Hubspot. An All-In-One Business Solution

We’ve already talked about the power of email marketing and how Mailchimp is a great solution for small businesses or those just starting out.

However, if you’re looking to scale your client base to several thousand contacts, you’re having trouble manually responding to and tracking every new lead your business develops, or you simply have more budget than time – we’d like to take a moment to introduce you to Hubspot.

As business owners we can easily mistake sales and marketing as two separate things. To me thats like saying you’d like to take the rum out of a pina colada! They work beautifully in usison when they work together. Separately, meh not so much!

So why Hubspot?

Hubspot is an industry-leading all-in-one software suite for businesses. It has a huge range of tools, including social media marketing, content management, web analytics, landing pages, customer support, and search engine optimization. You will still need to design like a pro though! 

 It is a great solution for businesses looking to make the most of their teams’ time by automating out much of the drudgery of scheduling marketing communications and tracking sales leads. If you find yourself struggling to follow-up with potential leads or close deals as you scale, Hubspot might be the perfect solution for you.

Hubspot also offers integration with hundreds of applications and will likely complement software your team already uses.

If you’re interested in learning more about Hubspot and whether it is a good fit for your business, check out their assessment tool here.

A word of warning

We should probably note that we have no affiliation with Hubspot and are not getting paid to write this article – we’re just big fans!

But just because Hubspot has the functionality to do everything under the sun does not mean it is the right solution for everyone.

If you are just getting started or have a small business, the pricing and seemingly limitless features of Hubspot may be overkill for what you need. Furthermore, if your business is largely offline or you aren’t comfortable with using complex software tools, you may feel overwhelmed by Hubspot.

If you aren’t going grey and tearing your hair out, you aren’t doing it right!

We recommend taking a look through their site and thinking carefully about how the software fits into your business plan before spending the time and money needed on getting set up.

Lastly, any implementation of any system is always difficult. If you aren’t going grey and tearing your hair out, you aren’t doing it right! Don’t believe what they say about how easy the transition is because there is always something that you need that you may have to find a workaround for! If you get stuck or just need to commiserate, you can always give us a call on 0274 38 20 38. or pop us an email here. 

MPRE MarketingLeave a comment

Skip anything BUT Email Marketing

Whether you are just starting out or already have a dedicated customer base, email marketing can be a powerful tool to build your brand and encourage customer retention.

Email can be easy to overlook in favour of social media, but if you ignore the inbox you could be missing out on one of the best channels to engage with your target audience.

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

  • 99% of consumers check their email every day
  • 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
  • >59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI.
  • 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months

Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats

Pretty impressive! And it makes sense – if someone is subscribed to your newsletter, they are either an existing customer or have expressed interest in your product. 

Compared with paying to advertise to a group of people who may or may not care about your business, with email marketing you are talking directly to someone who has told you they care about what you have to say.

Email marketing should function as a tool to maintain that relationship with your audience by keeping your communication consistent and valuable. This means reaching out consistently with information that people actually care about.

So what is the best way to start marketing through email?

Most email clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook etc.) offer some form of mail merge, which will allow you to email, multiple people, at the same time. 

However, these platforms have limited functionality and if you are serious about scaling your business we recommend using Mailchimp for your email marketing unless you are looking at an all-in-one system like Hubspot. If you are looking into that kind of set up check out our blog on Hubspot here. 

Mailchimp is a dedicated email marketing system which will allow you to create mailing lists (so you can send some email to existing customers vs. prospective customers for example), create professional newsletters, automate your email campaigns (set it and forget it), and integration with your e-commerce platform.

It also offers templates for all kinds of email communications, as well as signup forms you can drop on your website to collect new email addresses for your database.

Mailchimp also tracks what happens with your emails (e.g. which emails were opened, which ones went straight into the trash) and provides you with analytics to help you make more informed communications choices. It can be a powerful source of sales leads.

Most importantly, Mailchimp is affordable for small businesses and those just getting started.

Important tips:

  • You should have an existing relationship with anyone in your database (in other words, they should have “opted-in” to your emails), otherwise, it is probably not legal for you to be mass emailing them
  • Resist the temptation to pay for databases of contact information online – these are unlikely to convert to sales and may be a violation of the terms of service of your email provider
  • Take time to familiarize yourself with the features and look for articles online to walk you through the most commonly used features.

While we’re on the topic of email, don’t overlook one of the easiest ways to look professional while maximising free advertising… setting up an email signature!

MPRE Marketing2 Comments

Canva. The $ Debate.

Who doesn’t love a graphic design tool? Especially when it is so simple to use, and one that is going to make your organization stand out. Well, I introduce to you Canva, the graphic design tool that has been helping make my social media look beautiful since way back.

What is this Canva thing?

If you haven’t already heard of Canva you are going to be grateful you are hearing about it now. As mentioned, Canva is a graphic design tool that provides everything you need to create a killer design for your business or other purposes.

Canva gives you access to millions of photos, images, and fonts as well as pre-made templates to make things super simple. Because let’s be honest, we aren’t all natural born graphic designers, so the more help the better, right? I think yes! And may I add it also has pre-made measurements for Facebook posts, Instagram, cover pages etc.…. I know! No more are the days where you spend time creating graphics only for it to be half cut off in the uploading process.

What’s also great about Canva is it can be used for both web and print media, basically your one stop shop for graphics. AND you can have its basic version for FREE! Yes, Canva offers a paid and unpaid version, so depending on your needs there is an option for everyone.

So, what’s the difference between the paid version and the FREE version?

The main difference between the paid and unpaid version of Canva is the levels of customization and organization. For example, unpaid users have access to some free graphics, can save a personal colour choice or two, and you can have up to two separate folders to save your work in. You can get away with the free version if you are just doing very simple social media and basic design.

Due to the work I do, I personally prefer the premium version. It is only $12.95 per month and totally worth it. It allows you to choose more design templates, upload yours or multiple brand guides and you are able to create many folders to organize your designs.

The best way to know what version is right for you is to go have a look and check it out for yourself. Start off with the free version and if you need more out of it then you’ll know the premium version is right for you. But trust me, you won’t regret taking a look and testing it out. Why not give it a go.

MPRE Marketing3 Comments