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Some Recent Thoughts...
Juicy Tidbits Without the "Tech Speak"
A compilation of ramblings about everything from HubSpot CMS development to data architecture, integrations and all the tech stuff you never knew you needed to know.
memeify the blog!
Blogs Listing - UPDATE 2024 (Jordan)
JCPenny’s is dead, and so are discount HubSpot Partner services
JCPenny's is dead and now we're doing away with discount HubSpot CMS Development.
HubSpot Architects + HubSpot Developers = PERFECT Custom HubSpot Integrations
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect combination for the success of your HubSpot integration. Here's why:
The Do’s and Don’ts of HubSpot Developer Whitelabeling
HubSpot CMS developer white-labeling can be a great way to bring in top talent without having to pay a full salary - but here are the do's and don'ts.
It’s over… a HubSpot CMS developer’s “dear John” letter to WordPress
As a finally-full-time HubSpot CMS developer, this is our "dear John" breakup letter with WordPress.
5 regrets you’ll have paying for a Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline.
Considering cheaping out with a WordPress website over HubSpot CMS? Here are 5 regets you'll have paying for a WordPress website.
Scaling Organizations Need to Stop Buying HubSpot Marketplace Themes
Here's why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Ethical Outsourcing: Tips for White labeling HubSpot CMS Developers
Here's what you need to know about white labeling HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors for ethical outsourcing.
Your mom doesn’t work here - an Open Letter to HubSpot CMS Developers
This is an open letter to HubSpot CMS Developers everywhere: clean. up. your. mess.
BIGGEST Mistakes when Designing a Knowledge Base in HubSpot CMS
We all make mistakes, but don't make these BIG mistakes when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
![\"jcpenny\"](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/BLOG%20Images/jcpenny.jpg\")
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
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“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
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\n
One of the best things about deckerdevs is that we’re unapologetically who we are.
\nNicholas doesn’t like using capital letters.
\nWill breaks the hard news on HubSpot architecture that no one else will say.
\nErica knows how to set boundaries with clients and is a stickler for delivering on deadline.
\nAmber writes tell-it-like-it-is content that is sometimes controversial.
\nJordan creates hilarious graphics for us.
\nOur mascot is a Penguin that Nicholas fondly named hotdog (no caps).
\nJessica is a numbers stickler, balancing sustainable margins so we can price ourselves accordingly.
\n\n
Our value comes in our talent *and* how uniquely ourselves we all are. When people refer you to us, it’s because we do the hard things that no one else can or is willing to do. You pay a premium for that. Do you know why? Because we understand that there’s a learning curve and discovery period to the impossible goals that you set before us. It’s not that we don’t have the talent and drive to get things done, we just take on a lot of jobs that no one else will do or that we’re extremely effective at, because we’ve trained and studied and have the right amount of experience to make that happen.
\n\n
That doesn’t come cheap.
\n\n
If you want cheap, outsource it to a cheap developer, get a finalized product that seems to look okay (that is, if your developer doesn’t get in over their head and ghost you) that you later realize is coded poorly and handicaps you long term…
\n\n
If that’s how you want to go, we’ll see you in a few months.
\n\n
We see this time and time again, it’s not just something we say because we have big egos.
\nFor our CFO and for our development team and the business in general, there’s nothing worse than hearing that a client doesn’t want to pay what it will cost to get the job done right. So, we’re laying down the law, telling it like it is and creating boundaries surrounding what we won’t do when it comes to the prices we charge for the services that we execute.
\n\n
Department stores are dead for a reason. Here’s why we don’t discount like they do:
\n\n
We know exactly what it's going to take to make this happen.
\n\n
I’m going to ask you a few questions, and they’re may seem offensive, but I really genuinely want you to read them anyway:
\n\n
Do you do web development professionally?
\nHave you ever completed a custom resource center?
\nHave you ever worked on a brand new application integration where the client didn’t really know what data they needed imported over or didn’t consider that a 2-way data exchange was even possible?
\n\n
We charge what we charge because that’s what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
\nWe charge what we charge because a new integration will inevitably run into roadblocks or hurdles that we have to spend extra time on.
\nWe charge what we charge because we have acquired the talent to make the things that every other developer told you can’t be done actually possible.
\n\n
In the past, we’ve been the type of company that wants to help businesses reach their goals, and we’re still that company. But over time, we’ve been burned, we’ve gotten into situations where we tried to price the best case scenario and gone so grossly over scope that we told ourselves - we’re not going to do this again.
\nWe’ve spent enough time in the trenches to know what your project is going to cost us from a time perspective, and we charge accordingly. No discounts. No compromises. We’re not going to compromise on the work we’re doing, so don’t try to get us to compromise on how we’re being compensated for that work.
\n\n
We're the CarMax of HubSpot development.
\n
I mean, we’re not. But we kinda are.
\n
CarMax is the self proclaimed “disruptor of the automotive” industry: “As the original disruptor of the automotive industry, our “no-haggle” prices transformed car buying and selling from a stressful, dreaded event into the honest, straightforward experience all people deserve.”
\n\n
CarMax charges what they charge for their vehicles. They have a flat fee to close. They make their pricing transparent and there’s no ridiculous back and forth - the price is what it is. That’s how you should consider our transactions. Our pricing isn’t negotiable. We didn’t artificially inflate your proposal or quote just so that we could negotiate our way to the ideal price.
\n\n
Like CarMax, we provide an honest, straightforward experience that our clients deserve.
\nWe understand that some old school business people like to chase the deal… but there’s a gameshow for that and we’re here to do great work and get paid what we deserve to do it.
\n\n
That’s the model.
\nThere’s no catch.
\nThere aren’t any tactics.
\n\n
We’re just honest people doing really great work for a price that we have already predetermined to be the best value we can offer. So don’t haggle us. We don’t devalue the products and services that you sell to your clients and customers - don’t ask us to do that either.
\n\n
We price your job the way we do because we have what it takes to get it done, and we will stop at nothing to do that. So if the mantra “you get what you pay for” is even a little bit true - when it comes to applications and websites that are at the heart of your business, don’t compromise. Because you’ll get in value what you put out in capital.
\n\n
We want to want to work with you.
\n\n
There’s nothing worse than discounting a job only to watch your margin be annihilated when the scenario that you knew was coming actually showed up. All of a sudden, you’re 30 hours over scope and you discounted your quote to boot - so your desire to complete this work or any other work with this client is dwindling, fast.
\n\n
Of course you still do it. You make it work, you make it happen.
\n\n
But when you get done? You’re left with that bad taste in your mouth and all the inevitable regrets that follow as your intuition is poking you right in the gut, “See? I told you so.”
\n\n
It is not easy to be the stickler in business.
\nWe’ve always considered ourselves people pleasers.
\nBut we also have to establish the important boundaries that make what we do sustainable. Like any other business, we want to do great work for our clients on an ongoing basis with no regrets. We want to finish a job and ask you, “Okay! What are we doing next?”
\n\n
We want to be your trusted resource and guide you in all your technology decisions relative to your website, business applications and HubSpot. But we can’t build that relationship long term when you don’t value us for what we bring to the table and what we have to charge to make the relationship sustainable for us. We are fiercely loyal and devoted to our clients, but we will no longer compromise ourselves for those unwilling to value what we do.
\n\n
Read more about our values and ethos
\n\n
We had to put it out there, because we need people to understand that the concept of “you get what you pay for” spans every industry and business. You cannot expect a developer to invest in you if you don’t invest in them. If you need us to work with your budget, the best way to do that is to break your projects down into phases and build in a regular development budget that is sustainable for you so that you can adopt a continuous improvement model in your website and other technology consulting related to your organization.
\n\n
Your website, the HubSpot platform and the technology that work together to make your business move like a well-oiled machine from a revenue perspective require persistent maintenance. They require you to analyze their performance, make tweaks, update processes, establish better reporting and really hone in on the minute details of how your organization’s tools work together to produce results.
\n\n
By short-changing any aspect of your technology - from HubSpot implementation to website development and tech stack, you’re only handicapping your team’s ability to succeed. Invest in a partner that can serve you in the long term by establishing a consistent budget for ROI that you can easily measure.
\n\n
We want to work with you.
\nWe want to help you with your technology in the long term.
\nWe want to make your goals into realities.
\nBut we will not discount.
\n\n
You needed to know that.
\nWe are not a department store.
\nWe are the people with the tools that can get you to where you need to go.
\nInvest in us like you understand how important it is to get there.
\n
“We are not a department store. We don’t inflate our prices before a ‘big sale’ just to discount them and make people feel like they’re getting a deal.” - Jessica Decker.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
Related: The Very Real Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation
\n![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/know%20my%20calculus-jpg-2.jpeg\")
Your tech stack is probably a little… bloated to say the least. The average tech stack for most small businesses with fewer than 500 employees is 172 apps, according to Zylo’s 2023 Saas Management Index. For mid-market companies up to 2000 employees? 291. The amount of data being collected by these apps, reporting dashboards, and tools and features are largely underutilized and don’t necessarily talk to one another in a way that makes sense for the workflow inside your organization at large.
The logical next step when this happens is to hire a developer to build a custom integration to bridge your data so that you can reduce duplicate data entry and have more visibility inside the different applications that your organization uses to collect and analyze your data. Makes sense, right?
While you might be considering reaching out to a HubSpot Development Partner to help you integrate a major line of business or enterprise application with your HubSpot platform, we have some news for you:
You shouldn’t complete any custom HubSpot integration without a HubSpot Developer AND a HubSpot Architect.
What’s a HubSpot Architect?
\nA HubSpot Architect is a technical strategist that digs into your business processes, your tech stack, your reporting and your goals to come up with the perfect configuration of integration, data reporting and tools to help you make more educated business decisions that will help you deliver on your goals.
\n
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect pairing to deliver you the most impactful custom HubSpot integration. In fact, we’re willing to say that including a HubSpot Architect in your HubSpot integration is a complete game changer across the board … and here’s why:
More insight into the flow of your data.
\n
The right HubSpot Architect will use data mapping tools to help understand how the data inside your organization flows. They’ll dig into your individual systems from sales to marketing and service and export and import data to really determine - how are your tools speaking to one another right now? He or she will dig deep into your tech stack to really understand - how is data flowing? Where are there redundancies in features across applications? What is the total budget spend for the tech stack? How can this be consolidated or reduced?
Customers so often approach us thinking they know exactly what data they need moved from a business application into HubSpot. We’ll hear things like, “Well, accounting just wants to be able to attribute the revenue.” Or “Marketing needs to better understand the ROI of this campaign.”
But less often do we see really comprehensive strategic planning happening with application integrations. And a HubSpot Architect? They're here to do all of that for you - and more.
By executing actual discovery on your full tech stack, the way your data moves and the goals you’re trying to reach in HubSpot, a HubSpot Architect may make some recommendations that you didn’t even consider when it comes to integrated reporting, analytics and data mapping. And if they’re really good at what they do? The discovery process will probably completely transform the way you use HubSpot, look at analytics and data reporting, and make decisions inside your organization.
It avoids costly delays.
\n\n
Quite often, when we allow the client to be in charge of determining what data they want to move over to HubSpot, we end up in integration development delays. What one individual thought was the important integration ends up becoming a rabbit hole of discussion for additional data integration with sometimes completely erroneous data that hasn’t been adequately planned or mapped within the tools and capabilities of HubSpot.
\n
What if, for example, you have a big goal that you really want to achieve, and by using a different feature that’s inside a higher tier of the HubSpot Platform you can achieve that and more? You might not even be aware that this is something HubSpot is capable of, or how big of a game changer it could be towards your data and goals to unlock that feature with your integration.
By enlisting the help of a HubSpot Architect, you map it all out before you even start the conversation of how an integration will be built. It’s strategic movement, skilled planning and it’s a real game changer for how efficiently we can get it done and how happy you’ll be with the result.
You’ll architect a proactive integration strategy… for the long term.
\n
What’s your goal? More insight into your sales pipeline? Understanding the most successful marketing campaigns? Determining your best customers, your highest performing account reps or the products that really move inside your business? Any goal is attainable when you get proactive about how your data moves through your applications and HubSpot.
I don’t know how many different ways I can say the exact same thing, but sometimes repetition is needed. If you don’t have an unbiased party that really understands HubSpot and its features and tools digging into your data and seeing how it fits together like a puzzle, you're likely missing opportunities. Once you put the time in (and let us do the same) to dig into what you really need and what you don’t need, we can eliminate the noise and proactively plan. The data that you thought needed to move through HubSpot might be completely different than what you envisioned. But you won’t know until you complete an integration and tech stack audit.
Listen - We can build simple integrations no problem. All day long. You wanna see a piece of data inside HubSpot? Sure, we can do that. Think you know exactly what you want? Tell us what to do, boss. We have no issues taking direction. But maybe you haven’t thought of everything. Maybe a simple data mapping and discovery by a HubSpot Architect can not only help you reach goals that you’ve been trying to reach, but goals that you haven’t even set yet because you didn’t know how to map them out?
The pairing of a gifted HubSpot Developer and HubSpot Architect are what dreams are made of when it comes to a custom HubSpot integration.
\n
What dreams can we make come true for you?
\n
\n
","rss_summary":"
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
Related: The Very Real Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation
\nYour tech stack is probably a little… bloated to say the least. The average tech stack for most small businesses with fewer than 500 employees is 172 apps, according to Zylo’s 2023 Saas Management Index. For mid-market companies up to 2000 employees? 291. The amount of data being collected by these apps, reporting dashboards, and tools and features are largely underutilized and don’t necessarily talk to one another in a way that makes sense for the workflow inside your organization at large.
The logical next step when this happens is to hire a developer to build a custom integration to bridge your data so that you can reduce duplicate data entry and have more visibility inside the different applications that your organization uses to collect and analyze your data. Makes sense, right?
