Whether it's the end of the year or the beginning of a new one, it's time to review your metrics and how they're reported. Of course, there will always be surprises about things that didn't work as well as they should have. Then it is time to audit the portal and create the action plan for the next period. But you might be wondering where to start? Here is a guide for you.
The first fundamental step we teach all Super Admins at the official HubSpot's Academy Bootcamp is to understand the data model and, of course, the quality of your information.
And by that we mean always being clear about the objects used in the portal and their properties (prepare to be surprised if you haven't done this for a while).
And when it comes to properties, be very clear about those that are key to the business. For example, contact buying role, company industry, IPC and TAM, closing date of open business, ticket category, tickets past SLA, and so on..
As you may already know this year HubSpot changed the contract schema for all customers passing to a seats based model.
And why is this important for EVERY HubSpot customer? Because all accounts are going to be migrated to this new model by the end of 2025 and this will impact your budget. So if you haven't been migrated yet (starter accounts and some pro accounts) you will be, so you need to make a plan and prepare for migration. The best results come from preparation.
The most important thing to know now is that everyone in your organisation who needs to work in HubSpot will need a paid seat, so no more free users.
Another important thing to review is who does what in HubSpot. Take a look at the permission sets for each role in the company. And if there are none, define and create them. And if you find that everyone is a super admin, then you have not been paying attention.
Remember: NOT all users need to have a Super Admin role, as this is a very serious security hole for your organisation..
The only way to know the status of the database and the quality (and trustworthiness) of your information is to have a good set of reporting dashboards with key quality data indicators and health metrics. This will allow you to act in time if data points are missing or incorrect.
It is normal to find that there are many holes in the information that no one has the time or cares to fill. Perhaps it is time to consider data enrichment tools such as Breeze or Clay to help your team maintain a healthy and up-to-date database.
Start by building a robust dashboard of the most important data you need to keep an eye on. And then plan how you want to approach a solution. For example, you could start by completing 20 records per week (of course this only makes sense in a small database, at scale you will need some automation/tools).
If we are talking about marketing processes analyse your performance and identify areas for improvement regarding you email deliverability and open rates, ad campaign performance and conversion or even if your automations are hitting the goals (because you do have goals for your workflows right?? right?!!!).
Attribution is also key for marketing, you 'd want to know which source is generating the most contacts for your business, and also which contacts are thriving, turning into conversations with sales and generating more deals.
Look at your sales processes. You can always analyse the utilisation of the pipeline and the activities carried out by the team. You will certainly find elements to highlight and also things to improve or simplify.
The key is to understand is where in your sales process you are supporting your goals or where you are creating friction. Ask yourself: can we help people be more efficient? how? Can we give people better tools, content or automation to close deals? which ones?
In the case of customer service processes, if we think about the use of Tickets, you probably want to understand the reason why you are receiving queries and evaluate what can be improved to minimise those queries or complaints in the future. Perhaps a rich knowledge base filled with FAQs, generating self-service content, a better customer onboarding process, educational content...among others.
If you have your website on Hubspot, you can easily see the entire customer journey. If so, there may be user experience improvements or experiments you could consider for next year to see if your conversion rates improve. Also consider upgrading to the brand new Content Hub with fantastic AI (thank me later).
Budget is the key conversation this time of the year and everyone is asking themselves: Are we taking full advantage of HubSpot? Should we add/take something? Is this other platform worth it?
The key here is to have a clear scenario of all the applications and tools that the company uses, how they use them, who requested this tool/is responsible for it, what is the main goal for its use. Once you know this, you can evaluate whether to replace it with a HubSpot feature or whether it would be better to integrate it.
If you are going down the integration route, ask yourself: what is the impact in HubSpot, what are we trying to achieve, what new information do we have in the CRM that we can report on? If none of this is clear, think twice.
If an integration is no longer in use, you need to unplug it because it could be a security breach for your business. You don't want third parties accessing your information for no reason.
Now that we have laid the groundwork for you to review, you can make a plan to improve next year. But it can be lonely being solely responsible for the CRM, say the super admin, you may want to brainstorm with equally invested people and you certainly want an expert opinion.
As Donald Rumsfeld once said, "There are known knowns... and unknown unknowns. When it comes to your HubSpot setup, it's important to not only address what you know needs improvement, but also identify potential blind spots that could be holding your team back.
That's why we've created Andimol's Quick Check, to have a LIVE 90min session with Martin and Lucy (20+ years experience combined with both strategic and technical savvy) to help you review your plan, your current state and consider all the options for your next steps.
Don't miss this opportunity and book your quick check here.