Ainhoa Rodriguez-Muguruza
As we leave August behind, let's take a moment to consider how your business is looking to wrap up the third quarter of 2023. Envisioning the months ahead, it's clear that data and, moreover, quality data, will play a pivotal role, and a strategic CRM system will likely be at the forefront. Aligning your aspirations with a dynamic and customised CRM solution is more crucial than ever.
This blog post will delve into how leveraging HubSpot as your CRM can propel your business towards success during the remainder of the year.
Welcome to this blog series! I'm Ainhoa, the Head of Platform Consulting at Insynth, and I'm here to be your go-to HubSpot expert. Since May 2021, I've been curating monthly updates from HubSpot to keep you informed about their newest offerings. If you're eager to discover the features that have been unveiled this year and catch up on the developments from the first and second quarters of 2023, feel free to explore my compilation of monthly posts below.
- HubSpot: What is New in January
- HubSpot: What is New in February
- HubSpot: What is New in March
- HubSpot: What is New in April
- HubSpot: What's New in May
- HubSpot: What's New in June
- HubSpot: What's New in July
Marketing Hub
#1 Event Triggers Arrive in HubSpot
HubSpot's latest update introduces an amazing feature, "Event Triggers," enabling users to initiate workflows based on specific events. Departing from the previous model of "filter criteria" triggers, this enhancement simplifies the automation process and aligns with customers' natural thought processes.
Previously, users would configure triggers based on conditions like "contact whose city is equal to 'Dublin'," whereas now they can set triggers like "when a contact’s city changes to 'Dublin'." This shift eliminates the need for a complex mental model and reduces barriers for less experienced workflow users. Notably, various event types are supported, such as form interactions, property value changes, custom behavioural events, object creation, sales documents, sequence engagements, calls, and meetings.
#2 Utilising UTM Parameters in Filters
UTM parameters play a crucial role in tracking the origins of website visitors. HubSpot has clearly understood that and, from now, allows marketers to filter page views based on UTM parameters within their contact lists. This innovation holds immense significance as it enables marketers to better comprehend performance and effectively engage with their audience.
Following a straightforward process, marketers can now create contact lists with refined UTM-based filters. The steps include selecting page views, setting specific UTM parameters such as Source, Medium, and Campaign (with optional parameters like Term and Content), and even utilising criteria like Date or Number of Views for further refinement.
Sales Hub
#1 Streamlined Cross-Pipeline Forecasting for Enhanced Goal Management
HubSpot has addressed a previous limitation wherein forecasting. In the past, it was confined to individual pipelines. Recognizing the diversity in businesses' forecasting processes, this update introduces the flexibility to manage forecasts holistically across all pipelines, catering to various selling strategies. The mechanism is straightforward: users can now establish forecastable goals and submit projections with the option to select all pipelines.
This empowers businesses to comprehensively manage their objectives and predictions, unifying their forecasting efforts across multiple pipelines or selling motions. This feature is available for utilisation by users of Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, as well as those with Service Hub Professional or Enterprise subscriptions. This inclusive availability ensures that organisations can strategically align their goal management and predictive analyses across all pipelines.
#2 [BETA] Track Important Deals through Lists
If you are familiar with the capabilities of lists, you really want to hear this update! Deal lists allows users to create lists specifically focused on deals within the platform. Previously limited to contacts and companies, this expansion enables users to curate lists of their most crucial deals using data from the Deals object and its Associated Objects. To utilise this feature, users can navigate to the "Lists" section and select "Create list," then opt for the "Deal-based" option.
Upon naming the list, a range of objects and properties related to deals becomes accessible to streamline the process of pinpointing desired deals. Once saved, the "Filters" tab displays records that align with specified criteria. For monitoring trends, the "Performance" tab illustrates changes in the number of deals meeting the criteria over time!
Service Hub
#1 New Rotating Meeting Tool
HubSpot's introduces a feature that transforms the way meetings are scheduled within the CRM. Addressing the cumbersome process of arranging meetings on behalf of fellow sales representatives, the new meeting rotation functionality enables users to seamlessly book meetings directly from contact, company, deal, or ticket records. This innovation eliminates the need for third-party scheduling tools and intricate workarounds previously used to manage meeting sequences.
