The complete guide to setting up HubSpot

From the basics like changing time zones to the things you’ll need to rope your developers in for, we have everything covered in this guide. Learn more about setting up with HubSpot and what you’ll need to create compelling marketing campaigns.

Want to skip to a particular section?

Just click on the headings below.

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1. The foundations of HubSpot

2. Integrating your website with the platform

3. Importing your contact data

4. GDPR compliant settings

5. Setting up the Sales Hub

6. Email templates 101

7. Adding your socials to HubSpot

8. All about CTAs and forms

9. Wonderful workflows you should be using

10. Setting up your conversations inbox and chatbots

11. How to set up and access your marketing and sales dashboards

1.The foundations

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Navigating around the back-end for basic settings can be treacherous. Stray too far and you’re in uncharted territory. That’s why it’s best practice to familiarise yourself with the HubSpot surroundings early on, whether you’re part of the marketing or sales team.

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It’s easy to get started and something you can do by yourself - right now. All you need to get going is the name and email address of each person you’d like to make a user in HubSpot. This allows you to set up the account admin too.

Choose your users

HubSpot User - the user has access to all of the fantastic HubSpot tools and you can edit their permissions to make them an admin.

Super Admin - not just a cool title, the user has automatic access to all tools and settings too.

Blog Author - the user has access to the blog tool only and can save articles as drafts, but can’t publish them.

Blog Publisher - the user has access to the blog tool but can also save and publish articles.

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Back to basics

In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main navigation bar to get access to key settings.

• Time zone - In Account Defaults, click the ‘Time zone’ dropdown menu and select which time zone you’d like to set on your account. (This nifty setting also localises several of your HubSpot tools, including scheduled email sends, social media messages and analytics).

• Currency - Click the dropdown menu to select the currency you would like revenue and costs to be displayed in.

• Language - Click the dropdown menu and select one of the supported languages (English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish). This setting changes the default language of the entire HubSpot interface.

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2.Integrating

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If you’re not so tech savvy, this might be one for your developers or IT team. You may need access to your DNS (Domain Name System) settings and your hosting provider when migrating your website to HubSpot. Make sure you’ve received your ‘Migration Complete’ notification before attempting to connect your domain name.

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Basic customers - domain name

If you’re a HubSpot Basic customer, you’ll host your entire website with HubSpot and will need to connect your domain name to it. This ensures that when someone types in your domain name, they’ll see your HubSpot-hosted website rather than your current one that’s externally hosted.

Professional or Enterprise customers - domain name or subdomain

If you’re a HubSpot Professional or Enterprise customer, you have the choice of hosting your entire website with HubSpot or continuing to host your site externally and just using landing pages and blog CMS pages.

However, if you choose to host your site externally, you’ll need to connect a subdomain to your HubSpot-hosted pages.

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If you’re unsure on the status of your migration, contact HubSpot support.

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Tracking codes

Skip this step if you’re a HubSpot Basic customer or you’re hosting your website with HubSpot. The tracking code is automatically installed on your HubSpot site.

Installing the tracking code on every page lets you take advantage of all of HubSpot’s features and most importantly, makes the entire software work. It’s a tiny piece of JavaScript code that gives you access to valuable insights.

• Analytics reports - This allows HubSpot to tell you where your traffic, leads and customers found your website.

• Contacts intelligence - A sophisticated lead intelligence software that allows HubSpot to provide you with the information to enable you to turn more website traffic into customers.

• Pages - This lets HubSpot crawl your site to tell you which SEO elements need further optimisation to improve your website traffic.

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If you’re not especially clued up on the IT-related side of things, you can always ask us for help. We

can help you get your domain up and running.

3.Importing your

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When importing records into HubSpot, you can create associations between two different record types, a contact and an account record.

In HubSpot, a contact is an individual person. You can only have one email address per contact and it’s mostly used for sales. However, an account record is a company contact and inside that record, you can have multiple contacts with their email addresses.

