Big news coming out of HubSpot: HubSpot released FREE CMS tools for CMS Hub.
There are many providers of other solutions out there on the market today, but nothing compares to the power and the features that HubSpot has included in the free tools.
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With most "free" tools coming from various platforms, you expect a certain level of frustration.
However, with HubSpot's latest release, it's been surprisingly really fascinating to see just how in-depth they went when developing the options to play with.
Here's a quick look of how HubSpot highlights the important elements of the free tools:
As you can see, there's a lot that they've included... with only a few small limitations.
Limiting the page count to only 25 pages or having a small HubSpot branding element on the site might feel frustrating. However... it's a free website. It is an easy upgrade if you're not happy with it!
So, how can you capitalize on such an awesome opportunity?
Let's take a look at 11 ways you can leverage these free tools inside HubSpot.
If you are a small business owner, you don't have a ton of time on your hands.
The last thing you want to do is to spend time rolling up your sleeves, getting into code, and trying to figure out how to make stuff work on your website.
And for many people, that actually prevents us from taking action because we see our website as this massive project that we'll get to down the road.
However, with the free CMS tools, you can literally get it set up with just a few clicks, open up the HubSpot Asset Marketplace and download a free theme, and get your entire website up and running today without ever having to touch a line of code or get stuck in muddy, complicated toolsets.
You'll be able to have website pages that talk about your brand and your services and products, blog posts to share news and ideas within your content marketing, and landing pages where you can trade guides, checklists, and other items for contact information on forms in order to generate leads.
Those leads will be added immediately to your free CRM in the background behind the website, and you'll be able to keep track of your leads and prospects easier than ever before.
For a small business who is trying to get their first website up and running, this is exactly where you would want to spend your time.
Sometimes just a simple product page is not enough to share information about your specialty products.
You can utilize the free CMS tools to create an awesome microsite for a specific product that might need to tell a more specific story.
And, perhaps this is just the jumping-off point for you. You may decide later that you want to upgrade to the CMS Hub Starter or Professional.
But this is a great place to get a uniquely branded site that is more robust than a simple page on your website.
One of the biggest trends in the last several years has been a push for individual branding around specific standalone items.
Maybe they don't warrant a large website, or maybe they don't deserve to just be lumped in some sub-level navigation on your website.
Maybe the branding needs to stay separate so it's not easily confused or forgotten.
So what do you do?
With HubSpot Free CMS Tools, you're actually able to create a completely separate website for your new book, your latest podcast, your event, or even your company's conference.
It's a smart approach to group together all of your company's resources into a single source of truth.
There's nothing more frustrating for a prospect who is coming back to your website to find something again, only to not be able to find it!
Also, in many cases, brands might have a website that they're not quite ready to move off of their other platforms like WordPress or Squarespace.
So how do you link up all of your landing pages, blogs, webinar signups, etc. that need to be shared with the world?
With the Free CMS Hub, you'll be able to create a beautiful website that shares all of this information as a standalone Resource Center for your visitors.
And the best part?
As they visit a landing page to download a checklist or free resource you're providing, you'll be able to capture that lead's information from a form and store it inside your CRM.
We've seen many clients create a separate, standalone, branded blog on a separate domain to provide distinction away from the core brand.
This can be utilized in many ways, but perhaps you want to have an "Insights From The CEO" blog, where your leadership team shares what's on their mind.
Perhaps you want to have a "travel blog" highlighting different parts of the world or events that you're participating in.
Maybe you have a non-profit or cause your company is raising awareness for and you need a place to share information, but it's distinct and important enough that it deserves its own branding.
Or, maybe you are constantly sharing news and PR information, and would benefit from having a separate blog that lives in a separate domain, specifically focused on sharing these wins.
If you don't have a knowledge hub or support center on your website yet, this is a perfect way to get started completely for free.
You can create blog posts that are essentially help desk articles.
You can create landing pages that are support requests or ticket submissions.
You can utilize live chat and talk to people in realtime as they sort through issues.
This is a perfect way to dip your toes in and see how providing excellent customer service can help expand your relationships 10-fold with your clients.
Of course, HubSpot Service Hub will do all of this for you and more when you're ready, but this is a great opportunity to test it out and see how it feels.
A common trend that's showing up more and more is the use of an internal website for companies to share information easily with their staff.
