When you first onboard with HubSpot, or one of their partner agencies, you’ll probably feel one of two things: eager to get your hands dirty and explore your portal, or you might be dreading the idea of having to learn the ins and outs of a new platform.
HubSpot is such an all-encompassing tool – which is why we love it – that it does take some time to get to grips with every single feature... but it’s worth it. We understand and prepare for the concerns some of our customers have when they first use HubSpot (and even when they’ve been using it for years!).
In this article, we offer tips to ‘share the load’ in your first days and weeks with HubSpot, how ESM Inbound advises you to balance the workload amongst your team, and explore some of the useful resources we recommend to new HubSpotters to grow their knowledge of the platform. In no time at all, you’ll be flying with HubSpot, but in the meantime, here are the things you can do right now...
There is no excuse for anyone, no matter what your business size, to be the sole ‘owner’ of HubSpot. Yes, we encourage someone to step forward as the single point of contact (SPOC) during onboarding with ESM Inbound, so we always have someone to reach out and communicate with, but we equally don’t expect that person to be the only one in your HubSpot portal. So the first thing is learning how to invite someone to HubSpot.
To help walk you through this process, I've put this easy-to-use video together; or you can follow step-by-step tips in our Knowledge Base if you prefer written instructions:
One thing to consider when adding new users, is your permission settings. HubSpot has written extensively about how to alter these settings according to users. This is not only so that you comply with GDPR, but so that working as a team runs smoothly; if the correct team members don’t have access to the assets they need to work on, it will slow down work. Rather than being the constant ‘gatekeeper’ of permission settings, ensure everyone – and each subsequent new team member – is granted access to your HubSpot portal from the beginning.
Learning together, and giving yourselves opportunities to model and share good practice through workshops or during meeting time is a great idea. To fully promote this tool as something everyone is responsible for and should be using, you need to ensure everyone understands expectations, has access, and communicates clearly.
With the tagline ‘Grow your career, and your business’, HubSpot Academy is a free online training site. You can sign up for free courses which will enhance the skills your business currently needs, while also preparing you for your long-term career goals.
Many of these courses count towards HubSpot qualifications and once you’ve completed the set of videos, answered some multiple-choice questions and submitted a practical element, you will be awarded an email certificate and logo that you can use for authority on your website, LinkedIn and beyond.
The courses are always updating with new, contemporary advice – from general inbound marketing practices, to specific HubSpot tool changes – whatever you need to improve or get formal recognition for from a respected provider, HubSpot has the Academy course to suit you. The speakers are engaging, the content is easy to digest, and the assignments are fair – plus, passing the certifications gives you a satisfying feeling of accomplishment!
HubSpot themselves acknowledge that they don’t always have the answers, or aren’t able to write articles about elements of the platform as fast as some users would like – so they created HubSpot Community. This works as a free forum for all HubSpot members to share their questions and solutions, creating a vast map of user-created knowledge to help solve those sticky little queries that inevitably turn up in your day-to-day work life.
The boards are broken down into different topic areas to make it extra-easy to navigate:
No matter what your query, you’re sure to get a helpful, speedy answer, with links and examples you can use right away – in their own words:
‘A combination of HubSpot employees and community-sourced moderators will make sure the Community’s conversation stays civilised, meaningful and true to our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use. Our moderation team will also ensure that urgent queries and support requests are addressed.’
Registering with the community is easy and can be done directly from within your HubSpot portal by using the ‘Help’ button. Like one giant worldwide team, use HubSpot Community to learn, share and teach fellow HubSpotters the best tips to optimising the platform.
Otherwise known as ‘Help & Support’ HubSpot Knowledge Base is a deep well of information, far more helpful and comprehensive than your average FAQ section.
Not only does the Knowledge Base house incredible walkthrough guides to completing any task you can think of in HubSpot (removing all the chattiness of a blog post and keeping instructions factual with helpful photos and videos), but it reminds you of all the different ways you can contact HubSpot, should you get stuck:
From using the ‘Help’ function within your HubSpot portal, to submitting a ticket with HubSpot Support, asking the Community (see point 3), tweeting your query or picking up the phone to speak with their call-in support; whichever method of contact suits you and your business best, HubSpot wants to cater to you.
At ESM Inbound, we use the Knowledge Base articles all the time to refresh our own learning, as well as share helpful hints with our customers. It’s a fantastic resource, which is well worth dipping into – just type in your question, and watch the articles roll in.
If you’re a social learner, and love speaking and listening to knowledgeable businesspeople in person, HubSpot organises a range of events, worldwide to attend each year.
From partner-run events on really specific areas, such as ‘Humanising your Sales & Marketing’, and ‘Secrets of How Technology and Psychology Drives Growth’, to the incredible annual INBOUND event in Boston, HubSpot is all about bringing sales and marketing professionals together, getting them talking and sending them away with loads of useable tips – not to mention inspiration.
You can search for a specific geographical area, so you can attend a local event, or open the search up to a global stage if you’re feeling adventurous! And the best thing is, if you ever find you’ve missed out on a brilliant event that was right up your street, HubSpot events are run so frequently that it won’t be long until you can attend another.
Even the most confident HubSpotters have questions from time to time (including us!) so having a great support network through HubSpot themselves, through a partner agency, and through your own team is essential to getting the most out of its capabilities, and to avoid unnecessary hold-ups.
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