HubSpot Onboarding Process

What is Foundational Setup?

Foundational setup includes all of the work that has to be completed in order to get your HubSpot portal to work effectively. This is the bare minimum that needs to be setup for any portal. This is the starting point to any HubSpot onboarding and needs to be completed before moving on to specific hub setup, customization, content creation, or database imports.

Structural setup includes setting up GDPR (if applicable), creation of custom contact/company/deal properties, custom object creation (Enterprise only), recreation of existing website forms, connection of subdomains and email send domain, CANSPAM email setup, installation of tracking code, setting timezones, filtering out internal IP addresses, branding setup, integrations setup, template creations (landing page, web page), team invitations, and contact imports.

Why is Foundational Setup Important?

Without first setting your HubSpot portal up at a foundational level, you will not be prepared to begin a marketing, sales, or service campaign and will risk creating a messy database and one that your team will resist. Taking your onboarding one step at a time starting with the foundational piece will ensure a successful HubSpot onboarding.

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the Foundational Setup stage, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth beginning to the onboarding and good client-agency communication:

• Kickoff Meeting
  • The kickoff meeting will be led by your Client Success Manager. The CSM will be your main point of contact within HIVE and will ensure that all steps are completed accurately and efficiently. Your CSM will lead a 60-90 minute kickoff meeting in the first week after signing your agreement with us. This will include introductions, scope review, expectations, introduction to your Client Portal, and a deep dive into what you and your team hope to get out of your onboarding into HubSpot. Depending on the scope of your onboarding, additional team members from HIVE may join this meeting to ensure everyone is on the same page.
    
    
• Accessing the Client Portal
  • Each of our clients has access to a Client Portal. It is a project management tool that we use to ensure clear communication and transparency during your onboarding. You and your team will be invited to join your Client Portal and this is where all documentation, files, tasks, progress updates, and milestones will live so that both your team and our team are on the same page at all times.
    
    
• Regular touch bases
  • During a HubSpot onboarding project, we expect to have weekly touch base meetings to ensure smooth delivery and execution. These touch base meetings will be scheduled during your kickoff meeting. Once onboarding is completed or nearly completed, these touch base meetings may be moved to a monthly cadence.
    
    
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your Foundational Setup, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your onboarding. This may include:
    • Google Analytics
    • Google Search Console
    • Tracking pixels
    • Branding guides
    • Branding and content assets
    • Contact/Company/Deal database
    • Logins to other tools that will be integrated with HubSpot
    • Access to current website

What is the Typical Timeline for Foundational Setup?

The timeline to complete the Foundational Setup can vary greatly depending on the client and level of customization needed, but typically this stage is completed within two to three weeks from kickoff. Much of the Foundational Setup stage needs to be done before moving on to specific hub setup, but some pieces like template creation, imports, and even some integrations can be done in parallel with specific hub onboarding.

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.

What is Marketing Hub?

Marketing Hub is the first hub that HubSpot came out with and still the most popular hub in the stack. Marketing Hub is the marketing arm to your HubSpot portal and will include all of the marketing tools that you may need to successfully complete your marketing campaigns. 

There are four levels of Marketing Hub (Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise) and each will have a slightly different onboarding plan due to the tools available in each. Here are some of the main tools available at each level:

What is Included in Marketing Hub Onboarding?

Depending on your level of Marketing Hub and the marketing sophistication of your organization, your Marketing Hub onboarding may vary, but in general our team will accomplish the following:

• Popup creation
• Collect data from website forms
• Connect ad accounts
• Blog subscription template builds
• Initial landing page builds
• Migration of blog posts
• Campaign set up
• Recreation of calls-to-action
• Setup shared inboxes
• Contact list segmentation
• Live chat set up
• Chatbot set up
• Reporting dashboard creation
• Marketing events object creation
• Initial workflow strategy (Pro+)
• Initial workflow build out (Pro+)
• Connect social media accounts (Pro+)
• Setup social listening (Pro+)
• Blog setup (Pro+) including basic blog listing page and post pages
• ABM tool setup (Pro+)
• Calculated properties setup (Pro+)
• Basic email template builds (Pro+)
• Training with our HubSpot Certified Trainer

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the Marketing Hub onboarding stage, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth onboarding and good client-agency communication:

• Client Portal
  • Throughout our time working together, we will be utilizing our Client Portal for communication, file delivery, tasks, progress, and milestones.
• Regular touch bases continue
  • Throughout your onboarding, we will continue our regular touch base meetings with your Client Success Manager.
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your Marketing Hub onboarding, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your onboarding. This may include:
    • Access to current website
    • Access to current assets (downloadable content, forms, calls-to-action, blog posts, landing pages, thank you pages, email marketing, etc.)
    • Social media account logins/access
    • List segmentation rules/requests
    • Automation requests
    • List of competitors
    • Ad account logins/access
    • Chatbot logic requests
    • Identification of people that will manage live chat
    • Reporting requests
    • Target accounts list

What is the Typical Timeline for Marketing Hub Onboarding?