With this upgrade, users gain the ability to select meeting rotations from within the CRM interface, ensuring a smooth flow of meetings without the hassle of tracking schedules externally. The chosen rotation dictates the order in which sales representatives are assigned meetings, optimizing the distribution of meeting appointments. This dynamic system even accounts for availability, automatically suggesting the next available representative to receive a meeting booking.
#2 [US AND CANADA ONLY] [BETA] Send SMS through HubSpot
Starting August 1, 2023, this feature empowers marketers to create, manage, and distribute SMS campaigns seamlessly within the HubSpot ecosystem. Designed as a bulk marketing tool, it caters to the needs of marketers seeking to engage with their contacts en masse for promotions, event reminders, updates, and other marketing endeavours. Unlike a 1:1 messaging tool, SMS for Marketers enables the efficient delivery of messages to numerous recipients, aligning with the evolving trend towards omni-channel campaigns.
As customer preferences shift towards messaging as a primary mode of interaction, this innovation equips marketers to adapt to changing habits, offering a direct line of communication with businesses. The launch is accompanied by a tiered pricing structure to accommodate varying campaign volumes. The base subscription, priced at $75 per month, includes 1,000 messaging segments each month, with the option to purchase additional segments for $15 per month per 1,000 segments.
CMS Hub
#1 Content Approval Available for all Website Assets
HubSpot's Content Approvals feature allows users to require or request approval before publishing website pages, landing pages, and blog posts. This feature addresses the collaborative nature of content development, which marketers have requested endlessly! With Content Approvals, HubSpot is looking to reduce bottlenecks during content creation, to boost confidence during simultaneous content review, editing, and publishing by multiple users, and facilitating change tracking.
The approval process involves requesting approval, reviewing, and, if necessary, making changes based on feedback. Content can be approved or rejected in the content editor, and approved content can be published by users with appropriate permissions. This feature is particularly valuable for businesses utilizing CMS Enterprise and Marketing Enterprise versions of HubSpot, enabling smoother collaboration and content management.
#2 HubSpot Streamlines Module Categorisation
HubSpot's drag-and-drop website editor has introduced a revamped system for its modules, now grouped under various functional categories such as text, media, commerce, forms, and buttons. These modules serve as reusable building blocks to enhance the custom functionality of websites, landing pages, and blogs. In addition to the default modules available in the editor, HubSpot has launched new standalone modules in the Template Marketplace, developed by HubSpot partners and providers.
This expanded module catalogue can be downloaded and seamlessly integrated into the editor, maintaining consistency with the module categories present in the Marketplace. For users, this means an easier way to access specific modules based on their utility, enhancing the process of creating engaging web designs that feature interactive elements like videos and seamless payment functionalities.
Operations Hub
#1 Unidirectional Sync of Activities from Microsoft Dynamics 365 to HubSpot
For anyone using these platforms in tandem, new feature has been introduced that enables the one-way synchronization of activities such as calls, tasks, emails, and notes from Microsoft Dynamics 365 to HubSpot. This addition of activities to the existing integration brings enhanced functionality to the synchronization process, expanding beyond contacts, companies, deals, and invoices.
While the integration doesn't handle event data like "email clicks" or "page visits," it effectively manages distinct objects like engagements, allowing seamless syncing of these interactions between the two platforms. Associations between objects are also preserved, ensuring accurate and organized data transfer. This update provides users with the ability to configure activity syncs individually, similar to the process for contacts and companies.
#2 Enhancing Segmentation Insights
The recent update in the Custom Report Builder feature brings increased convenience to report creation by allowing users to employ any list as a filter. This improvement simplifies the process of generating reports focused on specific member segments within a list, whether it's Contacts, Companies, or even Deal. By reducing the time and effort required to set up these filters manually, the Custom Report Builder enhances user productivity.
When users enter a Contact, Company, or Deal list, they can seamlessly access the 'Create a report' function from the 'Actions' menu. This expedites the report-building process, facilitating a deeper focus on specific segments, aiding informed decision-making. The new feature is accessible to various subscription tiers, including Marketing Pro, Marketing Enterprise, Sales Pro, Sales Enterprise, Service Pro, and Service Enterprise.
ABOUT INSYNTH
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.