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What to consider 6, 3 and 1 month before your HubSpot renewal date

4 mins read

At different stages in your HubSpot journey, it's possible you're feeling a bit 50-50 on whether you should stick around and renew or if you should jump ship and pick another platform instead. If you're already waving the white flag and admitting defeat, take a look at my considerations below ahead of your HubSpot renewal date.

The considerations can change depending on how long you have left until renewal day. To make it a little easier, I've broken the considerations down into three stages: six months, three months and one month.

6 months - using the platform

If you're six months away from your HubSpot renewal date and you're already thinking about moving on, chances are your frustrations come from not setting up HubSpot properly.

It isn't something you can do in one afternoon either. It takes time to make sure everything is up and running properly - even longer if you've gone all-in on HubSpot with the Marketing, Sales, Service and Operations Hubs. That means all the nifty features and dashboards you need across all Hubs need to be working as you need them.

Before giving up, go back and run through your HubSpot portal to see if you missed anything which causing you a major headache. Otherwise, you'll never use the platform to its potential.

Let's use marketing automation as an example, something you're most likely using HubSpot for as you're trying to learn leads into sales. For this, you need an effective marketing automation strategy built-in HubSpot as it gives you a scalable way to nurture leads and personalise their experiences.

It also means you need to double-check things like whether you've segmented your database, created tailored email workflows and personalised prospect journeys, for example.

Now I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but there's always the chance the excitement of getting HubSpot up and running means you may have cut corners or as you're so busy with a lack of time, you had to rush the process.

rikki speaking about hubspot

That's fine. You can still go back and fix it to get HubSpot working for you. If everything is fine and you're nearing the three-month mark, it's time to switch your focus to reporting.

3 months - Focus on reporting

If everything is set up, you're creating content regularly and you're still frustrated, take a step back and look at your reporting dashboards. Nobody has time for manual reporting. HubSpot constantly evolves to better suit your needs and now, there's an increase in dashboards, widgets and custom reporting across the plans.

That means you can unlock another world of data to harness and track.

With the flexibility of HubSpot, you can track the metrics unique to you. Before your renewal day, spend some time looking back at your progress and campaign reports. This will give you a clear indication of how successful each campaign was and whether it turned out to be a sound investment or not.

Without reporting and looking back through campaign results, you might decide to ditch HubSpot, not knowing your campaigns were actually successful.

1 month - Getting assistance

Getting help to manage your HubSpot or asking others for advice isn't a sign of defeat. If you're doing it all alone, you're reporting accurately and your HubSpot is set up properly, it's not time to use the final month to get the help you need.

Here's a quick rundown of what you should look into:

  • Use the HubSpot Academy: It's constantly evolving and is perfect if you want to get clued up on everything from content and SEO to emails, sales and everything in between.
  • Search for knowledge in the HubSpot Community: Don’t suffer in silence. If you have a burning query and can’t find the answer yourself, search in the HubSpot Community. You can either ask your own questions and get responses or browse through the trending topics
  • The HubSpot Knowledge Base: Want articles and guides you can bookmark and share with the team instead? HubSpot’s Knowledge Base inside the Help Centre features everything from starter guides to in-depth articles
  • Attend a HUG: HubSpot User Groups (HUGs) are free, quarterly meetups. Hosted by a local HubSpot agency partner, they’re designed to help existing users master all things HubSpot strategy and software
  • Work with an Elite partner: Want to learn all things HubSpot and have a team of experts behind you to transform your sales and marketing using HubSpot? Pick the right partner to help you on this journey. Peek through the HubSpot Partner Directory to find your perfect HubSpot agency and get the results you need

Can other platforms serve your needs?

Short answer: Yes. 

using hubspot digital 22 office

But you need to do a lot of research to find out exactly what you need. Here's a quick checklist to help you find a platform suited to you.

  • Value: Find out what you value the most. What do you need in a CMS? Not just from your perspective but for your marketers, developers, your IT team - that's how you'll know it's a worthwhile investment
  • Reporting: Once you know the features you need, think about how you'll do reporting. HubSpot has all of this in one central location, so make sure your alternative makes it just as easy
  • Costs: Always read the small print. Advertised prices are attractive but you might end up paying more with all of the add-ons, plug-ins and licenses you'd need
  • Energy: Do you have the time, resources and brainpower to juggle multiple systems? If you found HubSpot challenging, it's like using a different platform for every unique requirement will be even more of a headache
  • Platform: After whittling down your list, choose your platform. Try a free trial if you can but make sure you only invest when you're 100% confident in your choice

How challenging is the transition?

If you're hellbent on deciding against renewing your HubSpot, whether the transition is a challenge or not doesn't matter. But yes, it can be a pain.

The SEO impact

HubSpot’s topic clusters are great for helping improve your website’s visibility.
When you leave HubSpot, make sure to replicate the content strategy and
SEO tools.

This means you’ll need to invest budget-wise, but also in time and
staff education. Additionally, implement 301 redirects across all links on your
website so visitors don’t land on a dead page.

Replicating HubSpot

  • Deal with leads and segment your lists
  • Manage and implement your content strategy to make conversion more likelyu
  • Organise your prospects effectively to close them
  • Automate your marketing
  • Keep marketing, sales and service aligned
  • Keep your website mobile-optimised

Recreate the UX and UI

Using HubSpot means your website will have been designed and coded natively to HubSpot. Make sure to find a reliable developer who can recreate your website on another hosting company. Not just from a design perspective but also functionality so it doesn’t confuse your audience. Simple copying and pasting won’t work.

Move your data and content

HubSpot is helpful when it comes to transitioning your data to a new host. Changing designs is exclusive to HubSpot so if you move away, you’ll need to recreate all of your HubSpot-specific elements, such as your landing pages, CTAs and thank you pages.

Keep sales and marketing aligned

HubSpot makes it easy for marketers to create content sales teams can use. It also helps businesses on all fronts - sales, marketing and service. When you find a HubSpot alternative, you won’t find another platform that can easily highlight where a lead has come from, who’s contacted them and how to nurture them.

Make sure you have an alternative method lined up to keep your team focused on the goal.

Moving away from HubSpot means you'll miss out on unmissable insights. Before your renewal date, make sure to try everything I mentioned in this blog - even if it means getting some assistance to help you steer the ship.

There could be hundreds of reasons you don't want to renew your HubSpot subscription. But before you tap out, we have a playbook filled with strategies to help you make the most of the platform.

Reach the next level with HubSpot using our playbook

In the HubSpot renewal playbook, there's everything from taking advantage of all the training opportunities on offer, whether other alternatives are better suited to you, preparing to leave HubSpot and many more plays tailored to this situation you're in.

If you want to get your hands on these handy plays, make sure to hit the button below to gain access today.