How to Obtain Useful Business Data with HubSpot

March 21, 2023
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Tony Mance
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7 minutes read
March 21, 2023
Tony Mance
7 minutes read
CRM Migration
Marketing Automation
Inbound Marketing

HubSpot is a popular platform for digital marketing that offers a wide range of tools and features to help businesses attract, engage, and delight their customers. 

With HubSpot, businesses can manage their websites, social media accounts, email campaigns, and more from a single platform.

A successful marketing strategy is built on data. Businesses can gain valuable insights into customers' needs, preferences, and behaviour by collecting, analyzing, and using data. Companies can use this data to develop more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate with their target audience.

Through this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide on how to obtain data with HubSpot. We will explore the different ways to collect data in HubSpot, how to use HubSpot as a database, data enrichment capabilities, analyzing data in HubSpot, and how HubSpot compares to other analytical tools like Google Analytics. We will also discuss some of HubSpot's biggest competitors, the best use cases for the platform, and why businesses of all sizes can benefit from using HubSpot as part of their digital marketing strategy.

Collecting Data from HubSpot

One of HubSpot's strengths as a digital marketing platform is its ability to collect and store data from a variety of sources. HubSpot's data collection capabilities include everything from basic form submissions and email tracking to more advanced tracking through JavaScript and APIs. 

This data can then be used to improve marketing campaigns, track customer behaviour, and assess the success of various initiatives.

There are several ways to collect data in HubSpot, including:

  1. Forms: HubSpot's forms tool allows businesses to collect information from website visitors through custom forms. These forms can be embedded on a website or shared via email, social media, and other channels.
  2. Email tracking: HubSpot's email tracking capabilities allow businesses to track opens, clicks, and other email interactions. This data can be used to refine email campaigns and improve overall engagement rates.
  3. HubSpot tracking code: HubSpot's tracking code can be added to a website to collect data on visitor behaviour, such as page views and time spent on site.
  4. APIs: HubSpot's APIs allow businesses to integrate other tools and platforms with HubSpot, such as CRM systems and social media accounts, to collect and sync data in real time.

It's important to note that accurate and complete data is critical for making informed business decisions. Businesses must ensure that the correct data is collected, stored, and managed to avoid data discrepancies and inaccuracies. Your marketing and sales team can gain a better understanding of their customers and create more effective marketing campaigns by utilizing HubSpot's data collection capabilities.

Using HubSpot as a Database

HubSpot can also be used as a database to store and manage data. By using HubSpot as a central repository for all customer data, businesses can gain a more complete and holistic view of their customers and their behaviours.

There are several advantages to using HubSpot as a database:

  1. Single source of truth: By using HubSpot as a database, businesses can ensure that all customer data is stored in one place, making it easier to manage and analyze.
  2. Improved data quality: HubSpot's data management tools, such as contact and company records, ensure the data is accurate and up-to-date.
  3. Customizable data fields: HubSpot allows businesses to create custom fields and properties, making it easy to capture and track specific data points that a company might deem essential to their business.

To effectively use HubSpot as a database, it's crucial to organize and manage data in a way that makes sense for your business. This may include creating custom properties, setting up data segmentation, and using tags to categorize contacts.

To further streamline data management, HubSpot can also be integrated with other tools, such as CRM systems and marketing automation platforms. This allows businesses to sync data between tools and platforms, ensuring that all customer data is consistent and up-to-date. By using HubSpot as a central database and integrating it with other tools, businesses can improve data management, streamline processes, and gain a more complete understanding of their customers.


Data Enrichment with HubSpot

Data enrichment refers to the process of enhancing existing data with additional information to gain a deeper understanding of customers and their behaviours. By enriching data, businesses can gain insights into customer demographics, firmographics, and behaviour patterns.

HubSpot offers several ways to enrich data automatically, including:

  1. Lead intelligence: HubSpot's lead intelligence tool automatically enriches data with information on a lead's company size, industry, and revenue.
  2. Social media integration: HubSpot can be integrated with social media platforms like LinkedIn to automatically pull in profile information and other data points.
  3. IP lookup: HubSpot's IP lookup feature automatically identifies a visitor's company and location based on their IP address.

In addition to these automatic enrichment capabilities, businesses can also manually enrich data using HubSpot. This may include conducting research to fill in missing data points or using third-party tools to gather additional information.

The benefits of data enrichment with HubSpot are numerous. By enriching data, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers, create more targeted marketing campaigns, and make more informed business decisions. By using HubSpot's automatic enrichment capabilities and supplementing with manual enrichment, businesses can unlock the full potential of their data.

Analyzing HubSpot Data

Collecting and organizing data is the first step in a successful digital marketing strategy. Once data is collected, it's important to analyze it to gain insights and make informed decisions. HubSpot offers several data analysis capabilities to help businesses gain valuable insights into their customers and marketing campaigns.

