Why Go HubSpot? (Business Growth Guide for 2024)

Is This "Why Go HubSpot?" Guide for You?

For Visionary Business Leaders + Marketers

For over a decade as a HubSpot educator and business growth catalyst — and now as the Chief HubSpot Helper and founder of Sidekick Strategies, your friendly neighborhood HubSpot partner agency — I can tell you that any conversation about HubSpot should always begin with you, the humans:

• If you're a growth-focused business owner with ambitious goals on the horizon — and you understand the importance of investing in intelligent marketing and sales automation tools to turn those dreams into tangible results that are both sustainable and scalable — then this comprehensive "Why Go HubSpot?" guide is for you.

• If you're a results-driven marketer or marketing leader who has heard the alluring promise of HubSpot as the ultimate solution for driving marketing and sales growth, but you're curious if it's the right move for your company's roadmap for future success, you're in the right place.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: How Inbound + HubSpot Have Changed with George B. Thomas

Yes, we are avid champions of HubSpot, as well as passionate sidekicks to countless organizations writing their own inbound success stories with HubSpot. However, we understand that every business is unique, with its own set of goals, challenges, and needs. Deciding whether HubSpot is the right fit for your organization is a decision that only you can make. In fact, your teams are depending on you to make the right call! 

What You'll Find in This HubSpot Guide

That's why we have put together this comprehensive guide, filled with unbiased insights and expert analysis of the HubSpot platform. In addition to sharing our overall business case for HubSpot, this guide showcases each HubSpot Hub individually:

• HubSpot Marketing Hub
• HubSpot Sales Hub
• HubSpot Content Hub
• HubSpot Service Hub
• HubSpot Operations Hub
• HubSpot Commerce Hub

One of the most compelling advantages of HubSpot lies in its ability to cater to your specific business needs. Whether you prioritize enhancing your marketing strategies, optimizing your sales processes, creating engaging content, delivering exceptional customer service, streamlining operations, or establishing an online storefront, HubSpot offers a comprehensive solution that can be tailored to fit your unique goals and aspirations. 

💥 Go Deeper: What Is HubSpot, Really? And What Do Most Get Wrong About It?

Again, you won't find a more enthusiastic crowd of HubSpot lovers than you will here at Sidekick Strategies. But we've spent a lot of time pulling this comprehensive guide together so that you can make the right decision for you. If, by the end of this guide, you still find you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're always happy to have a completely no-strings-attached conversation about how HubSpot might be just what the inbound doctor ordered for your marketing and sales woes.

Why Go HubSpot for Your Business?

First, What Is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a dynamic customer and business growth platform that makes it a cinch to attract, engage, and delight the humans you serve. At its core is a powerful CRM (customer relationship management) database that serves as the foundation for all interactions and engagements with customers.

💥 Go Deeper: HubSpot Contacts Mastery Is the Key to Unlocking Limitless ROI

This database is not static but rather adaptable and scalable, allowing businesses to amplify its capabilities across various organizational contexts known as Hubs:

• The HubSpot Marketing Hub is all about how you communicate outward to your contacts – through blogs, email, social media, website pages, and so on – to (once more with HubSpot Flywheel feeling!) attract, engage, and delight them! 

• The HubSpot Sales Hub is all about managing processes and reaching goals around those contacts through pipelines, deal stages, tasks, meetings, playbooks, etc. In sales, it's all about establishing visibility for parts of your process that were once hidden and streamlining.

• The HubSpot Content Hub is all about taking your content marketing game to the next level, providing you everything you need to captivate your audience and drive meaningful engagement. With advanced analytics and optimization features, you can fine-tune your content strategy for maximum impact and reach. 

• The HubSpot Service Hub is all about focusing on the voice of the customer or, once more with feeling, your contacts who have now said "Yes!" to your products or services. You do this through knowledge articles, NPS surveys, answering questions, ticketing systems, and more.

• The HubSpot Operations Hub is all about taking all of the disconnected work everyone is doing across the company for the humans and bringing it all together with features like coded workflows, data syncs between integrations, and more.

• The HubSpot Commerce Hub is all about how you make doing business with your organization as easy-breezy, lemon-squeezy as possible, with sophisticated, friction-free invoicing, subscription payments, and much, much more. Remember, every interaction you have is an opportunity to create a superfan of your brand — even the administrative stuff! 

By integrating this CRM database into different Hubs, HubSpot provides a comprehensive solution that caters to every aspect of a business's growth strategy:

Image Credit: HubSpot

Each Hub is tailored to address specific needs and challenges, offering a seamless and interconnected approach to managing customer relationships and driving business results.

With HubSpot, businesses can harness the power of data-driven insights, automation tools, and personalized experiences to attract, engage, and delight customers at every touchpoint. This dynamic ecosystem empowers businesses to optimize their processes, streamline their operations, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth and success in today's competitive marketplace. 

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: HubSpot Personalization Strategies That Are Clever (Not Creepy)

Now, Why Go HubSpot for Your Business?

Look, as a business leader and high-level marketer myself, I know how complex your job is. You've got a lot of moving parts in front of you — markets that are up or down (depending on the day), processes that constantly need to adapt to new norms, people who need more help (tools, technology, and so on) than ever before, and goals that may be getting more aggressive or complex by the day.

Unfortunately, that means when we walk through the literal (or virtual) doors of our offices each day, we end up feeling like this ...

... never quite able to keep up with everything that's going on. Forever trapped, frantically working the business "conveyor belt" to put out day-to-day fires, rather than focusing on the high-impact "on the business" tasks and priorities that will move you all closer to achieving your goals.

