If you’d told us last year we’d be attending INBOUND 2020 wearing our PJ bottoms (with a nice top of course) and waving at our webcams, we’d have only half-believed you… Though it wasn’t the same event that we know and love usually held in Boston, the team behind INBOUND delivered an amazing virtual experience that managed to capture some of that innovation, collaboration and ingenuity.
One of the things we most look forward to at INBOUND – aside from the food trucks (we missed you 😭) – is the raft of exciting new features and updates HubSpot always brings to the table.
Now more than ever, they’ve sought to align with what businesses truly need during these challenging times and carefully considered how their platforms can allow businesses to seize new opportunities in a post-pandemic world.
To quote HubSpot's Chief Product Officer Christopher O'Donnell...
“HubSpot is here to help businesses adapt to any new normal that comes their way. Over the past year, we have been working to add deep flexibility and power to our already easy-to-use software, and the features we’ve announced today are set to help businesses not only survive, but thrive, in the new economic environment.”
So without further ado, here’s a roundup of the biggest new announcements and how they’re going to help businesses adapt and grow better…
1. Sales Hub Enterprise: Powerful and Easy to Use
The HubSpot Sales CRM has been given an upgrade with some really cool new features designed to help sales teams adapt to new ways of selling. The introduction of custom objects and advanced permissions puts control back with the user so you can build out your entire sales operation on HubSpot.
Then the new reporting functionality lets teams get deeper insights into the overall health of the business to increase productivity and empower sales teams to be more efficient.
On top of all that, new sales engagement tools are here to help build connections in a digital-first world. We love the new configure-price-quote functionality, featuring custom templates and integrations with NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Xero and Nubox.
Source: Placeit
2. Scalable pricing
The new marketing contacts pricing model in Marketing Hub means you only pay for the contacts you actively market to via email or ads, with free storage of up to a million extra contacts that might have unsubscribed or bounced.
This is a big deal – especially given the circumstances, businesses need to have flexibility in their software with scalable pricing. Current customers with October renewal dates can opt in from October 1st whilst everyone else will gain access from October 21st.
3. CRM-Powered Marketing Hub
HubSpot has always been about helping businesses build genuine, meaningful relationships with customers. To do this in a digital world, you need even stronger personalisation tactics. Enter new custom objects functionality and updates to ads, automation, behavioural events, and email tools in Marketing Hub so that you can create deeply personalised experiences across a whole host of touchpoints.
There’s also the new custom report builder currently in beta that will give greater visibility into how customers are interacting with you so you can make more data-driven decisions.
4. Service Hub updates to keep on delighting customers
Your digital customer experience is more important than ever – they need efficiency and quick resolutions during uncertain times. So there's some new updates for Service Hub, too.
The new logged-in visitor identification helps you respond faster and with more personalisation, right from the conversation inbox, whilst the new help desk automation means quick and easy set-up of chatbots for common questions.
The improved team management functionality helps you manage agent availability and the knowledge base now has multi-language capabilities – buenas noticias!
5. The app integrations just keep growing
HubSpot has completely overhauled the Solutions Directory and App Marketplace – they’ve recognised how important it is that businesses can find the right tools and service providers to deal with new challenges. Things like enhanced search functions, self-service listings and a clean new interface are a sign of new things to come on the directory!
New accountancy tools will make a big difference for businesses. Over on the App Marketplace, there are new updates for remote work tools like Slack and Zoom as well as new apps like Microsoft Teams – it’s now home to over 500 apps!
Source: Placeit