HubSpot is a powerful tool that offers a suite of marketing, sales and customer service software to help businesses grow. It’s arguably the most versatile and comprehensive tool on the market for small and midsize businesses looking to automate sales, marketing and customer management functions. And, it’s relatively affordable. However, like any comprehensive platform, HubSpot has its own set of challenges that the Blue Sparq Marketing team breaks down for you.  Here are six common challenges and actionable strategies to overcome them. 

Challenge #1: Implementation is Complicated and Overwhelming.

HubSpot’s extensive range of features can be amazing. But, for those new to the platform, sorting through all those features can get overwhelming. It’s a classic case of “you-don’t-know-what-you-don’t-know.” Setting up and customizing HubSpot to fit your specific needs can be a time-consuming process that requires expertise you don’t have and won’t need on a long-term basis. 

Strategies: 

• Start with a clear strategy and phased approach. Document your objectives, processes and reporting requirements. This will guide how you build and set up your HubSpot instance and how fast you implement it. 

• Focus on mastering the core tools first, such as email marketing, landing pages, and CRM integration. Then move to more advanced features once you feel confident with the foundational elements. 

• Lean into HubSpot’s comprehensive training resources, including the HubSpot Academy, to build familiarity with the platform.  

• Consider working with a HubSpot-certified partner like Blue Sparq Marketing. Bringing in an expert is a fast way to get it right the first time. It also takes the resource load off already-busy teams. We commonly help teams understand their requirements across sales, marketing and other integrations. Then we implement their systems and onboard internal teams to take over once everything is in place. 

Challenge #2: There is so Much Data to Manage and Integrate!  

Integrating HubSpot with existing systems and managing data effectively across your organization can be tricky to say the least. Poor data integration leads to inconsistencies, incomplete contact records, hindered marketing efforts and a lack of visibility to sales pipeline and forecasts. On the one hand, you need your system to be easy to use. On the other, you need to leverage the power of your full organizational data to drive important decisions. It’s a lot! 

Strategies:

• Use HubSpot’s native integrations and APIs to connect it with your CRM, sales tools and other platforms. They’re set up well and allow you to avoid any custom integrations that require expensive resources and future fixes. 

• Plan and conduct regular data audits to ensure accuracy. Over time, data gets old, your needs change and errors can occur. Stay on top of this to avoid a future system that’s no longer useful. 

• Establish data governance practices to effectively manage data flow between systems. It might seem unnecessary when first starting with HubSpot, but don’t overlook this step! Having guardrails helps ensure accurate data and reporting for the longer term.  

Challenge #3: Email Deliverability Issues Impact Campaign Effectiveness.

Making sure that marketing emails reach the intended recipients’ inboxes rather than landing in spam folders can be a challenge, especially with strict email filters.

Strategies: 

• Make sure your email content strategy is sound and that you’re delivering content your key targets find valuable in an easily digestible format. Salesy emails, flashy designs and blatant promotions raise the risk of spam triggers and unsubscribes.  

• Follow email best practices such as maintaining a clean email list, using a double opt-in process and regularly testing emails for spam triggers. 

• Use HubSpot’s email health tools to monitor and improve deliverability rates. 

Challenge #4: Content Personalization is Important, But it Seems Super Complex.  

While HubSpot offers personalization features, creating highly personalized content for different audience segments can be challenging and time-consuming. 

Strategies: 

• Use ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and personas to paint a clear picture of your buyer’s needs and challenges. HubSpot’s content strategy tool does a great job helping you map key messages to your key audiences. 

• Leverage HubSpot’s smart content and personalization tokens to tailor content based on visitor behavior and demographics. After you conquer the basics for email sequences and landing pages, these tools help you take your campaigns to the next level. 

• Start with a few key segments and gradually expand your personalization efforts as you gather more data and insights on your audience. 

• Don’t over-engineer your personalization strategies. Sometimes less is more. Test your personalization and use HubSpot reports to tailor where it makes sense. 

Challenge #5: Multiple Reporting Requests from Business Leaders Make the Process Unmanageable.

HubSpot offers robust reporting tools, but interpreting the data and deriving actionable insights can be difficult. Marketers often struggle with creating custom reports that align with their specific goals and that meet the broader needs for the business. Before you know it, reporting dashboards and custom reports can get out of control and difficult to manage. 

Strategies:  

• Develop an organization-wide reporting and KPI strategy. We cannot emphasize this enough! Get a clear picture for what you will and will not measure in HubSpot. Meet with your key stakeholders and document objectives, KPIs and reporting cadences that meet everyone’s needs. When you understand, and have consensus on, business-wide reporting needs, you can build reports that work across the company versus creating a custom report for every one-off request. 

• Invest time in learning HubSpot’s reporting features so you can leverage the power of their capabilities. 

• Set up custom dashboards tailored to your key metrics.  

• Regularly review the data to make informed decisions and ensure report accuracy. 

• For more advanced reporting needs, consider integrating with external analytics platforms or bringing in a HubSpot expert to help you program your critical reports. 

Challenge #6: The Management of Marketing Automation is More Time Consuming and More Complicated Than Anticipated.

Setting up and managing marketing automation workflows is time-consuming. As they increase in complexity, they become even more demanding. Mistakes like misconfigured workflows can lead to issues such as contacts receiving the wrong content or being stuck in an automation loop. When this happens, you lose credibility with your audience and a lot of hard work goes to waste.

Ongoing campaign management and HubSpot assistance are the primary reasons clients come to Blue Sparq Marketing. It’s easier, more cost effective, and quite frankly, a lot less stressful to put the responsibility of campaign management and automation into the hands of experts. Whether you manage it in-house or with an expert, there are strategies to keep ongoing campaign management on track.  

Strategies:  

• Start with simple automation workflows. HubSpot’s workflow templates can provide a good starting point. 

• Build more complex workflows as you become more comfortable with the tool.  

• Test workflows thoroughly before launching them. DO NOT skip this step!   

• Monitor their performance regularly and adjust campaigns to get the best results. There’s a lot of satisfaction in letting the data guide you to better results.  

• Take advantage of HubSpot testing capabilities and conduct A/B tests to see what works best for your audiences. Remember to test one component at a time so you can truly understand what changes are making a difference.

Wrapping it All Up  

HubSpot offers powerful capabilities and a marketing automation solution should be a part of every business’s MarTech stack. What it takes to effectively use a tool like HubSpot shouldn’t be over-estimated. When you take this exciting step, make sure you have the internal resources you need to truly manage and optimize your program. Or bring in a partner like Blue Sparq Marketing to augment expertise where it’s needed. It’s worth every penny to ensure your system is set up correctly, rolled out well and managed effectively from the beginning.  

We’re happy to lend an expert point of view to your specific situation. Get in touch with us at [email protected].