Integrating HubSpot with Your Existing Systems to Close the Adoption Gap

At Real Inbound, we’ve worked with countless businesses who have invested in HubSpot, only to struggle with fully adopting it across their teams. There’s a common reason for this: many companies treat HubSpot like an isolated tool rather than an integrated part of their entire business system. The result? The HubSpot Adoption Gap.

The HubSpot Adoption Gap is the space between buying HubSpot and getting it to work seamlessly within your business. When systems aren’t integrated, teams feel disconnected, data gets siloed, and the true power of HubSpot goes untapped.

In this article, we’re going to explore how integrating HubSpot with your existing systems—from CRMs to financial tools—can help you close the HubSpot Adoption Gap, drive full adoption across your company, and maximise the value of your investment.

Why Integration is Critical for HubSpot Adoption

Before diving into how to integrate HubSpot with your existing systems, let’s first understand why it’s essential.

HubSpot is an incredibly powerful platform. From marketing automation to CRM, it offers a range of tools that can revolutionise the way your business operates. But even with all its features, HubSpot is just one piece of the puzzle. If it isn’t connected to your other systems—like your sales software, accounting tools, or customer service platforms—you’re only using a fraction of its potential.

Without integration:

• Data is Siloed: When HubSpot operates separately from other systems, your data is fragmented. Your marketing team might have one view of the customer, while your sales team has another. This results in inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and poor decision-making.
• Adoption Drops: If your teams need to switch between multiple systems to access data or complete tasks, they’ll likely avoid using HubSpot altogether. They won’t see the value in it, and adoption will suffer.
• Reporting is Inconsistent: Without integration, you can’t get a complete view of your business. Sales, marketing, and customer service reports will be disconnected, making it difficult to track performance and measure success.

Integrating HubSpot with your existing systems solves all of these problems, ensuring that your teams have access to the right data, in the right place, at the right time. This drives full adoption and helps you close the HubSpot Adoption Gap.

Key Systems to Integrate with HubSpot

Let’s take a look at the key systems you should consider integrating with HubSpot to ensure full adoption across your business.

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

If your company is already using a CRM system before adopting HubSpot, it’s crucial that you integrate the two. A CRM system stores all of your customer data—who they are, how they’ve interacted with your business, and where they are in the sales funnel.

HubSpot comes with its own CRM, but many businesses already use platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or Zoho. The good news is, HubSpot integrates seamlessly with many popular CRM platforms.

Why Integrating Your CRM with HubSpot Matters:

• Centralised Customer Data: When HubSpot and your CRM are integrated, all customer data flows into one central system. Sales, marketing, and customer service teams can access the same information, ensuring a consistent view of the customer journey.
• Improved Sales and Marketing Alignment: By integrating your CRM with HubSpot, your sales and marketing teams can work together more effectively. Marketing can pass qualified leads to sales, and sales can provide feedback to marketing, creating a seamless workflow.
• Better Reporting and Insights: Integrated systems allow you to track customer interactions from start to finish. You can generate reports that show how marketing efforts impact sales, providing valuable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.

2. Financial Systems and Accounting Software

Your finance and accounting systems are essential for tracking revenue, expenses, and profitability. Integrating HubSpot with financial systems like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage can help you gain deeper insights into your financial performance and streamline your operations.

Why This Integration Matters:

• Revenue Tracking: When HubSpot is integrated with your financial systems, you can automatically track revenue generated from marketing campaigns and sales activities. This helps you measure the ROI of your marketing efforts and identify which campaigns are driving the most revenue.
• Automated Invoicing: Integrating HubSpot with accounting software can automate invoicing and billing processes. For example, when a deal is closed in HubSpot, an invoice can be automatically generated and sent to the customer, reducing manual work and errors.
• Improved Financial Reporting: With integration, you can create financial reports that show the direct link between your marketing and sales activities and your financial performance. This gives you a clearer picture of how HubSpot is impacting your bottom line.

3. Email Marketing Platforms

Email marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing leads, building customer relationships, and driving sales. While HubSpot offers robust email marketing features, many companies use other platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or ActiveCampaign.

By integrating HubSpot with your existing email marketing platform, you can ensure that your email marketing efforts are aligned with your broader business goals.

Why Email Marketing Integration is Important:

• Consistent Messaging: When your email marketing platform is integrated with HubSpot, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent across all channels. Whether you’re sending an email campaign, posting on social media, or nurturing leads, your messaging will be aligned.
• Better Segmentation: Integration allows you to segment your email lists based on the data in HubSpot. You can target specific customer groups with personalised emails, increasing engagement and conversions.
• Comprehensive Reporting: With integration, you can track how your email campaigns are contributing to your overall sales and marketing efforts. You’ll be able to see which emails are driving leads, conversions, and revenue, helping you optimise your campaigns.