While you might be considering reaching out to a HubSpot Development Partner to help you integrate a major line of business or enterprise application with your HubSpot platform, we have some news for you:
You shouldn’t complete any custom HubSpot integration without a HubSpot Developer AND a HubSpot Architect.
What’s a HubSpot Architect?
\nA HubSpot Architect is a technical strategist that digs into your business processes, your tech stack, your reporting and your goals to come up with the perfect configuration of integration, data reporting and tools to help you make more educated business decisions that will help you deliver on your goals.
\n
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect pairing to deliver you the most impactful custom HubSpot integration. In fact, we’re willing to say that including a HubSpot Architect in your HubSpot integration is a complete game changer across the board … and here’s why:
More insight into the flow of your data.
\n
The right HubSpot Architect will use data mapping tools to help understand how the data inside your organization flows. They’ll dig into your individual systems from sales to marketing and service and export and import data to really determine - how are your tools speaking to one another right now? He or she will dig deep into your tech stack to really understand - how is data flowing? Where are there redundancies in features across applications? What is the total budget spend for the tech stack? How can this be consolidated or reduced?
Customers so often approach us thinking they know exactly what data they need moved from a business application into HubSpot. We’ll hear things like, “Well, accounting just wants to be able to attribute the revenue.” Or “Marketing needs to better understand the ROI of this campaign.”
But less often do we see really comprehensive strategic planning happening with application integrations. And a HubSpot Architect? They're here to do all of that for you - and more.
By executing actual discovery on your full tech stack, the way your data moves and the goals you’re trying to reach in HubSpot, a HubSpot Architect may make some recommendations that you didn’t even consider when it comes to integrated reporting, analytics and data mapping. And if they’re really good at what they do? The discovery process will probably completely transform the way you use HubSpot, look at analytics and data reporting, and make decisions inside your organization.
It avoids costly delays.
\n\n
Quite often, when we allow the client to be in charge of determining what data they want to move over to HubSpot, we end up in integration development delays. What one individual thought was the important integration ends up becoming a rabbit hole of discussion for additional data integration with sometimes completely erroneous data that hasn’t been adequately planned or mapped within the tools and capabilities of HubSpot.
\n
What if, for example, you have a big goal that you really want to achieve, and by using a different feature that’s inside a higher tier of the HubSpot Platform you can achieve that and more? You might not even be aware that this is something HubSpot is capable of, or how big of a game changer it could be towards your data and goals to unlock that feature with your integration.
By enlisting the help of a HubSpot Architect, you map it all out before you even start the conversation of how an integration will be built. It’s strategic movement, skilled planning and it’s a real game changer for how efficiently we can get it done and how happy you’ll be with the result.
You’ll architect a proactive integration strategy… for the long term.
\n
What’s your goal? More insight into your sales pipeline? Understanding the most successful marketing campaigns? Determining your best customers, your highest performing account reps or the products that really move inside your business? Any goal is attainable when you get proactive about how your data moves through your applications and HubSpot.
I don’t know how many different ways I can say the exact same thing, but sometimes repetition is needed. If you don’t have an unbiased party that really understands HubSpot and its features and tools digging into your data and seeing how it fits together like a puzzle, you're likely missing opportunities. Once you put the time in (and let us do the same) to dig into what you really need and what you don’t need, we can eliminate the noise and proactively plan. The data that you thought needed to move through HubSpot might be completely different than what you envisioned. But you won’t know until you complete an integration and tech stack audit.
Listen - We can build simple integrations no problem. All day long. You wanna see a piece of data inside HubSpot? Sure, we can do that. Think you know exactly what you want? Tell us what to do, boss. We have no issues taking direction. But maybe you haven’t thought of everything. Maybe a simple data mapping and discovery by a HubSpot Architect can not only help you reach goals that you’ve been trying to reach, but goals that you haven’t even set yet because you didn’t know how to map them out?
The pairing of a gifted HubSpot Developer and HubSpot Architect are what dreams are made of when it comes to a custom HubSpot integration.
\n
What dreams can we make come true for you?
\n
\n
","tag_ids":[62770442823,77142401624,114397119354],"topic_ids":[62770442823,77142401624,114397119354],"post_summary":"
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
Related: The Very Real Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation
\nYour tech stack is probably a little… bloated to say the least. The average tech stack for most small businesses with fewer than 500 employees is 172 apps, according to Zylo’s 2023 Saas Management Index. For mid-market companies up to 2000 employees? 291. The amount of data being collected by these apps, reporting dashboards, and tools and features are largely underutilized and don’t necessarily talk to one another in a way that makes sense for the workflow inside your organization at large.
The logical next step when this happens is to hire a developer to build a custom integration to bridge your data so that you can reduce duplicate data entry and have more visibility inside the different applications that your organization uses to collect and analyze your data. Makes sense, right?
While you might be considering reaching out to a HubSpot Development Partner to help you integrate a major line of business or enterprise application with your HubSpot platform, we have some news for you:
You shouldn’t complete any custom HubSpot integration without a HubSpot Developer AND a HubSpot Architect.
What’s a HubSpot Architect?
\nA HubSpot Architect is a technical strategist that digs into your business processes, your tech stack, your reporting and your goals to come up with the perfect configuration of integration, data reporting and tools to help you make more educated business decisions that will help you deliver on your goals.
\n
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect pairing to deliver you the most impactful custom HubSpot integration. In fact, we’re willing to say that including a HubSpot Architect in your HubSpot integration is a complete game changer across the board … and here’s why:
More insight into the flow of your data.
\n
The right HubSpot Architect will use data mapping tools to help understand how the data inside your organization flows. They’ll dig into your individual systems from sales to marketing and service and export and import data to really determine - how are your tools speaking to one another right now? He or she will dig deep into your tech stack to really understand - how is data flowing? Where are there redundancies in features across applications? What is the total budget spend for the tech stack? How can this be consolidated or reduced?
Customers so often approach us thinking they know exactly what data they need moved from a business application into HubSpot. We’ll hear things like, “Well, accounting just wants to be able to attribute the revenue.” Or “Marketing needs to better understand the ROI of this campaign.”
But less often do we see really comprehensive strategic planning happening with application integrations. And a HubSpot Architect? They're here to do all of that for you - and more.
By executing actual discovery on your full tech stack, the way your data moves and the goals you’re trying to reach in HubSpot, a HubSpot Architect may make some recommendations that you didn’t even consider when it comes to integrated reporting, analytics and data mapping. And if they’re really good at what they do? The discovery process will probably completely transform the way you use HubSpot, look at analytics and data reporting, and make decisions inside your organization.
It avoids costly delays.
\n\n
Quite often, when we allow the client to be in charge of determining what data they want to move over to HubSpot, we end up in integration development delays. What one individual thought was the important integration ends up becoming a rabbit hole of discussion for additional data integration with sometimes completely erroneous data that hasn’t been adequately planned or mapped within the tools and capabilities of HubSpot.
\n
What if, for example, you have a big goal that you really want to achieve, and by using a different feature that’s inside a higher tier of the HubSpot Platform you can achieve that and more? You might not even be aware that this is something HubSpot is capable of, or how big of a game changer it could be towards your data and goals to unlock that feature with your integration.
By enlisting the help of a HubSpot Architect, you map it all out before you even start the conversation of how an integration will be built. It’s strategic movement, skilled planning and it’s a real game changer for how efficiently we can get it done and how happy you’ll be with the result.
You’ll architect a proactive integration strategy… for the long term.
\n
What’s your goal? More insight into your sales pipeline? Understanding the most successful marketing campaigns? Determining your best customers, your highest performing account reps or the products that really move inside your business? Any goal is attainable when you get proactive about how your data moves through your applications and HubSpot.
I don’t know how many different ways I can say the exact same thing, but sometimes repetition is needed. If you don’t have an unbiased party that really understands HubSpot and its features and tools digging into your data and seeing how it fits together like a puzzle, you're likely missing opportunities. Once you put the time in (and let us do the same) to dig into what you really need and what you don’t need, we can eliminate the noise and proactively plan. The data that you thought needed to move through HubSpot might be completely different than what you envisioned. But you won’t know until you complete an integration and tech stack audit.
Listen - We can build simple integrations no problem. All day long. You wanna see a piece of data inside HubSpot? Sure, we can do that. Think you know exactly what you want? Tell us what to do, boss. We have no issues taking direction. But maybe you haven’t thought of everything. Maybe a simple data mapping and discovery by a HubSpot Architect can not only help you reach goals that you’ve been trying to reach, but goals that you haven’t even set yet because you didn’t know how to map them out?
The pairing of a gifted HubSpot Developer and HubSpot Architect are what dreams are made of when it comes to a custom HubSpot integration.
\n
What dreams can we make come true for you?
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
Related: The Very Real Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation
\nYour tech stack is probably a little… bloated to say the least. The average tech stack for most small businesses with fewer than 500 employees is 172 apps, according to Zylo’s 2023 Saas Management Index. For mid-market companies up to 2000 employees? 291. The amount of data being collected by these apps, reporting dashboards, and tools and features are largely underutilized and don’t necessarily talk to one another in a way that makes sense for the workflow inside your organization at large.
The logical next step when this happens is to hire a developer to build a custom integration to bridge your data so that you can reduce duplicate data entry and have more visibility inside the different applications that your organization uses to collect and analyze your data. Makes sense, right?
While you might be considering reaching out to a HubSpot Development Partner to help you integrate a major line of business or enterprise application with your HubSpot platform, we have some news for you:
You shouldn’t complete any custom HubSpot integration without a HubSpot Developer AND a HubSpot Architect.
What’s a HubSpot Architect?
\nA HubSpot Architect is a technical strategist that digs into your business processes, your tech stack, your reporting and your goals to come up with the perfect configuration of integration, data reporting and tools to help you make more educated business decisions that will help you deliver on your goals.
\n
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect pairing to deliver you the most impactful custom HubSpot integration. In fact, we’re willing to say that including a HubSpot Architect in your HubSpot integration is a complete game changer across the board … and here’s why:
More insight into the flow of your data.
\n
The right HubSpot Architect will use data mapping tools to help understand how the data inside your organization flows. They’ll dig into your individual systems from sales to marketing and service and export and import data to really determine - how are your tools speaking to one another right now? He or she will dig deep into your tech stack to really understand - how is data flowing? Where are there redundancies in features across applications? What is the total budget spend for the tech stack? How can this be consolidated or reduced?
Customers so often approach us thinking they know exactly what data they need moved from a business application into HubSpot. We’ll hear things like, “Well, accounting just wants to be able to attribute the revenue.” Or “Marketing needs to better understand the ROI of this campaign.”
But less often do we see really comprehensive strategic planning happening with application integrations. And a HubSpot Architect? They're here to do all of that for you - and more.
By executing actual discovery on your full tech stack, the way your data moves and the goals you’re trying to reach in HubSpot, a HubSpot Architect may make some recommendations that you didn’t even consider when it comes to integrated reporting, analytics and data mapping. And if they’re really good at what they do? The discovery process will probably completely transform the way you use HubSpot, look at analytics and data reporting, and make decisions inside your organization.
It avoids costly delays.
\n\n
Quite often, when we allow the client to be in charge of determining what data they want to move over to HubSpot, we end up in integration development delays. What one individual thought was the important integration ends up becoming a rabbit hole of discussion for additional data integration with sometimes completely erroneous data that hasn’t been adequately planned or mapped within the tools and capabilities of HubSpot.
\n
What if, for example, you have a big goal that you really want to achieve, and by using a different feature that’s inside a higher tier of the HubSpot Platform you can achieve that and more? You might not even be aware that this is something HubSpot is capable of, or how big of a game changer it could be towards your data and goals to unlock that feature with your integration.
By enlisting the help of a HubSpot Architect, you map it all out before you even start the conversation of how an integration will be built. It’s strategic movement, skilled planning and it’s a real game changer for how efficiently we can get it done and how happy you’ll be with the result.
You’ll architect a proactive integration strategy… for the long term.
\n
What’s your goal? More insight into your sales pipeline? Understanding the most successful marketing campaigns? Determining your best customers, your highest performing account reps or the products that really move inside your business? Any goal is attainable when you get proactive about how your data moves through your applications and HubSpot.
I don’t know how many different ways I can say the exact same thing, but sometimes repetition is needed. If you don’t have an unbiased party that really understands HubSpot and its features and tools digging into your data and seeing how it fits together like a puzzle, you're likely missing opportunities. Once you put the time in (and let us do the same) to dig into what you really need and what you don’t need, we can eliminate the noise and proactively plan. The data that you thought needed to move through HubSpot might be completely different than what you envisioned. But you won’t know until you complete an integration and tech stack audit.
Listen - We can build simple integrations no problem. All day long. You wanna see a piece of data inside HubSpot? Sure, we can do that. Think you know exactly what you want? Tell us what to do, boss. We have no issues taking direction. But maybe you haven’t thought of everything. Maybe a simple data mapping and discovery by a HubSpot Architect can not only help you reach goals that you’ve been trying to reach, but goals that you haven’t even set yet because you didn’t know how to map them out?
The pairing of a gifted HubSpot Developer and HubSpot Architect are what dreams are made of when it comes to a custom HubSpot integration.
\n
What dreams can we make come true for you?
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
Related: The Very Real Cost of a Mishandled HubSpot Implementation
\nYour tech stack is probably a little… bloated to say the least. The average tech stack for most small businesses with fewer than 500 employees is 172 apps, according to Zylo’s 2023 Saas Management Index. For mid-market companies up to 2000 employees? 291. The amount of data being collected by these apps, reporting dashboards, and tools and features are largely underutilized and don’t necessarily talk to one another in a way that makes sense for the workflow inside your organization at large.
The logical next step when this happens is to hire a developer to build a custom integration to bridge your data so that you can reduce duplicate data entry and have more visibility inside the different applications that your organization uses to collect and analyze your data. Makes sense, right?
