Learn HubSpot CRM From Scratch

Have a functioning HubSpot account to be able to continue learning the platform. Steps:

1. To begin setting up your account, click this link: https://www.hubspot.com/products/get-started

2. Click “Get free CRM”

3. Sign up with Google, or enter your First name, Last name, and Email Address

4. Navigate to your email and click “confirm” within the confirmation email

5. Create Your Password

6. Enter your website URL and company name.

7. Complete Sign up

8. Customize your experience by answering the prompted questions.

9. Click “Take a quick tour of HubSpot”

10. Finish detailing your account profile by inputting your avatar, phone number, and Signature.

Hubspot consists of three main dashboards: Marketing, Sales, and Service. The role in which you work within your company will dictate which dashboard you set as your primary dashboard.

Each dashboard consists of different analytics that are applicable to that field of work. Example: The marketing dashboard focuses on “Contacts Created By Day” whereas the service dashboard focuses on “Tickets By Source”. However, within each dashboard, you can filter and change the analytics that show up to your personal preferences.

Beyond dashboards, HubSpot has 7 major categorical tabs:

1. Contacts

2. Conversations

3. Marketing

4. Sales

5. Service

6. Automation

7. Reports

Within each categorial tab, there is a dropdown menu that consists of specific tools that you can utilize.

HubSpot Ads:

To get started using Hubspot Ads, you must first connect an account. HubSpot allows you to connect up to two ad accounts to the platform when using the free version. You can connect your Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn ads account. To connect your account:

1. Click “connect account”

2. Choose between Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn accounts

3. Sign in to your ad account of choice within the pop-up window

4. Select which Ads account to Pixel

5. Click “Go To Dashboard” in the bottom right corner

Once you are connected, you will be directed to the Ad’s Dashboard. Once you are within the Dashboard, you will have access to various analytics, including clicks, impressions, and contacts. You will also be able to see analytics for a specific ad that you’ve created within the table at the bottom of the dashboard.

HubSpot Email:

The HubSpot Email dashboard consists of every email you have ever sent. The dashboard categorizes your emails by draft, scheduled, sent, and archived. However, you can further group emails by creating a folder that you can then move emails into. To create an email within HubSpot:

1. Click “Create email” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Choose a pre-crafted email template

3. Begin customizing the template by dragging and dropping content elements onto the email.

4. Once your email is customized, click the settings tab in the top-center of the workplace.

5. Input your name, from address, and subject line

6. Click “Send or Schedule” to either send the email now or schedule for a later time.

HubSpot Forms:

Within the Forms dashboard, you can see every form that you have crafted using the HubSpot platform or any non-HubSpot form that you have associated with your account. Alongside the form, you will see the analytics associated with it, including views, submission rates, and submissions. Just like emails, forms can be further organized using folders. To create a form with HubSpot:

1. Click “Create Form” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Choose between “Regular” or “Pop-up” form

3. Choose between “Blank Template” or the 5 pre-crafted templates (Registration, Contact us, Newsletter signup, eBook download, or Event registration).

4. Craft your form by dragging and dropping content elements

5. When a specific element is selected, choose which fields are required by clicking the “Make Required” box located in the bottom left column.

6. Once your form is crafted, click “Create follow-up email” and write out your confirmation email.

7. Once your follow-up email is written, click “Options” and further customize your desired actions, such as display thank you message or redirect to another page once the form is submitted.

8. Click “Publish”

HubSpot Deals:

The Deals dashboard consists of every deal within a company’s sales funnel. Within the dashboard, you can filter all deals, and move each one to a different stage in the sales process by dragging and dropping. To create a deal:

1. Click “Create deal” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Type in the deal name and assign the deal stage with the contact

3. Type in the projected deal amount

4. Choose the projected close date

5. Associate deal with a specific company or contact within the CRM

6. Click “Create”

HubSpot Tasks:

The Tasks dashboard consists of all tasks needing to be performed by a sales team member. HubSpot has three categories of tasks, distinguished by the action needing to take place. The three categories are to-do, call, and email. Within the dashboard, you can filter through all tasks and search for specific ones. Alongside the task dashboard, you also have the ability to add tasks to a queue. Once you have added tasks to a queue, you can then go through that selected queue in a playlist-like fashion. To create a task:

1. Click “Create task” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Title the task and select its appropriate category (email, call, or to-do)

3. Associate the task with any existing records

4. Assign the task to a specific team member

5. Add the task to a task queue by selecting a pre-existing queue or by creating a new one.

6. Select the due date and time for the task

7. Add any additional/helpful notes and click “Create”

HubSpot Documents:

The Documents dashboard is where all important documents are held, such as a contract that customers need to read and sign before they purchase your product. In the free version, you can upload up to 5 documents for easy access when contacting individuals via the HubSpot platform. Additionally, you can manage your documents by organizing them in use-specific folders. To upload a new document, just click “Upload new document” and choose the from-location on your computer. You can upload a local file, Google Drive file, Box file, Dropbox file, or a file from the File manager.

