The biggest headache with launching an inbound campaign isn't actually creating the campaign; it's everything else. It can take 3-5 different tools just to get all the pieces updated: your website to manage landing pages, your email marketing tool to create emails, your CRM to update lead status, etc., etc.
It gets exhausting, and it can make your inbound marketing campaign unprofitable. If you have to spend 50+ hours internally just to get it up and running and you don't see that number come back in equal or greater revenue...then what was the point?
If you're in this position (and as marketers, we've all been there), you're likely investigating tools that will simplify the process and keep everything under one roof.
One tool to seriously consider is HubSpot.
What is HubSpot?
HubSpot is a suite of software tools for marketing, contact management, sales, service, billing and web design. It all begins with the free customer relationship management system (CRM). From there, customers can choose additional hubs to unlock additional features. Available Hubs include:
- HubSpot CRM - A contact management database.
- Sales Hub - Additional tools for sales enablement, like scheduling, pipelines and automation.
- Marketing Hub - Digital marketing tools like social media, online advertising and inbound marketing automation. Some tools in Content Hub work alongside your marketing strategy (more on that later).
- Service Hub - Tools for customer service teams, like a ticketing system, knowledgebase and chatbot.
- Commerce Hub - Unlocks payment tools, like quotes, invoices and in-app payments.
- Operations Hub - Quality of life improvements for all of HubSpot, like bulk editing, automated data formatting and data health tracking.
- Content Hub - A website builder and content management system - which I'll dig into more in the next section. The new Content Hub has more features than the previous CMS Hub.
Most Hubs are offered at different tiers of pricing, which also includes different features. This buildable model means you can fully customize your HubSpot account for your current organization and growth goals.
For inbound marketing, Marketing Hub and the HubSpot CRM are the most relevant tools - and often the only two needed.
Is HubSpot the Best Comprehensive Inbound Marketing Tool?
Short version: yes.
Longer version: All of the tools you need to create, launch and promote an inbound marketing campaign are included in Marketing Hub. With the additional free contact relationship management tool (CRM), you have access to all the features you need to create compelling inbound marketing campaigns (more on that below!). While other tools can deliver the same results, you'll often need to use multiple tools to execute the same tactics that can be done all within HubSpot.
Additionally, adding more Hubs will allow you to tap into even more tools that can aid your inbound marketing efforts. For example, Content Hub includes a "remix" feature that allows you to create promotional social media content for your landing pages and blogs related to your inbound marketing campaign.
Inbound Marketing Tools Within HubSpot
CRM Integration
Inbound marketing is all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. The key to identifying those three "rights" is data management. This goes back to your CRM, which is integrated completely into your marketing efforts with HubSpot. This will give you robust data to use for your marketing efforts - beyond just First Name/Last Name. You get access to behavioral data, past purchase history and interests. You can use this data in your follow-up emails and/or one-on-one sales conversations.
Canva Integration
No matter what type of asset you intend to use for your inbound marketing campaign, you'll at minimum need a cover image and other promotional images to use in your marketing. The Canva integration within HubSpot allows you to create designs without leaving HubSpot. It's a small thing, but it really adds up as a time saver when you don't have to keep switching to another window.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are absolutely vital for getting contacts to download your asset. HubSpot's free landing page builder makes it easy to create a compelling landing page in seconds. And, it's easy enough that marketing teams can use it - no coding experience required. Because forms are included as a part of your HubSpot CRM, that also means that any data from form submissions are accessible throughout all your HubSpot marketing tools.
Along with your landing pages, you can create thank you pages that redirect visitors to the asset after they fill out a form. You can upload and host a huge variety of asset types - videos, guides, quizzes, etc. This also lets you tap into some of the data you may have just gathered from the form, using smart content.
Smart content allows you to populate content based on user data. For example - let's say your inbound asset is a guidebook, and on the download form you ask users to report their industry. On the thank you page, a content block displays blogs. Depending on the industry of the user that they just entered, you can use smart content to show them different blogs that are specific to their industry. That's just one example, but the possibilities are endless.
