This edition we dive into:
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Recorded: Tuesday 17 December 2024 | Published: Friday 20 December 2024
First thing to mention - we had accidentally linked to an old Google doc in the download page. So sorry - anyone who has signed up in the last few months was seeing a version from April. We’ve now fixed the link and you should access the latest version (dated early December) of the HubShots Framework from here.
This should be a campaign…
One of the features of HubShot is that it pulls in all the advertising and social stats - which means you can keep your ad agency accountable.
We’ve had a few situations lately where ad agencies were ‘reporting’ conversions to the customer that didn’t align with what we were seeing in HubSpot. In some cases it’s because HubSpot doesn’t get all the ‘conversions’ eg phone calls can be tricky depending on which platform is used for calls. But in others, we found that the agency was double counting conversions (they were reporting total conversions that included forms and click to call events). Once the conversions were clarified and corrected it meant we could recalculate ROI, CPA etc.
Plus it meant we could also set up audiences and events within HubSpot that pushed back to the ad platforms, allowing the agencies to build more accurate lookalike audiences, plus exclusion audiences.
Something to ponder over the break…
A few years ago HubSpot was speaking about connection with customers - but what does connection really mean?
Is it about personal relationships, or is it just about scaling pretend relationship activities?
We’ve seen so many AI and automated tools rolling out - but you need to think carefully about which ones you’ll embrace (and which to avoid).
Craig will have a full blog post on this later, but for now the summary to consider is:
(Sounds obvious of course, but if that’s the case then why do you still get the annoying cold calls, the spam emails, the ChatGPT replies, or the Apple Intelligence ads that help you lie or be that lazy person in the office that should have been fired years ago?)
You can follow us each personally via our personal channels:
I’ve been posting a simple HubSpot tip daily (on weekdays) on my channels - simply follow the one that’s most convenient for you.
BTW stick around to the end for details of the community we’ve got planned for 2025.
Craig’s biggest unlock: Being able to manage Association Labels in Workflows.
Combining this with object to object associations (eg contact to contact) has been a big unlock for a number of companies. The perfect use case is when a contact refers other contacts via a form. The workflow can split out the referred contact from the referrer and set association labels between them. So handy! Pooja has a nice overview of the use case here.
Ian’s biggest unlock: Quick filters on views and views themselves
Navigating and quickly filtering data has been massively improved as you can have quick access to filters that matter to you and your business.
(Aside: There’s also been some frustrations as features move eg how you create popup forms has changed considerably (you now need to use CTAs). Not as quickly to get going as it was before.
Here’s a few quick items of interest we noticed:
Chalk this up as another ‘it’s the little things’ update that we love - you can simply right click on a column header in Views to add or remove columns.
Make sure you click Save to save to your view (otherwise they’ll be gone if you refresh).
Makes it so much easier to exclude contacts when you’re building lists with multiple criteria groups:
Here’s a simple example of a list that is built using multiple criteria - before we’d have to add those exclusions to each group:
The new Lead Scoring tool has been in Beta for a while and is now rolled out to Marketing Pro+ portals.
You can add and subtract points based on Engagement items (think activity), and Fit items (think properties on the contact or company).
A few nice areas to dive into:
You can easily manage which contacts are updated, using Exclusion lists:
Essentially it means you can easily set which contacts will have the score updated (versus being left as unknown).
Using associated objects in Lists is a slightly advanced area, but simple to use once you know how.
Here’s an example of building a Deal list based on associated Line items in deals
You can set the default email address you use to send replies eg on Tickets, Deals, etc
Simply choose from the list of available emails:
This request came from a client recently - they wanted to see a list of their highest revenue clients over the years.
Using Custom Reports and choosing the Pivot table option, this is reasonably straightforward.
The screenshot below should be enough to show how it’s done, but if you’d like a fuller video walkthrough, let us know.
Quick tip: edit the first row field to set Sort and Limit options.
We mentioned this at the top of the show, but I just wanted to call it out again - setting Associations labels via workflows is a very powerful action.
But also handy is the new Note action (might be still in beta, depending on when you are reading this).
Adding Notes against an object (eg contact, deal, ticket, etc) is handy for items that might affect other systems - and saves you having to trawl back through the activity timeline.
For example: we add a Note against Deals once they reach a specific deal that kicks off a process in Teamwork (our project management system):
Accessibility controls on HubSpot websites
I wouldn't say we get this question often, but it is becoming more common - people asking about accessibility compliance and controls on HubSpot websites.
Out of the box there's no built-in support for accessibility in either Content Hub or any of the main Themes on the marketplace.
So you'll likely end up using a 3rd party plugin.
