HubSpot is an inbound marketing, sales, and customer service software that is consistently ranked as one of the best martech platforms. We posted two articles about the tool back in August 2018 and September 2018. However, a lot has changed since then. HubSpot is regularly deploying new features and updates to help users get more out of their system.
As a B2B marketer looking to optimize your return on investment, it’s crucial to regularly assess your tech stack and make sure it contains the tools needed to achieve your goals. Below, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of HubSpot, specifically through the lens of B2B technology.
The Pros of HubSpot for B2B Tech
As with all software, there are benefits and drawbacks to using HubSpot to manage your business’s marketing, sales, and customer service. As far as pros, most users would agree that the Marketing Hub™ is one of the platform’s greatest strengths.
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub offers robust automation tools that help B2B technology companies scale their marketing efforts regardless of the size of their marketing department. The software also allows you to manage all of your marketing channels — including blogs, social media, landing pages, emails, forms, and more — all in one platform. It can even integrate with third-party softwares like Salesforce CRM, CallRail, Outlook, Yext, and more. This is especially helpful if your company already has a robust tech stack.
Above all else, the Marketing Hub is incredibly intuitive, allowing even technological novices to easily write and automate lead nurturing emails, update web pages, and publish other SEO-rich content. If you do run into an issue, HubSpot offers top-notch support, with a robust knowledge base, immediate answers via live chat, or and one-day business response time through email.
Perhaps HubSpot’s most useful feature is its powerful customer relationship management (CRM) system which expertly brings the Marketing, Sales, and Service Hubs. The CRM compiles every interaction a prospect has with your site, every sales representative they’ve spoken with, every ticket they’ve opened, and more.
All of these interactions are stored in an individual's contact record, which can be accessed by anyone on your team (depending on their user permissions). This allows for easy interdepartmental collaboration. And, according to HubSpot itself, highly aligned companies achieve an average of 32% year-over-year revenue growth.
This highly integrated CRM is especially useful for B2B tech companies with long sales cycles. Rather than letting prospects go cold because they’re not ready to purchase yet, you can easily track all recent activity and determine when it’s time to reach out again. You can even automate the follow-up process to lighten your sales team’s load.
Another feature that ties the Marketing Hub™, Sales Hub™, and Service Hub™ together — besides the CRM — is HubSpot’s comprehensive analytics. The system tracks all relevant KPIs and generates customizable reports, helping you optimize your campaigns and easily demonstrate ROI.
The Cons of HubSpot for B2B Tech
While there are plenty of benefits to HubSpot, there are several drawbacks that B2B tech companies need to take into consideration. The main disadvantage is that the software can require a significant investment to get started — not only in terms of monetary cost but also time and energy.
Luckily, smaller companies can leverage HubSpot’s free CRM software until they’re ready to add on more features. The company also recently unveiled a new feature that allows you to identify individuals as marketing or non-marketing contacts, so you only pay for only the contacts you want to market to. This can significantly reduce monthly costs for companies with large databases.
If set-up is using up too many resources, try finding a partner to help you establish your HubSpot instance. This will take the burden off your staff and ensure you’re getting the most from the platform.
In addition to the Marketing, Sales, and Service Hubs, HubSpot offers a CMS feature. While flexible and comprehensive, the CMS Hub is ideal for small sites that are looking to focus on personalization and ease-of-use to draw in prospective leads. The CMS does not work as well for multinational businesses that may have more complex language setups.
HubSpot has its disadvantages, but the pros tend to outweigh the cons. The software’s robust marketing automation tools, user-friendliness, and integrated system make it a popular choice among B2B tech companies.
Want to learn more? Download our B2B technology case study to see how HubSpot’s marketing automation tools helped our client achieve 20x ROI.