Some of HubSpot's data analysis capabilities include:

  1. Standard reports: HubSpot offers several standard reports, such as website traffic, contact activity, and sales performance, to help businesses quickly gain insights into their marketing and sales performance.
  2. Custom reports: In addition to standard reports, businesses can create custom reports to analyze specific data points and metrics that are important to their business.
  3. Dashboards: HubSpot's customizable dashboards allow businesses to create a visual representation of their data and track important metrics in real time.

To create custom reports and dashboards, businesses can use HubSpot's reporting tool. This tool allows businesses to filter and segment data, select specific metrics, and choose from a range of visualizations to create custom reports and dashboards that are tailored to their specific needs.

By analyzing data in HubSpot, businesses can gain insights into their customers and marketing campaigns, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions that can drive growth and success.

HubSpot as an Analytical Tool

HubSpot is more than just a digital marketing platform. It also offers a range of data analysis capabilities that can help businesses gain valuable insights into their customers and marketing campaigns. However, when it comes to data analysis, many businesses also use other tools such as Google Analytics.

While Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking website traffic and other online metrics, it has limitations when it comes to tracking customer behaviour across multiple channels. This is where HubSpot shines. HubSpot provides an all-in-one platform that allows businesses to track and analyze customer behaviour across multiple channels, including email, social media, and website visits.

In addition, HubSpot's data analysis capabilities are fully integrated with its marketing automation and CRM tools. This means that businesses can easily create targeted marketing campaigns based on data insights and track the performance of those campaigns in real time.

Using HubSpot as an all-in-one platform for digital marketing and data analysis offers several benefits, including:

  1. Streamlined data management: With HubSpot, businesses can centralize their data and avoid the need for multiple tools to manage and analyze data.
  2. Deeper insights: By tracking customer behaviour across multiple channels, businesses can gain deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences.
  3. Better targeting: With HubSpot's data analysis capabilities, businesses can create targeted marketing campaigns that are tailored to specific customer segments.

Overall, while other tools like Google Analytics have their strengths, using HubSpot as an all-in-one platform for digital marketing and data analysis can provide businesses with deeper insights and more powerful targeting capabilities.

HubSpot's Competitors

While HubSpot is a leader in the digital marketing and CRM space, it does have competitors that offer similar solutions. Here are some of the biggest competitors of HubSpot:

  1. Marketo: Marketo is a marketing automation software that is designed for B2B companies. It offers features such as lead management, email marketing, and social media integration.
  2. Salesforce: Salesforce is a CRM platform that offers a range of tools for sales, marketing, and customer service. It also offers marketing automation capabilities through its Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  3. Pardot: Pardot is a marketing automation software that is designed for B2B companies. It offers features such as lead management, email marketing, and social media integration.
  4. ActiveCampaign: ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation software that offers a range of tools for email marketing, marketing automation, and sales automation.

While these competitors offer similar solutions to HubSpot, HubSpot is known for its all-in-one platform that combines digital marketing, sales, and customer service tools. This makes it a popular choice for businesses looking to streamline their operations and gain valuable insights into their customers.

Who can benefit from HubSpot?

HubSpot can be a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. Here are some examples of the types of businesses that can benefit from using HubSpot:

  1. B2B Companies: HubSpot is designed with B2B companies in mind, offering a range of features that are tailored to their needs. This includes lead management, email marketing, and sales automation tools.
  2. E-commerce Companies: HubSpot can help e-commerce companies to better understand their customers and increase their sales. With HubSpot's analytics and reporting tools, businesses can track the customer journey from the first visit to the final sale.
  3. Professional Services Firms: Professional services firms such as law firms, accounting firms, and consulting firms can benefit from HubSpot's marketing automation tools. These tools can help these firms to attract and retain clients by providing them with valuable content and building relationships with them.
  4. Non-profit Organizations: Non-profit organizations can use HubSpot to manage their donor relationships and increase their fundraising efforts. HubSpot's email marketing and automation tools can help these organizations to communicate with their donors more effectively and build stronger relationships with them.

HubSpot offers several pricing plans that are designed to suit different types of businesses. Its basic subscription is best suited for startups and small businesses, while its professional one is better suited for medium-sized businesses. Finally, its enterprise plan is tailored more for larger enterprises with more complex needs.

Conclusion

In today's competitive digital landscape, data is critical for driving successful marketing strategies. By using HubSpot, businesses can streamline their data collection and management processes, enabling them to make more informed decisions about their marketing efforts.

Overall, HubSpot is a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes, and its range of pricing plans makes it accessible to startups and larger enterprises alike. By harnessing the power of HubSpot's data collection, analysis, and management tools, businesses can gain a competitive edge and drive growth in their digital marketing efforts.

Start Collecting and Analyzing Data with HubSpot Today

Don't let valuable data slip through the cracks. Start using HubSpot today to collect, enrich, and analyze your data. Let's take your digital marketing efforts to the next level!