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HubSpot

Manage customer relationships with a free CRM. Track deals, schedule meetings, and use AI tools to automate tasks and grow your business from one platform.

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What is HubSpot

HubSpot is a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides software and support to help businesses grow. It includes a full suite of tools for marketing, sales, customer service, content management, and operations, all built on a single, powerful database. The core of the platform is the HubSpot Smart CRM, which is available for free. Its main purpose is to help companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers by using the inbound marketing methodology. HubSpot was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and serves hundreds of thousands of customers in over 135 countries.

HubSpot Features

HubSpot offers a wide range of features designed to support various business functions. Here are some of the key features:

  • Contact Management: Store and manage up to 1 million contacts and companies. Track every interaction you have with them, including emails, calls, and meetings, in a single, clean timeline.
  • Deal Pipelines: Visualize your sales process with a drag-and-drop pipeline. Track deals through different stages, assign tasks to your team, and forecast revenue.
  • Email Tracking & Templates: Get real-time notifications when a prospect opens your email or clicks a link. Create and share high-performing email templates with your team to save time.
  • Meeting Scheduler: Eliminate back-and-forth emails by sharing a link that lets prospects book meetings directly on your calendar.
  • Live Chat & Chatbots: Engage with website visitors in real-time. Use chatbots to qualify leads, book meetings, and answer common questions 24/7.
  • Reporting Dashboards: Build custom dashboards to track your most important metrics. Get a clear view of your sales pipeline, marketing performance, and service team activity.
  • Shared Inbox: Create a central inbox for your team to view, manage, and reply to customer emails from a single place, like sales@ or support@.
  • AI Tools (Breeze): Use artificial intelligence to assist with tasks like writing emails, generating content ideas, summarizing contact records, and preparing for sales calls.
  • App Marketplace: Connect HubSpot to over 1,700 third-party applications, including tools like Slack, Zapier, and Google Workspace, to create a unified tech stack.

HubSpot Pricing Plans

HubSpot organizes its pricing into different 'Hubs' (Marketing, Sales, Service, etc.) and tiers. The plans are designed to scale with a business's needs.

  • Free Tools: A generous free plan that includes the core CRM and basic tools from each Hub. It is ideal for individuals, freelancers, and small businesses just starting out.
  • Starter: This is the entry-level paid plan. It removes HubSpot branding, increases limits, and adds more features. It is designed for growing small businesses and startups.
  • Professional: This plan is for more advanced teams. It includes powerful automation, custom reporting, A/B testing, and deeper customization options. It is suitable for mid-sized businesses looking to optimize their processes.
  • Enterprise: The most advanced tier, built for large organizations. It offers sophisticated analytics, field-level permissions, custom objects, and extensive administrative controls for managing large teams.

HubSpot Free Plan

HubSpot offers a 100% free plan that is not a trial and does not expire. It is a very powerful offering that includes many essential features for small businesses. The free plan includes:

  • CRM: Contact, deal, and task management for up to 1 million records.
  • Marketing Tools: Email marketing, forms, landing pages, and ad management.
  • Sales Tools: Live chat, deal pipelines, meeting scheduling, and email tracking.
  • Service Tools: Ticketing, shared inbox, and chatbots.

Limitations on the free plan include HubSpot branding on assets like forms and emails, and lower limits on things like email sends per month and the number of dashboards.

How to use HubSpot

Getting started with HubSpot is a straightforward process. Here is a typical workflow:

  1. Sign Up: Create a free account on the HubSpot website. No credit card is required.
  2. Import Your Data: Import your existing contacts, companies, and deals from a spreadsheet (CSV file) or another CRM system.
  3. Connect Your Inbox: Connect your Gmail or Outlook inbox to log emails automatically, track opens, and use email templates.
  4. Install the Tracking Code: Add the HubSpot tracking code to your website to start capturing lead data and tracking visitor activity.
  5. Set Up Your Pipeline: Customize your deal stages in the sales pipeline to match your business's sales process.
  6. Invite Your Team: Add your team members to your HubSpot account so everyone can collaborate and access the same customer data.
  7. Start Working: Begin logging sales activities, sending tracked emails, creating marketing campaigns, and managing customer support tickets all from one platform.

