What You Can Do With a HubSpot Trial in Just 14 Days [Chart]

Ever feel like your tech stack is more like a leaning tower of Pisa? We’ve all been there. A different software for every task, and it can get… unmanageable. 

But you want to be certain it's the right choice before switching to something new. Will it be worth it for your company? Is this the best option out there?

My team and I have helped dozens of clients make the switch to HubSpot. And this is what we’ve learned about making the most of your free trial. 

What a HubSpot free trial gets you 

• Attract and manage new leads with SEO, social media, blog tools, and campaign tools. 
• Convert and nurture leads with forms, landing pages, automated workflows, and email marketing tools.
• Create a single source of truth for every contact record with HubSpot Smart CRM. 
• Track virtually any metric with pre-built or custom reports. 

That’s a lot. So, where to start? 

How to make the most of your HubSpot free trial

• Improve efficiency by unifying marketing efforts 
• Improve visibility into key marketing metrics 

Let’s break down each step some more 

Before your trial starts

Sign up for HubSpot CRM. HubSpot offers a free Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that allows you to do quite a bit before needing to upgrade. Get familiar with tracking and automating customer interactions to make the most of this tool before starting your trial. 

Take a free HubSpot course (or two). I recommend watching HubSpot Academy's free HubSpot Marketing Software and Inbound Marketing courses. These will give a good idea of how to navigate the platform and what marketing philosophies drive its design. 

Explore integrations. Check out the HubSpot App Marketplace to see if — and how — your current tech integrates with HubSpot. Hint: Check out Salesforce, Gmail and Zoom if you use those platforms. 

Identify your users. HubSpot is made for teams. Invite 3-5 people to test out the platform with you and discuss its pros and cons. If you decide to move forward with this platform, you'll want to be sure it works for everyone.

Create a piece of content. In large part, HubSpot is built on the idea of Inbound Marketing, a philosophy that relies on quality content to attract customers. For your HubSpot trial, I recommend creating a guide that helps solve one of your customer's problems. This should be more than a blog but less than an e-book — something a customer might be willing to provide their name and email in order to get.

Gather your contact list. Identify the names and email addresses of users who’ve engaged with your brand but have not yet purchased. If you’ve taken advantage of the CRM, you likely already have some lists to choose from. 

Once your trial starts

Day 1: Enable tracking on your website. If you don’t do anything else, do this: Install the tracking link on your site to start gathering user data. One of the big advantages of HubSpot is tracking and reporting to help you improve your marketing strategies. 

Day 2: Set up your users. Make sure everyone on your team is equipped to explore the platform. One benefit of Marketing Pro is phone support from HubSpot so you can simply call if you run into any issues. 

Day 3: Import your contacts. Familiarize yourself with the difference between an active and static list, regardless of which you decide to use. Upload your content as a file so that users can download it in the next step. 

Days 4-8: Create a form, landing page, confirmation page, and follow-up email. Don’t worry; you’ll cover how to do each of these in the HubSpot Marketing Software course. HubSpot’s drag-and-drop design makes it easy. This step will allow you to capture and nurture leads who want to access your content.

Day 9: Add calls to action (CTAs) to your site that drive to your content offer. 

Days 10-12: Connect your social media accounts and start promoting your content. 

Days 13-14: Set up your blog and post an abbreviated version of your guide with a CTA to access the full thing. 

While there are many, many more things that HubSpot is capable of, completing these steps during your free trial is a great start. You’ll learn how to 

• Navigate key parts of the software 
• Use HubSpot to generate leads 
• Gather data to improve your strategies 

Compare Marketing Hub plan costs 

HubSpot’s Marketing Hub is set up in three tiers: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. Your free trial is a preview of the middle tier (Professional). After your trial, you can decide whether you want to stay there or move. Here is a breakdown of costs and benefits. 

HubSpot onboarding doesn't have to be complicated

Needless to say, there’s a lot to HubSpot. But when used correctly, it can transform your business. 

One way to ensure you’re getting the most out of HubSpot is to bring in a HubSpot Partner marketing agency like Vye. What the heck is a HubSpot Partner? In the short term, it means we have experts on our team who can walk you through onboarding and optimizing your subscription. Plus, you'll gain access to our full-service, in-house experts who can handle everything from content creation to web design and in-depth reporting to help you attract and convert your customers. 

Ready to get started? 

Let us know, and we’ll help you get started.