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by Lauren Ryan on April 2023
As a new employee auditing an existing HubSpot account, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Here are some steps to help you settle into your new HubSpot account and plan for success.
What to do When You Inherit a HubSpot Account
Understand the Company’s Goals
Before diving into the account, it is important to understand your company’s growth goals. This will help you determine what metrics to focus on during the audit. During onboarding, you were likely given a set of metrics your team is accountable for. This may include $X in revenue or Y new leads generated.
To see if your team has any goals they’re tracking for Marketing, Sales, or Service in HubSpot, navigate to Reports > Goals. Not seeing any goals in your account? Make a note to set up Goals in HubSpot once you’ve confirmed the targets you’re accountable for reaching.
Review the Account Settings
Start by reviewing the account settings in HubSpot. Check that the account is set up correctly and that all the necessary integrations are in place. Next, verify that the account is linked to the correct social media accounts, email accounts, and any other relevant integrations. You may uncover issues with connected accounts or integrations during this review. For example, you may find Salesforce sync errors in need of resolution or social media accounts that need to be reconnected.
Find something that needs fixing? Make a note to discuss it with your team and fix it.
Evaluate the Contact Database
The CRM is a critical component of the HubSpot account. To fully understand what you’re working with, check for duplicates, incomplete records, and other issues that may impact the accuracy of the data. Use Insycle to check for overall data quality (more on how to do that in this webinar).
Once you know how strong your database is, it’s time to put a plan in place to either update and clean the existing database or design target audiences for marketing and sales outreach.
Analyze Website and Landing Page Performance
HubSpot provides a range of tools for tracking website performance. Use these tools to analyze website traffic, conversion rates, and other key metrics. Then, identify areas for improvement and make recommendations for optimizing the website and landing pages.
Review Existing Campaigns
If there are existing Campaigns in the HubSpot account, review them to evaluate their performance. Look at the Campaign data, including open, click-through, and conversion rates. Identify any Campaigns that are not performing well and make recommendations for improvement.
Not using Campaigns? Make a note to review HubSpot Campaigns with your team and brush up on Campaign functionality in this HubSpot Academy lesson. These are a powerful tool to show the impact your marketing efforts are having on your bottom line.
Assess Active Workflows
HubSpot provides tools for creating lead-nurturing workflows. Review the existing workflows to ensure that they are optimized for maximum effectiveness. Look for any issues that may be preventing leads from moving through the workflows effectively.
To evaluate active Workflows, navigate to Automation > Workflows > Table Actions > Export View. You’ll receive an Excel download containing your Workflows and data supporting their performance. This includes Total Enrolled Contacts, Active Enrolled Contacts, Goal Conversion Rate, and more. Review high and low-performing Workflows to see what does and doesn’t work for your audience. Make a note of your recommendations to share with your team.
Evaluate Reporting and Analytics
HubSpot provides a range of reporting and analytics tools. Review the existing reports and dashboards to ensure that they are providing the necessary insights. Then, make recommendations for any additional reports or analytics that may be needed.
Reports often go unseen, and clutter builds up. Look through the reports that are “Not on Dashboards” and see if any can be removed. Additionally, filter the “Last Viewed” column to the oldest date and see if any can be removed.
Review the Dashboards your team has developed. See if any could use improvement or if any key metrics need to be added to regular reporting.
Interview Team Members Using HubSpot
It’s best to move with caution when entering a new HubSpot ecosystem. You don’t always know what your team has tried in the past and the outcomes they’ve received. Before presenting your recommendations, meet with different team members familiar with how HubSpot has been used in the past. Hear what has and hasn’t worked and ask if they have any ideas or suggestions they’ve thought of to improve your use of HubSpot in the future. Is no one else working in HubSpot? Speak with your executive leadership about what they want to see from HubSpot. Make sure your recommendations will align with the executive vision. Or, if their vision is far from HubSpot’s intended use, plan to present educational resources with your recommendations.
Provide Recommendations
Based on your audit, provide recommendations for improving the HubSpot account. This may include suggestions for optimizing the website, improving lead nurturing workflows, and implementing new campaigns.
Auditing an existing HubSpot account requires thoroughly reviewing the account settings, contact database, website performance, Campaigns, Workflows, and reporting and analytics. By following these steps, you can provide valuable insights and recommendations for optimizing the account and improving the business's overall performance.
Ready to Dive Deeper?
Complete our 20-point HubSpot Audit Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all of the bases.
If you’ve uncovered more issues than you expected, it may be time to engage an expert. You can reach out to our team or browse the HubSpot Solutions Directory to find a good for for you.