You can utilize the free CMS tools to accomplish this for you at no cost and explore the options of housing a company directory and profile information, sharing company updates, and providing ways for employees to submit information via forms to the team.
Now, because these are free tools there are obvious limitations here. For one, this domain would be live and visible to anyone who has the link. You would want to make sure you are unlisting this domain so it wouldn't be indexed by Google.
You also should not share private or sensitive information in this kind of setting because it would be open to anyone unless you upgraded.
However, for a free solution, this would allow you to test the waters, see if it's something that would be usable by the team, and explore a more detailed, paid tool down the road.
In a similar fashion, many companies need to unify the way their sales teams provide information or deliver information to clients and prospects.
In many cases, different salespeople are selling in different ways.
Different salespeople have different kinds of information and don't even share the same resources.
Salesperson A might have a ton of information that they've created or accumulated about products that Salesperson B has no idea it even exists (and could be using it daily!)
You could utilize the free CMS tools here to create an online sales resource center that is available to all of your sales team.
Your salespeople could then all review the same list of one-pagers, product cut sheets, product descriptions, call scripts, content snippets to be copied and pasted into emails, and more.
Now, these are all extremely awesome and powerful ways to unify and streamline production of your sales team that are included directly inside HubSpot Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise, which you would want to explore, most certainly.
You would use Playbooks, Snippets, Templates, Documents, and more to some absolutely amazing things that I can't urge enough to look into.
But again, this is a way to test the waters and see what the experience is like if you are on the fence before making the investment into Sales Hub.
This, also, would be a site that anyone would have access to, so be mindful to take precautions to not share any private or sensitive information, and make sure you go through the measures to unlist this so it's not indexed by search engines.
If you're looking for work, this is an absolute no-brainer.
You need a personal website to act as an online digital resume.
You could use this to share your portfolio of work, blogs about your work history and things you've accomplished, showcase your experience, and more.
The most important thing here is that it truly sets you apart from so many others who simply rely on the tried and true Word Doc to share their resume.
Let the free CMS Tools be a catalyst for your next major move and stand out in a big way, at no cost.
HubSpot is awesome.
We all know that.
But your boss might not.
Also, you might be hesitant to try to make any major moves because if you make an investment into some new tools and it flops, it's going to reflect poorly on you.
With the tools here, that's not going to be the case.
By testing the tools out on your own, you can try new things, get comfortable and confident, and build something for your brand that is live and available to share, so you're not just working in a sandbox environment.
This has career growth and development written all over it
As an agency owner, my heart goes out to others who are in a situation where they are looking for ways to grow their business.
I do a lot of work with coaching and training agencies on how to expand their business and close more deals.
Utilizing the free CMS tools to provide value for clients is absolutely one of the most hot ticket items I have seen in years when it comes to potential.
If you have clients who you're currently working with, you can utilize the free tools to build a website for them at no cost to them.
you could do this in terms of providing value as a means of an upsell, and not even charge them for your time.
What I mean is, talk to your client and say something like this:
"Hey Mr. Client, I have an idea I'd like to run by you. I think by building a better website that tells a better story of your brand, we can bring a lot more customers to your door. But, I don't want to try and sell you on this first. I want to show you my commitment. If it's alright with you, I'd like to actually build a portion of this completely free and then discuss how we can leverage that ongoing."
Boom. You're going to build something quick and awesome, get the conversation flowing, launch it while you're building other assets and running traffic to the site, and then expand into bigger and better services with them... All because you took the initiative to build a trusting relationship.
At the end of the day, the tools here are extremely robust and immensely helpful. The potential for growth and scale with a platform like HubSpot is huge, and by moving your website, or a portion of your brand's presence, over to HubSpot, you're going to set yourself up for tremendous success in the future.
But what if you're in a position where you need more help?
Let me introduce you to the Website Accelerator.
The Website Accelerator is the only program of its kind that helps you create a low-stress, easy-to-manage website that generates customers.
Inside, we're going to guide you through all the ins-and-outs of building a high-converting website that generates results.
And that just scratches the surface!
Check out the Website Accelerator if you're ready to learn how to leverage your HubSpot portal and your website presence once and for all.
You will be thankful you did!
Limited spots available.
We'll see you on the inside.