You’ll need a CSV file containing all of your important contact information. The sooner you get these leads into HubSpot, the better. You get access to useful CRM tools that will change the way you collate data:

• Spring clean - HubSpot will automatically remove duplicate contacts from your list and after the spruce, you can use lead nurturing campaigns to determine which of your leads are most qualified to become customers.

• Reignite your leads - having the ability to segment your leads is beneficial as you can send them targeted communications via email and lead nurturing campaigns. This automates the pesky process of turning a rogue lead into a dedicated customer.

• Get lead intelligence - receiving lead revisit alerts, seeing when your imported leads view your site and getting social media information can help make your team more effective and personalised sales calls.

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If you’re not quite sure how to get your contacts into Hubspot, send us a quick message and we’ll

get your data imported in no time.

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After you import your contacts database, be sure to upload your Do Not Email or Opt Out list too. This is a list of people who have unsubscribed from your email communications and won’t

appreciate your latest product release or newsletter.

This is also to remain GDPR compliant. We’ll go into more detail about this in the next section.

Importing your leads will better equip your team with valuable lead intelligence and help streamline the process of driving leads further down the funnel - resulting in a nice little ROI.

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4.GDPR compliant

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If you’re a Super Admin, you can turn on GDPR in your HubSpot account settings. This is a unified place to automatically enable GDPR-compliant features throughout your HubSpot account.

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Here’s how to turn on GDPR:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, select Account Defaults.

• Click to toggle the EU GDPR switch on so you only send marketing emails to contacts with a legitimate reason to contact.

Once GDPR is enabled, you’ll have the following features in your account:

• Cookie consent banner is toggled on by default.

• GDPR delete functionality is enabled, which gives you the choice to either delete a contact and keep the option to restore within 90 days or delete the contact fully to comply with GDPR.

• GDPR-ready forms with a lawful basis notice and communication consent checkbox form field.

• Unsubscribe links are turned on by default for sales one-to-one and sequences emails.

• Ability to add communication consent and lawful basis (legitimate interest) for processing to contacts via a list import, bulk edit or manual contact creation.

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Whether GDPR is something you’re actively implementing or it’s way over your head, you might benefit from a chat

with us regarding your compliance.

All these features help you comply, as well as these other important ones too. And keep in mind that while

these features are a part of HubSpot, your legal team is still the best resource when it comes to giving compliance

advice for your specific situation.

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5.Setting up the

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Sales Hub is an extension of HubSpot. You get a basic version for free and certain features have paid tiers. Start for free and upgrade as you and your business requirements grow.

This Hub is purely for the Sales team and has everything you need in one central place, including:

• Connecting emails to HubSpot.

• Setting up meetings.

• Create workflows.

• Deals (pipeline).

• Documents.

• Lead scoring.

• Playbooks.

• Create team goals.

Get notified the moment a lead opens your email, track every interaction and organise all your activities in one place with HubSpot’s sales software.

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Tools like deal pipelines can be used to predict revenue and identify roadblocks in your selling process. Deal stages are the steps in your pipeline that signify to your sales team that there’s progress towards closing a deal. Keeping track of your deals’ progress in your sales pipeline gives you a more detailed picture of your projected revenue for a given time.

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The Sales Hub saves you time, from automating outreach to allowing you to follow up flawlessly. It helps you make deals and not just data entries.

We have a couple of Sales Hub whizzes here at Digital 22, so if you’re looking to get started, let us know how we can help.

By default, HubSpot includes a sales pipeline with seven deal stages:

• Appointment scheduled (20%)

• Qualified to buy (40%)

• Presentation scheduled (60%)

• Decision maker bought-in (80%)

• Contract sent (90%)

• Closed won (100% Won)

• Closed lost (0% Lost)

6.Email

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There are two main avenues when it comes to creating an email template. There’s the drag and drop editor to set up basic yet effective templates or you can enlist the help of your design and development team to create fancy custom templates.

Drag & drop

Each email created this way is clean and responsive on any email and device type. You can access customisable elements like images, text fields and buttons. It’s simple enough for a beginner to experiment with.

This method is easier but, of course, has its limitations.