While you might be considering reaching out to a HubSpot Development Partner to help you integrate a major line of business or enterprise application with your HubSpot platform, we have some news for you:
You shouldn’t complete any custom HubSpot integration without a HubSpot Developer AND a HubSpot Architect.
What’s a HubSpot Architect?
\nA HubSpot Architect is a technical strategist that digs into your business processes, your tech stack, your reporting and your goals to come up with the perfect configuration of integration, data reporting and tools to help you make more educated business decisions that will help you deliver on your goals.
\n
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
HubSpot Architects and HubSpot Developers are the perfect pairing to deliver you the most impactful custom HubSpot integration. In fact, we’re willing to say that including a HubSpot Architect in your HubSpot integration is a complete game changer across the board … and here’s why:
More insight into the flow of your data.
\n
The right HubSpot Architect will use data mapping tools to help understand how the data inside your organization flows. They’ll dig into your individual systems from sales to marketing and service and export and import data to really determine - how are your tools speaking to one another right now? He or she will dig deep into your tech stack to really understand - how is data flowing? Where are there redundancies in features across applications? What is the total budget spend for the tech stack? How can this be consolidated or reduced?
Customers so often approach us thinking they know exactly what data they need moved from a business application into HubSpot. We’ll hear things like, “Well, accounting just wants to be able to attribute the revenue.” Or “Marketing needs to better understand the ROI of this campaign.”
But less often do we see really comprehensive strategic planning happening with application integrations. And a HubSpot Architect? They're here to do all of that for you - and more.
By executing actual discovery on your full tech stack, the way your data moves and the goals you’re trying to reach in HubSpot, a HubSpot Architect may make some recommendations that you didn’t even consider when it comes to integrated reporting, analytics and data mapping. And if they’re really good at what they do? The discovery process will probably completely transform the way you use HubSpot, look at analytics and data reporting, and make decisions inside your organization.
It avoids costly delays.
\n\n
Quite often, when we allow the client to be in charge of determining what data they want to move over to HubSpot, we end up in integration development delays. What one individual thought was the important integration ends up becoming a rabbit hole of discussion for additional data integration with sometimes completely erroneous data that hasn’t been adequately planned or mapped within the tools and capabilities of HubSpot.
\n
What if, for example, you have a big goal that you really want to achieve, and by using a different feature that’s inside a higher tier of the HubSpot Platform you can achieve that and more? You might not even be aware that this is something HubSpot is capable of, or how big of a game changer it could be towards your data and goals to unlock that feature with your integration.
By enlisting the help of a HubSpot Architect, you map it all out before you even start the conversation of how an integration will be built. It’s strategic movement, skilled planning and it’s a real game changer for how efficiently we can get it done and how happy you’ll be with the result.
You’ll architect a proactive integration strategy… for the long term.
\n
What’s your goal? More insight into your sales pipeline? Understanding the most successful marketing campaigns? Determining your best customers, your highest performing account reps or the products that really move inside your business? Any goal is attainable when you get proactive about how your data moves through your applications and HubSpot.
I don’t know how many different ways I can say the exact same thing, but sometimes repetition is needed. If you don’t have an unbiased party that really understands HubSpot and its features and tools digging into your data and seeing how it fits together like a puzzle, you're likely missing opportunities. Once you put the time in (and let us do the same) to dig into what you really need and what you don’t need, we can eliminate the noise and proactively plan. The data that you thought needed to move through HubSpot might be completely different than what you envisioned. But you won’t know until you complete an integration and tech stack audit.
Listen - We can build simple integrations no problem. All day long. You wanna see a piece of data inside HubSpot? Sure, we can do that. Think you know exactly what you want? Tell us what to do, boss. We have no issues taking direction. But maybe you haven’t thought of everything. Maybe a simple data mapping and discovery by a HubSpot Architect can not only help you reach goals that you’ve been trying to reach, but goals that you haven’t even set yet because you didn’t know how to map them out?
The pairing of a gifted HubSpot Developer and HubSpot Architect are what dreams are made of when it comes to a custom HubSpot integration.
\n
What dreams can we make come true for you?
\n
\n
","rssSummary":"
We’ve talked about love stories before, most recently in our Dear John break up letter with WordPress, but this is a different sort of coupling. We spend a lot of our time working with HubSpot sales reps and client prospects, trying to better understand their tech stack and determine what’s important when it comes to integrating their existing software with HubSpot. Bringing on any new software is daunting and can be disruptive to workflow, impact efficiency and even impact employee happiness, resulting in increased turnover. By vetting HubSpot in advance and discussing how native and custom integrations can help your existing applications work with the HubSpot platform, you can better really change how you look at your data analytics.
\n
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/image-png-3.png\")
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
If you don’t let your developer speak to your clients directly, you’re doing your agency and the client a disservice.
Believe me, I get it. King of the castle, keeper of the keys - maintaining a singular contact point can be super valuable when it comes to making things easy for the client. But you know that song?
“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
It’s a true statement. We find our most successful white-label relationships happen with agencies that trust us to speak to the client directly. You’d be surprised what we can pick out of a conversation - symptoms of poorly configured reporting, optimization opportunities inside HubSpot portals, integration opportunities, basic department workflow issues with applications, opportunities for integrated data analytics - the sky is the limit. But when a partner that doesn’t have the appropriate technology savvy to explain solutions or offer chances for developers and architects to dig deeply into a client’s tech stack and HubSpot portal? There’s a ton of missed opportunity.
Here’s a little insight on the best way we’ve found for agencies to work with a HubSpot CMS developer in a white-label capacity and how being more flexible on how you work with your white-label developer can actually make you much more money.
Indicate where the needs are, but leave space for more.
\n
So many agencies come to us seeking one time development or integration work, but stop short of understanding that they should really let our developers and architects take a look under the hood of their client’s HubSpot portal and website in a more in-depth way.
We don’t mind being told exactly what needs to be done - it’s often easier to work with a HubSpot-savvy agency that really understands a client’s workflow process and can cut some of the preliminary discussions by providing a lot of that information beforehand. When we’re allowed to really dig in and get strategic, though? That’s where the magic happens.
When you leave the needs and budget parameters so closed with a client, you miss opportunities for both you and the client to benefit from a deeper dive. Let your client know that you’re going to have your development team do a full analysis and come back with a comprehensive list of potential improvements and spaces that can be optimized to best situate them for success. There may be a better way to configure their database or resource center or configure their reporting that they haven’t even considered that an agency that isn’t technically focused may not have seen.
Don’t gatekeep.
\n
This is easily the most frustrating part of taking on white-label work:
“Well, explain this to me in more detail so I can explain it to them.”
We’ve played telephone plenty, but odds are high you’re not going to be able to explain it as well as we will, you might leave out some important details, or you won’t be able to answer the follow-on questions adequately. Rather than gatekeeping or playing telephone here - lets all sit down and have a chat together.
When you gatekeep the client, you might not know what questions to ask, where you can identify processes and other issues inside their HubSpot portal or how you might be able to empower their website beyond the basics of what your agency is good at.
There’s always a way to put agreements and best practices standards in place for how you wish for us to interact with your clients or compensation agreements that we can work out when we quote and upsell strategic technology to your client.
Agree on compensation structures that work for everyone.
\n
One time we discovered that an agency was marking our labor up by 300%.
We didn’t work with that agency again. Maybe that’s not good business, but for us - we like long term, sustainable relationships, and something about that felt… unethical. While we want to help HubSpot Partner agencies out with whitelabel HubSpot CMS development, it needs to make sense for us, financially and for our growth. Something that added insult to injury? At the same time, that agency was also requiring us to work under their company e-mail inside the portal, meaning that the partner got Managed Credit in HubSpot. While some of you may not realize what that means - for us it means that we have to work harder somewhere else to get our Managed Credit up enough to maintain an existing or reach a new tier.
If we don’t adequately benefit from the work we’re doing, it makes us less incentivized to do that kind of work, which brings me to my next point…
Related: Ethical Outsourcing Tips for HubSpot CMS Developer Whitelabeling
\n
True white-label services are going to start costing more money.
\n
It’s not that we don’t love our agency clients, but we’re a business first. As such? We have to do the work that we love while earning money and continuing to tier as a HubSpot Partner to earn the perks that come with that.
Our Agency Partnerships are important to us, but we can only continue them in the way that’s most sustainable for us. We will no longer be able to work in a portal under an agency’s e-mail domain and will expect to share Managed Credit for the work that we do. In doing this we seek to even the playing field, make things more fair, and get credit for the work that we’re doing to show the world - and our other prospects, what we’re capable of.
If you’re a HubSpot client that’s reading this and not an agency, we hope that you do your diligence to understand if the relationship between the developer and the agency that you’re working with is fair and how working with that developer more directly will help you supercharge your technology strategy.
If you’re a HubSport Partner agency that’s reading this and you’re not getting the most out of your whitelabel partner, the points above might be why. Take the time to really analyze the relationship you have with your whitelabel HubSpot CMS developer and determine if they’re benefitting as much as you and where there could be gaps in communication with the client that more direct contact can fill.
At the end of the day, we’re all here for the success of the client and to build incredible marketing and lead generation machines that move forward the missions of our clients. Let’s do that sustainably.
\n
We talk a lot about strategic development services in our marketing. For our long term clients, it’s a critical element of their overall growth strategy. For us, what starts as a simple website module fix or a HubSpot integration quickly evolves into full technology planning, a new website, tweaking a resource center, optimizing page load speeds, sifting through reporting optimization in HubSpot and more. Making HubSpot work for our clients is something we literally geek out on every day. However, when we do this work through agencies - it can become a little convoluted and a client might not necessarily get the full breadth of services available to them.
It’s extremely important for agencies that white-label their HubSpot development talent to make sure they really have the expertise needed to consult fully when it comes to an organization’s technology. Without a full understanding of the opportunity for data integrations, the intricacies of their workflows and the struggles they face on a day to day basis and how you can optimize their technology to truly fix those struggles - how can you call yourself a Partner?
HubSpot developer white-labeling is a service that we’re struggling with increasingly, depending on which agencies we work with. Here’s the long and short of it (here we go with our bold claims):
\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/breakup%20copy-jpg.jpeg\")
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now. 
\n","rss_body":"
\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
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\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
\n
So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
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\n
\n
Breakups are the pits, aren’t they? But outgrowing something (or someone) you love happens all the time. Needs change, people grow apart and what served someone well for so long just doesn’t get the job done any longer. This is how we’ve been feeling about WordPress for quite some time. I’ve been teetering on the edge of dropping WordPress as a platform for over a year, but hadn’t quite pulled the plug. It’s no secret that many small businesses outgrow WordPress quickly, but previously I wanted to have an option for small businesses that might not have had the budget to move over to HubSpot CMS. But now? With CMS Starter being such a compelling option for small businesses? It’s time, once and for all, it’s time for us to break up with WordPress.
\n\n
As finally-full-time HubSpot CMS Developers, this break up has been a long time coming.
Here’s our Dear John letter to WordPress as a platform:
—------------------------------
Dear WordPress:
It was a love story like no other. For decades, you delivered flexible development that I couldn’t get anywhere else. You made dreams come true - and not just mine. You were the foundation by which I judged all other platforms and by and large all of them paled in comparison to your capabilities, for a website platform. They were endless, and I was in awe at my ability to deliver for my small business clients. In the style of Bette Middler, you were the wind beneath my wings in so many ways. We were the power couple, the most dynamic duo. You and I did some incredible things together.
But, maybe I was jaded, in some ways. Maybe I didn’t know what love was supposed to look like, because while we reached so many destinations together, the bumps along the way and after were increasingly noticeable. The shiny newness of everything I delivered with you came to a crashing halt as I encountered more and more prospects that weren’t maintaining you properly, developers whose “best” practices and coding was terrible, leaving clients open to attacks on their website and business. The increased downtime, the decreased page speed as a result of bloated websites patched up in far too many plugins.
Related: 5 Signs You’ve Outgrown WordPress CMS
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So much of our small business clients’ valuable technology budget is being dumped into repairs, maintenance and the like, where we know that if we just move them over to HubSpot CMS, they don’t have to constantly pay to repair broken plugins, speed up incredibly slow websites and piece together things in ways that are making website growth and flexibility entirely unattainable. The monthly payment they’re making doesn’t have to go to maintaining the status quo or fixing broken code. Instead, it powers up a far more powerful infrastructure with boosted security and gives them the opportunity to look at the road ahead.
In a world where the freedom exists to do whatever you want, maybe we need more guardrails on our website platform and the people in charge of it. Wordpress is too open and anyone can add to a website. Lacking logic for problem solving and poor coding skills just add website bloat. Sometimes, the people in charge of the website that you’ve entrusted with the livelihood of your internet presence simply don’t know enough about web development to know what’s right.
Related: 7 Developer Interview Questions to ask - Part 1
\n
Or maybe… they haven’t yet discovered that there’s something better out there.
Our path is coming to a close not just because our relationship is over, but because I’ve found something new. Something that delivers in all the same ways… and more. I didn’t realize what I was missing, where a love like this could take me, until I let go of all my preconceptions of what I thought small business website development had to look like.
Related: It’s time to leave WordPress for HubSpot CMS
\n
For a long time the custom development I wanted to do in HubSpot wasn’t viable, but the platform has come so far in the last few years.. I’ve learned through the years that love is an investment. That you can grow together. That there isn’t any such thing as an “expensive” or “budget” website. That you eventually pay later in time, resources and missed opportunities what you’re unwilling to pay for in the initial stages of development.
I mean, the statistics don’t lie…
According to BetterStudio:
13,000 WordPress websites are hacked every day
8% of WordPress sites are hacked due to weak or stolen passwords
Outdated Wordpress websites are blamed for 61% of attacks
Cleaning up a hacked WordPress website can cost upwards of $5,000
More than 99% of all security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were found in themes and plugins in 2021.
