Are you getting started with HubSpot Sales and Marketing Hub? While expanding your sales and marketing technology stack is exciting, it can also be overwhelming. HubSpot’s software is robust, and if you have little or no experience with it, it may seem downright impossible.
But if you remember that any successful implementation takes thorough training, and commitment, you will see success. Because if you’re investing in such a comprehensive tool, you want to make sure you learn the ins and outs of its functionality, right? Here are tips to successfully onboard your new HubSpot portals.
HubSpot Marketing Onboarding Best Practices
It’s important to remember that implementing HubSpot is a massive undertaking. At LyntonWeb, we spend up to three months (depending on the unique needs of your company) helping companies onboard the software. However, several things can speed up the process, such as:
- Take HubSpot academy courses to familiarize yourself with some of the functionality. If you have no experience with HubSpot, we highly recommend this. Even if you have minimal or some history with the platform, it’s not a bad idea to refresh your skills.
- Nominate someone internally to own the onboarding project. This person can serve as a liaison, organize meetings, work with HubSpot or an agency directly, and work with stakeholders to resolve any issues. Essentially, this person will serve as the program manager of your HubSpot onboarding and will report back to the overall HubSpot implementation sponsor.
- Confirm with your agency or HubSpot contact the overall timeline of your onboarding project. While we mentioned the timeline of three months, it could be different depending on a few factors. Ask for a detailed list of the topics that will be covered. For LyntonWeb onboarding clients we provide summary notes and a recording of each onboarding call.
- Address naming conventions early. As your onboarding project ramps up, your team will start creating a steady stream of documents, files, campaigns, and folders. To keep these organized, determine how you’ll name everything before diving in.
Once the big picture items are out of the way, it’s time to start using the platform. Begin by considering how HubSpot will fit in with your current website and other marketing technology. It’s more than likely HubSpot will be replacing your current email and other marketing systems, so ask yourself – and your onboarding partner – questions like:
- What email templates do I need, and which can I move over?
- What email lists can be eliminated, which can be scrubbed, and which can move over entirely?
- What marketing activities and assets do I need to move over?
- How many current forms do I need to replace with HubSpot forms?
- How does my current workflow strategy translate to HubSpot lifecycle stages and workflows?
Then, you can start setting up your marketing tools like your buyer personas, landing page templates, email templates, lists, workflows, CTAs, forms, and campaigns. During this stage, when you work with an onboarding partner, you’ll receive training so you can later implement elements like this by yourself.
Sales Onboarding Tips and Tricks
Similar to onboarding HubSpot Marketing, implementing HubSpot Sales Hub is a labor of love. Many companies choose to onboard both systems in tandem, so their sales and marketing teams can be better aligned. Due to this, we recommend taking similar initial steps when getting ready to use the sales platform.
Again, you’ll want to consider taking HubSpot academy courses, appointing an internal onboarding project manager, and looking at your current naming conventions and processes. However, some elements differ from marketing, so you should be ready to ask specific questions like:
- What sales enablement material do I have and how will it transfer to HubSpot?
- How will my current sales strategy and lead nurturing steps move over to HubSpot?
- Should I revisit my current strategy and organization of contacts and companies?
- What’s different in HubSpot Sales Hub than my current CRM?
- Will I import all of my prospect and customer data or condense it?
Next, with your onboarding partner’s guidance, you can set up your sales tools like pipelines, messages, sequences, documents, and more.
What Onboarding Looks Like at LyntonWeb
If we haven’t made it clear yet, we believe successful HubSpot onboarding is best with a trusted partner. That’s why at LyntonWeb, we’ve spent years refining our onboarding process, so our clients are adequately trained on its functionality and ready to launch campaigns seamlessly. Our hands-on approach is similar for both HubSpot Marketing and Sales Hub, taking roughly three months, and broken down into four stages.
- Discovery Phase. We want your company inside and out before making any recommendations. Understanding your business processes will ensure successful HubSpot configuration and better user adoption.
- Consulting and Recommendations Phase. After we fully understand your business processes, we set up your portal for success. We’ll build marketing or sales-specific workflows, lifecycle stages, pipelines, templates, and more.
- Optimization and Training Phase. During this portion, we pop the hood on your HubSpot portal and show you how it’s currently built and how to set it up properly in the future. If we can make any enhancements during this phase, we will.
- Support Phase. We’ll put regular meetings on our calendars to continue to guide your HubSpot success.
Ready to Get Started?
There’s no doubt using HubSpot Marketing and Sales Hub can help you reach your business goals. However, we understand onboarding the software can be an intimidating task – and more difficult if you go it alone. Contact us today to learn more about how we take the time to thoroughly explain, set-up, and train customers on its functionality.