Custom templates

Custom templates are ideal if you come across any limitations or if you want that added ‘wow factor’. By default, custom coded templates won’t be responsive but if you work alongside your design and development team, you can make sure it’s available on all devices.

Once they’re built correctly into HubSpot, you’re good to start writing your email.

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Emails, e-shots and automation

Sending emails in real time are what we at Digital 22 call monthly emails or e-shots. You can schedule monthly emails in the future but they’re more like one-off emails.

If you have three or more emails for the same audience list, it’s best practice to create a workflow.

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Connecting third-party systems

HubSpot needs permission to connect to your current email inbox but accounts like Gmail, Office 365 and Exchange are supported and can be integrated easily.

• In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Integrations > Email integrations.

• Click Connect an inbox.

If you’re unsure on how to create compelling email templates, our marketers are well equipped with some tips and tricks to get you on your way.

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7.Adding your socials

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Connecting your social media accounts to HubSpot is simple and gives you important insights into engagement, interaction and target audience.

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• In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Social.

• In the upper right, click Connect Account and start adding your social networks.

Twitter and LinkedIn are a breeze but Facebook must be linked to your Instagram business account in order to be connected to HubSpot.

Interactions, audience increase, session clicks and top posts all allow you to analyse what’s working and apply it to future posts.

Tip from Lou, D22’s Social Media Superstar - “There’s a tiny button when scheduling a post that’s often overlooked. It opens up a full calendar and gives you a monthly view of outgoing social posts. It’s a good way to visualise your social strategy.”

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Social listening allows you to track, analyse and respond to conversations about your brand and industry online. You can do this easily with the social monitoring functionality - it allows you to create contact lists, search keywords and hashtags that provides some pretty extensive information regarding your target audience.

It can even highlight some blindspots you may not have seen.

Not to mention, you can also spy on your competitors with the new list in beta mode. See what’s working for them (and what’s not) and then put your learnings into action.

Having an issue adding your socials? Touch base with us so we can see where you’re at.

8.All about CTAs

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Forms have a vital relationship with lead flows and are one of the essential marketing tools we know and love. Forms can be highly situational and creating one is easy.

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CTAs drive prospects

A call-to-action (CTA) is a button you can use in your HubSpot content to drive prospective customers to your website. They can then convert on a form and be added to your contacts database.

CTAs should be visually attractive, action-oriented and easy to locate on your pages, emails and blogs. You can create different CTAs to align with the buyer’s journey and even smart CTAs. They are customised based on data stored in your HubSpot contact records, such as known information like location and preferred language.

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Forms are crucial

The Forms feature allows us to get new information and understand more about our existing customers. They’re especially important on landing pages. Specific form fields like ‘describe your role’ help you to create better personas and better content that resonates with them.

They also help when it comes to segmenting lists and achieving better email open rates.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Lead Capture > Forms.

• In the upper right, click Create form.

• In the left panel, select Regular form.

• In the upper right, click Next.

• In the left panel, select Blank template to start with a blank form or a pre-made template to start with a form with fields for a specific use case. The form preview for a selected template will appear in the right panel.

• In the upper right, click Start.

• At the top of the form editor, click the    to edit the form name.

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You can add and edit as many form fields as you like to gather the information you desire to create better personas. But if you’re forms are falling flat and you need some advice, taking some time to chat

with some form fanatics like us might just do the trick.

9.Wonderful

workflows you should be using

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A workflow tool can automate your sales push, marketing efforts and your internal processes, allowing you to really get involved with lead nurturing. With HubSpot workflows, you can create automated follow up emails that align with the prospects’ actions and build a relationship between the buyer and your business.

It engages contacts in a way that progresses them towards a specific action.

Lead nurturing should happen during the onboarding process all the way through to delighting existing customers. Workflows can do just that.

There are various contact properties, from those that assist internal automation to assisting with customer support.

• Contact-based.

• Company-based.

• Deal-based.

• Ticket-based.

• Quote-based.

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By default, objects are only enrolled in workflows the first time they meet the workflow enrollment triggers or are enrolled manually e.g form submission or action. Automated lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone emails.

Example of workflow:

• A CTA is clicked on a blog post and a prospect puts their details in to download the eBook.