So many of our clients opt for Wordpress thinking they can have a bare bones custom site and add plugins to add the functionality they need later on… but every new plugin opens up new vulnerabilities and increased urgency for mitigating the risks.
And yet? Plugins and themes sit outdated either because the client isn’t applying them or because they’re abandoned by the developer themselves and not issuing updates - which is an entirely different problem that gets overlooked commonly.
So? It’s time to let go. I’ve already broken down the regrets you have after paying for a WordPress website and I think it’s finally time to end an era. You’ve been good to us, I’ve loved you (and sometimes hated you) for so long, and I’ll never forget all the flexibility (and many of the headaches that came with it) you brought to the table.
Bon voyage, old friend. It’s been a ride. I appreciate the good times and I’ll never forget what we’ve done and helped businesses achieve inside WordPress. But I’m a commitment kinda guy and deckerdevs has made its final decision: we’re all-in HubSpot CMS.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Decker & the deckerdevs dev team
—----------------
Simply put: there’s a better way to website.
And HubSpot CMS development? It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Will it be cheap? No. Worth it? Hell yes.
Believe me when I say, this thing we have with HubSpot? It’s the real deal and not any kinda fling. We’ve been in a relationship with HubSpot for over a decade. We’re just going all-in now.
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Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Immediately - you’ll spend more time (and money) on maintenance and security.
\n
One of the biggest brags on HubSpot CMS is that the security, maintenance and updates are included out of the box for every level of the software - so you’ll not find that an app is out of date and the security is compromised. Bugs, updates, maintenance, and all of that stuff just happens in the back end. This is huge and probably one of the biggest headaches for Wordpress users - out of date or broken plugins can take their website down, and if they’re not paying actively for maintenance, tracking down someone to help while their website is done can be difficult, time consuming and costly depending on how long your website is down.
This cost can range from $50 to a few hundred dollars every month just to keep your website up and running. So often people get caught up in the financial contract with HubSpot without factoring in their own budget for ongoing maintenance and security fixes in WordPress. Or, worse, they opt in to Wordpress because they don’t think they have to pay that monthly fee, finish their website and things persistently break, they have to field 60,000 spam comments because there was no captcha or security build around spam comments and across the board it just becomes a massive maintenance pain.
Lack of maintenance on theme and plugin updates can mean security vulnerabilities to hackers. In fact, WPScan reports that 97% of vulnerabilities inside WordPress are not because of the platform itself, but because of the add-on themes and plugins not being updated adequately.
You don’t have to worry about any of that when you sign on with HubSpot, but you pay a subscription fee for that luxury.
A monthly fee for peace of mind? Might be worth it, don’t you think?
Related: HubSpot Blog - 14 WordPress Security Issues & Vulnerabilities you Should Know About
\n
A few months in - you’ll want to add *a lot* more functionality
\n
Designing and building a website is one thing, but actually using it as a marketer? That’s something totally different. More often than not, your web developer will complete a website for you on WordPress and you’ll start working with it, only to realize that you’re missing some functionality. No big deal, Wordpress has over 60,000 apps that allow you to customize the features on your website. The only problem? They all have to be managed separately and have their own settings and some of them are paid.
Not only that, but the plugins often conflict with one another, some are poorly maintained by their developers, and they can leave large security holes in your website at large if they’re not well maintained.
Now we’re adding both cost *and* risk, but also? Weight.
6 months later… your website will be slower.
\n
Each new plugin you add to your website adds in processes and information that have to be loaded in the back end. And because WordPress defaults to querying the database numerous times on every page reload. It only takes a few heavy plugins for this to completely annihilate the user experience. And we’ve talked about this at length in our discussion of factors bogging down your website.
Website bloat is a problem with many Wordpress websites that increases with time. While a developer can manage this more proactively by installing WP Cache and optimizing what they can, largely as your needs grow you’ll either need to completely redesign your website or switch to a better framework that can more adequately handle the needs of your growing business.
8 months in… things may start to break.
\n
When you work inside HubSpot, as long as you’re able to find a really reputable developer, for the most part you can grow your website with that developer. The same person (ideally), then, Is responsible for all the updates and changes on your website and because of how the HubSpot’s CMS works, and how a reputable developer works within it, you’ll not experience broken plugins or apps, or the same kind of website bloat that you might by adding features over time to your WordPress site.
However, when you add tons of different apps and plugins inside WordPress, things may start to break. Whether its from poor maintenance by a developer that needs to be updating your website and plugins, or whether you have a plugin that isn’t being updated by the developer that created it, when you’re relying on so many different plugins for your website, it is common for these plugins to break your website and for you to experience downtime as a result.
Depending on the size of your business, the cost of website downtime can vary from a few hundred dollars to thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in missed revenue. For businesses that do any kind of business online, even if they’re in the business to business realm, the cost of developing and paying for the HubSpot platform has long term benefits that you probably won’t notice, since your website downtime will be much more limited on HubSpot than it will with WordPress.
A year later, spam may become a full time job.
\n
Spam is a problem for many websites, but for so many businesses that use WordPress for their website content management comment and form spam is a huge issue. Even with login and captcha plugins, it can be a full time job just to moderate spam comments and manage the trash that comes into your inbox from your forms. Adding Google or WPForms or another captcha option can be helpful for form spam, but for many business owners they end up turning off comments entirely that use Wordpress.
Spam issues with forms and content are so much less bad on HubSpot CMS. Imagine how much time you could regain not deleting hundreds of spam comments on your blog every few months?
2 years in - you’ll have no website growth strategy and have to start the process all over again.
\n
One of the best parts of working with clients that host their websites with HubSpot is we adopt a continuous improvement model with them and the platform at large and framework we use as a foundation is capable of handling scale. HubSpot’s platform can easily be upgraded to enterprise level, and multiple features like Mega Menus, Resource Centers and ROI calculators can be added on without adding too much bulk to a website load time through management of tools like HubDB.
When you add on to a WordPress website over time, it’s not always capable of handling the additional load and you’ll often find yourself growing frustrated with the load speed, security issues and plugins from different developers that sometimes don’t play together perfectly. Leveraging HubSpot from the get go ensures that you can scale by utilizing a continuous growth model and build your website improvements into a predictable monthly budget that allows you to build the features you need without having to redesign your website entirely every few years.
The bottom line?
Wordpress is great for small businesses, but as your business scales, you’ll quickly outgrow it in functionality or have to redesign your website completely too often to keep it loading fast and get all the features you want. While the cost may be more upfront, you’ll have a secure foundation with HubSpot and a gifted development partner can help you scale over time using a predictable budget that suits your needs.
Can a small budget boost save you a year or two of regret being stuck on WordPress? We say yes.
Wordpress has its purpose. It’s great for small and growing businesses to build a customized website with features that they need. While it is debatably a step above a platform like Squarespace and has a significantly lower cost when you add functionality for e-commerce versus added apps on a platform like Shopify, it has problems of its own. Hands down, though, it’s one of the top flexible solutions for small business owners for the price point, flexibility and capabilities.
When we started on as a HubSpot Partner, we made the decision to only develop on WP-Engine and HubSpot CMS. But as we continue to expand the capabilities of HubSpot for its users, we’re moving further and further away from Wordpress as a whole. For many HubSpot customers, migrating over from Wordpress to HubSpot seems daunting and cost prohibitive. While free and inexpensive HubSpot themes are available on Marketplace, they typically don’t serve the needs of a scaling business, for a number of reasons. Check out why scaling organizations need to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Recently we completed a HubSpot CMS website development proposal using a framework that we’ve developed that drastically decreases the average price for customer development on HubSpot CMS. The proposal was competitive for HubSpot development, but still more expensive than the Wordpress proposal from the other developer, and while we won’t go back into the problem with cheap outsourced web development, we want to be very clear about the inevitable when you are marketing on the HubSpot platform as a scaling business and choose Wordpress for content management and that’s - you’re gonna regret it. It’s simply a matter of time. Not only are you going to regret it, but you’re going to have a full timeline of regret that we’ve seen countless times for companies that choose to compromise by using Wordpress.
So, here they are - the 5 regrets you’ll have paying for a custom Wordpress website and their corresponding timeline:
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
![](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/NO!%20GOD%20PLEASE%20NO!!-jpg.jpeg\")
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
At the end of a long negotiation for HubSpot software, all any business wants to do is get migrated over to HubSpot’s marketing and automation tools as quickly as possible, especially if they’re paying for CMS Hub.
Many HubSpot reps and even some creative agencies send clients that have smaller budgets (or who have spent most of their budgets on their HubSpot contract) to the HubSpot Marketplace to browse new themes for their blog or website pitching it as a quick and easy way to get started. While for some businesses the HubSpot theme marketplace is a great way to save money with a boxed solution that can seemingly be implemented fairly easily; in reality, it’s not always a one-size-fits-all solution. Each business is unique.
For scaling organizations, they may run into issues with the HubSpot Marketplace themes that they purchase as they grow. While HubSpot template themes are a great way for the average small business to get onto HubSpot CMS and we never want to discourage a small business away from HubSpot, for scaling businesses HubSpot Marketplace themes may not be the way to go.
As an organization grows in its journey with Hubspot and on HubSpot CMS, they often come to us looking to have us modify or fix their theme. We’ve seen many different types of issues with HubSpot marketplace templates - issues with how their logo appears, formatting issues, implementation, page speed and optimization issues - you name it, we’ve encountered a frustrated business that thought they could just buy a plug and play theme and didn’t quite get what they wanted.
Here are a few reasons that we think you should think twice as a growing organization before you buy a HubSpot marketplace theme, how to approach it if you are a business that does have to purchase a boxed template HubSpot theme, and a suggestion that we think might give you the best compromise between a totally custom website overhaul and a boxed theme that may not suit your needs.
Looks aren’t everything.
\n
HubSpot has a really amazing, thorough process for ensuring that only quality HubSpot templates are submitted on their marketplace. They require thorough documentation, screenshots, live proof of concept and support. In theory, this is a great way to provide accessible websites that work on HubSpot CMS. In reality, these themes are sometimes coded in a way that doesn’t suit your growing business as you scale or needs to be customized, integrated and better organized to suit your marketing content and the unique journey of your buyer.
Related: Website Quality Assurance - Why you need QA in HubSpot CMS Development
\nAny number of things could be hidden behind a HubSpot theme that you purchase, including: poor back end user interface, a lagging, slow website and sometimes? A really dissatisfied customer whose HubSpot launch is now delayed until they can find someone to fix their theme, often for more than they originally paid. It’s not always a hard time, but even just small fixes can sometimes be cumbersome for a new developer to implement if the foundation isn’t set up the right way.
Looks matter, but what’s the use in having a theme that looks pretty in demo, but isn’t actually functioning for your needs?
Usability first.
\n
“We’ll get by with a template for now, then we’ll develop a custom site later on.”
Initial HubSpot contract layouts can leave a business’ marketing or development budget depleted. In so many cases, organizations are compromising on their development - but at what expense? A clunky interface that isn’t intuitive can impact an employee’s productivity and overall happiness.
A poor back end user interface means that your employees simply cannot operate efficiently. And when they can’t post content efficiently or are constantly running into roadblocks in their everyday tasks, it can be wearing on them and a huge time suck. According to The CFO, an online business publication, inefficient processes waste nearly a third of employees time. And with job unhappiness at an all time high as of August 2022, according to CNBC, companies should be doing everything they can to make sure their employees are productive, happy and able to effectively get the job done.
Why? Happy workers are 13% more productive, according to Oxford University.
When you’re considering your HubSpot budget, you need to consider not only which Hubs you’ll need, how to secure them at the best value, but how you can situate your company to be most successful inside HubSpot by choosing a framework or theme that truly suits your needs.
You have little ability to customize.
\n
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? The top complaint we receive when we get clients that are already working inside HubSpot is — I wish I would’ve known. They wish they would’ve looked closer at their data needs, they wish they would’ve bought the right tiers from the outset, they wish they wouldn’t have wasted money with an inexperienced, order-taker developer and they wish they would’ve gotten set up the right way from the start.
Related: Why an experienced HubSpot CMS developer? Your website isn’t a sub sandwich.
\n
The HubSpot Marketplace Themes, whether they’re free or paid, lock you into either using that development agency for your improvements or will eventually require you to pay someone that is going to take longer to accomplish your goals, because they’re working in someone else’s code foundation. In the world of HubSpot Development, there are many ways to build the same framework, and because there’s a lacking centralized knowledge base for HubSpot developers right now (we hope that’s not always the case), it’s a bit Wild West out there sometimes.
Trying to customize an existing template can break functionality and will usually require a bit of an investment for another HubSpot CMS developer to familiarize themselves with how everything has been set up and go poking around before they make your improvements.
Ideally, you’ll vet the company offering the template from the start, question them about their expertise and make sure they’re a fit to work with long term and use your theme as a framework to build on. Just make sure that your framework actually has a stable foundation and can accommodate your needs as you grow.
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
If you already purchased a HubSpot Marketplace Theme, there’s no need to go out and spend thousands on a new website (yet). But as you grow, you may find that it’s not working as well for you. Odds are good that you can work with the company that developed the theme to customize it to suit your needs. Even if not, there are always ways to work around the infrastructure that you have while you make plans to redesign your site and build a new custom HubSpot framework that will better suit your needs.
What’s most important is finding the right development and technical partner. One that will look at your processes from front to back and really dig into what your needs are and how your HubSpot framework, your data architecture and the processes you’ve put in place will work for your organization in the long term. Ideally, that partner will grow with you in a long term relationship as you scale and continue to improve your marketing and brand over time.
Most often, what we find is that customized design inside a tried and true framework built with the bones you need to grow is the best solution for a business starting out on HubSpot CMS that isn’t quite ready to go all in on a custom build.
