Today we pull the curtain back on HubSpot. After five years, we are sharing our opinion, including: Is it worth it? How has it benefitted me as a business owner? How did we learn to use it?
A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.
James: Hello, and welcome to another
episode of behind the madness.
We've reached number 10 double figures.
I never thought when we started out
that we'd even get two or three in
the bag, but here we are almost a
year later, I think With number 10.
I'm your host, James Roberts
owner, and founder of method.
We are a growth agency whose mission
is to unlock company's potential.
Before we jump into this episode,
I wanted to take a minute
to talk about the podcast.
We've obviously hit number
10, which is brilliant for us.
It's taken a while to get here.
It's tough being a small organization
and having to do a number of
different things, which is a big
reason about this podcast as well.
You know, being a small organization,
we have to think about the tools and
the implications that, that putting
those tools into into motion is
going to have on the, on our company.
That said we are small.
So we are able to pivot
very, very quickly.
We don't need multiple
meetings to be able to do it.
We can almost do it and decide
on a very quick team meeting.
But running a podcast.
It's tough.
We have to come up with the content.
Which is interesting today, you may
gather I'm doing this all off the cuff.
We needed to get another one out.
I had a really good subject in mind.
And I thought I'd just talked
to a mic for about 30 minutes.
We're getting some great
feedback from clients.
We're getting great feedback from new
leads and people who are coming to us.
Who were in the same field, even,
saying how much they're enjoying
the content that we are putting out.
So we're doing the right things,
but we need to get bigger.
We need to help more people.
As I said, our mission is to
help unlock companies potentials
and to be able to do that.
We need to get this
podcast out to more people.
This is my plea before we get into
today's subject, in kind of a Peter
Crouch podcast style, we're inviting
you guys to, to pass the pod.
To share this podcast
to at least one person.
Hopefully 10, hopefully 50 people that
you think might be interested in it.
But also let us know, let us know
what you are enjoying about it.
Talk to us, we're here to be
talked to and we're nice people.
So let us know what you want to hear
and that's how we can change the pod
into something that is useful for you.
That's probably enough
begging, for one pod.
Let's move on with today's subject.
In this episode, we're going
to look at HubSpot and why we
chose it as a small agency.
Obviously HubSpot comes with a price tag.
It's a tool that is doing a lot of things.
So we had to really think
about why we were going to
implement it as a, as a company.
We're obviously HubSpot partners, but we
still have to pay for HubSpot as well.
In fact, sometimes we get
even better discounts for our
clients than we do ourselves.
So we had to really look at why we were
going to use HubSpot and now five years
on, we can, we can look back and see how
much it has changed our organization.
The early days, why did we pick HubSpot?
Well, we're a small agency.
There's a handful of us here who
do a number of different jobs.
We all wear different hats and we have
to kind of be very very quick to change.
We have to understand what's going
on and quickly fix those problems.
We might have a client phone up one
morning and need us to get something into
a magazine for them that afternoon, we
could be halfway through our day and our
website has some issues that we need to
jump on, or a client wants to make changes
urgently on a website because they've
spotted that there pricing is wrong.
So we're constantly being pulled
into different directions.
And yet, because we're small, we still
need to think about our marketing.
our social media, our sales pipeline.
and keep that ticking over as well,
because, to be able to grow, to be able
to take a business to the next level
you have to get those foundations right.
For us to be able to do
that, we needed tools.
We couldn't keep it all
locked up in our head.
I have to do the majority of
everything and that's the way
the business has been set up.
I can do a number of roles, but
the guys we have working for us can
do those roles better than I can.
That's why we employ them.
That said, the marketing, the
sales, the client's communication
comes down to me as the owner.
I have to make sure clients are
happy, but I also have to make
sure there's new clients coming in.
If I'm being pulled in that
many different directions.
How can I keep an eye on, on marketing.
How can I keep an eye on sales?
Well, that's where HubSpot needed
to come in and solve those problems.
Now let's put price to one side.
It usually puts off the majority
of small to medium businesses.
It's an expensive outlay.
But let's ignore cost and think about
what it's actually doing for us.
I need to be able to be
told when to do things.
Because my day, as I said, is being
pulled apart and I am being pulled
into multiple different directions.
And I have to go to those they're
they're emergencies they're
fires that need to be put out.
I can't put aside time generally
for, sales all the time.
So if I've sent an email
or a quote to somebody.
The chances are, and this is the
same with the majority of small
businesses is it's off their desk.
I forgotten about it.
I've sent my quote.
Great.
I've got it back to the client.
Great.
Let's hope they come back to me.
Now.
A lot of the time they don't.
So without a tool or a system in place
to remind me to go and follow up.
I just wouldn't do it.
And that is one of the
first things we look at.
To unlock company's potentials by
looking at what they're wasting.
Now it could be time.
Or it could be, as I said,
those quotes that you're sending
up and not following up on.
Or the leads that are coming in
that you're not following up on.
So for us automation.
Has to be a big part of what we do.
We could employ somebody else.
But again, being a small company,
we have to then find the time
to train those people up.