💥 Go Deeper: Leaders, It's Time to Prioritize Your Employee Education + Development

Once upon a time, HubSpot couldn't really help with this. Years ago, it was a powerful, plucky marketing automation platform only. So, if you needed blogs and social media, great! HubSpot could help! Anything more than marketing, however, HubSpot wasn't there yet. But, as we've discussed already in this chapter, HubSpot has evolved tremendously over the past 10 years in particular, in no way the "just a marketing tool" it used to be. HubSpot truly is the all-in-one business growth platform you've been looking for.

Whether you're looking to enhance your marketing strategies, streamline your sales processes, create engaging content, deliver exceptional customer service, optimize operations, or establish an online storefront, HubSpot has got you covered. With its adaptable and scalable CRM database at the core, integrated seamlessly across various Hubs, HubSpot provides a tailored solution to drive sustainable growth and success for your organization.

Why Not Salesforce or Marketo or WordPress?

You're right, there are tons of HubSpot alternatives out there, and I'm not here to say anything bad about HubSpot's competitors. What I will say is I pay attention, and I have been doing so for more than 20 years ... and here is what I've noticed:

• I pay attention to the people I'm onboarding, and how they respond with a sigh of relief when the move from competitors like Salesforce and Marketo into HubSpot.

• I pay attention to the growing global inbound community of folks who come together to make the HubSpot community what it is, with tens of thousands of ideas heard by HubSpot and implemented.

• I pay attention to how many times I hear folks talk about how intuitive and easy-to-use HubSpot is, particularly for companies that don't have a ton of deep technical experts and web developers in-house.

• I pay attention to how HubSpot Academy is the undeniable leader in free, selfless education and certification opportunities that can help you do so much more than master the platform. HubSpot Academy empowers people to start new careers or grow in the ones they already have in a way like no other company is doing.

• I pay attention to how HubSpot thoughtfully, purposefully, and with deep humanity and empathy is revolutionizing not only the technology we use to do business, but how we can all come together to grow better in a way that leaves a positive impact on this planet.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: The Life-Changing, Career-Altering Power of the Free HubSpot Academy

Ultimately, what makes HubSpot stand out is not just its technology but also its dedication to building a supportive and collaborative community that is focused on driving positive change and growth. This combination of technology, community, and values is what truly sets HubSpot apart from its competitors and makes it a top choice for organizations looking to achieve sustainable growth and success.

But again, that's just one guy's humble opinion.

Why Go HubSpot Marketing Hub?

First, What Is the HubSpot Marketing Hub?

The HubSpot Marketing Hub is a robust and versatile platform designed to help businesses attract, engage, and delight their customers through various marketing channels. From creating compelling content to nurturing leads and analyzing campaign performance, the Marketing Hub offers a comprehensive set of tools and features to drive successful marketing strategies.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Why Go HubSpot Marketing Hub?

Let's talk about "a few of our favorite things 🎶" within the HubSpot Marketing Hub, because it's come a long, long way over the past 10+ years.

Our Favorite HubSpot Marketing Hub Tools

OK, before we dig in, a quick housekeeping item. It would be impossible for me to review every single HubSpot Marketing Hub feature — or every single feature in any of the Hubs that follow, for that matter. There are simply too many. So, what follows here are the highlights of the HubSpot Marketing Hub.

HubSpot Campaigns Tool

The HubSpot campaigns tool allows you to track the performance of all of the different components of a coordinated inbound effort (emails, blog articles, landing pages, social posts, and so much more) under the umbrella of a single campaign. 

Additionally, let’s say you have a budget associated with a campaign. Now you can add that in there, too, so you can keep track of your spend vs. revenue return in a single spot.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Creating, Customizing, + Crushing It with HubSpot Campaigns

With HubSpot campaigns, you can show how everything works together to create a symphony of inbound success. If you're a marketer, the HubSpot campaigns reporting functionality makes reporting on the ROI of your efforts to leadership a cinch. It also provides a real-time overview of campaign performance, allowing you to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments for optimal results.

HubSpot Workflows

With HubSpot workflows, you can automate marketing activities. One of the most common, fan-favorite examples is creating a HubSpot workflow to nurture a lead who converts on an offer. After they fill out the form, you can set up a workflow that sends a series of seven emails to that new lead once every three days with content and offers that are related to what they originally downloaded. 

"But wait, there's more!" (Ha!) you can also use HubSpot workflows to your advantage for internal automations — you could set up automated contact sorting into lists based on certain triggers, so you don't have to remember to do that manually.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: HubSpot Workflows-a-Palooza (Everything You Need to Know)

For instance, if qualified leads complete certain types of actions, specific leaders or sales reps can be notified. You can also "repair" smart lists with workflows if you need to make global changes to priorities across a batch of contacts within a list.

HubSpot Social Media Tools

Somehow, even though social media is such a visible part of any inbound strategy, the HubSpot social media functionalities are often completely underestimated! One of the reasons why HubSpot's social media tools are often overlooked is because they seamlessly integrate with the rest of the platform, making it easy for marketers to manage all aspects of their marketing strategy in one place.

Oh, did we mention you can bulk schedule posts, too! We love operational efficiency, don't you? Additionally, HubSpot's social media tools offer advanced features such as social listening, which enables you to monitor conversations about your company and industry in real-time. This invaluable insight can help your marketing team make informed decisions and tailor their content to better resonate with their audience.

💥 Go Deeper:

• HubSpot Social Media Strategy 101 (HubHeroes Podcast)
• 8 Mind-Blowing HubSpot Social Media Tools for Brands

Furthermore, the ability to track social media ROI and attribute leads and customers to specific social media efforts is a game-changer for businesses looking to maximize their social media impact. By providing detailed analytics and reporting on social media performance, HubSpot empowers marketers to demonstrate the value of their social media efforts and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

HubSpot Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing is like the little black dress of the inbound world — or so my wife tells me! — in that it never, ever goes out of style. For decades email has remained an indispensable superpower for brands looking to attract, engage, and delight customers. And HubSpot's email marketing tools make it easy.

