The complete guide

to setting up HubSpot
From the basics like changing time zones to the things you’ll need
to rope your developers in for, we have everything covered in this
guide. Learn more about setting up with HubSpot and what you’ll
need to create compelling marketing campaigns.
Want to skip
to a particular
section?

Just click on the headings below.

1. The foundations of HubSpot

2. Integrating your website with the platform

3. Importing your contact data

4. GDPR compliant settings

5. Setting up the Sales Hub

6. Email templates 101

7. Adding your socials to HubSpot

8. All about CTAs and forms

9. Wonderful workflows you should be using

10. Setting up your conversations inbox and chatbots

11. How to set up and access your marketing and sales dashboards

02
 1.
The foundations
of HubSpot
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Navigating around the back-end for basic settings can be

treacherous. Stray too far and you’re in uncharted territory.
That’s why it’s best practice to familiarise yourself with the
HubSpot surroundings early on, whether you’re part of the
marketing or sales team.

It’s easy to get started and something you can do by yourself - right
now. All you need to get going is the name and email address of each
person you’d like to make a user in HubSpot. This allows you to set
up the account admin too.

Choose your users

HubSpot User - the user has access to all of the fantastic

HubSpot tools and you can edit their permissions to make
them an admin.

Super Admin - not just a cool title, the user has automatic
access to all tools and settings too.

Blog Author - the user has access to the blog tool only
and can save articles as drafts, but can’t publish them.

Blog Publisher - the user has access to the blog tool but
can also save and publish articles.

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Back to basics
In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main navigation
bar to get access to key settings.

• Time zone - In Account Defaults, click the ‘Time zone’

dropdown menu and select which time zone you’d like to
set on your account. (This nifty setting also localises several
of your HubSpot tools, including scheduled email sends,
social media messages and analytics).

• Currency - Click the dropdown menu to select the currency

you would like revenue and costs to be displayed in.

• Language - Click the dropdown menu and select one of the

supported languages (English, Brazilian Portuguese, French,
German, Japanese, and Spanish). This setting changes the
default language of the entire HubSpot interface.

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 2.
Integrating
your website
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If you’re not so tech savvy, this might be one for your

developers or IT team. You may need access to your DNS
(Domain Name System) settings and your hosting provider
when migrating your website to HubSpot. Make sure you’ve
received your ‘Migration Complete’ notification before
attempting to connect your domain name.

If you’re unsure on the status of your migration,

contact HubSpot support.

Basic customers - domain name

If you’re a HubSpot Basic customer, you’ll host your entire website with
HubSpot and will need to connect your domain name to it. This ensures
that when someone types in your domain name, they’ll see your HubSpot-
hosted website rather than your current one that’s externally hosted.

Professional or Enterprise customers - domain name

or subdomain
If you’re a HubSpot Professional or Enterprise customer, you have the
choice of hosting your entire website with HubSpot or continuing to host
your site externally and just using landing pages and blog CMS pages.

However, if you choose to host your site externally, you’ll need to connect
a subdomain to your HubSpot-hosted pages.

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Tracking codes
Skip this step if you’re a HubSpot Basic customer or you’re hosting your
website with HubSpot. The tracking code is automatically installed on your
HubSpot site.

Installing the tracking code on every page lets you take advantage of all
of HubSpot’s features and most importantly, makes the entire software
work. It’s a tiny piece of JavaScript code that gives you access to
valuable insights.

• Analytics reports - This allows HubSpot to tell you where your

traffic, leads and customers found your website.

• Contacts intelligence - A sophisticated lead intelligence software

that allows HubSpot to provide you with the information to enable
you to turn more website traffic into customers.

• Pages - This lets HubSpot crawl your site to tell you which SEO
elements need further optimisation to improve your website traffic.

If you’re not especially clued up on the IT-related

side of things, you can always ask us for help. We
can help you get your domain up and running.

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 3.
Importing your
contact data
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When importing records into HubSpot, you can create

associations between two different record types, a contact
and an account record.

In HubSpot, a contact is an individual person. You can only have one email
address per contact and it’s mostly used for sales. However, an account
record is a company contact and inside that record, you can have multiple
contacts with their email addresses.

