Improving your e-commerce operations or showing marketing ROI can be challenging. Getting your systems working together can feel like herding cats.
Here's where HubSpot comes in.
HubSpot is a great CRM platform and management tool for any business. HubSpot provides business tools and support to help you run your business. Known as Hubs they include marketing, content, sales, operations, customer service or commerce.
Let’s break down each Hub to show you exactly how they can work for your business. Start by thinking of a Hub as a Formula 1 pit crew. Each member has their specialty, but when they work together, that's when the magic happens.
Marketing Hub: Your lead-generating powerhouse
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is like having an entire marketing team working 24/7. It handles everything from getting leads on your website to nurturing them with email campaigns. It also tracks what works and what doesn't.
Key features explained
- Email marketing automation: Set up emails that automatically send based on what your contacts do. For example, when someone downloads your pricing guide, they automatically get a series of helpful follow-up emails.
- Landing pages and forms: Create landing pages without needing a web developer. These aren't just pretty pages - they're lead-capturing machines that automatically feed information into your database.
- Social media management: Schedule posts across all your channels from one place. Also see which posts are actually driving leads and sales.
- SEO tools: Get recommendations on how to improve your website's search ranking.
- Campaign analytics: See exactly how your marketing efforts are paying off.
- Lead scoring: Automatically rank leads based on their behaviour, so your sales team knows who to contact first.
Real-world Marketing Hub
When K-TIG implemented Marketing Hub, they didn't just get a few more leads - they saw a 172% increase in leads within three months. Their website traffic jumped 45%, and they were converting visitors to contacts 1.5 times more often.
Why? Because they could finally track what content resonated with their audience and automatically nurture relationships at scale.
Sales Hub: Your deal-closing companion
Sales Hub transforms your sales process from a scattered collection of spreadsheets into a streamlined system. This will help you close more deals with less effort.
Key features explained
- Deal pipeline management: See every potential sale at a glance. Clear stages will show you exactly where each deal stands and what needs to happen next.
- Meeting scheduler: End the email ping-pong of scheduling meetings. Your prospects can book time directly in your calendar based on your real availability.
- Email sequences: Create templates for common sales situations. Set up automated follow-up sequences that feel personal but save hours of time.
- Sales automation: Automatically assign leads, set follow-up tasks, and track when prospects engage with your emails or website.
- Quote generation: Create professional quotes in seconds that pull in all the correct pricing and product information.
- Conversation intelligence: Record and analyse sales calls to help your team improve their techniques and share winning strategies.
Real-world Sales Hub
FlatRateNOW used Sales Hub to revolutionise their sales process. They saw a 633% increase in new deals created. The team could finally track and follow up with every lead effectively. Their deal closure rate improved by 256% because they could see exactly where each opportunity stood and what needed to happen next.
Service Hub: Your customer satisfaction engine
Service Hub turns customer support into a proactive system that keeps customers happy and coming back for more.
Key features explained
- Ticket management: Every customer enquiry gets tracked and routed to the right person automatically. No more lost emails or forgotten follow-ups.
- Knowledge base: Create a searchable library of articles that answer common questions. This will reduce support tickets and help customers find the answers.
- Customer feedback tools: Automatically collect and analyse customer feedback, helping you identify problems before they become deal-breakers.
- Customer portal: Customers can login and track their support tickets and access exclusive resources.
- Service automation: Create workflows that automatically send tickets, follow-ups, and alerts to team members when action is needed.
- Reporting dashboard: See average response times, customer satisfaction scores, and common issues all in one place.
Real-world Service Hub
For our own team at Refuel, Service Hub revolutionised our customer support. By implementing a comprehensive Knowledge Base, custom support portal, and streamlined ticketing system, we transformed our service delivery.
The results came quickly. There were fewer delays from the CEO. Less support was needed because of self-service options.
Customer satisfaction improved a lot. Our Knowledge Base became so effective that clients could find answers instantly, rather than waiting for support.
Operations Hub: Your data and systems coordinator
Operations Hub is like having a team of experts in systems and data. They work behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly.
Key features explained
- Data sync: Automatically keep your customer data consistent across all your systems.
- Data quality automation: Standardise phone numbers or company names and clean up messy data automatically.
- Custom workflow actions: Create complex automation that goes beyond standard "if this, then that" rules.
- Advanced reporting: Build custom reports that pull data from multiple sources to give you the exact insights you need.
- Programmable automation: For tech-savvy teams, create custom code-based workflows that can handle any business process.
Real-world Operations Hub
For K-TIG, Operations Hub was a game-changer. They eliminated 132 redundant data properties and created 307 custom reports across 17 dashboards. This gave them clear visibility of their entire business operation, from marketing performance to sales efficiency to customer satisfaction.
Content Hub: Your content creation powerhouse
Content Hub creates a streamlined content process that consistently produces engaging material while maintaining brand consistency and measuring impact.