You've got intuitive, drag-and-drop templates:

Psst! Check out our the Beyond Your Default newsletter, if you're a growth-minded individual!

Also, as with virtually all tools in HubSpot, you have oodles of reporting at your fingertips:

💥 Go Deeper:

• HubSpot Email Marketing Strategy + Best Practices (HubHeroes Podcast)
• How to Do Email Marketing with HubSpot, Part II (HubHeroes Podcast)

Then there's email segmentation! Email segmentation in HubSpot is like having an ace up your sleeve during a poker game. It allows you to target specific groups of contacts with tailored content based on their preferences, behavior, and demographics. By segmenting your email lists, you can ensure that your messages are relevant and engaging to each recipient, increasing the likelihood of conversion and driving better results for your marketing campaigns.

With HubSpot's robust segmentation features, you can create dynamic lists based on a variety of criteria, such as contact properties, email engagement, website activity, and more. This level of customization enables you to send highly personalized emails that lead to higher open and click-through rates.

HubSpot Calls-to-Actions

A HubSpot call-to-action is a strategic element within the HubSpot platform that prompts your website visitors to take a specific action, such as downloading a whitepaper, signing up for a virtual event, or scheduling a consultation. Basically, if you're going to do all that work to attract people to your website, you need to create compelling ways for those humans to convert on your website!

Here's an example of one of ours!

These CTAs are essential for driving conversions and guiding users through the buyer's journey. Meaning if your only calls-to-action are those that are more "bottom of the funnel," (i.e., request a demo, schedule a consultation, etc.), you need to diversify! By creating compelling and visually appealing CTAs, you can capture the attention of your audience and encourage them to engage further with your content.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: It's a Whole New Calls-to-Action World ... Or Is It?

Additionally, HubSpot provides detailed analytics on CTA performance, allowing you to optimize your calls-to-action for maximum effectiveness. So, next time you're crafting a CTA, remember to make it irresistible and aligned with your overall marketing goals.

HubSpot Landing Pages + Forms

Once you click on a call-to-action, you need to give your visiting humans somewhere exciting, powerful, and engaging to go! Maybe it's a service page, so they can learn more. Or perhaps you've built a dynamic landing page with a form that will lead them to the answers they seek! 

Here are two great examples from our friends at Sound Financial:

You can book directly with one of their advisors on this landing page!

This pillar page they've created is also a powerful landing page with a form!

Landing pages and forms in HubSpot are the secret sauce of inbound marketing. They serve as the virtual gateway to converting website visitors into leads and ultimately customers. With HubSpot's user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, you can easily create visually appealing landing pages that are optimized for conversions.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: HubHeroes Lampoon's Wild, Wacky, Winning HubSpot Forms Adventure

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Marketing Hub?

Gosh, the list of reasons I freakin' love HubSpot Marketing Hub for purpose-driven, growing businesses is endless. It's to the point where I know the moment I smash the publish button on this, I'll think of a thousand little things I love that I neglected to mention. For instance, I didn't even talk about all of the incredible SEO tools at your disposal within the HubSpot Marketing Hub ... and there are tons!

For now, I'll leave you with this. Right now, you are one click away from becoming the architect if a seamless, sophisticated, show-stopping customer experience through HubSpot. The only question is, are you ready to say goodbye to the inefficient "Frankenstein" methods of patchworking together your marketing efforts across multiple tools and platforms?

Why Go HubSpot Sales Hub?

First, What Is the HubSpot Sales Hub?

The HubSpot Sales Hub is the perfect complement to the HubSpot Marketing Hub, offering a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline and optimize your sales process. From prospecting and lead management to pipeline management and analytics, the Sales Hub empowers sales teams to close deals faster and efficiently.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Why Go HubSpot Sales Hub? with HubSpot's Kyle Jepson

With features like email tracking, sales automation, and customizable dashboards, the Sales Hub provides everything you need to drive revenue and grow your business. So, if you're ready to take your sales game to the next level, the HubSpot Sales Hub is the ultimate solution for success.

Our Favorite HubSpot Sales Hub Tools + Features

There are countless reasons to love HubSpot Sales Hub. The pipeline management, the reporting and dashboards, the CRM superpowers right at your fingertips, so your entire sales team is operating as one, with real-time performance data and insights ... 

Image Credit: HubSpot

But HubSpot Sales Hub offers so much more than simple pipeline management and oversight tools. In fact, here are a few of our favorites!

HubSpot Sequences

HubSpot Sales Hub Sequences are a powerful tool that allows sales teams to automate personalized outreach to prospects and leads. With Sequences, you can create a series of automated emails that are sent at specific intervals, helping you to nurture relationships and move leads through the sales pipeline effectively.

Image Credit: HubSpot

These sequences can be customized based on the recipient's behavior, interests, and engagement with previous emails. By using HubSpot Sales Hub Sequences, sales professionals can save time, increase efficiency, and ensure that no lead falls through the cracks.

HubSpot Snippets

HubSpot Sales Hub Snippets are bite-sized pieces of pre-written content that sales professionals can easily insert into their emails, messages, or notes to personalize communication and save time. These snippets can include commonly used phrases, product descriptions, pricing information, or any other relevant content that can be quickly customized and added to emails with just a few clicks.

