Using the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is essential for the success of your business. It plays a critical role in managing your business's workflow, client retention, and lead nurturing process. A powerful CRM can help you streamline your processes and make them more efficient. It also provides your team with valuable insights that can help them make better decisions.
On the other hand, using a CRM that doesn't deliver results for your business can lead to bigger problems. Keeping and using a poor CRM can be a costly mistake, both in terms of wasted investment and the potential loss of revenue. A recent survey shows that businesses lose almost 10% of annual sales revenue due to low-quality CRMs.
The wrong CRM can also restrict your business's growth and impede your team's productivity. For instance, if your CRM is outdated or not user-friendly, your team may struggle to use it effectively. This can lead to frustration, errors, and decreased productivity. Furthermore, a poor CRM can harm your brand and cause clients and customers to halt doing business with you.
Fortunately, you can always make the switch to a better CRM, such as HubSpot. Migrating to HubSpot is a wise investment because it provides countless benefits for your business in the short and long term. By choosing a powerful and customizable CRM like HubSpot, you can streamline your processes, improve your overall performance, and stay ahead of the competition. In this blog, we'll explore why HubSpot migrations are important and the best practices to follow to ensure a successful transition.
Why Migrate to HubSpot?
HubSpot is a cloud-based CRM that helps align sales and marketing teams, improve ROI, optimize inbound marketing strategy, and generate high-quality leads. Essentially, it's software as a service, or SaaS, that enables businesses to market products and services, as well as sell them more effectively. With a suite of powerful tools for content creation, promotion, and analysis, HubSpot is an ideal solution for businesses looking to drive growth through enhanced marketing and sales efforts.
And while there are plenty of CRMs that offer similar features, HubSpot stands out for the following reasons:
Doesn't Require Plugins
You read that right — choosing to invest in HubSpot migration services will save your business the resources of installing and using plugins. With HubSpot, you can start using the CRM immediately, ensuring less downtime for your business and your team. This is especially important if you're migrating from another CRM, as you can't afford to waste time learning how to use new plugins or waiting for them to be installed.
Another benefit of HubSpot is that your CMS and CRM data and tools are bundled into one. This means that you don't have to use separate software or tools to manage your website and your customer relationships. Instead, you can use HubSpot to collect data from your website traffic and save it automatically into your contact database. This makes it easier for you to segment contacts, view analytics, and personalize your marketing and sales efforts. Plus, since all your data is in one place, you can get a complete view of your customers' interactions with your business.
Finally, HubSpot is designed to work seamlessly with other systems. This means that you can use it alongside Google, Databox, WordPress, and other platforms without any issues. By investing in HubSpot's migration process, you can ensure that your data and workflows are integrated with your other systems, allowing you to streamline your business processes and work more efficiently. This flexibility is particularly valuable for businesses that need to connect multiple tools and platforms to achieve their goals.
More Secure
While it can be tempting to opt for a free self-hosting option for its flexibility, you'll need to be vigilant about checking security and performing updates. With HubSpot's professional migration services, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that the platform takes care of backup, safety, and maintenance on your behalf, so you don't have to.
If you're planning to migrate your data from a self-hosted site or other paid platforms, HubSpot ensures that the process is seamless and secure. The platform will work with you to identify which data needs to be migrated and what steps to take if some of your old data is left out. You can rest easy knowing that your sensitive data is protected by HubSpot's state-of-the-art security protocols.
Uptime Guarantee
In the fast-paced world of business, every minute counts. Even an hour of downtime can cause significant setbacks. That's why HubSpot's 24/7 security monitoring and SSL certificate come with a promise of 99.9% uptime. This guarantee means your business can operate without interruptions and stick to the schedule. With HubSpot, you won't have to worry about delayed sales and marketing efforts or workflow disruptions. The platform's uptime guarantee makes it a reliable choice for businesses that value efficiency and productivity.
Improves and Retains a Brand's Online Presence
HubSpot migrations offer a range of benefits for businesses looking to improve and maintain their online presence. By signing up for a Marketing Hub Professional account or Enterprise plan, businesses can leverage the platform's features to improve their digital marketing efforts and drive more traffic to their website. Additionally, businesses can opt for a CMS Hub Professional plan to maintain their website's design and functionality, creating a cohesive brand image that resonates with their target audience. By utilizing HubSpot's tools and features, businesses can build a strong online presence that engages their audience and sets them apart from the competition.
Offers Excellent Customer Support
Your team will likely experience problems when you start a migration project. For instance, they'll likely have questions about the features of the platform and the best time to use them. Producing these answers slowly can lead to downtime.
When you use HubSpot's professional migration services, none of this will happen as the platform offers excellent customer support. You can contact them anytime you come across issues during the migration process. They offer timely and effective customer support, ensuring that your team's downtime is kept to a minimum. Additionally, HubSpot has a vast community of experts and partner agencies that can help you with the migration requirements and project management.
What Are the Best Practices for HubSpot Migration?
So, your business finally decided to use a HubSpot account instead of continually using your old CRM. The next step you need to take is to come up with and implement a plan — like a roadmap for your team to easily transition to using HubSpot. With careful planning and implementation of a roadmap, you can make the transition as smooth as possible. A well-thought-out plan can help you avoid common pitfalls, such as data loss and team confusion. Additionally, by optimizing your team's use of HubSpot, you can increase productivity and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Ultimately, a well-executed migration plan will set your business up for success with HubSpot's powerful CRM and marketing tools.