You’ll need a CSV file containing all of your important contact information.
The sooner you get these leads into HubSpot, the better. You get access to
useful CRM tools that will change the way you collate data:

• Spring clean - HubSpot will automatically remove duplicate contacts

from your list and after the spruce, you can use lead nurturing
campaigns to determine which of your leads are most qualified to
become customers.

• Reignite your leads - having the ability to segment your leads is

beneficial as you can send them targeted communications via email
and lead nurturing campaigns. This automates the pesky process of
turning a rogue lead into a dedicated customer.

• Get lead intelligence - receiving lead revisit alerts, seeing when your
imported leads view your site and getting social media information
can help make your team more effective and personalised sales calls.

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Importing your leads will better equip your team with valuable lead
intelligence and help streamline the process of driving leads further down
the funnel - resulting in a nice little ROI.

After you import your contacts database, be sure to upload

your Do Not Email or Opt Out list too. This is a list of people who
have unsubscribed from your email communications and won’t
appreciate your latest product release or newsletter.

This is also to remain GDPR compliant. We’ll go into more detail

about this in the next section.

If you’re not quite sure how to get your contacts

into Hubspot, send us a quick message and we’ll
get your data imported in no time.

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 4.
GDPR compliant
settings
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If you’re a Super Admin, you can turn on GDPR in your

HubSpot account settings. This is a unified place to
automatically enable GDPR-compliant features throughout
your HubSpot account.

Here’s how to turn on GDPR:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main

navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, select Account Defaults.

• Click to toggle the EU GDPR switch on so you only send marketing

emails to contacts with a legitimate reason to contact.

Once GDPR is enabled, you’ll have the following features in your account:

• Cookie consent banner is toggled on by default.

• GDPR delete functionality is enabled, which gives you the choice to

either delete a contact and keep the option to restore within 90 days
or delete the contact fully to comply with GDPR.

• GDPR-ready forms with a lawful basis notice and communication

consent checkbox form field.

• Unsubscribe links are turned on by default for sales one-to-one and

sequences emails.

• Ability to add communication consent and lawful basis (legitimate

interest) for processing to contacts via a list import, bulk edit or
manual contact creation.

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All these features help you comply, as well as these

other important ones too. And keep in mind that while
these features are a part of HubSpot, your legal team is
still the best resource when it comes to giving compliance
advice for your specific situation.

Whether GDPR is something you’re actively implementing

or it’s way over your head, you might benefit from a chat
with us regarding your compliance.

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 5.
Setting up the
Sales Hub
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Sales Hub is an extension of HubSpot. You get a basic version

for free and certain features have paid tiers. Start for free and
upgrade as you and your business requirements grow.

This Hub is purely for the Sales team and has everything you need in one
central place, including:

• Connecting emails to HubSpot.

• Setting up meetings.

• Create workflows.

• Deals (pipeline).

• Documents.

• Lead scoring.

• Playbooks.

• Create team goals.

Get notified the moment a lead opens your email, track every interaction
and organise all your activities in one place with HubSpot’s sales software.

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Tools like deal pipelines can be used to predict revenue and identify
roadblocks in your selling process. Deal stages are the steps in your pipeline
that signify to your sales team that there’s progress towards closing a deal.
Keeping track of your deals’ progress in your sales pipeline gives you a more
detailed picture of your projected revenue for a given time.

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By default, HubSpot includes a sales pipeline with seven deal stages:

• Appointment scheduled (20%)

• Qualified to buy (40%)

• Presentation scheduled (60%)

• Decision maker bought-in (80%)

• Contract sent (90%)

• Closed won (100% Won)

• Closed lost (0% Lost)

The Sales Hub saves you time, from automating outreach to allowing you
to follow up flawlessly. It helps you make deals and not just data entries.
We have a couple of Sales Hub whizzes here at Digital 22, so if you’re
looking to get started, let us know how we can help.

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 6.
Email
templates 101
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There are two main avenues when it comes to creating an

email template. There’s the drag and drop editor to set up basic
yet effective templates or you can enlist the help of your design
and development team to create fancy custom templates.

Drag & drop

Each email created this way is clean and responsive on any email and
device type. You can access customisable elements like images, text
fields and buttons. It’s simple enough for a beginner to experiment with.

This method is easier but, of course, has its limitations.