Image Credit: HubSpot

By using HubSpot Sales Hub Snippets, sales teams can maintain consistency in their messaging, improve efficiency, and ensure that every interaction with leads and prospects is tailored to their needs and interests. These snippets are a game-changer for sales professionals looking to streamline their communication and make a lasting impression on potential customers.

HubSpot Templates

HubSpot Sales Hub Templates are pre-designed email templates that sales professionals can use to create personalized and visually appealing emails for their prospects and leads. These templates are fully customizable, allowing users to add their branding, messaging, and specific call-to-action buttons to align with their sales strategy.

Image Credit: HubSpot

This means sales teams can save time by eliminating the need to create emails from scratch for each prospect. Instead, they can simply select a template that best suits their communication style and goals, customize it with relevant content, and send it out to engage with their leads effectively. These templates are not only efficient but also help maintain brand consistency and professionalism in all communication with potential customers. 

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Snippets, Sequences, and Templates, Oh My! Going Deeper in HubSpot Sales!

HubSpot Prospecting

With HubSpot's robust prospecting tools, sales teams can easily search for and connect with qualified leads, ultimately driving revenue and growth for their business. HubSpot's prospecting features allow users to create targeted lists of prospects based on criteria such as job title, industry, company size, and more.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Showstopping Pre-Sales + Prospecting Features in the HubSpot Sales Hub

By leveraging these tools, sales professionals can prioritize their outreach efforts and focus on engaging with prospects who are most likely to convert. Furthermore, HubSpot's prospecting tools provide valuable insights into each prospect, including their engagement history, contact information, and interactions with the brand. This data enables sales teams to personalize their outreach efforts and tailor their messaging to resonate with each individual prospect.

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Sales Hub?

Much like the HubSpot Marketing Hub, I've got no shortage of love for the HubSpot Sales Hub. While a lot of sales CRM solutions claim to make it so your salespeople can spend more time selling, HubSpot actually delivers on that promise. The amount of time your reps save with snippets, sequences, and templates alone can be immeasurable! 

In short, HubSpot Sales Hub is dope. It's a dope sales platform that makes it easy for sales teams to succeed at a time when that matters more than ever. We've talked about it on the HubHeroes Podcast quite a bit over the past year, in fact — buying has changed, but in so many ways, most sales teams have failed to keep up. HubSpot Sales Hub removes the barriers to modernizing your processes and your people, bringing your ability to hit your revenue targets within reach.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Buying Has Changed, Sales Hasn't ... Now What?

Why Go HubSpot Content Hub?

First, What Is the HubSpot Content Hub?

Once upon a time, there was HubSpot CMS Hub, a platform dedicated to content management and creation. Now, it's the HubSpot Content Hub, a comprehensive solution that goes beyond just managing content. The HubSpot Content Hub encompasses a wide range of tools and features designed to help businesses create, organize, and optimize their content for maximum impact.

With the HubSpot Content Hub, businesses can now centralize their content strategy, seamlessly integrate with other HubSpot tools, and leverage powerful analytics to measure the effectiveness of their content marketing efforts. This new and improved hub is not just about managing content; it's about creating engaging experiences, nurturing leads, and driving conversions through strategic content initiatives.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Is the HubSpot Content Hub Still a Business Website CMS?

So, as we discussed in a previous episode of the HubHeroes podcast, the HubSpot Content Hub does still possess the powerful website CMS features many businesses require. But the transition from HubSpot CMS Hub to the HubSpot Content Hub signifies a shift towards a more holistic approach to content marketing. It's about more than just managing content; it's about leveraging content as a strategic asset to drive business growth and success.

Favorite HubSpot Content Hub Features

HubSpot Content Hub Remix

HubSpot Content Hub Content Remix is a revolutionary tool that empowers marketers and business leaders like you to repurpose and remix their existing content in creative and engaging ways. This makes it super simple for you to take your content marketing game to the next level by creating fresh, dynamic content that resonates with their target audience, with very little lift.

Image Credit: HubSpot

With Content Remix, you can easily mix and match different elements of your content, such as images, videos, text, and interactive modules, to create new and compelling pieces of content. Of course, HubSpot also gives you data-driven insights and analytics on how the remixed content is performing, enabling you to track the effectiveness of your content today and make smarter decisions for tomorrow. 

HubSpot Content Brand Voice

HubSpot Content Hub Brand Voice is probably one of our favorite innovations. When we say brand voice, we mean your brand’s personality. What comes to mind about your brand and what you sound like all the time. When we say brand tone, on the other hand we mean how you deliver on the promise of your voice in different situations. It’s a dynamic element that allows you to adapt to different situations.

And the HubSpot Content Hub makes it easy to set those rules brand voice and tone rules:

Image Credit: HubSpot

Brand voice and tone is something we are particularly passionate about — we even dedicated an entire episode of the HubHeroes podcast to exploring the Brand Voice tool in the HubSpot Content Hub. That said, while we see this new feature within the HubSpot Content Hub to be leaps and bounds ahead of anything we're seeing with other marketing and sales automation platforms, we hope HubSpot will make this particular tool more robust than what it is today.

HubSpot Content CMS Features

We touched upon it earlier, but the HubSpot Content Hub still offers a robust suite of CMS tools and features for businesses looking to build their website on top of the HubSpot CMS environment — even if the focus of the platform has shifted to be more holistic and forward-looking around the content we publish as brands. 

💥 Go Deeper: Ultimate HubSpot CMS vs. WordPress Comparison Guide for Brands

Still miles ahead of WordPress in our eyes, HubSpot Content Hub's CMS features encompass everything from organizing and optimizing content to tracking its performance and effectiveness. With the HubSpot Content Hub CMS Features, businesses can easily create, edit, and publish content, as well as customize their website to enhance user experience and drive conversions. 

