HubSpot Onboarding Plan: get off to a flying start

The ball is in the court: your organization is getting started with HubSpot. To get off to a good start with the software, you naturally want all the elements to be in the right place, settings to be correct and the tool to link effortlessly with other software. Especially when it comes to software like HubSpot, where important information about traffic, leads and customers is secured.

So take advantage of this HubSpot Onboarding Plan - a roadmap that, as an official HubSpot Partner, we regularly go through with clients. After reading this blog, you'll know what actions and choices are important to get off to a flying start with HubSpot.

Onboarding Plan for HubSpot: get started!

• Assign an administrator and add users
  An important first step, because you probably don't just want to work in HubSpot yourself, but actively engage others on your team so they get started using the tool. In HubSpot, you can add users per platform and assign them certain privileges, such as viewing, editing or deleting things. Read how to add or remove users here. It is advisable to think carefully beforehand about who you give what permissions to in the tool, and why.
  
• Install HubSpot tracking codes on website(s)
  If you do not have your website running on HubSpot, or some pages are not hosted in HubSpot it is important to install tracking codes on these pages. This way you can still measure important Analytics about the behavior of your (potential) customers on this page. Find out how to install HubSpot tracking codes here.
  
• Link website domain(s)
  You naturally want website pages, landing pages, Emails and blog articles to be linked to your website's domain(s) so that everyone can visit your website through that specific web address. Read how to link your website domain(s) with HubSpot here.
  
  
  
• Turn on HubSpot CRM or integrate HubSpot with Salesforce
  To keep track of your prospects and customers, it's important that contacts and leads aren't locked up in different tools. Using HubSpot's CRM can provide this - read more about HubSpot' s CRM here or learn how to get started with the (free) HubSpot CRM.
  However, if you're already using another CRM such as Salesforce, then you want to have as much consistency and alignment between Marketing and Sales teams as possible. Read how to set up a Salesforce integration with HubSpot here.
  
• Set up your Email (Footer and Anti-SPAM)
  Every Email footer should display your organization's location information, combined with an option to customize preferences around receiving Emails. In this article, HubSpot explains how to set these things up.
  
  
  
  
• Set the right logos and colors
  The Email, website and landing pages, of course, you want colors and logos to be in line with your corporate identity as much as possible. This is where you set the default logos and colors by default so you don't have to do this every time, and in this article HubSpot explains how to adjust the default colors in Emails.
  
• Setup of the blog
  HubSpot's blog puts you as a Marketer "in control" when it comes to content creation. Analysis and reporting are built in and there are plenty of options to give the blog a personal look and feel. Read here how to get the blog up and running and start generating more website visitors and leads.
• Link Google Analytics with HubSpot pages (optional)
  Of course, you may also want to monitor certain key metrics in Google Analytics. You can place the Google Analytics code on - for example - HubSpot landing pages. Here you can read how that works.
  
• Exclude internal traffic (own organization and possible partners) from Analytics
  An indispensable part of your HubSpot Onboarding Plan! Keep your reports clean by excluding your own employees and possibly partners from Analytics. Find out how to do that here.
  
  
• Link Social Media Accounts.
  Creating, publishing and monitoring the results of your Social Media posts can also be done in HubSpot. Super! To do that, though, you need to link all accounts first. Here's how to link Social Media accounts to HubSpot.
  
• Customize the Favicon
  The favicon is that little logo at the top of the tab. You can, of course, customize it to your organization's logo. Read how to do that here.
  
  
• Set the right settings for lead notifications
  Who should definitely receive an E-mail when a new lead is generated (a quote request or white paper download), or when a warm lead is sniffing around on your online channels again? Important notifications are set up as follows.
  
• Set languages and time zones
  This is a basic setting, of course, but an important part of the HubSpot Onboarding plan! Here's how to set the default languages and regions.
  
• Convert current website forms to HubSpot forms
  Still store important information around the leads you generate via forms outside of HubSpot landing pages in HubSpot. You do this with an embed code an API for forms.
  
• Import contacts and leads into the HubSpot CRM (and link them to the right personas)
  When you start using the HubSpot CRM, you probably already have a nice database filled with contacts elsewhere. Here's how to import them. Are you already working with Buyer Personas? Then you can assign contacts in your database to these specific Personas.

• Tip #1: Use working in a new system as a time to clean up your database. This is because in HubSpot, the additional fee is determined based on the number of contacts in your database.
  
  Tip 2: When importing contacts, also take into account possible people who have unsubscribed in other (CRM) systems (opt-outs).
  
  Tip 3: When importing contacts, take into account AVG / GDPR regulations (see next point)
  
  
• Make HubSpot AVG / GDPR-proof
  In May 2018, all settings were released within HubSpot's Marketing & Sales software to set things up "GDPR-proof" (also called AVG in Dutch). Also the Product Playbook has been launched by HubSpot which gives you text and explanation about the changes within HubSpot regarding the GDPR. In this blog, we highlight some important issues regarding GDPR that you can consider when using HubSpot.
• Create your first (Marketing) campaign in HubSpot
  When you're working in HubSpot's Marketing Hub, you'll naturally want to get started with campaigns quickly. That's what HubSpot's Campaign tool is for. In Webs' Onboarding process, we can set up the first campaign(s) with you so you start generating traffic, leads and customers right away. Read more about the options here.
• Set up landing page, Email and blog templates or create them yourself
  

  HubSpot has a number of standard templates for Emails, blogs, and landing pages. When you entrust your Onboarding to us, we don't implement these default templates. Thanks to years of experience with digital transformations of our clients in B2B, we know which elements create "the click. Your E-mail, blog and landing page templates are therefore unique: completely in your house style and optimally designed for conversion. So you generate more traffic and qualified leads from day one.

Take a look at the extensive HubSpot Academy to get off to a flying start. Good luck!