HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter: All You Need to Know

While it might not come as much of a surprise, there’s a sh*t tonne involved with starting a business. There’s the idea (trying to think of something that hasn’t already been thought of),  the finances (“how much?!”), the taxes (ah ... adulting), and boy! don’t get us started on the rent! 

Unrelenting ‘real-worldness’ aside, there are sides to starting a business that can’t be beat; meeting new people, the high of your first sale and finding new tech that’ll make your life easier! While you might’ve blown your first couple grand on buying clap-activated speakers and a desk DJ-deck (no? Just us then…) - the most important tech you’ll purchase is that which orchestrates your communications to customer segments across multiple channels; your marketing software. Let’s take a look at HubSpot's Marketing Hub Starter, all that it has on offer - and why, in our opinion, it’s the absolute creme de la creme. 

When it comes to marketing, HubSpots infamous Marketing Hub integrates a variety of customer relationship marketing, email marketing and sales solutions that allow you to sync your marketing, sales and service strategies at the flick of a switch … literally. Better yet, with the sheer amount of solutions located on the user dashboard and tool portfolio, anyone can learn to use it. While it's easy to talk the talk, if you're looking into HubSpot, you are probably more interested in us answering the following question; 

"How is HubSpot going to make my life easier?"

We could literally talk about the features of HubSpot Marketing hub for days, but to put it plain and simple (and from experience), there are many ways the Hub can improve your life. It’s basically the software equivalent of having a Magnum and a bubble bath. Bold call? Let us show you why.

What is HubSpot Marketing Hub?

Providing you with a one-stop-shop with everything that businesses need to strategise, launch, and run successful, inbound-focused marketing campaigns, HubSpot Marketing hub helps you to keep your customers interested in your business.

HubSpot understands that your digital marketing strategy is constantly evolving to keep up with never-ending change; so to help you stay organised, marketing hub keeps all of your marketing tools in one place, so you don’t even have to open an extra tab - all you need is right there in front of you. And if COVID has taught us anything (other than how to make killer banana bread), it's shown us how important it is to be able to adapt on the fly.

But before you sign up, be aware that certain features within the marketing hub's vary depending on the subscription level you choose and (surprise, surprise), the more you pay, the more features you are able to use.  You, as the customer, have the option to decide what is important for your business, and what you want to get out of your HubSpot subscription. But we hope that with a lil’ help from this article, we can make your decision-making process easier.

Who is it For?

When it comes to the different levels of subscriptions, there are differences across Marketing Hub Starter, Marketing Hub Professional, and Marketing Hub Enterprise memberships, so be sure to read through what each level includes more thoroughly than you read the terms and conditions fine prints (does anyone actually read those?) and choose the one that will work best for you. As goes the ‘teenage dating’ adage, if you are scared of committing to too much, too soon, it's best to start slow. A great way is to start with the HubSpot Marketing Hub starter subscription and if you find you need more features, you can easily upgrade with the help of a HubSpot expert.

If you are still unsure of which HubSpot Subscription is right for you, answer the following; 

• How big is your marketing team? 

• Do you need substantial help or merely a place to get organised?

  
  

Whatever your answers were to those questions, there is a HubSpot membership tier to suit you! 

Features Included with HubSpot's Marketing Hub Starter

Regardless of the subscription level you do decide on, all subscriptions have access to the marketing hub starter features, so let's take it back to the basics. The beauty of it, is that it will serve any business of any size, ranging from a two-person start-up to a corporation with hundreds of employees. However, in the same way everyone loves a 2-minute noodle but not everyone gets around a chopstick, while the marketing tools themselves are for everyone, the levels aren’t necessarily!

For example, the top membership options come with some features that a small business would probably not be able to afford, or need, such as a one-time marketing hub professional onboarding fee of $4320AUD and access to manage multiple brands. In this case, it’s smarter to not have eyes bigger than your stomach, and actually only dish up what you can feasibly manage. For a full rundown, the image below demonstrates the price per calendar month for all memberships.

For a slightly more affordable option, HubSpot's Starter package comes with plenty of awesome features and organisational tools, perfect for those who want to test the waters before jumping in head first. While it seems like an overwhelming task at first, sometimes it is just better to learn on the fly - like a Swiss Army Knife you keep finding new attachments to. And once you get your account set up and ready to go, you'll wonder why you hadn't made the switch sooner.

What gives HubSpot a certain je’ ne sais quois over other marketing platforms is that they  built their marketing hub on top of the HubSpot CRM, so every membership has access to all of the features the CRM encompasses, so you can keep your customer relations in pristine condition by managing your pipeline, logging sales, and storing contact data.