HubSpot Content Hub AI Blog Writer

HubSpot Content Hub AI Blog Writer is a cutting-edge tool that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the way bloggers create content. This innovative feature enables bloggers to generate high-quality, engaging blog posts quickly and effortlessly.

Image Credit: HubSpot

By leveraging AI technology, you can tap into a vast database of industry information, insights, and trends to create compelling, educational blog content that makes your audience stand up and shout, "Finally! Someone who sees me, understands what I'm about, and can actually help me!"

However, we do have reservations about AI and content. It's not that we don't love the promise of these tools; it's more that we've seen too many brands use these tools as shortcuts, ultimately creating content that lacks soul, humanity, and authenticity.

But more on that shortly! 

HubSpot Content Hub Lead Capture

OK, lead capture and management tools are not exactly new to the HubSpot ecosystem — it's been a pillar of the HubSpot Marketing Hub for years. But with this new HubSpot Content Hub, your Lead Capture superpowers have undergone a major upgrade! 

Image Credit: HubSpot

With this feature, you can strategically place lead capture forms, pop-ups, or widgets on their website to gather contact information from visitors who show interest in their content. You can also easily segment your leads based on their behavior and preferences, allowing for more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns. Remember, it's all about the humans with inbound, which means a smart, focused personalization strategy is a must.

With HubSpot Content Hub Lead Capture, you're not only able to effectively capture leads, your marketing teams will have absolutely zero issue analyzing how effective (or ineffective) your lead capture strategies are with real-time data. So, you can pivot or pump the gas on what's working when it matters most.

AI-Powered Content Strategy Considerations

Where Brands Fail with AI-Powered Content

Now, this is where things get interesting. As part of the rollout of this new HubSpot Content Hub, HubSpot is leaning deeply into AI-powered features and tools, as we've already discussed. We love AI at Sidekick Strategies, and we love the direction that HubSpot Content Hub is moving in with AI!

But as we've discussed at length on the HubHeroes podcast, we're starting to see issues with how AI is being used in content overall, rather than with the tools themselves:

• No Humanity or Authenticity: When you look at AI tools as a shortcut — or don't understand how to still develop sound, human-driven content strategy — you run the risk of creating content that sounds, well, like the robots wrote it. Let's be honest, we're all starting to hear things like, "Yeah, AI definitely wrote," that more and more every single day.

• Complexity and Human Oversight: While AI can simplify content creation, again, it's still a process. It requires human governance, intervention, and oversight. When you fail to think purposefully about how you'll use AI and neglect to built processes to support that, once again, you're going to run into significant quality issues. Or, even if the quality is "good," the content will still lack the heart and soul of your brand's voice and values.

• Ethical Considerations: The use of AI in content creation brings up ethical considerations, particularly around transparency and the potential for AI to create misleading or deceptive content. We're starting to see social media platforms label content that is AI-generated, as a result. But even if you're able to sidestep such labels, remember inbound is all about building trust. And misuse of AI can irreversibly erode that trust with your customers, if you're not careful.

• Dependence on Technology: Look, we're all about working smarter, not harder. And we've integrated AI into many of our processes. However, we should all think of AI as an amplifier of our greatness, humanity, and people-powered expertise, rather than a replacement. An over-reliance on AI tools could lead to a decrease in human skill development within content creation and marketing, reducing innovation and creative thinking in the long term.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: AI Mindsets + Why Most Companies Fail with AI-Powered Content

While HubSpot Content Hub's AI features can make your work more efficient and effective, it's important to remember that AI should not and cannot replace your humanity. That's crucial for the true thought leadership content I know many of you want to create.

Sure, AI can create content, optimize it, and help spread it across different platforms. But AI doesn't have the human insight and expertise needed to engage deeply with your industry's big ideas or to lead meaningful discussions like you can and do on a daily basis. And it never will.

HubSpot Content Hub + AI = Lots of Potential

Once more with feeling, we love the promise of AI, when it's used with purpose and humanity. It's all about striking that perfect balance between the indelible human touch and automation. By viewing AI as a tool to augment rather than dictate our content strategy, we can uphold authenticity, transparency, and ethical standards in all of the human-centered content we create.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: What Is the HubSpot Content Hub + What Isn't It?

As marketers and business owners, think of AI as the helpful assistant that takes care of the routine tasks and crunches numbers — the things that you don't want to do, let's be honest! And because of that, this frees up your time to focus on developing insightful forward-thinking content that really speaks with your brand's voice and establishes you as an authority in your space.

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Content Hub?

Honestly, HubSpot Content Hub is a win-win-win for everyone on your team. For starters, it comes equipped with comprehensive analytics that allow marketers to measure engagement and conversion metrics easily, helping refine strategies for better outcomes.

Heck, it's even a great fit for SEO specialists who strive to enhance website visibility and search rankings through meticulously optimized content. HubSpot Content Hub aids these professionals by offering integrated SEO tools that provide real-time suggestions for keyword inclusion, meta descriptions, and other optimization tactics. Furthermore, the platform simplifies the task of SEO performance analysis, making it easier for specialists to tweak and enhance their strategies based on reliable data.

🔎 Go Deeper: The Last SEO Content Strategy Guide You'll Ever Need

And last but not least, it's built for you business owners out there who understand the power of content. Business owners who appreciate the critical role of content in driving growth but are often left juggling numerous responsibilities, making efficient content management a pressing challenge.

HubSpot Content Hub offers a lifeline for you by providing a centralized platform that simplifies the creation, management, and monitoring of content alongside their other business activities. This is especially valuable for those of you who need to seamlessly integrate their content strategy with broader business goals without getting overwhelmed by the complexities of managing multiple marketing channels. 

