10 Reasons Why We Chose To Grow Our Business With HubSpot

Three years ago, I had a ‘gulp’ moment when I made a hefty, and possibly my first serious, investment in Tribal Impact. The business started to grow quite rapidly – we were attracting a lot of new customers and onboarding new team members. If we were to scale efficiently, I needed to make quick decisions about how we were going to do that with regards to our own technology stack.

As I browsed the options, I considered solutions like ActOn and Ontraport. I also considered patching my own solution together with disparate systems like MailChimp and Leadpages. In the end, we went HubSpot and I’ve never looked back since.

I describe it as a ‘gulp’ moment because it really was. As a two-year-old start-up, you tend to gulp at any investment that doesn’t provide an immediate return but in hindsight, it was the best decision we ever made. In fact, we love it so much we’re now a Solutions Partner for them and a 2020 HubSpot Champion User – one of their most active accounts! An unexpected, but positive, outcome of the journey with them.

Here are 10 reasons why we chose to grow with HubSpot.

Consolidation

By far the biggest (and most common) reason for selecting HubSpot is the ability to consolidate all the different MarTech tools in one place. Bringing our website under the same roof as our analytics, email marketing tool, reporting, sales dashboard and service desk is efficient and economical. No more API integrations or Zapier connections to worry about. The entire story sits under one consolidated roof – one source of truth.

Integration (LinkedIn Sales Navigator & Microsoft)

One thing I love about HubSpot is how it integrates into our day-to-day tools. Our emails are recorded automatically in the CRM, the Outlook widget allows us to utilise HubSpot templates at the click of a button and we can set tasks as well as jump into the contact record at any point from our email. I also appreciate the ability to sync up and save contacts in LinkedIn Sales Navigator directly from the HubSpot portal.

Insights

Any tool can provide you with data but HubSpot goes one step further. You can slice and dice the information in so many ways that it serves up insights. Our top performing pillar pages, our highest converting landing pages, and attribution modelling to show where our customers are coming from and which pages are influencing their journey with us. This intelligence is priceless if you like tweaking and shifting your content like we do.

Talked Our Language

Our tribe has never been a sales-driven organisation – we’re a growth-driven organisation. It’s always been our approach and the HubSpot model just aligned to our thinking about serving up content that educates and informs. Digital inbound is an approach that I feel more comfortable with – it’s less intrusive for the buyer and less stressful for us. Our best-fit customers find us and decide for themselves if we’re right for them. Conversations are easier and less pitchy. I think that’s why I really like every single one of our customers.

Training

If you have never found the HubSpot Academy, it’s time to take a look. It’s simply best-in-class. The resources, the content, the delivery methodology is arguably the best a marketer can find and what’s more, they give it away for free. My journey with HubSpot actually started about 10 years ago when I took their courses for fun. I recognised I needed to update my skillset and understand the impact of digital and I thank HubSpot for starting me on that journey!

Roadmap

It’s just the gift that keeps on giving. HubSpot are always adding to the platform. In our short experience of being a customer they’ve added Service Hub, ABM functionality, attribution modelling to name a few. My girls love LOL Dolls – the excitement of unwrapping different doll accessories just fills them with joy. HubSpot is my LOL Doll – every time I log in, I get a little excited to unwrap the new functionality they’ve added!

Scalability

I needed a tool that would grow with our business. I didn’t want to be throwing out and replacing it within a couple of years so I needed a system that would be robust enough to grow as we grew. The pricing model works to suit start-ups and scale-ups. The free CRM is a perfect ‘toe in the water’ introduction to the platform. The contact pricing structure is perfect for those that then want to grow in the platform. It’s how we’ve grown.

Holistic Approach

The flywheel was my ah-ha moment. I remember sitting at INBOUND in Boston during 2018 and seeing Dharmesh and Brian share the flywheel on stage. This is an integrated approach to driving business growth driven by advocacy, content and reduction of friction. I took that mantra and introduced it to our business and whilst we’re still on our transformation journey, it changed everything for how we operated as a business. We’re automated, efficient and driven by data.

Functionality

I haven’t even mentioned the endless functionality that is within the platform. I’m like a kid in a sweetshop! We went all in on HubSpot and transferred our website across from WordPress to the HubSpot CMS (Content Management System). This means everything is joined up – the email marketing, the chatbot, the service desk, the knowledge base, the sales forecasting and the CRM.   We’re also able to A/B test, add workflows and build nurture sequences. Incredible.

Accessibility

Whether mobile, tablet or laptop we’re able to access the platform at any time. This is important, because in the digital world, you need to respond fast to an inbound query. It’s common knowledge within the Social Selling world that if you aren’t the first, you’ll be the last. First impressions count in the digital world, so you need to respond when your customers are ready to talk to you.