5 Best Practices For Implementing HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing Hub helps organizations unify and amplify their marketing efforts by allowing them to access everything in one place—and by everything, I mean their data, metrics, marketing execution tools, and more. All this information works together, allowing for true and comprehensive management, measurement, and optimization of campaigns and marketing efforts. 

Whereas many organizations find their departments siloed and their processes scotch-taped together from a variety of different systems and software, Marketing Hub smoothes out all those wrinkles and keeps everyone and everything unified.

One of the cool things about transitioning over to the Marketing Hub is that, depending on available resources and goals, the process can take place in pieces, or organizations can make a full transition at once. However, whatever the approach, there’s no denying the fact that how you approach your implementation is important.

According to HubSpot, there are six common reasons implementations fail. These reasons include:

1. Relying on automation strategies that are ineffective or don’t exist
2. Attempting to deploy the Marketing Hub without sufficient resources
3. Failing to properly align sales and marketing teams (on goals, processes, or communication)
4. Utilizing unclear or unformed customer personas
5. Defining success based on the wrong analytics
6. Entering into the implementation process with a rigid or inflexible mindset

It’s important to keep an eye out for those red flags and take steps to mitigate them, as they tend to signal a bumpy road lies ahead. At ABN, we’ve helped organizations successfully get started with Marketing Hub, and we know exactly what it takes to avoid these types of pitfalls.

Are you entering into the implementation process with an organization that’s ready to experience everything HubSpot Marketing Hub has to offer? Do you want to ensure you’re the best partner you can possibly be? Here are some of the best practices we’ve identified to ensure implementation unfolds as smoothly and successfully as possible:

1). Identify the Organization’s Level of Engagement with Their Old CRM

Before jumping into implementing Marketing Hub, it’s important to have a thorough conversation about how the organization is interacting with their current system. What does it do, what features do they use, and what limitations are they dealing with? Which features will they need to continue using as they move over to Marketing Hub, and how should they consider updating their processes to adapt to new functionality? 

This conversation should be as specific as possible, even getting into the nitty gritty details of which fields are required and whether those fields already exist or need to be custom-created within HubSpot. Taking this approach will prevent surprises later on down the road that could drive up costs or cause delays and help circumvent any false assumptions.

2). Make Sure Everyone Is on the Same Page Before You Get Started

Alignment is extremely important when it comes to implementing Marketing Hub. If someone wants to use it one way, and someone else wants to use it differently, that can create a lot of conflict and confusion as you proceed. Different teams might have differing priorities, desires, and goals. Some might have concerns about the new system that needs to be aired. 

Encourage everyone to go through the HubSpot Marketing Software Certification provided by HubSpot. Ensure that major stakeholders are involved in conversations about desired functionality and outcomes.

Do everything you can to get everyone aligned on the vision for Marketing Hub, so objectives are clear and everyone can be involved in driving implementation. If all the stakeholders’ expectations are not aligned prior, and their needs are not discussed, then you’ll almost certainly have to go back later and make changes.

Note: As important as it is to account for everyone’s voices and needs, assigning a champion to drive the process is key to keeping projects on schedule.

3). Ensure the Data You’re Transferring Is Clean

This is a good rule of thumb for any implementation of this nature, but before you get started, you need to perform an audit to ensure the data you’re moving from one CRM to the other is clean. Otherwise you might end up with an even larger mess on your hands, one which will take much longer to sort.

4). Get Buy-In From the Stakeholders Along the Way

It’s not enough to ensure everyone’s aligned on goals and expectations at the beginning of the project. You have to intentionally get buy-in from stakeholders throughout the process. In order to avoid future misunderstandings and keep the process on schedule, check to see if they’re truly reviewing everything they need to, and be extremely clear about when each checkpoint will occur and what is involved with each. Set a schedule to determine when you’ll need to touch base and provide updates to stakeholders.

Note: According to HubSpot, completing the implementation process typically takes 90 days to a year. This length of time presents a huge opportunity for issues to arise and continue to go unaddressed if the client isn’t involved.

5). Establish a Plan for Once It’s Up and Running

The first few months, using Marketing Hub can be overwhelming, as everything will seem new and different, So, it’s a good idea to set expectations in advance. Rather than allowing things to proceed haphazardly, you need to plan for this period. Understand how you will ensure everything is working correctly and identify potential problems. Set clear expectations regarding the tasks you’ll be responsible for and the ones other stakeholders in your organization will need to complete. 

Note: It’s a good idea to establish a set of onboarding/training sessions to help your team become oriented with their new CRM, so they feel more comfortable and empowered as they put it into action.

CTA: Interested in learning more about HubSpot Marketing Hub? Contact us today for a free consultation to see if the platform is right for you.