Why Go HubSpot Service Hub?

Service Is No Longer an Afterthought

OK, before we talk about what HubSpot Service Hub is, let's be real here with each other for a minute. For many of you out there, the allure, excitement, and promise of HubSpot lies in what it can do for you in marketing and sales. But when we think about what it means to truly achieve growth as a modern inbound organization, marketing and sales are only two-thirds of the equation. 

You see, back in the ol' days of inbound, our work as inbound organizations ended once we got a lead to cross the finish line and become a customer. But we now know that's not the case. Rather than a funnel approach — where we call it a day once a lead crosses the finish line and becomes a customer — the HubSpot Flywheel is how you should think about your overall growth strategy:

Attract. Engage. Delight. Those are the three core phases of growth, which is why you need to look at the service part of your organization with greater scrutiny, no matter what it is you do or sell. 

While attracting and engaging customers are crucial steps in the buyer's journey, it is the delight phase that truly sets a business apart. Delighting customers goes beyond just providing a product or service – it involves creating memorable experiences, exceeding expectations, and building long-lasting relationships. This is where the service part of your organization plays a critical role.

🔎 Go Deeper: What Is Customer Delight + Who Is Responsible for It?

By prioritizing customer satisfaction, addressing their needs promptly, and going above and beyond to ensure their happiness, you can turn satisfied customers into loyal advocates for your brand. Buyers today have much greater demands, as well as a significantly lower tolerance for bad customer experiences.

Quite frankly, it's harder to earn customer trust and keep them loyal than it used to be. So, the customer experience you create (and support through technology) can be a huge differentiator when it comes to your overall growth potential. In short, delivering exceptional service is no longer optional – it's a necessity for sustainable growth and success.

What Is the HubSpot Service Hub?

Now that you understand the importance of service, let's dig into what the flip HubSpot Service Hub is. Because even if you've never thought of your company needing a customer service organization, there's no time like the present to start!

The HubSpot Service Hub is a customer service software solution that helps businesses like yours manage the important relationships you have worked hard to cultivate with your customers, enabling you to resolve issues efficiently, and ultimately drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. As an added perk, since it's part of the HubSpot growth ecosystem, HubSpot Service Hub effortlessly integrates with the other Hubs (Marketing, Sales, Content), giving you yet another dimension of data-driven decision-making capabilities. 

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: Why Go HubSpot Service Hub, No Matter Your Industry

With the HubSpot Service Hub, businesses can streamline their customer service operations, track and manage customer interactions, automate support processes, and gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. This not only helps in delivering personalized and timely support to customers but also in building long-lasting relationships with them.

Our Favorite HubSpot Service Hub Tools

HubSpot Service Hub Help Desk + Ticketing

With HubSpot Service Hub Help Desk and Ticketing, it's a cinch for your customer-facing folks to efficiently manage the questions and issues the humans you serve have. You can easily track and prioritize customer requests, guaranteeing timely resolution and, ultimately, happy humans — i.e., ye olde customer satisfaction.

Image Credit: HubSpot

HubSpot's Help Desk and Ticketing features help you streamline communication between customers and any human-supporting pros you have under you roof, providing a centralized platform for all customer interactions.

What's even cooler — "automagically" fantastic, as we like to say around here — is that you can also use these tools to automate repetitive tasks, such as ticket routing and escalation, and gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. That makes your whole service operation way more efficient, and your service humans happier in their jobs! 

HubSpot Service Hub Knowledge Base

Have you ever wished your customers could get the answers they need without reaching out? Not that you don't want to talk to them, of course! But sometimes, both your customers and your support team know you don't always need the human touch to get a simple answer. In fact, having to call someone to get those simple answers — or worse, having to send an email and wait for a reply — isn't delighting anyone at all.

HubSpot Service Hub Knowledge Base is a valuable resource that empowers businesses to provide self-service options for their customers, enabling them to find answers to common questions and issues on their own. By creating a centralized repository of articles, guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips, businesses can reduce the burden on their customer support team and enhance the overall customer experience.

Image Credit: HubSpot

With the Knowledge Base feature in HubSpot Service Hub you can organize critical, customer-facing information about your products and services in a structured and searchable manner, making it easy for those incredible humans you serve to find relevant content quickly.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: The Most Baller HubSpot Service Hub Features Deep-Dive of All Time

It's a win-win for everyone, if you think about it. You reduce the number of touch points a customer has to have with your service team, while also making it easier to empower your customers with knowledge, on their terms, whenever they need it.

HubSpot Service Hub Omni-Channel Messaging

Gone are the days of siloed communication where your customers have to switch between different platforms to get their questions about what you do or sell answered. With HubSpot Service Hub's Omni-Channel Messaging, businesses can provide a unified experience, empowering customers to reach out through their preferred channels such as email, chat, social media, or even phone calls.

Yes, there are some folks who still prefer a good ol' fashioned phone call. Myself included. But hey, it's a whole new world out there.

Image Credit: HubSpot

What's also super dope is that Omni-Channel Messaging provides valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, making it crazy simple for you to ramp up the delight you deliver to customers by tailoring their communication strategies for maximum effectiveness.

HubSpot Service Hub Help Call Tracking

This feature is pretty straightforward, but don't let its simplicity fool you. HubSpot Service Hub Help Call Tracking is how you track and monitor customer interactions that occur over the phone, providing valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.

Image Credit: HubSpot

In addition to simplifying your ability to keep your service team on top of inbound questions, this feature gives you the ability to analyze call data and trends. So, once more with feeling, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your overall customer service strategy. 