\n
Like so many other things that we write about, this one might rub some people the wrong way, but sometimes these discussions are warranted.
::deep breath:: Soooo, here we go:
We want scaling organizations to stop buying HubSpot Marketplace themes.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n![](\"https://i.imgflip.com/7i10dl.jpg\")
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
Communicate expectations in advance.
\nYou wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have to sit through and the different circumstances we hear as to why we have to white label our services. Here’s a little secret - we don’t really care why. We just want to know how to avoid weird scenarios like the customer going around you, requesting items that are outside of the scope or trying to push in work behind your back. Full transparency is going to allow us to work as efficiently as possible, without having to ask you a lot of additional questions.
We have no issues being your preferred white label HubSpot CMS developer or reporting contractor as long as the expectations and boundaries are crystal clear in advance. If you prefer to be the gatekeeper, we’re totally fine with that. Just know that the more figurative telephones you add in the middle of the process, the less efficiently work will get done.
Commit to clear expectations from the outset and we’ll be sure to be clear about ours as well. We want this relationship and every project to be as seamless as possible and we’re going to make sure we stay within the parameters of what we discuss, because agencies are our best customers and want to keep you guys happy by keeping your customers happy. That said, lay out the ground rules in advance of the engagement. If we’re not comfortable with something, we’ll be able to tell you at the beginning and we’ll be able to negotiate accordingly.
Understand that working in white label formats requires more work.
\nFrom having to login to entirely separate e-mail accounts to texting you to get two-factor authentication codes, the number of situations where we end up having to delay work for access issues are increased when we white label. If we’re not working in your client’s portal under our domain and e-mail, it’s going to cost a little more than if we didn’t have to jump through all those additional hoops.
As you probably know, HubSpot Partners get awarded points for engaging inside customer portals - so if all that work is happening under your e-mail and domain, it comes at an additional cost to us and you should expect to have that passed through to maintain the white label service that you’re requesting.
While that may be a tough pill for some agencies to swallow, the hard fact of the matter is that really high quality, experienced HubSpot technical specialists aren’t as desperate for work as you might think they are. Sometimes new agency clients approach us feeling they’ve got our golden ticket. Don’t get us wrong, we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have with our agency partners, but white label scenarios are more time consuming than working directly with the client. Many HubSpot contractors are inundated with requests and having to jump through more hoops to field them isn’t appealing to a contractor that is already very busy.
If we’re working in a portal under your domain, you’ll likely be billed accordingly and you should expect it. Not only are we not getting a piece of the MRR credit in that portal towards our Partner tiering, but we’re sometimes having to have multiple additional meetings and conversations more than once when we attempt to play telephone to help troubleshoot client issues. If we spend more time doing more work, and get less from it than we would by working with a client directly, there is more expense on our end, so there is more expense on your end. It’s as simple as that.
Be transparent with your fees.
\n
We get it. There’s time, effort and work involved in facilitating the details of any contract, even if you’re just coordinating a referral. Communicate your plans in advance for how you’ll be charging the client, how you need to be billed and how we should expect to be paid. We recently conducted an informal survey about margins relative to white label services for HubSpot Partners and understand that many agencies add anywhere from 10-30% to our fee structure to account for their time, but we need you to communicate this in the event that the client asks how much we charge or about any other details.
If you’ve maintained a good, honest rapport with your clients, they understand that the time you spend collaborating with us is valuable and billable. The more transparent you are about your fees with the client and with us, the easier we can all work together and the more sustainable the relationship is for everyone long term.
Unless…
Don’t be greedy. OR offensive.
\nWe found out recently that a white label partner we were working with was charging 300% of our fees for a service that we were white labeling for them that didn’t require any involvement on their end whatsoever. It was pretty offensive for us, we found out accidentally and we’re pretty sure if the client knew, they’d be equally offended.
\nHere’s the thing - you charge what you charge. Sometimes white label partners charge a little less than an agency might charge. When there are significant discrepancies between what your white label partner charges and what you charge, you need to have an honest and open conversation and do what is right. If the client would’ve approached us and told us they were willing to pay a little more, charge the client a little less and still make a really good margin on the service, they wouldn’t have lost their ability to partner with us.
Again, maybe you think what you charge is none of our business. But we’re human and so are your customers. If they know they can find a comparable service for less or that you’re gouging your contractors for really no other reason other than the client can pay it - it’s not going to look good. Be an ethical business and do what’s right by communicating with your contractors and clients in advance. There’s no reason that you can’t come up with a compromise to get paid your fees, make your contractor happy and make your client understand the value of the products or services at the very same time.
Don’t scope creep.
\n
You hate it when clients do it to you, but agencies are sometimes culprits themselves when it comes to scope creep on a project. Clearly delineate the parameters of your projects with both your contractor and your client. By establishing them in advance, the client will know exactly what is included. Leave yourself padding when creating budgets with your clients and work through individual scenarios on a case by case basis with your contractors to make sure that both you and the client are being charged properly for the services you’re getting.
Don’t ask for extra features, pretend you didn’t understand the scope of the original agreement or try to push through an extra request at the tail end of a project. Be the client you want to work with! Your contractors will appreciate it so much.
\nBe gracious with the possible scenarios that may transpire.
\nWe can’t count the number of awkward positions we’ve been put in as a white label contractor. From customers trying to see how much we charge to customers asking to work with us directly and fire an agency - it’s rare, but sometimes there’s some weird stuff that happens. Like, the time that a customer of ours Googled Nicholas Decker HubSpot and found us on an agency’s team page randomly (they added us without our knowledge) and we had to have an awkward conversation about how we don’t actually work for that agency…
Communication is critical, so *we* can operate the right way within it. Make sure that you trust the white label contractors that you work with to make the right decisions that are best for everyone involved and provide a safe format for them to do that. If you don’t trust your contractors, it’s hard for them to feel safe communicating the scenarios that sometimes arise. For example, if the customer is trying to have conversations with a contractor behind your back, there’s a lot to learn from that situation and your contractor should feel safe bringing it up.
By working together to tackle the issue, you can ensure not only that everyone leaves with the optimal outcome, but that you can keep your relationship with both the client and the contractor intact.
Having successful white label relationships can open up your agency to lots of additional service offerings that will not only help you expand the number of customers you reach, but become an even more trusted resource to your HubSpot clients. When you hire an experienced HubSpot professional, you can go far beyond offering marketing services and really digging into the complex business processes and other issues that your clients have that sometimes get in the way of closing deals.
Be a good white label partner by following this simple (and somewhat common sense) list of tips for working with HubSpot CMS development and HubSpot reporting contractors.
As HubSpot has grown over the years and expanded their product offerings, there has been more and more opportunities for HubSpot Partner agencies to specialize, expand their service offerings and really be a comprehensive business consultant to their client base. It has also meant investing heavily in the right kind of talent that will help situate your agency to really support the success of your customer in the long term. Exceptional talent is hard to get and harder to keep, particularly in the Millennial generation. In 2014, Deloitte conducted a survey of 7,800 Millennials where 70% of them reportedly expected to be working for themselves by 2025. This generation was also predicted to occupy 75% of the workforce by 2025.
It’s no wonder agencies are struggling with a talent gap. The number of people with deep experience inside the HubSpot platform aren’t many and a lot of the veterans have moved on from being an employee at an agency to opening their own agency. It’s not enough anymore to hire out a new graduate with a fresh degree in Communications or Marketing, get them trained on HubSpot Marketing Pro and send them on their way.
It might’ve worked in the past, but the types of clients that HubSpot is angling for now are much more complex. They’re moving more and more towards Enterprise level clients and the small business in large part is priced out. While HubSpot has recently introduced some packages that are much more small business friendly, when it comes to building the agency that you want to build and servicing multiple customer portals - you sometimes need some backup.
A specialized technical, architecture or reporting partner can dig deeply into an organization’s business processes and glean specialized insight that the average marketing agency employee wouldn’t have experience with. Hiring on a full time version of these specialized contractors would run you hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we prefer to have work referred to us, because we can work faster and more efficiently, we understand that some partners aren’t comfortable with that. However, to help make sure that no boundaries are crossed and things go as smoothly as possible, we wanted to write down a few helpful tips coming from a specialized partner to help you successfully white label HubSpot CMS development, HubSpot architecture, and HubSpot Reporting contractors.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
No matter what your tier is, you lose points when you lose customers.
\nIt doesn’t matter if you’re the highest, best, most awarded Elite HubSpot Partner. Losing one customer impacts your bottom line and has a bad ripple effect. While the HubSpot ecosystem is massive and their customer base is huge, losing points with one customer has significant impact on your business as a whole.
\nAccording to Zippia.com:
\n- \n
- 91% of customers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy \n
- 61% of surveyed customers have recently switched to a brands’ competitor after a poor customer service experience \n
- Recruiting a new customer costs SIX TO SEVEN TIMES MORE than maintaining an existing one. \n
- There’s a 60-70% chance an existing customer will make a purchase and only 5-20% chance a first time shopper will. \n
- MOST IMPORTANTLY? A loyal customer can be worth TEN TIMES the amount of revenue earned from their first purchase. \n
TEN TIMES. Ouch.
You might think that because a partner is Elite status or really big that they never lose accounts because of poor development work - but our new client acquisitions as of late are all from Elite partners.
Related: Growing Pains - 4 Problems with HubSpot Development Agencies that Grow Quickly
\nHere’s the bottom line that’s wrecking your bottom line - Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that your developers are all on their game and working the way they should. In fact, sometimes a smaller agency is more agile and has more quality control over their projects. I said what I said. It’s up to you to change my mind, because here’s my next point…
\n\n
When you lose reputation, we all lose reputation.
\n![\"HAD](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/HAD%20A%20BAD%20EXPERIENCE.jpg\")
It’s a fact. A wrong move by a partner can mean death to a HubSpot portal. We’ve all had traumatic experiences that turn us off of things forever. Your client should be no exception. Just because their retainer and project investment is one of many in your world, doesn’t mean it isn’t the world to them. Clients spent a LOT of money to get onboarded into HubSpot and even more to create the architecture they need, get their website right and really mold their business processes around it. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve seen how the price of the product has increased as more and more features have been added.
When you take on a job and ghost the client or don’t perform the way you promised or your work is finalized and the client isn’t enthusiastic about it or it doesn’t really work like they wanted it to - it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And that taste lingers for a long time. You can’t be surprised when HubSpot experiences greater customer attrition because all the capabilities they were promised in their initial sales calls with HubSpot and subsequent discussions about integrations and HubSpot development capabilities weren’t met.
Related: Your HubSpot CMS Developer ghosted you, now what?
\nYou’re leaching their growth budget and leaving a lasting negative impact on their organization.
\nYou really need to look at the implications of doing poor work inside a HubSpot portal. We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but as long as customers continue to come to us and complain that their developers are letting them down - we have to address the elephant in the room.
\nWhen you take money from a client, that budget could’ve gone to other things.
\nWhen you cause them to not only use that budget, but then expand it beyond the scope of what they originally planned for to accomplish the SAME THING because you left them high and dry?
\nYou’re damaging an organization’s ability to grow.
I know. I did it again. I made a bold claim. But you need to understand that your actions have a massive impact on your customers. When you or your account managers or sales managers think - this is a huge project, we’re so excited to take this one on, we’ll meet our sales goals or we’ll tier to the next level of HubSpot Partner tiers - and that’s your main focus and NOT how amazing you’re going to make the customer’s business work once you complete it… you’re already starting off the wrong way.
Add to that eventually failing them and causing them to have to have the work done properly by another developer? You say all over your website that you help people build their dreams. That you help them move and reach people - and then you take money out of their pockets, put it in your own, and actively handicap them and stall them from continuing to build their dreams and reach their target audience? Oof. That is definitively *not* serving or solving for the customer.
Maybe it’s harsh, but you need to understand that the HubSpot ecosystem and all the partners and the technical providers need to work together and create customer success so that every HubSpot customer is delighted, empowered and eager to share your agency and business with the people around them that also stand to benefit from your services. A stellar reputation with HubSpot customers eventually gleans a stellar reputation with HubSpot’s reps and that means more business for you, which means more money in your pocket.
So, let’s get to the good stuff - how do we fix this?
Stick to what you’re good at.
\nStop overselling your skills. It’s becoming a huge problem for HubSpot customers. Developers are claiming to know how to developer in HubSpot CMS and failing the client miserably. It’s even becoming a problem in HubSpot agencies when developers oversell their skills on interviews with the agency and can’t deliver what they promised they were capable of.
\n
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
Figure out your skills and specialties, the work that you love to do and don’t deviate from that unless you get formal training and experience or find a mentor that can lead the way. It takes more than 20,000 hours to become an expert at something. Don’t spend your first 50 hours wasting your customer’s money and overselling skills that aren’t there. HubSpot is its own bird, and it’s quirky and different and experienced developers know their way around and can operate much more efficiently.
Establish a relationship with a specialized HubSpot Technical partner to help you consult the project and guide you through the process. There is admittedly a HUGE knowledge base gap when it comes to formal training for specialized developers. While we’re working to help bridge that gap with our own resources and knowledge base, but right now there isn’t much.
Specialization is a skill and you don’t have to be a master at working with an application to be a master in general. Having HubSpot Certifications means something, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about working in a customer’s HubSpot portal.
Bringing in experts that specialize in certain areas to consult with you and the client can help you consider things that you may not have considered before. HubSpot architects can help you understand how to configure databases, how to really consider UX as you develop modules and the big picture in how developing a website on HubSpot CMS will help with marketing ongoing. If you’re in over your head, ASK FOR HELP. We have many agencies reach out to us to help them get unstuck when it comes to a project they’re struggling to get to the finish line.
We can do this together, but you have to stop overselling and ask for help.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
No matter what your tier is, you lose points when you lose customers.