Key features explained
- Content calendar: Plan, visualise and share your entire content strategy in one place.
- Content creation tools: Build blog posts, landing pages, and website content with an intuitive editor that maintains brand consistency.
- Asset management: Store and organise your digital assets in one location to ensure everyone uses the right assets.
- Content optimisation: Get real-time SEO suggestions to help you create content that ranks and converts.
- Topic clustering: Organise your content into strategic topic clusters to boost your search engine authority.
- Content performance analytics: Track each piece of content using engagement and performance metrics.
Real-world Content Hub
For FlatRateNow, Content Hub transformed their digital presence. By using HubSpot’s social media tools, they saw amazing results. They had a 3,633% increase in website traffic. They also gained a 4,546% rise in new visitors from paid social campaigns.
This turned their basic HubSpot setup into a high-performance marketing engine driving real business growth.
Commerce Hub: Your e-commerce growth engine
Commerce Hub transforms your online store into a sophisticated sales machine. It not only processes transactions but creates personalised shopping experiences that drive repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
Key features explained
- Product catalogue management: Manage your entire product catalogue in one place. Features also include automatic syncing and smart inventory tracking.
- Personalised shopping experiences: Create dynamic product recommendations and personalised content based on customer behaviour and purchase history.
- Payment processing: Handle multiple payment methods securely, with automatic tax calculations and fraud prevention built in.
- Order management: Track and manage orders from placement to fulfilment, with automated updates to customers and internal teams.
- Abandoned cart recovery: Automatically re-engage shoppers who leave items in their cart with personalised follow-up sequences.
- E-commerce analytics: Get detailed insights into shopping behaviour, product performance, and revenue metrics to optimise your store continuously.
The power of using multiple Hubs together
While each Hub is powerful on its own, the magic happens when they work together. Let's look at why combining Hubs could be your ticket to pole position.
Why integration matters
When you use multiple HubSpot Hubs together, you're not just adding features - you're multiplying their effectiveness. Here's how:
- Complete customer visibility
- Marketing knows which leads sales is talking to
- Sales can see which support tickets their customers have opened
- Service team knows what marketing materials customers have received
- Everyone works from the same, up-to-date information
- Automated handoffs
- Marketing qualified leads automatically route to the right sales rep
- Closed deals trigger customer onboarding sequences
- Support tickets alert account managers about potential issues
- Website behaviour influences sales outreach timing
- Better reporting and insights
- Track the complete customer journey from first touch to loyal customer
- Understand which marketing efforts drive the best customers
- See how service issues impact sales opportunities
- Measure true ROI across all activities
The aim is to get all of your platforms integrated into HubSpot CRM so you get a true single view of your customers. Integrating that data across the different HubSpot Hubs provides another way of streamlining access and reporting.
Cost considerations
While each Hub can be purchased separately, combining Hubs often makes financial sense:
- Bundle pricing offers significant savings
- Reduced integration costs compared to using separate systems
- Lower training costs with one consistent interface
- Time savings from automated data flow between Hubs
Is HubSpot worth the investment?
The simple answer is for most people, yes! We suggest the Professional tier. This tier adds automation, helping you grow your marketing, sales, and support beyond your team size.
Making your decision
Questions to consider
- What are your biggest operational challenges right now?
- Which departments need better tools or automation?
- How important is having integrated data across departments?
- What's your timeline for implementation?
- What's your budget for marketing and sales technology?
Common Hub combinations
We often suggest you go with two or more Hubs to get your business working for you. Here are some combinations we would suggest looking at:
Lead generation focus:
- Start with: Marketing Hub + Content Hub
- Add later: Sales Hub
Sales efficiency focus:
- Start with: Sales Hub + Commerce Hub
- Add later: Operations Hub
Customer service focus:
- Start with: Service Hub + Sales Hub
- Add later: Marketing Hub
Complete business transformation:
- All Hubs for maximum impact - this is called Customer Platform
- Implement in phases based on priorities
How we can guide you through your HubSpot journey
Ready to take your business to the next level with HubSpot? As HubSpot Partners we are here to help. Not only are we partners, but we are users too. So we get the challenges you may be facing getting HubSpot to integrate seamlessly into your business.
If you’re new to HubSpot, we’ll firstly audit your existing setup. We will then develop a customised implementation plan so that HubSpot works for you and your business.
If you currently have HubSpot, we’ll look at your current Hubs, your setup and provide expert recommendations. We can streamline your tasks, clean up your data and check out new features and best practices to help you stay ahead of the pack.
Implementing HubSpot isn't just about buying software - it's about transforming how your business operates. We can help you make the most of your HubSpot investment.
Want to learn more about how HubSpot's Hubs could transform your business? Let's chat about your goals and find the perfect combination to help you succeed.
We can help with your HubSpot CRM implementation and transform your business.
