Why Most Businesses Underutilise HubSpot (And How to Get the Full Value)

HubSpot is a powerful all-in-one platform for marketing, sales, and customer relationship management, with features designed to help businesses scale efficiently. Yet, despite its comprehensive toolset, many businesses fail to unlock its full potential. Whether due to unfamiliarity with its more advanced capabilities or simply a lack of time, businesses often underutilise HubSpot, missing out on significant opportunities for growth and optimisation.

In this blog, we’ll explore why businesses typically don’t get the full value from HubSpot and provide actionable tips on how you can start using the platform more effectively.

1. Not Using HubSpot’s Automation Features

One of HubSpot’s greatest strengths lies in its automation tools, yet many businesses don’t take full advantage of them. From lead nurturing to task automation, HubSpot can save teams countless hours by streamlining repetitive processes.

How to get more out of HubSpot automation:

• Automate email sequences: HubSpot’s workflow feature allows you to send targeted email sequences to leads based on their behaviour or stage in the buyer’s journey. Set up nurturing campaigns that automatically deliver the right content to leads at the right time, keeping them engaged without manual follow-ups.
• Task automation for sales teams: Automatically assign tasks to sales reps based on lead activities, such as filling out forms or requesting a demo. This ensures timely follow-up and frees your team from manual data entry.
• Trigger notifications: Set up instant notifications for your team whenever a high-value lead takes an important action, like revisiting a pricing page, so they can engage quickly.

By integrating automation into your day-to-day processes, you can free up valuable time for more strategic tasks while improving lead engagement.

2. Overlooking HubSpot’s Reporting and Analytics Tools

HubSpot’s reporting and analytics tools offer deep insights into your marketing and sales performance, yet many businesses only scratch the surface of what’s possible. While basic metrics like email open rates and form submissions are commonly tracked, HubSpot’s more advanced reporting features can help you understand your performance in greater detail.

How to unlock the full potential of HubSpot’s reporting tools:

• Custom reports: Use HubSpot’s custom reporting capabilities to track the specific metrics that matter most to your business. Whether it’s lead attribution, sales pipeline performance, or customer retention, you can build reports tailored to your goals.
• Revenue attribution: HubSpot’s multi-touch revenue attribution reports help you see exactly which marketing activities are driving revenue. This insight allows you to allocate your marketing budget more effectively, focusing on the channels and campaigns that produce real results.
• Funnel reports: Track how leads move through your marketing and sales funnels with HubSpot’s funnel reports. These reports can help you identify bottlenecks in your funnel, giving you actionable insights to improve conversion rates.

By diving into HubSpot’s reporting tools, you’ll be able to make more data-driven decisions and continuously optimise your marketing and sales strategies.

3. Underutilising HubSpot’s CRM Capabilities

Many businesses implement HubSpot’s CRM to manage contacts and track interactions, but they often stop short of using its full suite of features. HubSpot’s CRM is far more than just a contact database; it offers powerful tools for pipeline management, relationship building, and sales forecasting.

How to make better use of HubSpot’s CRM:

• Pipeline customisation: Tailor your sales pipelines to match your specific sales process. Add custom deal stages, set up automatic triggers for moving deals through the pipeline, and ensure your team is aligned on every stage of the sales process.
• Lead scoring: Use HubSpot’s lead scoring to prioritise leads based on their engagement and likelihood to convert. This feature assigns points to leads based on their actions, helping your sales team focus on the most promising opportunities.
• CRM integration: HubSpot’s CRM integrates seamlessly with a variety of tools, including Google Workspace, Slack, and accounting software. Make sure your team is using these integrations to streamline workflows and ensure data flows smoothly across all your business systems.

Unlocking the full potential of HubSpot’s CRM can help you improve sales efficiency, build stronger relationships with prospects, and close deals faster.

4. Neglecting HubSpot’s Personalisation Features

Today’s customers expect personalised experiences at every touchpoint, and HubSpot provides several tools to help you deliver tailored content and communications. However, many businesses don’t fully utilise these personalisation features, leading to missed opportunities to engage customers more effectively.

How to leverage HubSpot’s personalisation capabilities:

• Dynamic content: Use dynamic content in your emails and landing pages to personalise the experience based on the lead’s location, industry, or behaviour. For example, you can show different product recommendations based on what a user has previously viewed or downloaded.
• Smart CTAs: HubSpot allows you to create smart CTAs (calls-to-action) that change depending on the visitor’s stage in the buyer’s journey. A first-time visitor might see a CTA to download a guide, while a returning lead might see a CTA to book a demo.
• Custom workflows: Personalise your automated workflows by creating different paths based on user actions. This ensures that each contact receives the most relevant content or follow-up based on their specific interests or behaviours.

By incorporating personalisation into your marketing efforts, you can improve engagement rates and build stronger connections with your audience.

5. Ignoring HubSpot’s Integration Capabilities

HubSpot is designed to work seamlessly with a wide range of third-party tools, from eCommerce platforms to project management software. However, many businesses don’t take full advantage of these integration capabilities, resulting in data silos and missed opportunities for efficiency.

How to make the most of HubSpot’s integrations:

• Connect with your eCommerce platform: If you run an online store, integrate HubSpot with your eCommerce platform (such as Shopify or WooCommerce) to track customer interactions, automate follow-ups, and create tailored product recommendations.
• Sync with project management tools: Use HubSpot’s integrations with project management tools like Asana or Trello to ensure your marketing, sales, and service teams are aligned on tasks and deadlines.
• Link with customer support platforms: Integrate HubSpot with your customer support platform to create a seamless experience from sales to service. When your sales team can see past support tickets, they’ll have more context during their follow-ups, leading to better customer relationships.

By leveraging HubSpot’s integration capabilities, you can streamline workflows, improve data flow across departments, and create a more unified business operation.

6. Failing to Align Marketing and Sales with HubSpot

HubSpot is designed to align marketing and sales efforts, ensuring that both teams work together toward shared business goals. However, many businesses don’t take full advantage of this capability, resulting in a disconnect between the two departments.

How to improve marketing and sales alignment with HubSpot:

• Use lead handoff workflows: Create workflows that automatically notify the sales team when a lead becomes qualified, ensuring a smooth handoff from marketing to sales.
• Track marketing impact on sales: Use HubSpot’s reporting tools to show how marketing activities influence sales outcomes, helping both teams understand the value they bring to each other.
• Shared goals and metrics: Use HubSpot’s dashboards to create shared goals for marketing and sales teams, such as tracking lead-to-customer conversion rates, and ensure both departments are working towards the same objectives.

By aligning marketing and sales through HubSpot, you’ll create a more cohesive strategy that drives better results for your business.

Unlock the Full Power of HubSpot

While HubSpot offers a robust suite of tools, many businesses only use a fraction of its potential. By exploring automation, leveraging advanced reporting, customising your CRM, and integrating with other platforms, you can unlock the full value of HubSpot and drive significant growth for your business.

Are you ready to get more from HubSpot? Start by evaluating how you’re currently using the platform and implement these tips to make the most of its powerful features.