When it comes to building meaningful relationships with existing and potential customers, it's vital that you have the systems in place to provide the right information at the right time. Having too many marketing tools to deal with leads to inefficiency and you ultimately damage the relationships you're trying to nurture. Luckily for many forward-thinking businesses, HubSpot came along to streamline inbound marketing processes and make it easier for businesses to attract genuine leads and convert prospects into customers. But things are about to get even better.
Along with our CEO Sam Araki, I attended HubSpot's Inbound Conference in Boston back in September. HubSpot CEO and Co-founder Brian Halligan announced the latest upgrade to the HubSpot marketing platform: an integrated CRM tool. Along with new inbound marketing features, including an update of Signals to a new feature called Sidekick, there's a wealth of exciting new weapons to add to your marketing arsenal. In this post, I'll talk about the features of the new HubSpot CRM and how it can transform your business.
The Benefits of the New HubSpot CRM
For businesses that don't use their current CRM platform enough, or for those that are not yet using a CRM platform, the new HubSpot CRM has come at just the right time for those looking to refresh their marketing and sales strategies. If you're unsure about whether your business would benefit from the new HubSpot CRM, it's worth taking a closer look at its features to see how it could help your sales and marketing team in the long term.
Your sales team needs the right information at the right time so they can be more helpful to buyers, wherever they are in the sales cycle. This is where HubSpot's CRM tool comes in. Users will find it easier to track their marketing activities and sales performance as customers move through the buying process. Compared to the old ways of managing data and communicating important information to other team members, the new HubSpot CRM is more intuitive. With more automatic features, it simplifies the entire sales and marketing process. Sharing documents is also easy, with direct integration with Google Docs.
The Signals feature has been replaced by a new tool called Sidekick, which connects to your email inbox and provides you with valuable information about all the contacts and companies you engage with. Current HubSpot users will be happy, as it is built on a familiar platform and still has an intuitive, user-friendly interface. I'll talk more about Sidekick a little later.
The New Features of HubSpot CRM
There are too many features included in the new HubSpot CRM to outline here, but the following are some of its key features that will take your sales and marketing methods to the next level.
Contacts Database
With the new CRM, there's no need for integration because the system uses your existing HubSpot database. All your sales and marketing information is stored in one convenient location, ensuring all team members are working from the same page. Unlike other CRM systems, there's no need to import data. All the data on contacts, companies, and lead profiles are accessible to everyone on your team.
Timeline
Organizing all your important sales and marketing information is key to being able to communicate effectively with prospects at the right moment in the sales cycle. The Timeline feature makes sure you can track your prospects and easily manage all the data from one location. It records every email, call, note, and website visit so you can view all the data chronologically. With the ability to make calls, send emails, set reminders, and organize your work flow, Timeline helps you track your leads and optimize your productivity from one day to the next.
Recording and monitoring your emails is easy. HubSpot CRM connects directly to Gmail, Google Apps, Outlook, and Apple Mail, logging emails automatically and making it easy to send emails from any contact's record from within the tool.
Integration With Google Calendar
You don't have to leave the HubSpot CRM to view your scheduled meetings or set new appointments and reminders; it connects directly to your Google Calendar so you can manage your productivity without having to switch between windows.
Recorded Phone Calls and Emails
For an additional cost, you can make calls directly from the HubSpot CRM and have the calls recorded when required. This is especially useful for the occasions when you don't have time to take notes. It also logs your emails, so you never miss any important information that could be crucial for nurturing prospects or closing a sale.
Data Enrichment
When you login to the HubSpot CRM, you can now see all the valuable information about any contact or company, their key employees, and social data on each contact.
Sidekick
Sidekick is a complimentary tool that connects your email inbox to the HubSpot CRM. I gotta tell you - I love this new feature. It stays in your browser and follows your activities throughout the day, giving you insights into your contacts and the companies you deal with in your inbox and on the web. It's all about helping you understand your leads and potential buyers. Here are some of its powerful features:
- Profile information in your inbox. Sidekick displays important details about your contacts right in your inbox, so all your team are aware of the unique characteristics of each contact. From the contact's professional history, to their address and your mutual contacts, it's all there for everyone to se.
- Notifications. With the Sidekick email tracking feature, you can get notifications about when someone opens or clicks on one of your emails, when someone visits your website, and more. You can even see what device your prospect used to open the email. You no longer have to guess when prospects have read your emails or visited your website, meaning you can follow up with appropriate actions that are relevant to your prospect's stage in the buying cycle.
- Scheduling. With Sidekick, you can schedule emails right from within your inbox. This means that you can write several emails all at once and schedule each one to be sent on any day and at any time. This is also handy for delivering emails at the times when people are more likely to open them and take action - you can find out this data from your analytics reports I always use Sidekick and it's fantastic.
I highly recommend giving this tool a try.
How Do You Get the New HubSpot CRM?
If you're already a HubSpot customer, you will be the first to get the CRM. It's currently in beta, but they're going to roll it out to groups of customers over the coming months. Go to the HubSpot website and fill in the form to be notified about the progress throughout the fall and learn when you can access it in your HubSpot account. It will be available to everyone else in 2015.
What Does The HubSpot CRM Cost?
They did consider charging extra for the HubSpot CRM, but they have decided to offer the standard version for free. All HubSpot subscribers (Basic, Pro, and Enterprise) will get access. In the future, there will be extra features that you will probably pay extra for, but the main version will still be free of charge. Just remember that any additional contacts you add through the HubSpot CRM will add to your total of contacts on the HubSpot database. The Sidekick tool can be used for free for up to 200 notifications per month and for $10 per month for unlimited access.
Lastly...
HubSpot CRM and its companion Sidekick are going to help many businesses around the world get more organized when it comes to marketing and sales processes. The new features make this system one of the most advanced CRM tools on the market. It was developed with sales and marketing teams in mind and designed to be more user-friendly than other CRM platforms. It was also built with the customer in mind, taking into account the way people shop and buy in the digital age.
HubSpot CRM and Sidekick will actually save your team time and let them focus on actual marketing and selling. The tools are perfect for companies that want to improve the way they attract and engage prospects, leads, and customers. The connection between the new HubSpot CRM and customer needs is key to the success with the HubSpot platform. If you want to work more efficiently and engage with consumers in a way that they will understand and respond to, what are you waiting for? HubSpot CRM and Sidekick are changing the way businesses approach sales and marketing. Can you afford to ignore its potential?
About the Author:
Ramesh Ranjan is the Inbound Marketing Specialist at LocalTrifecta Internet Marketing, where he helps businesses across Metro Vancouver increase sales and revenue through Inbound Marketing. His marketing heroes are Marcus Sheridan, John Caples and John Carlton. In his off time, he can be found playing roller hockey in Richmond, blogging on his personal website, and at the top of the office hockey pool. You can follow and connect with Ramesh over Twitter and Google+