The timeline to complete Marketing Hub onboarding can vary greatly depending on the client and level of customization needed, but typically this stage is completed within two to four weeks from completion of the Foundational Setup phase. As mentioned before, if you have specific requests that need to be prioritized, we may be able to work on Marketing Hub onboarding in parallel to pieces of the Foundational Setup stage.

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.

What is Sales Hub?

Sales Hub includes all of the tools that your sales team will need to move a contact from a lead all the way through closing a deal and even creating brand promoters.

There are four levels of Sales Hub (Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise) and each will have a slightly different onboarding plan due to the tools available in each. Here are some of the main tools available at each level:

What is Included in Sales Hub Onboarding?

Depending on your level of Sales Hub and the sales sophistication of your organization, your Sales Hub onboarding may vary, but in general our team will accomplish the following:

• Initial deal pipeline set up
• Pipeline automation set up (Pro+)
• Pipeline deal probability set up
• Pipeline stage property set up
• Pipeline record customization
• Forecast set up (Pro+)
• Goal set up
• Document import
• Meeting link set up
• Group meeting link set up
• Assign paid seats
• Payments set up
• Playbooks set up (Enterprise)
• Quote set up
• Deal imports
• Reporting dashboard creation
• Conversation routing set up
• Sales automation set up (Pro+)
• Sequence set up (Pro+)
• Lead rotation set up (Pro+)
• Product library creation/import (Pro+)
• ABM tool set up (Pro+)
• Custom object set up (Enterprise)
• Quote based workflow creation (Enterprise)
• Training with our HubSpot Certified Trainer

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the Sales Hub onboarding stage, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth onboarding and good client-agency communication:

• Client Portal
  • Throughout our time working together, we will be utilizing our Client Portal for communication, file delivery, tasks, progress, and milestones.
• Regular touch bases continue
  • Throughout your onboarding, we will continue our regular touch base meetings with your Client Success Manager.
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your Sales Hub onboarding, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your onboarding. This may include:
    • Automation requests
    • Chatbot logic requests
    • Reporting requests
    • Target accounts list
    • Pipeline stage/required information requests
    • Sales revenue goals
    • Documents to be imported
    • List of users that will need a paid seat
    • Product information to be imported for quotes
    • Payment details for HubSpot Payments
    • Existing sales playbooks to be recreated in HubSpot

What is the Typical Timeline for Sales Hub Onboarding?

The timeline to complete Sales Hub onboarding can vary greatly depending on the client and level of customization needed, but typically this stage is completed within one to four weeks and can be run in parallel to onboarding other hubs. If Sales Hub is your organization's main priority, as with Marketing Hub, there may be some pieces that can be running in parallel to the Foundations Setup stage.

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.

What is Service Hub?

Service hub includes all of your customer service tools needed to support your customers after the sale. 

There are four levels of Service Hub (Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise) and each will have a slightly different onboarding plan due to the tools available in each. Here are some of the main tools available at each level:

What is Included in Service Hub Onboarding?

Depending on your level of Service Hub and the customer service sophistication of your organization, your Service Hub onboarding may vary, but in general our team will accomplish the following:

• Ticket pipeline creation
• Live chat set up
• Chatbot set up
• Shared inbox set up
• Email template creation
• Meeting link set up
• Reporting set up
• Document import
• Conversation routing set up
• Ticket automation
• Goal set up
• Forecasting set up
• Sequence set up (Pro+)
• Knowledge base set up (Pro+)
• NPS survey set up (Pro+)
• Customer experience survey set up (Pro+)
• Customer satisfaction survey set up (Pro+)
• Ticket routing (Pro+)
• Help desk automation (Pro+)
• Custom survey set up (Pro+)
• Custom Object set up (Enterprise)
• Playbooks set up/import (Enterprise)
• Training with our HubSpot Certified Trainer

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the Service Hub onboarding stage, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth onboarding and good client-agency communication:

• Client Portal
  • Throughout our time working together, we will be utilizing our Client Portal for communication, file delivery, tasks, progress, and milestones.
• Regular touch bases continue
  • Throughout your onboarding, we will continue our regular touch base meetings with your Client Success Manager.
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your Service Hub onboarding, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your onboarding. This may include:
    • Automation requests
    • Chatbot logic requests
    • Reporting requests
    • Ticket pipeline stage/required information requests
    • Customer service goals
    • Documents to be imported
    • List of users that will need a paid seat
    • Existing customer service playbooks to be recreated in HubSpot
    • Existing knowledge base access to be recreated in HubSpot
    • Custom survey requests
    • Custom object requests

What is the Typical Timeline for Service Hub Onboarding?