• An automated email is sent after a period of time, referencing the eBook and maybe providing some more resources.

• Providing more consideration/decision-based content to them so they move down the funnel.

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The number of emails you send might depend on the campaign and their position in the sales cycle. Experiment

with frequency by taking a look at open rates, clicks and unsubscribers to find the right balance.

If your workflows aren’t flowing like they should be, chatting to a HubSpot partner like us could get the

ball rolling.

10.Setting up your

conversations inbox and chatbots

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However, having HubSpot as a tool accommodates both strategies. This saves you time from having to set up a new system or learn a new way of working. Chatbots, HubSpot Conversations and reviewing your audience all help to achieve that goal.

Set up a Conversations Inbox

Streamline and centralise communication with your contacts by setting up a conversations inbox. You can connect team emails and chat channels to the inbox then view, reply and manage all conversations from each channel in one unified place.

• In your HubSpot account, click the    in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Conversations > Inboxes.

• Click Create Inbox.

• In the Team inbox name field, enter a name for your inbox.

• Click the Add team inbox members dropdown menu to choose who can see this inbox.

There’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to implementing a conversational marketing strategy. In comparison to inbound, it’s much more sales orientated and typically towards the bottom of the funnel - especially when you’re just getting started. Inbound is about building organic traffic and momentum over time. Whereas conversational marketing is about shortening the sales cycle and converting better in real time.

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The best kind of conversation is one that gives you the answer that you need. If your chatflows are

quiet, have a conversation with us about it.

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Creating a chatbot

Before you dive right in and start experimenting with chatbot creation, it’s worth thinking about a strategy. It can be as simple as reviewing your audience to tailor your bot’s tone or designing a conversation flow that’s either rule-based or AI. Having an idea before getting started will make the process easier.

No experience creating bots? No problem. HubSpot’s templates make it really simple. Just choose the one that’s based on your bot’s goal and use the visual editor to customise.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Conversations > Chatflows.

• Hover over the bot you want to modify and click Edit, or click Create chatflow to build a new bot.

• Click the + to add new actions to your bot.

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11.Set up & access

your marketing and sales dashboards

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When you log in to HubSpot, you’ll have default reports on your marketing and sales dashboard with various stats and graphs. That’s okay for some people, but for those looking for something more tailored, you can completely customise it to show analytics that are relevant to you.

Move, resize, rename and reorder - you can put priority analytics at the top and get data at a glance.

Reporting for duty

The report library has every important KPI you need, from blog post views to team productivity, right the way through to revenue-based reports. It’s also ideal for setting up personal dashboards for bosses and managers who don’t necessarily want to go digging around to find reports like ROI.

There’s a limit of 10 reports per dashboard and accounts with the reporting add-on can create up to 200 custom dashboards!

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If you want something more in depth, you can create a custom report and specify time frames. You can even specify how you see the data presented e.g. pie charts, line graphs and tables.

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We know this is top level stuff but it can give you some valuable analytics. So if you’re wanting a better insight into your business

and the dashboard is daunting, send us a quick message.

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Need some help getting started with HubSpot?

Getting started with HubSpot might seem overwhelming, but this user-friendly platform is simple - once all the right settings are in order. HubSpot’s tools are so easy to build but your workflows might not be set up as effectively as they could be or your contacts might be all over the place. Making sure everything is correct and working to the best of its ability should be your priority.

And while you’re focusing on getting acquainted with the HubSpot platform, you’re spending less time on other areas of your business. That’s where an award-winning agency like Digital 22 can help. We’re a Diamond HubSpot Partner and recent winners of EMEA Partner of the Year and we certainly know our way around the platform.

If you have any questions about getting your HubSpot set up properly or you’re looking for an external partner to organise it for you, speak to Digital 22 via the button below.

Holmes Mill, Greenacre Street, Clitheroe, BB7 1EB T: 0370 218 7180

Contact D22 for a free HubSpot Diagnostic Health Check

Alternatively, if you’re eager to get started, you can organise a meeting with Caroline, our Solutions manager, today.