Plan Your Hubspot Migration
The HubSpot migration process is straightforward, but there are plenty of things involved. Before you get overwhelmed with setting up reports and mapping out data, it's crucial to stop and look at what the migration project will entail for your team and the business.
Inform the Right People
A lot of people will use HubSpot, so make sure to loop all of them in throughout the entire migration process. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that everyone who uses the platform should be present on every status call; it simply means that individuals using CRM should be aware of the schedule of the migration, so they can adjust when to view and use reports from the platform.
Identify the Method of Migration
You're smart to be reading this section because it suggests that you're considering a third-party service to make your HubSpot migration process seamless and speedy. That said, it's important to conduct research before making any commitments. Take time to weigh the pros and cons of the various migration options that are available. You can consider using third-party services that are reliable, quick, and efficient to handle the migration of your data.
Be sure to check the quality of their work, how much they charge their clients, and how long they take to complete the process. By doing your due diligence, you'll ensure that your migration project is in good hands and it will proceed without a hitch.
Establish a Timeline
It’s also important to establish a timeline before choosing a migration option. This way, you can set your expectations and make necessary changes early to avoid disrupting daily business processes during the migration. Aside from the duration of the migration, make sure to determine the end date or the date when you no longer need to add data to the existing system.
Determine What Data You Wish to Move
This process simply means determining which data you want to migrate and which data you want to exclude (if there is any). Successful HubSpot migrations don't require migrating every piece of data your business uses. In general, you should only include quantitative data, like the purchases your clients made, their engagement on social media, contact points (email, meets, etc.), and service tickets they’ve filled.
Regardless of the size and niche of your business, four standard objects, such as companies, contacts, deals, and tickets, are necessary to complete the migration. Depending on the subscription you signed up for, there are other activities, like calls, conversations, products, payments, quotes, and custom objects, that you need to migrate, as well.
You might also have to create and edit properties when migrating to HubSpot. Properties are basically fields that store information on HubSpot records. There are default properties included under each object but you can also create custom properties to store unique data for your business.
It's more expensive (as well as labor-intensive and time-consuming) to move more data. So if you don't need large chunks of data for your processes and reporting, consider leaving it all behind. Your business will save plenty of resources if you take this route.
Audit and Clean Your Existing Data
During this phase, you need to clean up your data to avoid any problems during the migration and ensure that the data stored in your new CRM is clean. Skipping this step means ending up with a messy database — and this can prevent you from fully utilizing the features of HubSpot.
Additionally, this is also the best time to create a complete audit or list of your Tech Stack, including extensions and integrations. Doing this early eliminates unnecessary or unneeded software and makes it easier to determine alternative solutions HubSpot can provide.
Take the time to tackle any major problems before moving data into your new CRM. These are just some of the things you should be looking to clean:
- Contacts with no owner
- Duplicate contacts and companies
- Missing or invalid email addresses
There are several approaches to cleaning up data, and you need to use one that's ideal for your business and the current status of your CRM database. Your goal is to achieve a set of data that you're comfortable moving and using in HubSpot.
Prep Your Hubspot Database
You'll have to set up some basics before you begin migrating your data. For starters, you should have set up custom fields to accommodate your old data and add users who will need to access the information stored on the database. It's also important to turn off any integrations that might be affected by the data coming in and out.
Pick the Right Hubspot CRM Migration Services
As mentioned, you can choose from several HubSpot CRM migration services today. To help you narrow down your options, do some research to learn how each of these migration services works and the pros and cons of using them. Make sure to read reviews from people who have used these services in the past, as their experience can help you manage your expectations.
Prepare a Survival Toolkit on the Day of the Migration
With all the changes taking place, and despite preparation efforts, the day of the migration can still be stressful. Even if you have carefully planned every detail and delegated the task to a migrations specialist, problems can still arise.
Additionally, since data migration is done in phased plans, it’s important to set your own and your team’s expectations that the process can’t be completed in one day only. Depending on the amount of data, migrating to HubSpot can take weeks or months.
To minimize stress on the first day of using your new CRM, take the following steps:
Be Ready to Answer Questions
This is the cardinal rule in every HubSpot migration process. You should be available on the day of the migration to answer any queries raised by the consultant or third-party service concerning the data they're working with.
Moreover, you should be present to check how the data looks in your HubSpot CRM. In this way, you can easily determine if something is incorrect and solve the problem right away.
Don't Make Any Last Minute Changes
It can be tempting to make last-minute changes on the day of the migration. You might want to change your migration requirements or update field names; however, you should avoid making any last-minute changes as these will delay the migration and make the process more complicated for everyone involved.
Come Up With a Plan on How to Handle Issues
Instead of rushing the migration or pausing it when problems arise, decide how you're going to handle them. For instance, are you going to resolve them in real time or wait until the migration is completed before tackling them? Will you enlist the help of your salespeople when you resolve these issues post-migration?
Come up with a plan early to avoid stress on the day of the migration. Doing so also guarantees a fast migration process.
Takeaway Points
This article mentions some of the best practices to follow for a HubSpot migration. Besides following these practices, receiving assistance from a HubSpot partner, like Web Canopy Studio, can lead to a smoother and faster migration.