Now, let’s get into the good stuff; the features. 

Forms and Contact Information

The starter plan allows business owners to create forms and gather contact information for your business. You'll be able to generate standalone, embedded, collected, and pop-up forms to suit your business and get your hands on the customer deets you need, providing you the perfect platform for contact management.

Ad Management & Marketing Campaigns

With the ad management feature, you can connect accounts from the ad networks you use, so long as they're supported. You can put together audiences from your CRM, and see which of your ad campaigns is generating new and repeat customers. 

Live Chat & Conversational Bots

An excellent way to establish customer service early on is through live chat and conversational bots. Chatbots are the perfect conversation starter, with the potential to gather contact information and point customers in the right direction, especially on social media. Live chat will provide your customers with one on one interaction as they browse your website. This feature offers the option for customers to ask questions while they're shopping for products or services.

Email Marketing & Team Email

Connect your entire team with the HubSpot team email, ensuring that important information and unanswered questions don't slip through the cracks. Take your email marketing to the next level by creating bulk emails that you can optimise for a targeted demographic, and track their success. You also have access to create, edit and delete email templates, with free users accessing the first five templates created in the account.

Landing Pages and Lead Generation

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and a stellar landing page that sells is part of that impression. HubSpot Marketing Hub offers a fantastic drag-and-drop editor that allows anyone to create responsive landing pages to generate leads without a design degree.

Additional Features & Marketing Capabilities

Truthfully, HubSpot has designed their marketing hub to come with a myriad of features on a starter level, meant to keep smaller businesses in the game and continually challenging the competition. In addition to the features we've already talked about, further features include:

• Email health reporting
• List segmentation
• Mobile optimisation
• Reporting dashboard
• Messenger integration
• Ad retargeting
• Multiple currencies
• Custom properties
• HubSpot mobile app

HubSpot Marketing Hub may be the best marketing software available when it comes to starter price in exchange for the inbound marketing and customer support tools provided. However, there is also a free version of the Hub. Here's the lowdown.

Differences Between the Free Marketing Hub and Starter Hub

From classes to marketing support, HubSpot is notorious for offering as much as they can for free. 

But sadly, the best things in life aren’t always free, so there are differences between the free and starter marketing hubs, and honestly, so there should be, they’re not running a charity! 

Anyway, here is what you'll get when you register with HubSpot to gain access to their marketing hub free of charge.

• Email Marketing: Something that will make those email marketers out there happy is that you have an email send limit of up to 2 000 emails per calendar month (talk about some sweet freebies, right?) 

• Ad Management: Access to all available ad types with a $1000 spending cap and targeted to simple audiences only

• List Segmentation: Five smart lists and twenty-five static lists with additional limits

• Conversations Inbox: Access to one

• Team Email & Live Chat: Full access to both features as you would see them in the starter subscription tier 

• Conversational Bots & Messenger Integration: Minimal access

• Mobile Optimisation: Access to email only

• Reporting Dashboards: The same as the starter membership, you'll receive one dashboard with ten reports

In a nutshell, some of the features of the free marketing hub rival the starter plan, and some don't even come close. The great thing about HubSpot is that their platform as a whole allows businesses to grow with them.

The free option is there so you can begin your marketing campaign or strategy with it, and then as you realise what you'll need to take it to the next level, HubSpot is there with a literal next level.

There might be a bit of a learning curve to begin with, but in a short amount of time, you'll find you can use HubSpot's marketing automation well enough to improve marketing capabilities, skyrocket sales, and expand your knowledge base.

What We Love About Marketing Hub Starter 

HubSpot Marketing Hub has a great deal to offer a variety of businesses, and sticking with it -  even through the frustrating early days when you're trying to figure it all out - is worth it. But if you need a helping hand, make sure you’re a part of the HubSpot community from day one.  

HubSpot has a dedicated following, and there are hundreds of resources (both technical and human) that will assist you in mastering the platform in no time. Joining in the conversation in the ideas forum is key to HubSpot success because the Product Team takes the time to read through user-submitted ideas and build on the ones that get the most votes. HubSpot is a service that relies heavily on reviews and the success of the businesses that use the tools they offer to be ever-evolving and ever-improving to help you grow your business from the ground up.

In fact, why stop at just Marketing Hub Starter? HubSpot product offerings include a total of 3 core products in their 'growth suite' pricing, to help you with all your new businesses needs such as Sales Hub Starter and Service Hub Starter! We love using HubSpot (and for a good reason). So ... what are you waiting for?