HubSpot Meetings:

The Meetings dashboard is where all of your meeting links/pages are held. In the free version, you can only have one meeting link. The link works very similarly to Calendly, so when you attach the link in an email, the customer can choose a time that works for them while being constrained to your hours of availability. To create a meeting link:

1. Click “Create meeting link” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Choose between creating a personal or team meeting link

3. Give your meeting a headline and a meeting name

4. Choose the duration of the meeting

5. Input the location of the meeting and write out your email invitation

6. Select your hours of availability

7. Choose to include a form that gathers some prospect information before they schedule a meeting with you. (This is only relevant if you are embedding this meeting link onto your website, which can only be done in the paid version of HubSpot.

Understanding Tickets:

The Tickets dashboard allows you to track and manage all customer inquiries in one place. Just like with the other dashboards, you have the ability to filter tickets and search for specific tickets. Furthermore, you have the ability to select the status of a ticket. If you have not customized your ticket statuses, HubSpot has four pre-existing statuses: New, Waiting on us, Waiting on Contact, and Closed. To create a ticket:

1. Click “Create ticket” in the top right corner of the dashboard

2. Fill in the ticket name and select the status of the ticket (New, Waiting on us, Waiting on contact, or Closed)

3. Write a brief description of the ticket

4. Select the source of the ticket (Phone, Form, Email, or Chat)

5. Assign the ticket to an individual

6. Select the priority level of the ticket

7. Associate any contact or company that’s within the CRM platform to the ticket

8. Click “Create”

Understanding Live Chat:

The Live Chat service provided with the HubSpot platform is easy to set up and integrate into any website. The chats that you conduct via the chatbox will show up in “inbox” within the categorical “conversations” tab. Within the chat, you can message an individual, create a contact, or create a ticket.

Building a Live Chatbot

1. Click “Create chatflow” in the top right corner of the “Chatflows” dashboard.

2. Choose to either set up a live chatbox or a pre-designed chatbot. In my case, I chose “Qualify leads” bot.

3. Click “next” to enter the chatflow build.

4. Add or edit any pre-existing chat flow component by clicking “options” in the right corner of that specific action. Click “edit action”.

5. When each action is customized to your liking, you can add a new action to the chatflow by clicking the “+” symbol that sits between two pre-existing actions.

6. Select the specific type of action you’d like to create in the right column that appears. In my case, I chose “Submit a ticket”.

7. Begin customizing the newly added action to your liking. For “Submit a ticket”, input the action name, ticket name, ticket pipeline, ticket status, ticket description, and write the message associated with that action.

8. When your chatflow build is complete, click “Who” on the left column. Select who will see the chatbot (Everyone, Anonymous visitors, Tracked Contacts, or Segmented lists).

9. Click “When” on the left column. Choose the specific Web URL that the chatbot will be present.

10. Wrap-up your chatbot by customizing the chat heading, typing delay, session timeout, and error response.

11. Choose the availability of the chatbot

12. Once everything is complete, click the top right toggle button to set the chatbot to “live”

13. If you already have live chat functionality on your site, the chatbot will now be present. If not, copy and paste the provided chatbot code into your websites HTML, just before the “</body>” tag.

Utilizing the Live Chatbot

Now that your chatbot is up and running, when a user interacts with the bot, all messages will appear in your inbox. Within your inbox, you can reply to the customer, create a ticket, create a deal, or add them as a contact if the HubBot hasn’t already done so. You can also begin to answer their questions by typing out your answers or by utilizing pre-crafted snippets.

TextExpander allows for you to type abbreviations as oppose to typing long messages over and over again. For instance, if you have a 3 paragraph email that you send over and over again to various people, instead of typing that entire paragraph out to each person individually, you can create an abbreviation for that email. When you type out that abbreviation, the abbreviation will then be expanded into the full text. Additionally, TextExpander works no matter where you are typing. To use TextExpander:

1. Go to textexpander.com

2. Click “try it for free”

3. Create your account and click “sign up”

4. Once you are redirected, click “download” at the top of the page.

5. Once downloaded, you can begin creating abbreviations, to do this, click “Create new snippet” in the top left corner of the application

6. Select the type of content in the top bar within the window that pops up.

7. Copy and paste or write out the text you wish to not have to re-type over and over again

8. Give it a label and then type in your abbreviation

9. Choose whether you want the abbreviation to be case sensitive or not at the bottom right of the window.

10. Start typing!

Implementation of TextExpander in HubSpot

Due to HubSpot’s 5 snippet limit, you can instead use TextExpander to bypass the limit. This allows you to use the free version of HubSpot, utilize the live chat functionality, and still be able to respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner. This is especially true when considering how important time is to a startup like Workable.

This quiz tests your knowledge on the basics of the platform.