New year, new… CRM?

Perhaps upgrading your CRM has been on your to-do list for a while and now we’ve reached 2023 there are simply no more excuses to avoid taking the plunge.

If any of the following sound familiar, it’s time to consider upgrading your CRM:

  • You use several disconnected tools to communicate with leads and customers
  • Your automations and workflows don’t get as granular as you need them to be
  • Each team’s data is locked in a silo, limiting visibility.

At SpotDev, we realise that “getting started” with a new CRM can be daunting. So, start by exploring the time, energy and money you could be saving with HubSpot. HubSpot’s all-on-one platform has been serving SpotDev for over six years, and we can’t imagine doing our jobs without it – we’re the experts, so let us help you become one, too.

In this post – with help from our Chief Executive, John Kelleher, and Chief Operating Officer, Jemma Legg – we explain why UK companies should be using HubSpot in 2023 (and why it’ll give you the edge against competitors).

 

1. Save money with an all-on-one marketing, sales and service platform

Some of the biggest pain points our clients tell us about their current CRM are:

  • The lack of visibility and consistency across teams
  • Everyone is using different platforms, often to do the same jobs, and none of those tools are talking to one another
  • There isn’t a clear marketing-to-sales handoff process
  • They're spending too much on different platform subscriptions.

On average, companies use 110 software applications – and that number is growing. That gives us the shivers (let alone our bank account). By bringing your tools under one umbrella platform, you'll have the edge against many of your competitors who are still wasting time, money and energy on multiple softwares.

Our Chief Operating Officer, Jemma, explains that in her previous role, she was always navigating too many pieces of software, until HubSpot helped her remove this headache:

‘We used four or five different systems just to manage different areas of marketing: one for campaign emails, one that was a basic CRM, one that posted our social media – all separate satellite pieces of software.

We got HubSpot so we could use all those functionalities in one place. We began using it as a marketing tool but it quickly became apparent – as we segmented our contacts, and retargeted them based on their actions – that we were ready to move onto Sales Hub too, getting the sales team involved in picking up our warm leads.’

Jemma and John explain more about their first impressions of HubSpot in this video:

 

HubSpot is a CRM platform which offers software and integrations allowing you to connect platforms for marketing, sales, content management and customer service. Each product in the platform works powerfully on its own, but together they create a best-in-class tool to manage your entire business.

The more hubs you add, the more competitive HubSpot's pricing becomes - and there are plenty of smart ways to manage your costs with 'starter' versions of the hubs (it's a way to trial the tools first without making a large commitment).

 

2. Reduce human error with automations that can be as simple or complex as you choose

As the world moves forward with its love of automation – from regular entertainment subscriptions to driverless cars – you might be asking how you could be making better use of it at your business. Some benefits include:

  • Saving time by automating manual processes
  • Creating greater accuracy, by minimising human error
  • Delivering a better customer experience.

There are many ways HubSpot’s automation tools could be lending a hand at your business with its vast customisable options. Companies who consider their CRM customisable are 131% more likely to see strong customer satisfaction.

Because of its adaptability, our Chief Executive, John, has found the HubSpot automation capabilities not only beneficial for marketing, but also when streamlining SpotDev’s internal business processes:

‘The HubSpot workflows tool is so powerful. Since it’s become a multi-object automation platform, it’s got even more exciting.

You used to only be able to add contacts to a workflow; now you can add all of the native objects, and custom objects to automations. We can also build custom-coded actions in Operations Hub, such as reminding us when a deal has run over its deadline.

All of this takes HubSpot from being the tool that’s handy for keeping contacts in one place, or creating a report, to one which can take care of your day-to-day business operations that would otherwise consume your time.’

And it goes beyond what the HubSpot platform’s integrated tools include: if the HubSpot platform can’t do what we want it to, by using the capabilities of our SpotDev team, we’re able to extend your database using APIs and middleware to achieve the results you want. That enables us to treat it as if it’s the back end of any system we need it to be.

John and Jemma explain everything else they love about HubSpot’s automations in this video:

 

To find out more about HubSpot’s automation capabilities, the blog post 11 HubSpot Automation Hacks to Save Time and Money is worth a read.

 

3. Save time and improve accuracy with HubSpot’s integrated data, analytics and reporting tools

HubSpot offers a wide range of features and integrations, such as analytics and reporting tools. These can help companies:

  • Improve their ROI (and allow them to track it)
  • Avoid data silos or discrepancies: everyone is looking at the same reports
  • Automatically pull real-time data into attractive dashboards
  • Increase overall business efficiencies.

According to the results of The Marketing Centre’s assessment, UK SME owners are struggling to measure and understand the ROI of their marketing activity; business leaders gave themselves an average score of 54% when it came to measuring their ROI.

With HubSpot, you can create real-time reporting dashboards that all teams have full visibility of, leaving no-one in the dark and ensuring the same data is shared across departments.

Our Chief Executive, John, still gets excited about HubSpot’s data-collecting abilities – especially when compared to how much data can get lost on other platforms:

‘HubSpot isn’t all-in-one, it’s an all-on-one platform. The database is shared between all the different hubs, and each hub is like an app that is built on that shared database.

By having the database in one place, we are able to do whatever we want with that data: using Marketing Hub, we can automatically send emails to a segmented group of people; using Sales Hub, we can automatically track revenue from deals in our database. It doesn’t matter which function of the business needs the data, there’s a hub there to help us access it.’

Our Chief Operating Officer, Jemma, adds:

‘I love custom reports. I’m a very visual person, so being able to create a dashboard with lovely graphs to show me the information is great. Custom reports also allow you to compare any piece of data within HubSpot.’

John and Jemma go into more detail about HubSpot’s capabilities in this video:

 

If you’d like to find out more about how HubSpot tools help you measure ROI, they are running a free workshop: How to Prove the Value of Your Marketing: Measuring ROI in HubSpot.

 

HubSpot is the right software for UK companies who want to achieve the following in 2023:

  • Streamline their marketing and sales efforts
  • Better understand and engage with their customers
  • Create an ecosystem where data can be recorded in one place
  • Begin with an affordable option (the HubSpot CRM is free!)
  • Have the ability to add on different hubs, as and when you’re ready (HubSpot has Marketing, CMS, Sales, Service and Operations Hubs)
  • Accurately measure and report on ROI
  • Deliver a connected customer experience
  • Improve your competitive edge.

We understand that implementing a new CRM is a huge decision that can feel daunting. Our advice is to make a call before your current solution starts letting you down in a way that is detrimental to your business and customers.

If the lack of visibility and consistency across teams means you’re wasting time; if your tools aren’t talking to one another; if your marketing and sales teams struggle to communicate; and if you’re spending too much money on different platform subscriptions, these are all indications that your CRM isn’t coping with your business’ demands as you grow.

So, if you’re in the market for a new CRM this year, make sure HubSpot is on your shortlist.

If you'd like to speak to SpotDev about getting started with HubSpot, one of our experts would be delighted to explore your options with you.