For over 30 years, Frontline IT Consultancy has delivered IT solutions for businesses. The company focuses on Cloud Hosting, Cyber Security, and ERP Solutions via SAP Business One. The company also provides bespoke software development services.

The Challenge for Frontline

Frontline was looking for a new prospecting CRM and marketing automation system to record and track sales interactions. The company had an existing CRM system but could not follow and monitor prospects deeply.

The employees were not using the prospecting system that was in place. Because the data had been input incorrectly, the company could only search for users by contact name instead of the company name.

The system was purely holding contact data. There were no automation or marketing elements to it. Consequently, the sales team could not use the system as it had no way to monitor or track interactions.

When Emma Robinson, Head of Marketing, started at Frontline, she wanted to implement an automated marketing system. Emma was happy for the new system to be purely a marketing tool.

However, the sales team was also keen on getting a new CRM system and wanted to find something that could manage to do everything all in one place. It would be more cost-effective and give efficiencies to the business. HubSpot was the answer.

The Solution by PYB

Frontline wanted to migrate information from the old system to HubSpot and needed help to manage this implementation. Frontline also wanted a company to handle the training aspects of HubSpot and provide complete onboarding services.

The company decided to input new data into HubSpot instead of transferring the old bad data. The onboarding was a high cost to the business, so the partner had to be 100% capable. It would help Frontline to carry on with its core business.

HubSpot recommended Plus Your Business (PYB) as an onboarding partner. Initially, there was a meeting with Martin. This meeting allowed Frontline to explain what they wanted to do, and Martin advised on how HubSpot could help them.

PYB put a schedule, quotation and plan in place. Frontline requested further details, and PYB responded quickly with further details. Although the cost came from the marketing budget, this extra information helped justify the expense to the board.

There was lots of reassurance by PYB and questions asked by Emma and the Head of Sales at the time. Martin always returned with the required information and helped liaise with a separate migration company from a technical standpoint.

Frontline’s customers' information was in the database, and the Chief Information Security Officer wanted to check the migration partner had relevant security accreditations. Frontline’s security team sent a security questionnaire for completion.

Once security clearance was approved, Emma worked closely with Elisa from PYB. This collaboration was throughout the onboarding process to ensure the data fields and workflows were correct.

There was an entire training session with the sales team and a couple of 1-to-1 training sessions. Once Frontline was using the system, minor issues would crop up. PYB would use small 30-minute sessions to help with these areas.

Emma said, “The service from PYB was great. Elisa would explain things in writing, but she would also send a video demo.” The visual videos helped to reinforce the message and made using HubSpot easier.

On top of this, if Frontline asked a question and PYB did not have the answer. Elisa would check with the HubSpot team and respond with the solution as soon as possible. This comprehensive service helped to provide valuable support.

The Results

Because initially, the company had been putting the wrong information into the wrong fields. It was hard to generate any meaningful reports. HubSpot has given Frontline access to analytics and unlimited reporting options.

In the old system, there was the capability to upgrade and gain access to automated marketing emails. However, there was nobody in the team who was able to manage this. Frontline had, therefore, decided not to use this function.

Now with the HubSpot platform, the company can:

• Send regular customer and prospecting marketing emails
• Track open rates and click-through rates
• Tailor the message to different groups via A/B testing.

The industry standard for IT is around an 18%-20% open rate. Frontline is hitting and many times are exceeding these figures. These statistics demonstrate that the emails are getting through to people’s inboxes.

Test emails, as proofs, are quickly sent around the team. This circulation of proofs is a speedy process by sharing a link with a team member. HubSpot generally is highly user-friendly, with many “drag and drop” functions.

Frontline has found that HubSpot is a more efficient way to communicate out from the business. It helps with the digital marketing strategy because the monitoring capabilities and data quality are exceptional.

Marketing can now tell:

• if an email has bounced
• whether a person has opened an email
• how many times has somebody opened an email

Once a visitor clicks through to the website, you have cookies for them. The cookies help you track your future visits to the site. You can assign scores to users. You can create a lead score system to garner more data.

This lead score system can register whenever somebody opens an email or brochure or clicks on the website. You could attribute 5 or 10 points for this. You can also set up automatic alerts for the Sales team for promising leads.

One of the most potent things about HubSpot for sales and marketing is that there are many automated processes. It helps to save time, and in Frontline’s case, it is invaluable as they have a small, busy team.

The team can tag each other, reducing the number of emails sent via Outlook. There is also a tracking option for these tagged emails. You can use @ with the team member's name. The person immediately knows they need to do something.

The sales team have synched their Outlook inboxes to HubSpot. Any emails sent to contacts within HubSpot, even if you are not in HubSpot, will get logged. You can still access the record and see the emails if a team member is off on holiday or ill.

The sales team can use HubSpot to create templates and sequences for emails. Also, the marketing team can use the platform to send a set series of emails that go to a specific contact.

The process for this is also straightforward. You only need to create a template in the system and personalise it for the person. There is no other work required apart from the follow-up to the replies.

Frontline has also used the free live Chat function from HubSpot for their new website. You can use the Chatbot or synch it to a person’s inbox. It is proving to be a great way to get leads through to the sales team.

For reporting purposes, there is a Dashboard on HubSpot that you can use to create widgets. This section helps the company tailor what they want people to see. From a management perspective, it helps to have a detailed oversight of employees' work.

Emma can set her Dashboard up to show team activities by date. For example, there is a feed on her Dashboard for the business development manager (BDM). Emma can see the BDM activities on HubSpot, such as emails, phone calls, and notes.

It saves managers from asking team members what they do in their daily work. It is all available on the dashboard, and you can adjust it to how you want. You can also set it for a specific period, such as 30 days. It can show areas such as:

• The number of emails a team member has sent out
• How many tasks did a team member make in HubSpot
• How many calls have they made
• The number of meetings booked

HubSpot has helped Frontline create a Digital Marketing strategy. Also, as the business continues to grow, the company plans on using the lead scoring system more to create more relevant and topical communications for existing customers.