\nIt doesn’t matter if you’re the highest, best, most awarded Elite HubSpot Partner. Losing one customer impacts your bottom line and has a bad ripple effect. While the HubSpot ecosystem is massive and their customer base is huge, losing points with one customer has significant impact on your business as a whole.
\nAccording to Zippia.com:
\n- \n
- 91% of customers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy \n
- 61% of surveyed customers have recently switched to a brands’ competitor after a poor customer service experience \n
- Recruiting a new customer costs SIX TO SEVEN TIMES MORE than maintaining an existing one. \n
- There’s a 60-70% chance an existing customer will make a purchase and only 5-20% chance a first time shopper will. \n
- MOST IMPORTANTLY? A loyal customer can be worth TEN TIMES the amount of revenue earned from their first purchase. \n
TEN TIMES. Ouch.
You might think that because a partner is Elite status or really big that they never lose accounts because of poor development work - but our new client acquisitions as of late are all from Elite partners.
Related: Growing Pains - 4 Problems with HubSpot Development Agencies that Grow Quickly
\nHere’s the bottom line that’s wrecking your bottom line - Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that your developers are all on their game and working the way they should. In fact, sometimes a smaller agency is more agile and has more quality control over their projects. I said what I said. It’s up to you to change my mind, because here’s my next point…
\n\n
When you lose reputation, we all lose reputation.
\n
It’s a fact. A wrong move by a partner can mean death to a HubSpot portal. We’ve all had traumatic experiences that turn us off of things forever. Your client should be no exception. Just because their retainer and project investment is one of many in your world, doesn’t mean it isn’t the world to them. Clients spent a LOT of money to get onboarded into HubSpot and even more to create the architecture they need, get their website right and really mold their business processes around it. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve seen how the price of the product has increased as more and more features have been added.
When you take on a job and ghost the client or don’t perform the way you promised or your work is finalized and the client isn’t enthusiastic about it or it doesn’t really work like they wanted it to - it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And that taste lingers for a long time. You can’t be surprised when HubSpot experiences greater customer attrition because all the capabilities they were promised in their initial sales calls with HubSpot and subsequent discussions about integrations and HubSpot development capabilities weren’t met.
Related: Your HubSpot CMS Developer ghosted you, now what?
\nYou’re leaching their growth budget and leaving a lasting negative impact on their organization.
\nYou really need to look at the implications of doing poor work inside a HubSpot portal. We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but as long as customers continue to come to us and complain that their developers are letting them down - we have to address the elephant in the room.
\nWhen you take money from a client, that budget could’ve gone to other things.
\nWhen you cause them to not only use that budget, but then expand it beyond the scope of what they originally planned for to accomplish the SAME THING because you left them high and dry?
\nYou’re damaging an organization’s ability to grow.
I know. I did it again. I made a bold claim. But you need to understand that your actions have a massive impact on your customers. When you or your account managers or sales managers think - this is a huge project, we’re so excited to take this one on, we’ll meet our sales goals or we’ll tier to the next level of HubSpot Partner tiers - and that’s your main focus and NOT how amazing you’re going to make the customer’s business work once you complete it… you’re already starting off the wrong way.
Add to that eventually failing them and causing them to have to have the work done properly by another developer? You say all over your website that you help people build their dreams. That you help them move and reach people - and then you take money out of their pockets, put it in your own, and actively handicap them and stall them from continuing to build their dreams and reach their target audience? Oof. That is definitively *not* serving or solving for the customer.
Maybe it’s harsh, but you need to understand that the HubSpot ecosystem and all the partners and the technical providers need to work together and create customer success so that every HubSpot customer is delighted, empowered and eager to share your agency and business with the people around them that also stand to benefit from your services. A stellar reputation with HubSpot customers eventually gleans a stellar reputation with HubSpot’s reps and that means more business for you, which means more money in your pocket.
So, let’s get to the good stuff - how do we fix this?
Stick to what you’re good at.
\nStop overselling your skills. It’s becoming a huge problem for HubSpot customers. Developers are claiming to know how to developer in HubSpot CMS and failing the client miserably. It’s even becoming a problem in HubSpot agencies when developers oversell their skills on interviews with the agency and can’t deliver what they promised they were capable of.
\n
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
Figure out your skills and specialties, the work that you love to do and don’t deviate from that unless you get formal training and experience or find a mentor that can lead the way. It takes more than 20,000 hours to become an expert at something. Don’t spend your first 50 hours wasting your customer’s money and overselling skills that aren’t there. HubSpot is its own bird, and it’s quirky and different and experienced developers know their way around and can operate much more efficiently.
Establish a relationship with a specialized HubSpot Technical partner to help you consult the project and guide you through the process. There is admittedly a HUGE knowledge base gap when it comes to formal training for specialized developers. While we’re working to help bridge that gap with our own resources and knowledge base, but right now there isn’t much.
Specialization is a skill and you don’t have to be a master at working with an application to be a master in general. Having HubSpot Certifications means something, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about working in a customer’s HubSpot portal.
Bringing in experts that specialize in certain areas to consult with you and the client can help you consider things that you may not have considered before. HubSpot architects can help you understand how to configure databases, how to really consider UX as you develop modules and the big picture in how developing a website on HubSpot CMS will help with marketing ongoing. If you’re in over your head, ASK FOR HELP. We have many agencies reach out to us to help them get unstuck when it comes to a project they’re struggling to get to the finish line.
We can do this together, but you have to stop overselling and ask for help.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
No matter what your tier is, you lose points when you lose customers.
\nIt doesn’t matter if you’re the highest, best, most awarded Elite HubSpot Partner. Losing one customer impacts your bottom line and has a bad ripple effect. While the HubSpot ecosystem is massive and their customer base is huge, losing points with one customer has significant impact on your business as a whole.
\nAccording to Zippia.com:
\n- \n
- 91% of customers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy \n
- 61% of surveyed customers have recently switched to a brands’ competitor after a poor customer service experience \n
- Recruiting a new customer costs SIX TO SEVEN TIMES MORE than maintaining an existing one. \n
- There’s a 60-70% chance an existing customer will make a purchase and only 5-20% chance a first time shopper will. \n
- MOST IMPORTANTLY? A loyal customer can be worth TEN TIMES the amount of revenue earned from their first purchase. \n
TEN TIMES. Ouch.
You might think that because a partner is Elite status or really big that they never lose accounts because of poor development work - but our new client acquisitions as of late are all from Elite partners.
Related: Growing Pains - 4 Problems with HubSpot Development Agencies that Grow Quickly
\nHere’s the bottom line that’s wrecking your bottom line - Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that your developers are all on their game and working the way they should. In fact, sometimes a smaller agency is more agile and has more quality control over their projects. I said what I said. It’s up to you to change my mind, because here’s my next point…
\n\n
When you lose reputation, we all lose reputation.
\n
It’s a fact. A wrong move by a partner can mean death to a HubSpot portal. We’ve all had traumatic experiences that turn us off of things forever. Your client should be no exception. Just because their retainer and project investment is one of many in your world, doesn’t mean it isn’t the world to them. Clients spent a LOT of money to get onboarded into HubSpot and even more to create the architecture they need, get their website right and really mold their business processes around it. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve seen how the price of the product has increased as more and more features have been added.
When you take on a job and ghost the client or don’t perform the way you promised or your work is finalized and the client isn’t enthusiastic about it or it doesn’t really work like they wanted it to - it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And that taste lingers for a long time. You can’t be surprised when HubSpot experiences greater customer attrition because all the capabilities they were promised in their initial sales calls with HubSpot and subsequent discussions about integrations and HubSpot development capabilities weren’t met.
Related: Your HubSpot CMS Developer ghosted you, now what?
\nYou’re leaching their growth budget and leaving a lasting negative impact on their organization.
\nYou really need to look at the implications of doing poor work inside a HubSpot portal. We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but as long as customers continue to come to us and complain that their developers are letting them down - we have to address the elephant in the room.
\nWhen you take money from a client, that budget could’ve gone to other things.
\nWhen you cause them to not only use that budget, but then expand it beyond the scope of what they originally planned for to accomplish the SAME THING because you left them high and dry?
\nYou’re damaging an organization’s ability to grow.
I know. I did it again. I made a bold claim. But you need to understand that your actions have a massive impact on your customers. When you or your account managers or sales managers think - this is a huge project, we’re so excited to take this one on, we’ll meet our sales goals or we’ll tier to the next level of HubSpot Partner tiers - and that’s your main focus and NOT how amazing you’re going to make the customer’s business work once you complete it… you’re already starting off the wrong way.
Add to that eventually failing them and causing them to have to have the work done properly by another developer? You say all over your website that you help people build their dreams. That you help them move and reach people - and then you take money out of their pockets, put it in your own, and actively handicap them and stall them from continuing to build their dreams and reach their target audience? Oof. That is definitively *not* serving or solving for the customer.
Maybe it’s harsh, but you need to understand that the HubSpot ecosystem and all the partners and the technical providers need to work together and create customer success so that every HubSpot customer is delighted, empowered and eager to share your agency and business with the people around them that also stand to benefit from your services. A stellar reputation with HubSpot customers eventually gleans a stellar reputation with HubSpot’s reps and that means more business for you, which means more money in your pocket.
So, let’s get to the good stuff - how do we fix this?
Stick to what you’re good at.
\nStop overselling your skills. It’s becoming a huge problem for HubSpot customers. Developers are claiming to know how to developer in HubSpot CMS and failing the client miserably. It’s even becoming a problem in HubSpot agencies when developers oversell their skills on interviews with the agency and can’t deliver what they promised they were capable of.
\n
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
Figure out your skills and specialties, the work that you love to do and don’t deviate from that unless you get formal training and experience or find a mentor that can lead the way. It takes more than 20,000 hours to become an expert at something. Don’t spend your first 50 hours wasting your customer’s money and overselling skills that aren’t there. HubSpot is its own bird, and it’s quirky and different and experienced developers know their way around and can operate much more efficiently.
Establish a relationship with a specialized HubSpot Technical partner to help you consult the project and guide you through the process. There is admittedly a HUGE knowledge base gap when it comes to formal training for specialized developers. While we’re working to help bridge that gap with our own resources and knowledge base, but right now there isn’t much.
Specialization is a skill and you don’t have to be a master at working with an application to be a master in general. Having HubSpot Certifications means something, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about working in a customer’s HubSpot portal.
Bringing in experts that specialize in certain areas to consult with you and the client can help you consider things that you may not have considered before. HubSpot architects can help you understand how to configure databases, how to really consider UX as you develop modules and the big picture in how developing a website on HubSpot CMS will help with marketing ongoing. If you’re in over your head, ASK FOR HELP. We have many agencies reach out to us to help them get unstuck when it comes to a project they’re struggling to get to the finish line.
We can do this together, but you have to stop overselling and ask for help.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
No matter what your tier is, you lose points when you lose customers.
\nIt doesn’t matter if you’re the highest, best, most awarded Elite HubSpot Partner. Losing one customer impacts your bottom line and has a bad ripple effect. While the HubSpot ecosystem is massive and their customer base is huge, losing points with one customer has significant impact on your business as a whole.
\nAccording to Zippia.com:
\n- \n
- 91% of customers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy \n
- 61% of surveyed customers have recently switched to a brands’ competitor after a poor customer service experience \n
- Recruiting a new customer costs SIX TO SEVEN TIMES MORE than maintaining an existing one. \n
- There’s a 60-70% chance an existing customer will make a purchase and only 5-20% chance a first time shopper will. \n
- MOST IMPORTANTLY? A loyal customer can be worth TEN TIMES the amount of revenue earned from their first purchase. \n
TEN TIMES. Ouch.
You might think that because a partner is Elite status or really big that they never lose accounts because of poor development work - but our new client acquisitions as of late are all from Elite partners.
Related: Growing Pains - 4 Problems with HubSpot Development Agencies that Grow Quickly
\nHere’s the bottom line that’s wrecking your bottom line - Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that your developers are all on their game and working the way they should. In fact, sometimes a smaller agency is more agile and has more quality control over their projects. I said what I said. It’s up to you to change my mind, because here’s my next point…
\n\n
When you lose reputation, we all lose reputation.
\n
It’s a fact. A wrong move by a partner can mean death to a HubSpot portal. We’ve all had traumatic experiences that turn us off of things forever. Your client should be no exception. Just because their retainer and project investment is one of many in your world, doesn’t mean it isn’t the world to them. Clients spent a LOT of money to get onboarded into HubSpot and even more to create the architecture they need, get their website right and really mold their business processes around it. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve seen how the price of the product has increased as more and more features have been added.
When you take on a job and ghost the client or don’t perform the way you promised or your work is finalized and the client isn’t enthusiastic about it or it doesn’t really work like they wanted it to - it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And that taste lingers for a long time. You can’t be surprised when HubSpot experiences greater customer attrition because all the capabilities they were promised in their initial sales calls with HubSpot and subsequent discussions about integrations and HubSpot development capabilities weren’t met.
Related: Your HubSpot CMS Developer ghosted you, now what?
\nYou’re leaching their growth budget and leaving a lasting negative impact on their organization.
\nYou really need to look at the implications of doing poor work inside a HubSpot portal. We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but as long as customers continue to come to us and complain that their developers are letting them down - we have to address the elephant in the room.
\nWhen you take money from a client, that budget could’ve gone to other things.
\nWhen you cause them to not only use that budget, but then expand it beyond the scope of what they originally planned for to accomplish the SAME THING because you left them high and dry?
\nYou’re damaging an organization’s ability to grow.
I know. I did it again. I made a bold claim. But you need to understand that your actions have a massive impact on your customers. When you or your account managers or sales managers think - this is a huge project, we’re so excited to take this one on, we’ll meet our sales goals or we’ll tier to the next level of HubSpot Partner tiers - and that’s your main focus and NOT how amazing you’re going to make the customer’s business work once you complete it… you’re already starting off the wrong way.