Automation
The real magic behind HubSpot and why it makes a fantastic all-in-one inbound marketing tool are the automation tools included. At a basic level, you can automate forms to send a follow-up email, landing pages to redirect after a form is submitted and contacts to receive follow-up emails after download.
But HubSpot can go far beyond that.
Using workflows, you can create a complex web of actions that are all automated. Examples include (but aren't limited to):
- Update contact properties as users move through the campaign
- Automatically notify sales, marketing or customer service when a specific action is taken
- If/then branches that guide users down different paths depending on the actions they take
- Segmenting and personalizing follow-ups based on contact properties and/or activities
- Sync data from workflows to external tools
- Follow-up with leads by sending them additional emails or SMS messages at timed intervals
- Automatically exclude bad-fit or "not-now" leads from hot leads
The HubSpot workflow tool is extremely robust, and only limited by your imagination.
Related Content: 5 Essential HubSpot Workflows to Copy
Email Marketing
The Marketing Hub tool also includes an all-in-one email marketing tool for promotion and automated follow-up in your inbound marketing campaigns.
Using the integrated CRM, you can segment your existing audience to send promotional emails enticing them to engage with your inbound campaign.
For contacts who have engaged by filling out a form to download your asset, you can use the email marketing tool to create strategic follow-ups that can automated. This is also where you can use smart content to further personalize email follow-ups based on interest, stage in the buyer's journey and other actions the lead has taken.
Social Media Marketing and Advertising
A huge part of the success of an inbound marketing campaign is promotion. HubSpot's Marketing Hub includes a full-suite social media management haven:
- Promote your post organically through the scheduling tool
- Follow related hashtags and accounts to hop on trends
- Monitor comments and direct messages for immediate follow-up
- Use paid tools on social media sites to push your content out to a new audience
In a typical marketing tool, these features might come as an extra cost or an external tool. With HubSpot, it's all included and integrated. This also means that if a contact is in your CRM and also engages with you on social media, you'll have unique data you can pass off to your sales team to help close the sale.
Clear Reporting
HubSpot includes several pre-built reporting dashboards that automatically track typical KPIs for inbound marketing campaigns - such as form fills, new contacts and engagements. But the robust reporting features also make it easy to DIY your dashboards with completely custom reports.
Deliver different data to different teams with this automated, streamlined reporting. One of my favorite ways to use reporting with inbound marketing campaigns is to tap into the CRM and Sales Hub (if you have it) to create associated revenue reports. These are fantastic proof for business owners who may question the value of inbound marketing - well, here's the actual $$ it's created for us.
Ongoing Education
One of the most underrated but valuable inbound marketing tools is access to free ongoing education. A HubSpot membership also includes access to their HubSpot Academy of recorded classes and the Community forum to connect with other users. Keep up with the speed of trends and get insight from other marketers on how they perfect their inbound campaigns.
Final Thoughts
The amount of included tools within HubSpot's Marketing Hub compared to other marketing tools makes it the best comprehensive inbound marketing tool. With everything in one place and syncing, you can do more with less. For marketers, salespeople and anyone else who may work on inbound marketing campaigns - it's definitely worth trying out.
No more flipping between 3 programs just to get one simple thing done. With HubSpot - everything you need to run an inbound marketing campaign is under one metaphorical roof.
Get the Most out of HubSpot Pro with a HubSpot Partner Agency
BizzyWeb is a HubSpot Platinum Partner: we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for all hubs. Our team has over 196 certifications in HubSpot (and constantly growing). No matter what your HubSpot needs are, our team is ready to handle them.
Plus, we are the only agency in Minnesota with a Platform Enablement Accreditation from HubSpot - sounds fancy, but it means we're top-notch in making HubSpot work within your business.
BizzyWeb is a Minneapolis-based digital marketing and web design agency that helps companies get the high-quality leads they need to grow and thrive. Our tactics include inbound marketing, SEO, advertising, web design, content creation and sales automation. We are an accredited HubSpot Platinum Partner and we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for new and current users.
