The Small Business Owner's Guide to HubSpot

Running your own business is not for the faint-hearted.

Steve Jobs said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” Running a business is hard work. It requires drive and passion. It’s a journey full of unique challenges. One of the biggest challenges is balancing it all.

Businesses need to generate new leads, convert warm leads, serve customers, and retain customers all at the same time—it really is a juggling act. But it doesn’t have to feel like you’re running a circus.

We live in a period of technological innovation as we’ve never seen before, which can make your life so much easier…if, of course, you choose the right tools and know how to best implement new software for ultimate results.

HubSpot is a lifesaver for managing a small business. Let’s talk about why. 

What is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a business owner’s best friend. You’ve probably come across their blog while panic-Googling a problem you need to fix. As well as sharing insights on their blog, they support small business owners through the HubSpot Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) platform. It’s a simple but effective software that manages the main elements of a successful business from day-to-day operations to powerful inbound marketing that’s useful whether you’re a small business manager or working in marketing and sales teams.

What’s Included in HubSpot Tools?

The core components of the HubSpot CRM are the HubSpot Marketing Hub, the HubSpot Sales Hub, the HubSpot Service Hub, and the HubSpot Operations Hub. So sure, HubSpot’s tools seem extensive but how can you use the HubSpot CRM to go from a small business finding your feet to a successful business dominating your market? Let’s detail how exactly HubSpot’s software has a direct impact on small business management.

How HubSpot Supports Marketing Teams

Digital marketing is essential for all businesses but has many moving parts to keep on top of. Your marketing team needs to come up with ideas for, research, create and analyze content marketing across multiple platforms including blogs, social media, and email marketing, piecing all the elements together to create an effective buying journey.

The Capabilities of Marketing Hub

HubSpot’s software supports the whole marketing process, allowing you to generate more happy leads. For example, there is a blog editor for easy formatting as well as SEO tools for blog optimization. You can set up marketing automation to maximize efforts such as integrating social media accounts and email lists so your audience is automatically notified when a new blog is published.

Within the Marketing Hub, email campaigns and social media are managed with the same simplicity and efficiency. The content management system measures all marketing efforts and turns them into informative analytics that can direct data-driven marketing refinements.

What if you want to boost your inbound marketing through paid ads? The HubSpot Marketing Hub can manage that, too. As sales and marketing teams work in tandem, it’s a real benefit that HubSpot provides small business management software for both marketing and sales.

How HubSpot Boosts Business Finances

If small businesses are going to convert leads and get more customers, they need an advanced sales software that promotes efficiency and optimization. As the marketing team works to improve inbound marketing, increasing website traffic and such, the sales team needs to convert those leads and the HubSpot Sales Hub can help.

The Capabilities of Sales Hub

As you attract more website visitors and get more eyes on the business, you’ll receive more queries and questions. So much so that relying on email alone might prevent the business from processing them in a timely manner even with HubSpot’s email templates. That’s where the live chat function comes in handy. It allows sales teams to maintain clear communication while respecting the customer’s time.

The meeting scheduling tool is also very efficient, optimizing employee work hours by avoiding lengthy email chains and unanswered calls which in turn improves employee performance. You can even close the deal on the call with the HubSpot quote creator and payment processor.

The HubSpot Sales Hub can be used to get the whole sales team working optimally through pipeline management which makes managing employees and assigning day-to-day tasks much easier. That’s even with the rise of personalization as customer data can be collected and used for targeted messaging throughout the sales process. The same care is taken post-sales as well thanks to the Service Hub.

How HubSpot Elevates the Customer Experience

So you’ve won new customers—that’s amazing. But what next? If they are to become loyal customers and even refer others to your business, they need to receive high-quality service. That can take a lot of work. The HubSpot software makes servicing your customers to a high standard as efficient as possible.

The Capabilities of Service Hub

Ease of use is so important to the customer experience. In the Service Hub, you can create a customer portal with everything they need to use your product and engage with your business. On top of that, you can create a knowledge base where customers can get their questions answered without having to reach out to the team directly (which saves time for you and your customers—a win-win). If customers do need to reach out, make it super efficient with the help desk and ticketing tools that organize data for prioritization.

Want to know how you’re doing? The HubSpot Service Hub also manages customer feedback, enabling constant customer experience improvement. For other requirements within small business management turn to the HubSpot Operations Hub.

How HubSpot Streamlines Business Operations

There’s more to running a business than just sales and marketing. To truly make life easier, you’ll need project management software that can do it all. As a small business manager, there’s a risk that you can create problems for yourself by being so good at your job that the business outgrows its systems. HubSpot tools grow with you. You can use the varied capabilities to meet changing needs as the business expands.

The Capabilities of Operations Hub

Data drives efficiency and success these days. HubSpot Operations Hub makes it easier for a small business to leverage data through data syncing and automation. And not just automation within the HubSpot parameters but integrating with other digital tools you use for small business management like Slack and Zoom.

Essential to leveraging data is translating it into usable conclusions, such as the need to improve customer communications, balance cash flow, or adapt inbound marketing. The Operations Hub creates meaningful datasets or you can use the custom report builder to bring data to life. What if the automation you need to keep your business on track doesn’t exist? Well, in HubSpot you can code your own automation—no need to compromise.

Integrating HubSpot with Other Tools

By outlining the potential of the HubSpot Service Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Operations Hub, it’s clear that HubSpot is a powerhouse for small business administration. You can really knock things out of the park by integrating HubSpot with other digital tools to utilize specialist expertise.

For example, here at Podium, we have specialist expertise in customer communications, particularly text marketing which is a form of communication with a high response rate due to its convenience. Try it out as you’re improving your small business management by signing up for our free trial.

Getting Started with HubSpot

HubSpot is the go-to for small business management tips on their blog and in the HubSpot academy including how to use their software and tools to increase efficiency and business growth. With the various pricing plans they offer businesses, their extensive vault of digital tools is accessible to many enterprises big or small.

Interested in getting started? Podium Customers can give HubSpot a try for free.