We use accessiBe (but there are a number of others). In this post we walk through the steps for adding it - it's quite straightforward:
There's an overview of accessibility in HubSpot here and if you'd like to see it in action and play with the controls, you can have a play on this page (bottom right corner to show the control)
This one is a little on the nerdy side, but worth knowing about if you use these two Ticket properties in lists or workflows:
Here’s a gotcha…
The ‘Last message from visitor’ property is set when the last email from the contact comes via a Conversation (ie Inbox).
But the ‘Last message received date’ property is set based on the last email from the contact via any means (eg replying to an email in a ticket).
This is important, because if you use ‘Last message from visitor’ as your indicator that a contact has replied (eg on a ticket) then it’s important that they replied to an email address that is caught in a conversation. If not, the property won’t be set. And in turn workflows won’t fire.
We learnt this the hard in a client’s ticketing system, where the property was used to set Ticket status back to the ticket owner. But in some cases the ticket owner had emailed the client using a different email address (not caught in a Conversations inbox). And they missed getting notifications.
HubSpot’s Breeze AI has been rolling out regular updates.
Enrichment is just one part of Breeze, and a quick win for many B2B focussed portals. Enrichment allows you to ‘enrich’ the data in contact and company records.
However, before purchasing Breeze credits it’s handy to check whether Breeze actually has data for your companies and contacts.
Now you can check the ‘enrichment coverage’ to see the percentage of data available.
Simply select some records and use the ‘Check enrichment coverage’ option (often under More) to get a breakdown of the coverage:
For many B2B portals you’ll get a reasonably high company percentage, and likely contacts also (see screenshot below).
But for B2C portals that have lots of gmail and free email address contacts, you won’t get much.
Speaking of Breeze, just another reminder about the Summarize function on just about all objects. Here’s an example of using on a contact record:
You get a nice summary in the Copilot flyout:
This is great and all, but it doesn’t really dive much deeper than that eg asking follow up questions are often poorly answered.
This has been out for a little while now and is a very handy way to consolidate some older property bloat.
Simply select 2 or more property options and then the Merge link to guide you through which one to keep and which to merge into it:
Worth noting: the one you choose to lose (ie you merge into the property option you’re keeping) may be used in workflows, lists, reports etc.
You’ll need to find those occurrences and manually update as required. You can do this via the ‘Used in’ area:
Mark this as one of the ‘it’s the little things’ releases - only minor, but very welcome!
You can now control access to the one-to-one emails on an object so that users can be limited to only seeing their own, or their team’s emails. Previously they could see everything.
Reminder: from a while back on what the Notes permissions do (which always confuses people).
I recently caught up with John at CloneNer and he walked me through their cloning app - it’s on the HubSpot marketplace.
It’s handy for easily cloning objects (deals, tickets, contacts, companies) etc. A typical use case would be cloning deals into renewal deals.
It can be used manually on the right-hand panel of objects, or via workflows.
I’ve started using it, and think it’s going to be handy for a number of our clients.
You've probably heard the panadol versus vitamins cliché a million times - and been prompted to decide on which one you're going to offer.
But it's not about choosing one of the other, it's actually about timeframe.
What does your ideal client need now (versus later).
Most new clients need a key short term problem solved before they can think more longer term.
For example, focus on quick on-demand support and sharp training initially, before moving to more transformative engagements.
Unless you're a well known brand, clients usually (but not always) need a quick win to trust you fully.
(Further: the above also highlights why being a well known brand is so important)
David Ogilvy on the satisfying pursuit of excellence:
“I have no ambition to preside over a vast bureaucracy. That is why we have only nineteen clients. The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.”
A little sneak announcement about something we’re building for 2025. We’ll be launching a Skool community in February with a small number of initial members. In the community we’ll have a number of courses (across HubSpot and Marketing Strategy) as well as a community area for asking questions and helping others. We’ll also be running monthly live events for members to ask questions.
If you’re interested in being part of the initial group please visit this Skool link and request to Join. We’ll be reviewing applications and selecting an initial set of members early in the new year.
Why join early? Once we’ve built out all the courses and the community has momentum, we’re going to switch it to be a premium paid community. Early founding members won’t have to pay.
Download a copy of the HubShots Framework A3 PDF poster (recently updated with colour coding and more).
Connect with HubShots here:
Connect with Ian Jacob on LinkedIn and Craig Bailey on Threads
HubShots, the podcast for marketing managers and sales professionals who use HubSpot, hosted by Ian Jacob from Search & Be Found and Craig Bailey from XEN Systems, XEN Create and XEN Solar.
HubShots is produced by Christopher Mottram from Podcastily.
We record using Riverside.fm (<= affiliate link) and our community uses Skool (<= affiliate link)
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