Custom templates
Custom templates are ideal if you come across any limitations or if you
want that added ‘wow factor’. By default, custom coded templates
won’t be responsive but if you work alongside your design and
development team, you can make sure it’s available on all devices.

Once they’re built correctly into HubSpot, you’re good to start writing
your email.

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Emails, e-shots and automation

Sending emails in real time are what we at Digital 22 call monthly emails or
e-shots. You can schedule monthly emails in the future but they’re more like
one-off emails.

If you have three or more emails for the same audience list, it’s best practice
to create a workflow.

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Connecting third-party systems

HubSpot needs permission to connect to your current email inbox but
accounts like Gmail, Office 365 and Exchange are supported and can be
integrated easily.

• In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main

navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Integrations > Email integrations.

• Click Connect an inbox.

If you’re unsure on how to create compelling

email templates, our marketers are well equipped
with some tips and tricks to get you on your way.

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 7.
Adding your socials
to HubSpot
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Connecting your social media accounts to HubSpot is simple

and gives you important insights into engagement, interaction
and target audience.

• In your HubSpot account, click the   in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Social.

• In the upper right, click Connect Account and start adding your
social networks.

Twitter and LinkedIn are a breeze but Facebook must be linked to your
Instagram business account in order to be connected to HubSpot.

Interactions, audience increase, session clicks and top posts all allow
you to analyse what’s working and apply it to future posts.

Tip from Lou, D22’s Social Media Superstar - “There’s a tiny button
when scheduling a post that’s often overlooked. It opens up a full
calendar and gives you a monthly view of outgoing social posts.
It’s a good way to visualise your social strategy.”

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Social listening allows you to track, analyse and respond to conversations

about your brand and industry online. You can do this easily with the social
monitoring functionality - it allows you to create contact lists, search
keywords and hashtags that provides some pretty extensive information
regarding your target audience.

It can even highlight some blindspots you may not have seen.

Not to mention, you can also spy on your competitors with the new list in
beta mode. See what’s working for them (and what’s not) and then put your
learnings into action.

Having an issue adding your socials? Touch base

with us so we can see where you’re at.

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 8.
All about CTAs
and forms
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Forms have a vital relationship with lead flows and are one of
the essential marketing tools we know and love. Forms can be
highly situational and creating one is easy.

CTAs drive prospects

A call-to-action (CTA) is a button you can use in your HubSpot content to
drive prospective customers to your website. They can then convert on a
form and be added to your contacts database.

CTAs should be visually attractive, action-oriented and easy to locate on

your pages, emails and blogs. You can create different CTAs to align with the
buyer’s journey and even smart CTAs. They are customised based on data
stored in your HubSpot contact records, such as known information like
location and preferred language.

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Forms are crucial

The Forms feature allows us to get new information and understand
more about our existing customers. They’re especially important on
landing pages. Specific form fields like ‘describe your role’ help you to
create better personas and better content that resonates with them.

They also help when it comes to segmenting lists and achieving better
email open rates.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Lead Capture

> Forms.

• In the upper right, click Create form.

• In the left panel, select Regular form.

• In the upper right, click Next.

• In the left panel, select Blank template to start with a blank form
or a pre-made template to start with a form with fields for a
specific use case. The form preview for a selected template will
appear in the right panel.

• In the upper right, click Start.

• At the top of the form editor, click the    to edit the form name.

You can add and edit as many form fields as you like to gather the
information you desire to create better personas. But if you’re forms
are falling flat and you need some advice, taking some time to chat
with some form fanatics like us might just do the trick.

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 9.
Wonderful
workflows you
should be using
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A workflow tool can automate your sales push, marketing efforts

and your internal processes, allowing you to really get involved
with lead nurturing. With HubSpot workflows, you can create
automated follow up emails that align with the prospects’ actions
and build a relationship between the buyer and your business.

It engages contacts in a way that progresses them towards a specific action.

Lead nurturing should happen during the onboarding process all the way
through to delighting existing customers. Workflows can do just that.

There are various contact properties, from those that assist internal
automation to assisting with customer support.

• Contact-based.

• Company-based.

• Deal-based.

• Ticket-based.

• Quote-based.

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By default, objects are only enrolled in workflows the first time they
meet the workflow enrollment triggers or are enrolled manually e.g
form submission or action. Automated lead nurturing emails get
4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone emails.