HubSpot Service Hub AI-Powered Chat (Beta)

HubSpot Service Hub AI-Powered Chat (Beta) is a cutting-edge feature that leverages artificial intelligence to enhance customer interactions and streamline support processes.

Image Credit: HubSpot

This chatbot is out of this world. Its functionality enables you to provide instant responses to common customer questions, automate routine tasks, and offer personalized assistance to customers round the clock. By integrating AI technology, businesses can improve efficiency, reduce response times, and deliver a seamless customer experience. 

HubSpot Service Hub SLA Management

HubSpot Service Hub SLA Management is all about making setting and meeting service level agreements with your customers with ease a reality. SLA Management in HubSpot Service Hub allows you to establish clear expectations for response times, resolution times, and overall service quality. By defining SLAs, you can ensure that your team is aligned on priorities and committed to delivering exceptional service to your customers.

Image Credit: HubSpot

On top of that, you can track and monitor your team's performance against set SLAs, providing real-time insights into how well you are meeting your customer service goals. This feature enables you to identify areas for improvement, address bottlenecks in your support processes, and ultimately enhance the overall customer experience.

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Service Hub?

Listen, if you don't use HubSpot Service Hub, it's like you've got a car with one flat tire. Because if you're already rockin' and rollin' with HubSpot Marketing Hub, HubSpot Sales Hub, and/or HubSpot Content Hub ... what happens after that deal closes? What happens to all that data and potential and possibility once that prospect becomes a customer? 

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: What Is Customer Delight + Who Is Responsible for It?

Remember what we talked about at the beginning of this section? Attraction and engagement are only two-thirds of the inbound conversation here. You need to be thinking about how you're delighting your customers, as well. How are you using technology to support the customer experience — from making onboarding an effortless and joyous journey for new clients, to making it as simple as possible to resolve problems with speedy ticketing and self-service knowledge bases.

Like every other HubSpot Hub in this guide, HubSpot Service Hub integrates seamlessly with every other Hub, allowing businesses like yours to align their marketing, sales, and service efforts for a more cohesive and integrated approach. This holistic view of the customer journey enables businesses to provide a consistent and seamless experience across all touchpoints, from initial engagement to post-purchase support.

Now, if you're sitting there thinking to yourself, "George, we don't have a big customer service team. Heck, we only have one or two folks who might be dealing with these kinds of tasks," listen up!

HubSpot Service Hub is still for you. Yes, it is designed to also support expansive customer service teams that require robust, scalable automation capabilities. However, it's also designed for any organization that wants to bring data, structure, and process into the ways you deliver service and support to those who have signed on to be your customer. It is a versatile solution that empowers any organization to elevate their customer service experience, build strong relationships with customers, and drive long-term success.

Why Go HubSpot Operations Hub?

First, What Is the HubSpot Operations Hub?

HubSpot Operations Hub freakin' excites me. Because not only is the Operations Hub crazy powerful and a total game-changer for growing companies, but also because it showcases perfectly how HubSpot understands what businesses need to truly be successful. Back in the day, HubSpot (and all of us, really) had a one-dimensional approach to helping businesses achieve growth — through inbound marketing. Then they expanded to sales, service, website CMS platforms, and more. 

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: What Is HubSpot Operations Hub + Do You Actually Need It?

Now, with Operations Hub (and Commerce Hub, which we dig into in the next chapter), HubSpot is demonstrating that true growth that is sustainable and scalable is about so much more than just your marketing and sales strategies. It's also about what you've got going on under the hood, so to speak, with your business' operations.

So, what is it? HubSpot Operations Hub is one of the newest additions to the growing HubSpot family, designed to help businesses like yours streamline their operational processes, improve efficiency, and drive growth. With the Operations Hub, you can centralize data from multiple sources, automate manual tasks, and gain valuable insights to make data-driven decisions.

Like every other Hub, it integrates with entire HubSpot suite (Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Content Hub, Service Hub, and so on) providing a comprehensive platform for businesses to manage their operations from end to end. Whether you're looking to optimize your sales processes, improve customer service operations, or enhance your marketing strategies, the Operations Hub has the tools and features to help you succeed.

Our Favorite HubSpot Operations Hub Tools

HubSpot Operations Hub Programmable Automation

HubSpot Operations Hub programmable automations empowers you to create customized, automated workflows that can centralize data from multiple sources, eliminate manual tasks, and provide valuable insights for making data-driven decisions. 

Image Credit: HubSpot

With programmable automations in the Operations Hub, streamlining your company operations holistically is wildly simple. From one Hub, you can optimize your sales processes, improve customer service operations, and enhance marketing strategies seamlessly. This means managing your company operations fully from end to end, ensuring a cohesive and efficient approach to achieving success, is no longer a dream. It is, indeed, an awesome reality.

HubSpot Operations Hub Workflow Extensions

HubSpot Operations Hub Workflow Extensions make it so you can further customize and enhance your automated workflows by integrating with third-party apps and systems, e.g., Asana and Zoom. By leveraging Workflow Extensions, you can seamlessly connect different tools and platforms, automate complex processes, and gain deeper insights into your data.

Image Credit: HubSpot

You can also expand the functionality of your workflows beyond the capabilities of the native HubSpot tools. This means you can create more sophisticated automation sequences, improve data synchronization between different systems, and ultimately increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast: HubSpot Workflows-a-Palooza (Everything You Need to Know)

HubSpot Operations Hub Team Management + Permissions

Team Management and Permissions is a crucial aspect of the Operations Hub. Put simply, you can manage your teams and control access to sensitive data and tools within the HubSpot tools.

For example, do your marketers need edit access to deal pipeline management features in Sales Hub? No. Do service reps need the ability to create email marketing campaigns in the Marketing Hub? Probably not! With this feature, you can assign roles and permissions to different team members, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to specific information and functionalities within the platform.

