workflow descriptions 
• Conversation analysis - eg summarising a support ticket conversation

Look for the Summarize option on most objects (ie contacts, deals, tickets, etc)

Future

• AI Chatbots will be getting a ton of focus in future, and may be worth trying.

📚 Shot 10: Thought of the Week 

Small Businesses using Big Business features

HubSpot as a platform feels as though it is diving into two main audiences:

• Beginners and basics (Free and Starter tiers)
• Sophisticated (Enterprise tier)

Most of the new exciting features (eg Deal approvals, Sensitive data) tend to be at the Enterprise tier, and I’m OK with this.

That’s not to say the Pro tier is being neglected (there are still plenty of updates there especially around Content Hub and the Marketing+ bundle) 

And at the entry level there’s some very compelling updates (eg the new Forms builder), coupled with a hard-to-beat entry price ($22 per month for the full Starter Suite)

But the big steps are happening in the enterprise tiers. A year or two ago this would have frustrated me, but HubSpot’s per seat changes over the past year have made this viable even for smaller companies (eg just buy a single seat).

In Australia, a business can buy a single Sales Enterprise seat for $220 per month. That gives that user access to everything at the Enterprise level in Sales Hub.

🏋️ Shot 11: Training of the Week

HubSpot Training Decks 

We’ve put together all our HubSpot Training decks (ie the decks we use with clients in paid training sessions) and made them available from here.

🏋️ Shot 12: Have You Downloaded The HubShots Framework?

HubShots Framework Poster

Download a copy of the HubShots Framework Google doc (recently updated with new items). 

🧲 Shot 13: Follow Us on the Socials

Connect with HubShots here: 

• HubShots YouTube channel 
• HubShots Spotify channel 
• HubShots iTunes
• HubShots Instagram 
• HubShots LinkedIn 
• HubShots Threads

Connect with Ian Jacob on LinkedIn and Craig Bailey on Threads 

HubShots, the podcast for marketing managers and sales professionals who use HubSpot, hosted by Ian Jacob from Search & Be Found and Craig Bailey from XEN Systems and XEN Create. 

HubShots is produced by Christopher Mottram from Podcastily.

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