The Ultimate HubSpot Implementation Checklist for Marketing

All new business software solutions are vulnerable to one key factor: the implementation process. Get this wrong, and you may as well have bought an untamed monkey as the new office pet. Cute and fun at first, but incredibly expensive, distracting and not helpful to your business in the long run – unless you're a zoo or a circus. 

Eventually, when the novelty wears off, your monkey becomes a source of frustration – you're always having to clean up the mess it makes, it continuously breaks things, and the upkeep and vet fees are stacking up. And all those super sceptical employees who didn't applaud the monkey's arrival? Their suspicions have been affirmed, and they are now utterly fed up with the monkey creating chaos in their day. 

Even the best software can become your monkey if you don't have a sequential and focussed implementation plan. So, to help you with your HubSpot implementation, we've created the ultimate checklist. 

What is HubSpot implementation for marketing?

When you decide to bring the HubSpot CRM into your business, you'll want to set it up in a way that's helpful and useful for your team. 

You've chosen HubSpot for its wide range of features, intuitive interface, and marketing-specific insights. But, to get the full HubSpot benefits and maximum impact, you'll need to ensure successful integration between the platform and other key data sources such as your website, emails and other metric generating platforms. You'll also have to take the time to customise HubSpot with your branding and get all users set up with the correct privileges.

The HubSpot implementation checklist

Planning and communication

The success of your HubSpot implementation is hugely dependent on how invested your team is, and in order for them to be on board with your new solution, they need to have the right amount of time allocated so that they can learn, practice and experiment with the platform in order to start seeing results and understanding its potential in the context of their role.

1. Create a timeline: HubSpot implementation will require the full attention of many (or all) members of your team. That's why it's essential to ensure sufficient time is set aside for onboarding, learning and testing. Create a timeline that includes the process of preparing your business for HubSpot – in other words, do you have an existing CRM? If so, factor in the notice period for cancellation, as well as how long it will take you to clean and prepare data to import into HubSpot. 
2. Convince your team: Remember the monkey? If you spring up something new and potentially disruptive, your team will disengage and maybe even resist the introduction of your new solution. It's important to get organisational buy-in – this means your team and key stakeholders see the benefit and value of bringing HubSpot into the business and are supportive and keen to use it. Usually, when you book your initial discovery call with a HubSpot partner (like us), your goals for the CRM will be discussed, as well as the big challenges you're hoping the platform will address. This conversation usually helps everyone see the value and potential of using HubSpot. 
3. Appoint a HubSpot hero: Someone needs to take ownership of your HubSpot implementation project. Once you've decided on a timeline and strategy, a reliable, enthusiastic and motivated individual needs to take on the successful realisation of the implementation process.
4. Encourage learning: HubSpot is a dream for knowledge thirsty teams that love to grow and improve. The HubSpot Academy offers a range of certified courses that can help to educate your team about the inbound methodology so that they can use the platform in the most beneficial way. Choosing an expert HubSpot partner to provide you with support services is also a fantastic, personalised way to get the expert insights you need to set your platform up for your unique business goals.

Onboarding and preparation

Although you may be excited to just get going with HubSpot, it's important not to skip any steps in the onboarding process. Usually, new users tend to rush through some areas if they haven't prepared the necessary information, content or data beforehand. We strongly encourage our clients to take the time and get those key elements ready to prevent unnecessary troubleshooting further down the line. 

1. Know your buyer persona: How you tailor certain aspects of your HubSpot portal will be dependent on whom your business serves or hopes to attract. Buyer personas are a key part of the inbound marketing methodology, and they are essential during implementation. Clarify pain points and document the characteristics of your ideal buyers so that your HubSpot implementation process can take those into account when thinking about segmentation and targeting, for example. 
2. Prepare your marketing assets: Your website, blog images, and videos need to go into the HubSpot File Manager, where they can be stored and pulled up whenever you want to add them to emails or webpages and blogs. 
3. Organise your best lead magnets: To hit the ground running and start generating leads, ensure that your best-performing PDFs or downloadable files are ready and updated so that you can upload them into the HubSpot File Manager and start working on your conversion paths.
4. Connect your social media accounts: Your social media platforms generate a good amount of key data for your business; get those up and running so that you can track performance and start engaging your audiences more effectively.

The technical setup

There are some fundamental technical tasks that need to occur in order for your HubSpot platform to function as it's intended. This may require assistance from the more tech-savvy members of your team or just someone who usually handles those aspects of your business – but really, with the right HubSpot partner, this isn't as scary as it sounds. 

1. Connect your existing domains: In order to publish content on your website through HubSpot, you'll have to connect your domain. Get the right information from your domain name system (DNS) provider and follow the steps to link the domain. 
2. Migrate your website: A HubSpot website is incredibly easy to manage and customise thanks to the intuitive drag and drop features, as well as all the pre-made templates that make operating your website and adding content easy and practical tasks. By leaning on a HubSpot migrations team, you can recreate your website on the HubSpot CMS and reap the benefits of powerful performance reporting, all in a single location. 

Conclusion

If you're keen to have all your t's crossed and i's dotted when it comes to HubSpot implementation, we'd like to help. As Diamond HubSpot partners, we are skilled in not only the technical side of HubSpot onboarding but also in ensuring that each feature, application and template you choose or integrate into the HubSpot platforms serve a valuable purpose for your business. We can train your team to become HubSpot aficionados, reducing the length of the adoption process so that you can see results faster. Speak to us about HubSpot implementation today.