The timeline to complete Service Hub onboarding can vary greatly depending on the client and level of customization needed, but typically this stage is completed within one to two weeks and can be run in parallel to onboarding other hubs. If Service Hub is your organization's main priority, there may be some pieces that can be running in parallel to the Foundations Setup stage.

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.

What is CMS Hub?

CMS Hub is a website platform where you can build, host, and manage your company's website directly within HubSpot.

There are three levels of CMS Hub (Starter, Professional, and Enterprise) and each will have a slightly different plan due to the tools available in each. Here are some of the main tools available at each level:

What is Included in CMS Migration?

CMS Hub is different from the other hubs in that it is not a software that you're typically adding on to your current stack. It is a tool that would replace your current CMS (such as WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace, and others). For an onboarding, it is less about setting it up and more about either migrating your website to HubSpot CMS or building a new website on the HubSpot CMS. We are looking at a CMS migration (moving an existing website from another CMS to HubSpot CMS). The process will be different for a new website build.

• Theme creation
• Template set up
• Domain set up
• SSL certificate installation
• Content import
• Page styling
• Navigation set up
• Blog post import
• Calls-to-action replacement
• Forms replacement
• Google Analytics integration
• Content staging (Pro+)
• Google Search Console integration (Pro+)
• Video uploads (Pro+)
• Password protected page set up (Pro+)
• Membership set up (Enterprise)
• Content partitioning set up (Enterprise)
• Reverse proxy configuration (Enterprise)
• Website publish
• Training with our HubSpot Certified Trainer and Developer

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the CMS Hub migration, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth migration and good client-agency communication:

• Client Portal
  • Throughout our time working together, we will be utilizing our Client Portal for communication, file delivery, tasks, progress, and milestones.
• Regular touch bases continue
  • Throughout your onboarding, we will continue our regular touch base meetings with your Client Success Manager.
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your CMS migration, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your migration. This may include:
    • Current website access
    • Access to content for website
    • Access to blog
    • Google Analytics login/access
    • Google Search Console login/access
    • Tracking pixels
    • Branding guidelines
    • Copy, imagery, and videos for website
    • DNS login/access
    • Membership logic/lists
    • Password protected page details

What is the Typical Timeline for CMS Migration?

The timeline to complete CMS Migration can vary greatly depending on the client and level of website complexity, but typically a migration is completed within four to six weeks and can be run in parallel to onboarding other hubs. 

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.

What is Operations Hub?

Operations Hub is all about clean data and efficient processes within HubSpot.

There are four levels of Operations Hub (Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise) and each will have a slightly different onboarding plan due to the tools available in each. Here are some of the main tools available at each level:

What is Included in Operations Hub Onboarding?

Depending on your level of Operations Hub and the sophistication of your organization, your Operations Hub onboarding may vary, but in general our team will accomplish the following:

• Data sync set up
• Historical sync set up
• Reporting dashboard set up
• Programmable automation set up (Pro+)
• Webhooks set up (Pro+)
• Data quality automation set up (Pro+)
• Duplicate contact/company/deal management (Pro+)
• Dataset creation (Enterprise)
• Advanced data calculations and prep set up (Enterprise)
• Snowflake integration (Enterprise)
• Training with our HubSpot Certified Trainer

What Resources Will Be Needed From the Client?

During the Operations Hub onboarding stage, our team will be in touch regularly with your team in order to gain all of the information needed for proper setup. The following are steps that will be taken to ensure a smooth onboarding and good client-agency communication:

• Client Portal
  • Throughout our time working together, we will be utilizing our Client Portal for communication, file delivery, tasks, progress, and milestones.
• Regular touch bases continue
  • Throughout your onboarding, we will continue our regular touch base meetings with your Client Success Manager.
• Access to necessary tools and data
  • In order to complete your Operations Hub onboarding, we will need Super Admin access to your HubSpot portal as well as access to any other tools and/or information that you need incorporated into your onboarding. This may include:
    • Automation requests
    • Reporting requests
    • Custom object requests
    • Snowflake login/access
    • Logins/access to all integration tools
    • Webhooks to be executed
    • Data quality requests

What is the Typical Timeline for Operations Hub Onboarding?

The timeline to complete Operations Hub onboarding can vary greatly depending on the client and level of customization needed, but typically this stage is completed within one to four weeks and can be run in parallel to onboarding other hubs. If Operations Hub is your organization's main priority, there may be some pieces that can be running in parallel to the Foundations Setup stage.

If you have a specific need, please share that information with your Client Success Manager in your kickoff call so that the plan can be customized to fit your priorities.