Add to that eventually failing them and causing them to have to have the work done properly by another developer? You say all over your website that you help people build their dreams. That you help them move and reach people - and then you take money out of their pockets, put it in your own, and actively handicap them and stall them from continuing to build their dreams and reach their target audience? Oof. That is definitively *not* serving or solving for the customer.
Maybe it’s harsh, but you need to understand that the HubSpot ecosystem and all the partners and the technical providers need to work together and create customer success so that every HubSpot customer is delighted, empowered and eager to share your agency and business with the people around them that also stand to benefit from your services. A stellar reputation with HubSpot customers eventually gleans a stellar reputation with HubSpot’s reps and that means more business for you, which means more money in your pocket.
So, let’s get to the good stuff - how do we fix this?
Stick to what you’re good at.
\nStop overselling your skills. It’s becoming a huge problem for HubSpot customers. Developers are claiming to know how to developer in HubSpot CMS and failing the client miserably. It’s even becoming a problem in HubSpot agencies when developers oversell their skills on interviews with the agency and can’t deliver what they promised they were capable of.
\n
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
Figure out your skills and specialties, the work that you love to do and don’t deviate from that unless you get formal training and experience or find a mentor that can lead the way. It takes more than 20,000 hours to become an expert at something. Don’t spend your first 50 hours wasting your customer’s money and overselling skills that aren’t there. HubSpot is its own bird, and it’s quirky and different and experienced developers know their way around and can operate much more efficiently.
Establish a relationship with a specialized HubSpot Technical partner to help you consult the project and guide you through the process. There is admittedly a HUGE knowledge base gap when it comes to formal training for specialized developers. While we’re working to help bridge that gap with our own resources and knowledge base, but right now there isn’t much.
Specialization is a skill and you don’t have to be a master at working with an application to be a master in general. Having HubSpot Certifications means something, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about working in a customer’s HubSpot portal.
Bringing in experts that specialize in certain areas to consult with you and the client can help you consider things that you may not have considered before. HubSpot architects can help you understand how to configure databases, how to really consider UX as you develop modules and the big picture in how developing a website on HubSpot CMS will help with marketing ongoing. If you’re in over your head, ASK FOR HELP. We have many agencies reach out to us to help them get unstuck when it comes to a project they’re struggling to get to the finish line.
We can do this together, but you have to stop overselling and ask for help.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
No matter what your tier is, you lose points when you lose customers.
\nIt doesn’t matter if you’re the highest, best, most awarded Elite HubSpot Partner. Losing one customer impacts your bottom line and has a bad ripple effect. While the HubSpot ecosystem is massive and their customer base is huge, losing points with one customer has significant impact on your business as a whole.
\nAccording to Zippia.com:
\n- \n
- 91% of customers say they won’t willingly do business again with a company that left them unhappy \n
- 61% of surveyed customers have recently switched to a brands’ competitor after a poor customer service experience \n
- Recruiting a new customer costs SIX TO SEVEN TIMES MORE than maintaining an existing one. \n
- There’s a 60-70% chance an existing customer will make a purchase and only 5-20% chance a first time shopper will. \n
- MOST IMPORTANTLY? A loyal customer can be worth TEN TIMES the amount of revenue earned from their first purchase. \n
TEN TIMES. Ouch.
You might think that because a partner is Elite status or really big that they never lose accounts because of poor development work - but our new client acquisitions as of late are all from Elite partners.
Related: Growing Pains - 4 Problems with HubSpot Development Agencies that Grow Quickly
\nHere’s the bottom line that’s wrecking your bottom line - Just because you’re big doesn’t mean that your developers are all on their game and working the way they should. In fact, sometimes a smaller agency is more agile and has more quality control over their projects. I said what I said. It’s up to you to change my mind, because here’s my next point…
\n\n
When you lose reputation, we all lose reputation.
\n
It’s a fact. A wrong move by a partner can mean death to a HubSpot portal. We’ve all had traumatic experiences that turn us off of things forever. Your client should be no exception. Just because their retainer and project investment is one of many in your world, doesn’t mean it isn’t the world to them. Clients spent a LOT of money to get onboarded into HubSpot and even more to create the architecture they need, get their website right and really mold their business processes around it. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve seen how the price of the product has increased as more and more features have been added.
When you take on a job and ghost the client or don’t perform the way you promised or your work is finalized and the client isn’t enthusiastic about it or it doesn’t really work like they wanted it to - it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And that taste lingers for a long time. You can’t be surprised when HubSpot experiences greater customer attrition because all the capabilities they were promised in their initial sales calls with HubSpot and subsequent discussions about integrations and HubSpot development capabilities weren’t met.
Related: Your HubSpot CMS Developer ghosted you, now what?
\nYou’re leaching their growth budget and leaving a lasting negative impact on their organization.
\nYou really need to look at the implications of doing poor work inside a HubSpot portal. We’re not here to tell you how to do your job, but as long as customers continue to come to us and complain that their developers are letting them down - we have to address the elephant in the room.
\nWhen you take money from a client, that budget could’ve gone to other things.
\nWhen you cause them to not only use that budget, but then expand it beyond the scope of what they originally planned for to accomplish the SAME THING because you left them high and dry?
\nYou’re damaging an organization’s ability to grow.
I know. I did it again. I made a bold claim. But you need to understand that your actions have a massive impact on your customers. When you or your account managers or sales managers think - this is a huge project, we’re so excited to take this one on, we’ll meet our sales goals or we’ll tier to the next level of HubSpot Partner tiers - and that’s your main focus and NOT how amazing you’re going to make the customer’s business work once you complete it… you’re already starting off the wrong way.
Add to that eventually failing them and causing them to have to have the work done properly by another developer? You say all over your website that you help people build their dreams. That you help them move and reach people - and then you take money out of their pockets, put it in your own, and actively handicap them and stall them from continuing to build their dreams and reach their target audience? Oof. That is definitively *not* serving or solving for the customer.
Maybe it’s harsh, but you need to understand that the HubSpot ecosystem and all the partners and the technical providers need to work together and create customer success so that every HubSpot customer is delighted, empowered and eager to share your agency and business with the people around them that also stand to benefit from your services. A stellar reputation with HubSpot customers eventually gleans a stellar reputation with HubSpot’s reps and that means more business for you, which means more money in your pocket.
So, let’s get to the good stuff - how do we fix this?
Stick to what you’re good at.
\nStop overselling your skills. It’s becoming a huge problem for HubSpot customers. Developers are claiming to know how to developer in HubSpot CMS and failing the client miserably. It’s even becoming a problem in HubSpot agencies when developers oversell their skills on interviews with the agency and can’t deliver what they promised they were capable of.
\n
Related: 7 HubSpot CMS Developer Interview Questions to Ask - Part 1
\n
Figure out your skills and specialties, the work that you love to do and don’t deviate from that unless you get formal training and experience or find a mentor that can lead the way. It takes more than 20,000 hours to become an expert at something. Don’t spend your first 50 hours wasting your customer’s money and overselling skills that aren’t there. HubSpot is its own bird, and it’s quirky and different and experienced developers know their way around and can operate much more efficiently.
Establish a relationship with a specialized HubSpot Technical partner to help you consult the project and guide you through the process. There is admittedly a HUGE knowledge base gap when it comes to formal training for specialized developers. While we’re working to help bridge that gap with our own resources and knowledge base, but right now there isn’t much.
Specialization is a skill and you don’t have to be a master at working with an application to be a master in general. Having HubSpot Certifications means something, but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about working in a customer’s HubSpot portal.
Bringing in experts that specialize in certain areas to consult with you and the client can help you consider things that you may not have considered before. HubSpot architects can help you understand how to configure databases, how to really consider UX as you develop modules and the big picture in how developing a website on HubSpot CMS will help with marketing ongoing. If you’re in over your head, ASK FOR HELP. We have many agencies reach out to us to help them get unstuck when it comes to a project they’re struggling to get to the finish line.
We can do this together, but you have to stop overselling and ask for help.
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS, HubSpot Developers.
Lately we’ve been feeling like the maid in the house of HubSpot. It’s largely a thankless job. While it pays well and the people we get to work with are INCREDIBLE and solving problems gives us all the dopamine we could ever want, it’s preventing us from focusing on new client sales that we need to continue growing as a sustainable HubSpot Partner, particularly in light of their new tiering rules. So, it’s time to have a talk.
I know that you don’t always like what we have to say about the state of HubSpot customer portals or the HubSpot Partner Program in general. HubSpot themselves recommitted to the customer this year after their 500 employee layoff, so we know that they feel just as strongly as we do about clean customer architecture in HubSpot portals. Despite this commitment, we continue to find ourselves fielding requests to finish the job that other developers, big name agencies and certified HubSpot partners didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t take to the finish line.
That kinda sucks, to be completely honest. It handicaps the customer, it handicaps us and it doesn’t do much for the reputation of the developer that started the project OR the HubSpot platform at large.
We’re all on the same team here. While it may not seem like it all the time, when you win, the customer wins. When the customer wins, they talk about their experiences and they attract more people to the HubSpot platform. And most importantly - when you win we don’t have to come in behind you to clean up your mess. We get it and we’re not here to judge you. No one takes on work hoping to fail at it or pass it off to someone else.
We’re here to discuss what happens when you leave a mess in a customer portal, abandon a project, overpromise your skills or just plain let a customer down and how we think you should handle things…
This is an open letter to HubSpot developers and we think it’s long overdue.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
![\"knowledge](\"https://6534445.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6534445/BLOG%20Images/knowledge%20center.png\")
RELATED: Content Overload - It’s time for a content library or resource center
\n
We’ve seen a LOT of weird things - the good, bad and ugly when it comes to knowledge base designs for HubSpot CMS, and we’re here to help you learn from the mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Here are the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS:
Lack of planning
\n
Putting a category or topic filter on your resource center and leaving it at that doesn’t really give you much more than you’ve already got on your blog. Your blog is a great place to start when it comes to determining some of the categories that will help you organize your content library - but that’s just a starting point. You’ll need to map out your library by establishing subtopics from your main categories or topics and adding individual pieces of content into your sub categories. It can be helpful to establish a content tree or color code your content to help you better determine which categories and subcategories you want to include.
Establishing a general buyer journey guideline will help you reach a certain point in organizing your content library, but you’ll also want to look into buyer intent data, as buyer journey’s are increasingly self guided nowadays. Use data to plan. If you’re paying for an analytics resource software like HubSpot Marketing Pro, you have no shortage of reporting and analytics available to you to help you best determine the impact each piece of content is having and where you can help your buyers along by filling content holes that can help them have all the information they need to make buying decisions.
As you plan, ask yourself questions like:
\n- \n
- What is the goal of this content library? \n
- What are the most popular types of content that our customers are consuming? \n
- Where do we need to offer more information that our buyers need at certain steps in their buying journey? \n
- How can we make this information more accessible to buyers that are doing research independently? \n
- How can we structure and organize our content in a way that’s personalized and effective? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our buyer? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our sales process? \n
- Which industries do we want to feature, if any?
Not Going Custom
\n
Your business isn’t like other businesses and where best to showcase your unique spin on your products and services than your knowledge base or content library? We understand that not everyone has the budget to go fully custom with their website content library, but we think that it’s important to at least find a stable framework that can suit your needs and allow you to do a small amount of customization. More than likely in the planning process, you’ll uncover some features that you want to see.
Your resource center configuration and design should be as flexible as possible so that you can feature new pieces of content, website prospects can easily filter the wealth of information available to them, and you can dress it up beyond the standard category filter options. You can even add things like dynamic search to help your prospect find things they didn’t even know they needed. Employee Fiduciary’s website resource center is an example of a resource library that we recently worked on that has a simple, clean design and functionality with topic filtering, search and feature options.
What you want to deliver to your prospects and customers might be a totally different experience.
- \n
- Do you have different buyer personas that you may want a website prospect to select in a page before your prospect can review the content that most applies to them? \n
- Do you want them to be able to filter your content by industry? \n
The questions that you asked yourself in planning your content library or resource center are the ones that will ultimately guide design - so make sure that you take that first step to plan so that you can determine your list of wants and needs when the time comes.
Ignoring Mobile
\n
As of March 2023, 60.67% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. With more than half of your visitors viewing your pretty new resource center on mobile devices, you’ll want to START there. So many prospects approach us with designs with little to no advance consideration for how that design will translate to a mobile device. Rather than making hard choices to save space reactively, you can intuitively design the mobile view for the website first and then take those elements and add or move things around in your full size desktop version.
It is much easier to convert from mobile to desktop than it is to start with desktop and have issues deciding how your site will render when it sizes down to a smaller screen. This is particularly true for resource centers that have sidebar filter options, additional feature content, tables or other special features that may be more difficult to render on a small screen.
The more mobile friendly your website is, the better it ranks. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor with Google and because the percentage of mobile traffic continues to increase year over year, this will only become more important for increasing your conversion rates as well.
Related: Web development for SMBs, a mobile first approach to web design
\nIgnoring Load Speed
\n
How quickly your website’s resource center loads is such an important factor when it comes to optimizing it for conversions AND search engines. Google's Core Web Vitals update in 2021 focused heavily on page experience for the user, requiring companies that want to get noticed online to focus on page speed and user experience on their website. The statistics support this focus, because faster loading website pages are proven to increase conversion rates. Site load time decreases in retail website of just .1 second resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates on retail websites. When you’re funneling lots of traffic to your website, these small things matter and in your Resource Center, you’ll want to focus on them as well.
Image size is a huge factor that bogs down many websites. Be sure to pay attention to the size of the images, icons, buttons and other graphical elements that you add to your website. So often marketing managers add graphics and images to a website without looking at the size of the images that they’re uploading and over time this can bog down a website significantly. This is particularly true for resource centers, where you’re often loading large image graphics, icons and more onto a single page. Images that you load into your website resource center should be no larger than 200kb.