Example of workflow:

• A CTA is clicked on a blog post and a prospect puts their details

in to download the eBook.

• An automated email is sent after a period of time, referencing

the eBook and maybe providing some more resources.

• Providing more consideration/decision-based content to them

so they move down the funnel.

The number of emails you send might depend on the

campaign and their position in the sales cycle. Experiment
with frequency by taking a look at open rates, clicks and
unsubscribers to find the right balance.

If your workflows aren’t flowing like they should be,

chatting to a HubSpot partner like us could get the
ball rolling.

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 10.
Setting up your
conversations inbox
and chatbots
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There’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to implementing

a conversational marketing strategy. In comparison to inbound,
it’s much more sales orientated and typically towards the bottom
of the funnel - especially when you’re just getting started.
Inbound is about building organic traffic and momentum over
time. Whereas conversational marketing is about shortening the
sales cycle and converting better in real time.

However, having HubSpot as a tool accommodates both strategies.

This saves you time from having to set up a new system or learn a
new way of working. Chatbots, HubSpot Conversations and reviewing
your audience all help to achieve that goal.

Set up a Conversations Inbox

Streamline and centralise communication with your contacts by
setting up a conversations inbox. You can connect team emails
and chat channels to the inbox then view, reply and manage all
conversations from each channel in one unified place.

• In your HubSpot account, click the    in the main navigation bar.

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Conversations > Inboxes.

• Click Create Inbox.

• In the Team inbox name field, enter a name for your inbox.

• Click the Add team inbox members dropdown menu to choose

who can see this inbox.

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Creating a chatbot
Before you dive right in and start experimenting with chatbot
creation, it’s worth thinking about a strategy. It can be as simple
as reviewing your audience to tailor your bot’s tone or designing
a conversation flow that’s either rule-based or AI. Having an idea
before getting started will make the process easier.

No experience creating bots? No problem. HubSpot’s templates

make it really simple. Just choose the one that’s based on your
bot’s goal and use the visual editor to customise.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Conversations

> Chatflows.

• Hover over the bot you want to modify and click Edit, or click
Create chatflow to build a new bot.

• Click the + to add new actions to your bot.

The best kind of conversation is one that gives you

the answer that you need. If your chatflows are
quiet, have a conversation with us about it.

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 11.
Set up & access
your marketing and
sales dashboards
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When you log in to HubSpot, you’ll have default reports on your

marketing and sales dashboard with various stats and graphs.
That’s okay for some people, but for those looking for something
more tailored, you can completely customise it to show analytics
that are relevant to you.

Move, resize, rename and reorder - you can put priority analytics at the top
and get data at a glance.

Reporting for duty

The report library has every important KPI you need, from blog post views
to team productivity, right the way through to revenue-based reports. It’s
also ideal for setting up personal dashboards for bosses and managers who
don’t necessarily want to go digging around to find reports like ROI.

There’s a limit of 10 reports per dashboard and accounts with the reporting
add-on can create up to 200 custom dashboards!

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If you want something more in depth, you can create a custom report and
specify time frames. You can even specify how you see the data presented
e.g. pie charts, line graphs and tables.

We know this is top level stuff but it can give you some valuable
analytics. So if you’re wanting a better insight into your business
and the dashboard is daunting, send us a quick message.

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 Need some help getting
started with HubSpot?

Getting started with HubSpot might seem overwhelming, but this

user-friendly platform is simple - once all the right settings are in order.
HubSpot’s tools are so easy to build but your workflows might not be
set up as effectively as they could be or your contacts might be all over
the place. Making sure everything is correct and working to the best of
its ability should be your priority.

And while you’re focusing on getting acquainted with the HubSpot

platform, you’re spending less time on other areas of your business.
That’s where an award-winning agency like Digital 22 can help.
We’re a Diamond HubSpot Partner and recent winners of EMEA
Partner of the Year and we certainly know our way around the platform.

If you have any questions about getting your HubSpot set up properly
or you’re looking for an external partner to organise it for you, speak to
Digital 22 via the button below.

Contact D22 for a free HubSpot Diagnostic Health Check

Alternatively, if you’re eager to get started, you can organise a meeting

with Caroline, our Solutions manager, today.

Holmes Mill, Greenacre Street,

Clitheroe, BB7 1EB
T: 0370 218 7180
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