Pros and Cons of HubSpot

Pros:

  • Generous Free Plan: The free CRM is one of the most powerful on the market, making it accessible for any business.
  • All-in-One Platform: It combines marketing, sales, and service tools in one place, providing a unified view of the customer.
  • User-Friendly Interface: The platform is known for its clean design and ease of use, which helps with team adoption.
  • Excellent Educational Resources: HubSpot Academy offers free courses and certifications on marketing, sales, and customer service.
  • Large Integration Marketplace: It connects with thousands of other business applications.

Cons:

  • Expensive Paid Plans: The cost can increase significantly as your business grows and you need more advanced features or have more contacts.
  • Feature Gating: Many powerful features, especially automation, are only available in the higher-priced Professional and Enterprise tiers.
  • Can Be Overwhelming: For very small businesses that only need a simple CRM, the number of tools and features can be overwhelming.
  • Contract Structure: Paid plans often require an annual commitment, which can be a big investment for smaller companies.

HubSpot integrations

H HubSpot has a vast App Marketplace with over 1,700 integrations. This allows you to connect HubSpot with the other tools your business uses. Popular integrations include:

  • Salesforce: A bi-directional sync between HubSpot and Salesforce to keep sales and marketing data aligned.
  • Outlook & Gmail: Integrate your inbox to log emails, track opens, and access CRM data directly from your email client.
  • Slack: Get HubSpot notifications, create tasks, and share records directly within Slack channels.
  • Zapier: Connect HubSpot to thousands of other web apps to automate workflows between different systems.
  • WordPress: Use the HubSpot WordPress plugin to easily add forms, live chat, and pop-ups to your website.
  • QuickBooks Online: Sync customer and invoice data between your CRM and accounting software.

HubSpot Alternatives

  • Salesforce: A highly powerful and customizable CRM platform, better suited for large enterprises with complex needs. It is generally more expensive and has a steeper learning curve than HubSpot.
  • Zoho CRM: Offers a broad suite of business apps similar to HubSpot, often at a more affordable price point. The user interface may not be as polished, but it provides great value.
  • Pipedrive: A CRM focused purely on sales pipeline management. It is very easy to use for sales teams but lacks the integrated marketing and service features of HubSpot.
  • Freshworks: Provides a suite of products for sales, marketing, and support. It is a strong competitor to HubSpot, offering similar functionality with a focus on ease of use and a different pricing structure.
  • ActiveCampaign: Combines email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM. It is a strong alternative for businesses focused on advanced automation at a lower price than HubSpot's Professional plan.

HubSpot API

Yes, HubSpot provides a comprehensive set of APIs that allow developers to build custom integrations and applications. The APIs are well-documented and cover all aspects of the HubSpot platform, including contacts, deals, companies, marketing events, and more.

You can obtain an API key by creating a developer account or by generating a Private App access token within your HubSpot account settings. This is free to do.

Here is a simple example in Python of how to use the HubSpot API to retrieve a contact:

import requests

# Your Private App access token
api_key = 'YOUR_HUBSPOT_API_KEY'

# The contact ID you want to retrieve
contact_id = '12345'

# The API endpoint
url = f'https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts/{contact_id}'

# Set up the headers
headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

# Make the GET request
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

# Print the response
if response.status_code == 200:
    print('Successfully retrieved contact:')
    print(response.json())
else:
    print(f'Failed to retrieve contact. Status code: {response.status_code}')
    print(response.text)

For more details, you can visit the HubSpot Developer documentation website.

HubSpot Affiliate program

HubSpot has a popular affiliate program that allows partners to earn commissions by referring new customers. It is a good fit for content creators, bloggers, and reviewers in the marketing, sales, and business software space.

  • Commission Rates: Affiliates can choose between two commission models: a 30% recurring commission for up to one year for each paying customer, or a one-time payment equal to 100% of the customer's first month's revenue.
  • How to Join: You can apply to the program through the HubSpot Affiliate Program page on their website. The application process involves providing information about your website or audience. The program is managed through the Impact affiliate network.
  • Getting Paid: Payouts are typically made monthly via direct deposit or PayPal, once you reach a minimum payment threshold. The program provides affiliates with tracking links, banners, and other marketing materials to help them promote HubSpot.
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HubSpot: Unify your business with a free, powerful CRM platform. – SAASprofile