Top HubSpot CRM Tips and Best Practices

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool is supposed to make life easier for your employees and business, however, that does not always seem to be the case. It does take time to learn some of the nuances and tricks to get the most out of any CRM and HubSpot is no different. As a top web development company, we have years of experience both using CRMs and setting up clients with HubSpot, so today we wanted to share that wealth of knowledge by providing our Top HubSpot CRM Tips and Best Practices that will help you maximize the value you are getting.

HubSpot Best Practices

• Create a process guide – When incorporating new tools into a department, it is critical that there are processes in place to do so. By taking the time to craft a process guide, employees have a reference document to fall back on if they have questions or issues and someone is not available for one-on-one assistance. One of the biggest hurdles many companies face with CRM efficiency is getting all employees on board and using the CRM consistently in the manner you want. When your employees are all following the same process, your CRM will then have more information and data which can be better utilized on all levels.
• Place importance on organizing contact records – The contact records you have are an extremely valuable asset. Buyers are savvier than ever which means you need to be able to tap into every interaction with them to customize the experience as much as possible to make a sale. Make sure you take the time to set up individual contact records for each person you connect with. Company records can be used for an organization, but in addition to the individual record for any points of contact. Then the company and contact records can be associated together, often this is done automatically so that you have a clear organization tree. Additionally, HubSpot has features for assigning notes and tasks with each individual contact to help with communication and task management with your team.
• Utilize existing email templates – As part of their tools, the HubSpot CRM has numerous email templates available which allow a great starting point for customized emails. The numbers show that sending out hundreds of generic emails to clients results in fewer opens and conversions compared to customizing emails for each contact and using existing templates for a starting point saves a lot of time and energy.
• Craft emails carefully – Email contact should be done thoughtfully and carefully, and not using the spray-and-pray method. Each email should have a singular goal, should be crafted for a particular customer type, be personalized as much as possible, use a concise and interesting subject line, and follow standard email etiquette when it comes to style.
• Use the email extension tool – The email extension tool allows you to connect the CRM to your Gmail or Outlook email account to then track emails, provide notifications and updates, and link contact information from your email to the CRM for more complete records. Additionally, the tool allows for scheduled sending of emails which is invaluable to obtaining the best open rates. Finally, it can be set-up to notify you for email openings which then let’s you gauge interest and follow-up with a call.
• Use the call-direct feature – The HubSpot CRM allows you to directly call contacts, either by using a headset attached to the computer or with a registered mobile device. The benefit of using this method is that you can record calls and create notes in the contact record. After the call, the recording can easily be revisited to review or confirm any key details. Using this method ensures your notes are detailed and accurate.
• Review use – Much like taking the time to create a Process Guide, you should also regularly review the use of the CRM to ensure it is being used by the entire team properly. To maximize use and engagement, hold regular meetings to both listen to input from your boots on the ground as well as focusing on areas the team can improve usage.

HubSpot Top CRM Tips

• Setup custom views – Custom views are the best way to organize your CRM to your needs. By setting up view custom views, you can easily switch between settings to find critical information quickly and easily. The most common custom views we recommend are filtering by contact owner, filtering by job title, filtering by lead status, and filtering by action. The ‘by action’ filter is extremely useful so that you contact those who need to be contacted to help move them forward while avoiding unnecessarily bothering those leads that aren’t ready to convert. It is also recommended to explore using custom properties and dropdowns to better segment and categorize your views based on need.
• Use deals to track individual sales – HubSpot tracks sales records by using the ‘deals’ feature. As soon as a contact or company might make a purchase you should create a deal. That deal should then be associated with the correct contact or company (or both) associated with it. You can then use the deals board to track and check on potential sales along with using the deal forecast to help assign priority to each possible sale.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is the HubSpot has a very powerful customer relationship management tool that can help your business run like a well-oiled machine. Our Top HubSpot CRM Tips and Best Practices cover some of the critical areas we find are often overlooked or are underutilized in getting the most out of this tool for your business.

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