4. Customer Service Platforms

Providing excellent customer service is essential for customer retention and satisfaction. If your business uses a separate customer service platform—like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom—it’s critical to integrate it with HubSpot.

Why Integrating Customer Service Platforms with HubSpot is Key:

• Unified Customer View: When your customer service platform is integrated with HubSpot, your support team can access all customer interactions in one place. Whether a customer reached out via email, chat, or phone, your support agents will have the full context, enabling them to provide better service.
• Seamless Ticketing System: HubSpot’s Service Hub allows you to create a seamless ticketing system, but when integrated with external service platforms, it becomes even more powerful. Tickets can be automatically logged in HubSpot, and customer service agents can track resolution times and satisfaction levels.
• Improved Customer Retention: When your customer service platform is integrated with HubSpot, you can track how customer service impacts customer retention. For example, you can see how quickly issues are resolved, how satisfied customers are, and how likely they are to renew or purchase again.

5. E-commerce Platforms

If you run an e-commerce business, integrating HubSpot with your e-commerce platform—such as Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento—can have a huge impact on your ability to drive sales and improve customer experience.

Why E-commerce Integration is a Must:

• Automated Customer Tracking: When your e-commerce platform is integrated with HubSpot, you can track customer behaviour across your website and store. For example, you can see which products a customer has viewed, added to their cart, or purchased, giving you valuable insights into their preferences and buying habits.
• Personalised Marketing: With integration, you can use HubSpot’s automation tools to send personalised emails based on customer behaviour. For example, you can send abandoned cart reminders, product recommendations, or loyalty rewards, driving repeat purchases.
• Comprehensive Sales Reporting: Integration allows you to track your e-commerce sales within HubSpot. You’ll be able to generate reports that show which marketing efforts are driving the most sales, helping you optimise your strategies.

How to Successfully Integrate HubSpot with Your Existing Systems

Now that we’ve explored the key systems to integrate with HubSpot, let’s talk about how to actually make these integrations happen. At Real Inbound, we’ve seen that successful integration is all about planning, testing, and ongoing optimisation.

Step 1: Identify Key Integration Points

Start by identifying which systems need to be integrated with HubSpot. The systems you choose will depend on your business model and goals. For example, if your focus is on improving customer service, integrating your customer service platform should be a priority. If your goal is to track revenue, integrating financial and CRM systems will be essential.

Pro Tip: Don’t try to integrate everything at once. Focus on the most critical systems first and expand from there.

Step 2: Choose the Right Integration Tools

HubSpot offers a wide range of integration tools, from its built-in integrations to third-party solutions available in the HubSpot App Marketplace. Some common integration tools include:

• Zapier: Zapier is a popular tool that allows you to connect HubSpot with hundreds of other apps, automating workflows between systems.
• PieSync: PieSync allows you to keep customer data in sync across platforms, ensuring that information is up to date in real-time.
• Custom Integrations: If your existing systems don’t have a direct integration with HubSpot, you can build custom integrations using HubSpot’s API.

Pro Tip: Always test integrations on a small scale before rolling them out company-wide to ensure they work as expected.

Step 3: Train Your Team on Integrated Workflows

Integration is only effective if your team knows how to use the integrated systems. Once HubSpot is integrated with your existing systems, take the time to train your team on how to use the new workflows. This ensures that they understand how to access and use the data from different systems within HubSpot.

Step 4: Monitor and Optimise

Integration isn’t a one-time process. As your business evolves, your needs will change, and your integrations will need to be adjusted. Monitor the performance of your integrated systems regularly and optimise as needed. If something isn’t working as expected, don’t hesitate to adjust your integration setup.

Closing the HubSpot Adoption Gap with Integration

Integrating HubSpot with your existing systems isn’t just about making your business more efficient—it’s about driving full adoption across your company. When HubSpot is integrated with the tools your team already uses, it becomes an essential part of their daily workflow, not just another piece of software.

At Real Inbound, we’ve seen firsthand how powerful HubSpot can be when fully integrated with a company’s business systems. It breaks down silos, streamlines processes, and provides a complete view of your customers, making it easier to track performance and drive growth.

Ready to Close the HubSpot Adoption Gap?

If you’re ready to unlock the full potential of HubSpot by integrating it with your existing systems, we’re here to help. Our HubSpot Adoption Gap Framework email series will guide you through every step of the process, from choosing the right integrations to driving full adoption across your company.

Sign up today to receive expert advice and actionable insights straight to your inbox.

[Sign Up Below] for the HubSpot Adoption Gap Framework email series and start integrating HubSpot the right way!