Image Credit: HubSpot

In addition, Team Management and Permissions allow you to track user activity, monitor changes made within the system, and maintain a record of who has access to what. This level of transparency and control not only enhances operational efficiency but also reinforces data security measures to safeguard your business information.

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Operations Hub?

OK, this is where the nerd in me comes out. Although, let's be honest, if you haven't figured out that I'm a full-fledged nerd yet, have you been paying attention? Anyway! My love for HubSpot Operations Hub is nerdy and runs deep. Why?

It comes down to data cleanliness. Your business operations run seamlessly when errors, redundancies, and inefficiencies are removed from your processes and platforms. However, no matter how freakin' amazing the humans are who work for you, they are just that — humans. Humans aren't perfect. Humans make mistakes sometimes. 

💥 Go Deeper: Mastering Data Hygiene + Cleanliness in HubSpot (Your Definitive Guide)

For instance, let's say that someone enters a prospect's name in as "bob" with a lowercase "B." Maybe it was someone your team doing manual data entry, or perhaps it was Bob, himself! Then our pal, lowercase bob, replies to an email he received pointing out the problem with his name. Maybe the formatting issue didn't ruin his day, but it certainly puts a harsh ol' spotlight on the fact that he's a human in an automated sequence. Imagine a world, where you have operations processes running "automagically" in the background to remove formatting errors?

And that's just one example! 

Like HubSpot Service Hub, while HubSpot Operations Hub may feel like a tool designed only for larger organizations, it truly is for every organization that relies on data to make smart decisions and drive powerful, engaging customer experiences.

Why Go HubSpot Commerce Hub?

First, What Is HubSpot Commerce Hub?

HubSpot Commerce Hub is another new member of the HubSpot family. The promise of HubSpot Commerce Hub is to revolutionize the way businesses like yours manage and optimize their e-commerce operations. With Commerce Hub, businesses can seamlessly integrate their online stores with the rest of the HubSpot suite, allowing for a cohesive and integrated approach to sales, marketing, and customer service.

💥 HubHeroes Podcast:

• What the Heck Is the HubSpot Commerce Hub?
• Maximizing Growth with HubSpot Commerce Hub (an Epic Tools Deep-Dive)

"Wait a second, George, we aren't an e-commerce company!"  Hold onto your britches, because while this may seem like an e-commerce only product, you'd be wrong. Because if your company deals with any of the following:

• CPQ
• Billing
• Payments

HubSpot Commerce Hub is something you should be looking at for your organization. Check it out:

In short, HubSpot Commerce Hub simplifies the actual dollars and cents transactions that underpin our goal of "growing better." Because if you want to increase revenue, you need to actually get paid, folks. And that's what this particular HubSpot Hub is all about.

Our Favorite HubSpot Commerce Hub Tools

HubSpot Commerce Hub Invoices

HubSpot Commerce Hub Invoicing is a game-changer, radically simplifying your ability to generate and send professional invoices to clients, track payment statuses, and manage billing cycles efficiently from within the same ecosystem of your marketing and sales efforts. 

Image Credit: HubSpot

If you've ever daydreamed about centralizing your company's financial data, automating invoicing workflows, and gaining valuable insights into their revenue streams — It's not just me, right? 😂 — HubSpot Commerce Hub is here to save the day. 

Again, this invoicing automation goodness isn't just for e-commerce companies; any organization dealing with quotes, billing, or payments can benefit from the simplicity and effectiveness of HubSpot Commerce Hub Invoicing.

HubSpot Commerce Hub Payment Links

This is one of my favorite features of HubSpot Commerce Hub, because it's so crazy simple, but epically powerful! With HubSpot Commerce Hub Payment Links, you can send personalized payment links via email or other communication channels, making it incredibly convenient for customers to complete transactions quickly and efficiently. 

Image Credit: HubSpot

This is a huge win for your customers, too. Because nothing is more annoying than wanting to pay your contractors and partners, and having to jump through a thousand confusing hoops to make it happen. For example, needing to have an account for a specific platform (e.g., Bill.com), no flexibility in how you pay, and so on. That's why removing the pain from invoice payments isn't just a win for you, it's also a major customer delight win.

HubSpot Commerce Hub Quotes

This is another swoon-worthy feature that, as a business owner myself, I use constantly. HubSpot Commerce Hub Quotes makes it not only possible, but so flippin' easy to create and send professional quotes to clients, track the status of quotes, and heck, streamline the entire quoting process. 

Image Credit: HubSpot

Like the Payment Links feature, HubSpot Commerce Hub Quotes is a win-win for you and your customers. You can optimize and fully streamline your quoting processes within a single platform, while also providing a seamless, effortless, fully branded quote experience for customers.  

So, Why Do We Love HubSpot Commerce Hub?

Is this one of the newest Hubs? Yes. But I've got to be honest with you, it may be the one I love the most. Seriously, folks, I cannot imagine starting a business today without it. With HubSpot Commerce Hub, you can immediately turn on the ability to (once more with feeling) get paid, with easy integrations with Stripe or something else, if you need it.

You don't need to hunt around for a PayPal link, force a customer to sign up for a Bill.com account, or send paper invoices or wait for checks to come in the mail. From marketing, sales, and to payments, HubSpot Commerce Hub empowers you to create a sophisticated, flexible, completely human transactional experience for your customers that makes you look on top of your game, whether you're quoting, invoicing, or seeking payments. 

This matters because your customers are expecting more from you, from every angle of their experience — how you market to them, how you sell to them, how you support them through service, and how much of a hassle it is (or isn't) to do business with you (invoicing and payments).