Or to get them oh, Fe with the systems or
spend time teaching them the processes.
And they're not going
to work 24 hours a day.
A tool that you can get into place
which gives you those foundations.
Is going to work 24 hours a day.
Is going to remind you like.
Brilliant PA would have
when things need to be done.
It's also not going to need holiday
time, and it's also not going to
be, need to be paid a pension.
So for us as a small
agency, this was brilliant.
This is going to solve a lot
of problems and help optimize
our really precious time.
That was really why we needed at tool.
Was to make us better to make us.
More optimised.
Five years on how's it fared?
Has it met our expectations.
Has it been this PA that I needed and
the rest of the team needed to be able to
prompt us to do the jobs when we needed to
do them in terms of sales and marketing.
Has it improved our, our blogging.
Has it improved our marketing.
Can we research on that?
Can we actually find out the
data of how it may have improved?
Well, I've got good news.
It has improved how we work.
To the degree where if somebody
tomorrow was to tell us we couldn't
use HubSpot I might, I might quit.
We.
Rely on it heavily.
Now it is reminding us of overdue deals.
It's reminding us of quotes that we've
sent out, that we forgotten about.
It's.
Helping us follow up with sales
calls that we may have hit
answer phones, or we may have hit
secretaries or just not got through.
It's reminding us to follow up on just
emails that we're sending out that
might've otherwise been forgotten.
But it's doing a lot more than that.
It's also helping us understand what
is working and what's not working.
What blog posts are coming through
and where they're coming through
from where people are finding them.
How many people are clicking some
of our call to actions, how well
our email campaigns are doing.
It's giving us.
All of these stats around
our digital presence.
But in one place we were disjointed before
we used a number of different tools.
HubSpot, I've got a very good post
around Franken spot, which is using a
number of different tools to accomplish
what really one should be doing now,
it probably isn't cheaper either.
But in our heads, we feel that it
is, but the data's disjointed and
we can't pull all of that into one
place and truly understand what.
Our leads or our prospects are going
through and where they're contacting us.
We will know that they've looked
at an email over on a MailChimp.
We will know that they've maybe engaged
with us on social media, through some of
the platform like buffer or Hootsuite.
We might even know that they're on our
website through some Google analytics,
but it's not all in the one place.
We don't know that that John
has done this, that, and this.
And if it's all in one place we can start
to, we can start to weight our leads.
We can start to add points
if we wanted to against them.
So we know who we should
be contacting and when.
We can even be alerted when certain
prospects at a certain lifecycle stage
are coming back on to our website.
So we know that coming back, which
probably means we should reach
out and give them a phone call.
As you can see the benefits are huge.
It is optimising how we work.
But also.
Letting us know when we
should be doing stuff.
We don't have to constantly have that.
I forgot to do the newsletter
or anything along those lines.
We've either got our newsletters going out
automatically when we publish our blogs.
Or we're being reminded when we
should do other things in terms of
sales, in terms of chasing leads.
So that brings us round to costs.
This is probably the biggest
sticking point with a lot of SMEs.
It's a.
It's a big charge each month.
But if you were going to hire somebody
to help you optimise how you work.
You would be paying a big chunk of
money for that staff member and you
would have to go through training.
Et cetera, et cetera.
So having a system that is doing that
for you, as I mentioned before, isn't.
It's an off sick.
Isn't taking holidays.
And as long as you've got it
set up correctly, in terms of
automation, doesn't forget.
So.
We now take it as the charge that
we pay for HubSpot is a better
price than a member of staff and
doing a lot more than just one
additional member of staff could do.
And as soon as you look at it, in
those terms, It's really a bargain.
It's optimising how we work.
So it's saving me precious time.
Which as we all know, time is money.
If I can work better,
if I can work smarter.
I can do more, which in turn.
Increases the capacity
that we can do here.
And the more capacity we have, the more
we can do, the more we can turn over
the more podcasts I've got time to do.
So in summary.
HubSpot's over the last four to
five years has really transformed
how we work for the better.
It's learning curve to get it
adopted because we are such a
small company and fairly agile.
Wasn't difficult.
The price was a hurdle to start
off with, but now we can appreciate
that cost is money well spent.
And bear in mind with
HubSpot, you can scale it up.
So you can start with just
the CRM, which is free.
And then slowly add in those tools,
the automation, the kind of the sales.
Ad-ons if you like the sales hubs,
the marketing hubs, as you need them.
So that wraps it up for today.
If you have any questions on HubSpot.
Maybe you want to demo.
We offer a demo on our website.
So go through to our growth
tools on hello method.co.uk.
Or drop me an email
James@hellomethod.co.uk.
And I will get back to
you with any questions.
You've got any kind of thoughts you might
have as well about the podcast, drop them
on there, drop them into the comments.
How about things you want to hear again?
Let's go back to that.
If you've got any ideas or
subjects that you want me to cover.
Or any of the guys here?
Let's get them behind the mic
as well then, let me know.
We're also on most social platforms.
Like we should be as a growth agency.
So go and give us a follow,
we'd really appreciate it.
I hope today was useful,
until next time, take care.