Is HubSpot CRM good for small businesses?
Whether you work for a small business or run the entire operation, chances are, you know what it’s like to wear a bunch of hats at once. The “how will we increase revenue?” hat and the “where’s my proposal?” hat. Or, the “product demo” hat, the “social media advertising” hat … and the “coffee pot needs refilling” hat. There’s always more to do than you have time for and any opportunity to reduce the tasks on your list, and better manage your team, is surely welcome.
Thankfully, we’re working in the golden age of CRM (customer relationship management) systems – game-changing tools that can automate your sales process, and ultimately add to your bottom line.
Why do small businesses need CRM?
Let me ask you this: Is it your goal to increase sales this year? If yes, then you need a CRM.
Think about all of the steps and time your team takes navigating platforms and databases simply to find information. Wouldn’t you want your sales team spending more time closing deals and less time on manual data entry and admin tasks?
If you aren’t using a CRM, your team is wasting valuable time getting in and out of different platforms, searching for historical emails and communication in your inbox, and keeping track of data in outdated spreadsheets. Using spreadsheets to track things like company contacts, KPIs and sales forecasting data is a huge productivity killer.
Not only does a CRM bring together sales, marketing, and client data together in one convenient place, it automates tedious tasks and frees up valuable time needed to focus on growing the business. There are dozens of CRM options to choose from, with varying tools and capabilities. But from our perspective, for the long-term growth and success of your small business, HubSpot is the way to go.
Benefits of HubSpot
With all of the CRM options available, there’s a reason why HubSpot’s cloud-based platform has risen to the top, especially among small businesses looking for a cost-effective solution that will help them boost sales and really compete within their marketplace. The benefits of choosing HubSpot are plentiful, but here are a few key advantages.
1. It keeps all your data in one place.
One of the key benefits of using HubSpot is the single centralized platform it offers. Your entire team has access to the same information all in one place, connecting the teams across your organization and keeping everyone in the loop. And if we haven’t said it yet, it’s a huge time saver and also eliminates errors that are common when you have to enter data in multiple locations.
2. It closes the loop between marketing and sales.
Even though sales and marketing are intrinsically linked, your efforts can become siloed if you have two different teams and multiple tools in use. If sales and marketing are collecting data separately, they are working with two different sets of data, forcing reps to jump through hoops just to get on the same page.
HubSpot solves this problem. HubSpot CRM helps to align your inbound marketing and sales efforts, with one tool to store data, create content, tailor it to customer personas, monitor the buyer journey, and provide helpful tracking and analytics. When marketing and sales are aligned, marketing can get valuable information/feedback from sales to give sales more qualified leads.
3. It takes collaboration to a new level
HubSpot has a positive reputation for its ease of use and helpful training materials compared to alternative CRM solutions, making it simple to get everyone within your organization on board and interacting through the platform. HubSpot allows you to easily build (developers not needed) customizable dashboards and message boards to connect your teams.
Small businesses can take advantage of features designed to improve transparency and facilitate team collaboration – including group access to social media monitoring, publishing, and reports for more efficient strategizing.
If you have a third-party partner that helps with your marketing efforts, it’s simple to grant them access so they are working within the platform alongside your internal teams as well.
4. It plays well with other platforms
While HubSpot can’t replace some of the apps you rely on, it can integrate with more than 300 apps and services, from email marketing companies and lead generation tools to web development platforms like WordPress, in order to create a seamless experience. This is what makes HubSpot so much better than other CRM platforms.
It easily connects with Gmail or Outlook to record in and outgoing communications. By creating a team email, your team can track, send, and respond to customer emails directly from the CRM. One of our favorite integrations is the ability to create and share meeting links with your contacts so they can easily book a time to meet directly from your calendar.
Choosing the right HubSpot model for your small business
If these benefits have convinced you that you might want to give Hubspot a try, you’ll want to choose the version of the platform that fits your needs and sales goals. Here are the routes you can take, from free to fee-based, in order to make the most of the platform:
- HubSpot’s Freemium offering: This completely free version of the platform is great for small businesses that want to try a CRM but just can’t yet justify spending the money. Freemium includes basic marketing and sales features, email marketing capabilities, live chat, and more. Obviously, you don’t get full access with the free version. There are some limitations such as: limited ability to customize landing pages, you don’t get static or dynamic lists, and you have limited custom reporting capabilities. However, what makes the freemium offering great is it gives you the option to upgrade to more capabilities as you see fit.
- Starter Packages: For growing businesses that want to upgrade to a more comprehensive platform with built-in support, HubSpot offers a series of starter packages, including Marketing Hub Starter and Sales Hub Starter. For only $45 a month you can remove all of HubSpots branding from emails, forms, landing pages, and gain access to in-app support. Or, you can opt for the entire Starter CRM suite and benefit from a broad range of sales and marketing tools. While the Starter Suite will cost a monthly fee, the benefits of the tools included, as well as 24/7 support from the HubSpot team, are worth the investment.
- Professional Packages: For successful sales teams who are ready to upgrade their processes and truly invest in nurturing leads, growing sales, and automating the marketing and sales process, HubSpot’s Professional packages are a great option. At the Professional level, you’ll get enhanced sales features. This jumps up to $450 a month, but you get some amazing features that allow you to personalize your outreach at scale, automate engagement across channels, optimize campaign conversion, and build custom reports — creating a seamless and more personalized customer experience as they travel through the sales funnel.
Before you get going with HubSpot, we recommend having a website in place and a marketing strategy in mind. This gives you a starting point where you can measure your success and improve your lead generation efforts.
And if you want a peek under the hood, just give HubSpot’s free option a try. Also, we are always happy to work with you to evaluate your CRM needs and determine which HubSpot option makes the most sense for your business.
So this all sounds great, right? But wait, are you thinking, “Who has time to set all of this up?” Let us do the heavy lifting for you. Our Hubspot implementation experts will get your system set up, transfer any existing data or content, and work hand-in-hand with your marketing and sales team to show them how they need to be using Hubspot to get the most of your contract.
Schedule time with us, and we’ll give you an honest assessment of which level makes the most sense for your team.