It is important to create a set of standards for anyone uploading content to your resource center to protect your page load time.
Related: Page Speed Optimization - 5 Factors Bogging Down Your Website
\nNot Integrating a Mega Menu
\nResource centers are perfect for centralizing all of that content you work so hard to put out - but how do you get people there? While it may be a bit of an unexpected expense, we highly recommend adding a Mega Menu to your budget. A website Mega Menu acts like a central map for your entire website and allows you to be more granular in the content that you offer on your standard website navigation. You can feature full download content, break down your services or resource center into smaller categories and offer short descriptions that better help guide the user to where they need to go.
\n
Adding visual elements, showcasing popular pieces of content and really providing a guide for your website users will help them better find the information that they need as they go through their buying journey. Mega Menus and Resource Centers work closely together to keep website prospects moving through your content using the tools you provide within your resource center listing page and your mega menu as they move through additional resources.
Related: Why a Mega Menu Should Be Your Next Website Investment
\nNot hiring an expert
\nThis is an unfortunate mistake that we see many agencies and HubSpot customers make - hiring someone based on price rather than experience. Hiring an inexpensive or inexperienced web developer might feel like an okay thing to do in the beginning, but quickly you begin to see the issues as the project unfolds. Here are a few things you might notice if you hire an inexperienced web developer:
\n- \n
- Persistently changing timelines \n
- Sluggish response times \n
- Being ghosted \n
- Buggy issues with your resource center \n
- Long loading times \n
- Entire lack of strategy \n
We once received an agency’s partially completed website project from another developer whose resource center took more than a minute to load. While it looked great, the configuration was not well-conceived and because the developer wasn’t an expert in HubDB, they didn’t even realize they could have configured it much more simply within HubDB rather than using an external cloud server.
Now we’ve fixed it and their resource center loads in just a couple seconds, but they had to increase their budget for us to come in and fix this. Now they know that they need a skilled developer at their disposal for continued optimization and projects as their website evolves, and we’re here to make sure they can build sustainably.
If you’re in the middle of hiring for a website, we have a comprehensive list of questions to ask your HubSpot developer prospects when vetting them for a job.
Related: Why Hire an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn’t a Sub Sandwich.
\nEveryone messes up sometimes, and it’s totally fine. Your Resource Center project may not go perfectly - and you may change what you’d like to see within it; the formatting, the features and filters that you offer along the way. Try to partner up and create your strategy before you delve too far into the development process so that you can make sure you not only cater to your prospective buyer, but stay within a predictable budget and avoid some of the biggest and most costly mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
RELATED: Content Overload - It’s time for a content library or resource center
\n
We’ve seen a LOT of weird things - the good, bad and ugly when it comes to knowledge base designs for HubSpot CMS, and we’re here to help you learn from the mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Here are the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS:
Lack of planning
\n
Putting a category or topic filter on your resource center and leaving it at that doesn’t really give you much more than you’ve already got on your blog. Your blog is a great place to start when it comes to determining some of the categories that will help you organize your content library - but that’s just a starting point. You’ll need to map out your library by establishing subtopics from your main categories or topics and adding individual pieces of content into your sub categories. It can be helpful to establish a content tree or color code your content to help you better determine which categories and subcategories you want to include.
Establishing a general buyer journey guideline will help you reach a certain point in organizing your content library, but you’ll also want to look into buyer intent data, as buyer journey’s are increasingly self guided nowadays. Use data to plan. If you’re paying for an analytics resource software like HubSpot Marketing Pro, you have no shortage of reporting and analytics available to you to help you best determine the impact each piece of content is having and where you can help your buyers along by filling content holes that can help them have all the information they need to make buying decisions.
As you plan, ask yourself questions like:
\n- \n
- What is the goal of this content library? \n
- What are the most popular types of content that our customers are consuming? \n
- Where do we need to offer more information that our buyers need at certain steps in their buying journey? \n
- How can we make this information more accessible to buyers that are doing research independently? \n
- How can we structure and organize our content in a way that’s personalized and effective? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our buyer? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our sales process? \n
- Which industries do we want to feature, if any?
Not Going Custom
\n
Your business isn’t like other businesses and where best to showcase your unique spin on your products and services than your knowledge base or content library? We understand that not everyone has the budget to go fully custom with their website content library, but we think that it’s important to at least find a stable framework that can suit your needs and allow you to do a small amount of customization. More than likely in the planning process, you’ll uncover some features that you want to see.
Your resource center configuration and design should be as flexible as possible so that you can feature new pieces of content, website prospects can easily filter the wealth of information available to them, and you can dress it up beyond the standard category filter options. You can even add things like dynamic search to help your prospect find things they didn’t even know they needed. Employee Fiduciary’s website resource center is an example of a resource library that we recently worked on that has a simple, clean design and functionality with topic filtering, search and feature options.
What you want to deliver to your prospects and customers might be a totally different experience.
- \n
- Do you have different buyer personas that you may want a website prospect to select in a page before your prospect can review the content that most applies to them? \n
- Do you want them to be able to filter your content by industry? \n
The questions that you asked yourself in planning your content library or resource center are the ones that will ultimately guide design - so make sure that you take that first step to plan so that you can determine your list of wants and needs when the time comes.
Ignoring Mobile
\n
As of March 2023, 60.67% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. With more than half of your visitors viewing your pretty new resource center on mobile devices, you’ll want to START there. So many prospects approach us with designs with little to no advance consideration for how that design will translate to a mobile device. Rather than making hard choices to save space reactively, you can intuitively design the mobile view for the website first and then take those elements and add or move things around in your full size desktop version.
It is much easier to convert from mobile to desktop than it is to start with desktop and have issues deciding how your site will render when it sizes down to a smaller screen. This is particularly true for resource centers that have sidebar filter options, additional feature content, tables or other special features that may be more difficult to render on a small screen.
The more mobile friendly your website is, the better it ranks. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor with Google and because the percentage of mobile traffic continues to increase year over year, this will only become more important for increasing your conversion rates as well.
Related: Web development for SMBs, a mobile first approach to web design
\nIgnoring Load Speed
\n
How quickly your website’s resource center loads is such an important factor when it comes to optimizing it for conversions AND search engines. Google's Core Web Vitals update in 2021 focused heavily on page experience for the user, requiring companies that want to get noticed online to focus on page speed and user experience on their website. The statistics support this focus, because faster loading website pages are proven to increase conversion rates. Site load time decreases in retail website of just .1 second resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates on retail websites. When you’re funneling lots of traffic to your website, these small things matter and in your Resource Center, you’ll want to focus on them as well.
Image size is a huge factor that bogs down many websites. Be sure to pay attention to the size of the images, icons, buttons and other graphical elements that you add to your website. So often marketing managers add graphics and images to a website without looking at the size of the images that they’re uploading and over time this can bog down a website significantly. This is particularly true for resource centers, where you’re often loading large image graphics, icons and more onto a single page. Images that you load into your website resource center should be no larger than 200kb.
It is important to create a set of standards for anyone uploading content to your resource center to protect your page load time.
Related: Page Speed Optimization - 5 Factors Bogging Down Your Website
\nNot Integrating a Mega Menu
\nResource centers are perfect for centralizing all of that content you work so hard to put out - but how do you get people there? While it may be a bit of an unexpected expense, we highly recommend adding a Mega Menu to your budget. A website Mega Menu acts like a central map for your entire website and allows you to be more granular in the content that you offer on your standard website navigation. You can feature full download content, break down your services or resource center into smaller categories and offer short descriptions that better help guide the user to where they need to go.
\n
Adding visual elements, showcasing popular pieces of content and really providing a guide for your website users will help them better find the information that they need as they go through their buying journey. Mega Menus and Resource Centers work closely together to keep website prospects moving through your content using the tools you provide within your resource center listing page and your mega menu as they move through additional resources.
Related: Why a Mega Menu Should Be Your Next Website Investment
\nNot hiring an expert
\nThis is an unfortunate mistake that we see many agencies and HubSpot customers make - hiring someone based on price rather than experience. Hiring an inexpensive or inexperienced web developer might feel like an okay thing to do in the beginning, but quickly you begin to see the issues as the project unfolds. Here are a few things you might notice if you hire an inexperienced web developer:
\n- \n
- Persistently changing timelines \n
- Sluggish response times \n
- Being ghosted \n
- Buggy issues with your resource center \n
- Long loading times \n
- Entire lack of strategy \n
We once received an agency’s partially completed website project from another developer whose resource center took more than a minute to load. While it looked great, the configuration was not well-conceived and because the developer wasn’t an expert in HubDB, they didn’t even realize they could have configured it much more simply within HubDB rather than using an external cloud server.
Now we’ve fixed it and their resource center loads in just a couple seconds, but they had to increase their budget for us to come in and fix this. Now they know that they need a skilled developer at their disposal for continued optimization and projects as their website evolves, and we’re here to make sure they can build sustainably.
If you’re in the middle of hiring for a website, we have a comprehensive list of questions to ask your HubSpot developer prospects when vetting them for a job.
Related: Why Hire an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn’t a Sub Sandwich.
\nEveryone messes up sometimes, and it’s totally fine. Your Resource Center project may not go perfectly - and you may change what you’d like to see within it; the formatting, the features and filters that you offer along the way. Try to partner up and create your strategy before you delve too far into the development process so that you can make sure you not only cater to your prospective buyer, but stay within a predictable budget and avoid some of the biggest and most costly mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
RELATED: Content Overload - It’s time for a content library or resource center
\n
We’ve seen a LOT of weird things - the good, bad and ugly when it comes to knowledge base designs for HubSpot CMS, and we’re here to help you learn from the mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Here are the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS:
Lack of planning
\n
Putting a category or topic filter on your resource center and leaving it at that doesn’t really give you much more than you’ve already got on your blog. Your blog is a great place to start when it comes to determining some of the categories that will help you organize your content library - but that’s just a starting point. You’ll need to map out your library by establishing subtopics from your main categories or topics and adding individual pieces of content into your sub categories. It can be helpful to establish a content tree or color code your content to help you better determine which categories and subcategories you want to include.
Establishing a general buyer journey guideline will help you reach a certain point in organizing your content library, but you’ll also want to look into buyer intent data, as buyer journey’s are increasingly self guided nowadays. Use data to plan. If you’re paying for an analytics resource software like HubSpot Marketing Pro, you have no shortage of reporting and analytics available to you to help you best determine the impact each piece of content is having and where you can help your buyers along by filling content holes that can help them have all the information they need to make buying decisions.
As you plan, ask yourself questions like:
\n- \n
- What is the goal of this content library? \n
- What are the most popular types of content that our customers are consuming? \n
- Where do we need to offer more information that our buyers need at certain steps in their buying journey? \n
- How can we make this information more accessible to buyers that are doing research independently? \n
- How can we structure and organize our content in a way that’s personalized and effective? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our buyer? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our sales process? \n
- Which industries do we want to feature, if any?
Not Going Custom
\n
Your business isn’t like other businesses and where best to showcase your unique spin on your products and services than your knowledge base or content library? We understand that not everyone has the budget to go fully custom with their website content library, but we think that it’s important to at least find a stable framework that can suit your needs and allow you to do a small amount of customization. More than likely in the planning process, you’ll uncover some features that you want to see.
Your resource center configuration and design should be as flexible as possible so that you can feature new pieces of content, website prospects can easily filter the wealth of information available to them, and you can dress it up beyond the standard category filter options. You can even add things like dynamic search to help your prospect find things they didn’t even know they needed. Employee Fiduciary’s website resource center is an example of a resource library that we recently worked on that has a simple, clean design and functionality with topic filtering, search and feature options.
What you want to deliver to your prospects and customers might be a totally different experience.
- \n
- Do you have different buyer personas that you may want a website prospect to select in a page before your prospect can review the content that most applies to them? \n
- Do you want them to be able to filter your content by industry? \n
The questions that you asked yourself in planning your content library or resource center are the ones that will ultimately guide design - so make sure that you take that first step to plan so that you can determine your list of wants and needs when the time comes.
Ignoring Mobile
\n
As of March 2023, 60.67% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. With more than half of your visitors viewing your pretty new resource center on mobile devices, you’ll want to START there. So many prospects approach us with designs with little to no advance consideration for how that design will translate to a mobile device. Rather than making hard choices to save space reactively, you can intuitively design the mobile view for the website first and then take those elements and add or move things around in your full size desktop version.
It is much easier to convert from mobile to desktop than it is to start with desktop and have issues deciding how your site will render when it sizes down to a smaller screen. This is particularly true for resource centers that have sidebar filter options, additional feature content, tables or other special features that may be more difficult to render on a small screen.
The more mobile friendly your website is, the better it ranks. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor with Google and because the percentage of mobile traffic continues to increase year over year, this will only become more important for increasing your conversion rates as well.
Related: Web development for SMBs, a mobile first approach to web design
\nIgnoring Load Speed
\n
How quickly your website’s resource center loads is such an important factor when it comes to optimizing it for conversions AND search engines. Google's Core Web Vitals update in 2021 focused heavily on page experience for the user, requiring companies that want to get noticed online to focus on page speed and user experience on their website. The statistics support this focus, because faster loading website pages are proven to increase conversion rates. Site load time decreases in retail website of just .1 second resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates on retail websites. When you’re funneling lots of traffic to your website, these small things matter and in your Resource Center, you’ll want to focus on them as well.
Image size is a huge factor that bogs down many websites. Be sure to pay attention to the size of the images, icons, buttons and other graphical elements that you add to your website. So often marketing managers add graphics and images to a website without looking at the size of the images that they’re uploading and over time this can bog down a website significantly. This is particularly true for resource centers, where you’re often loading large image graphics, icons and more onto a single page. Images that you load into your website resource center should be no larger than 200kb.
It is important to create a set of standards for anyone uploading content to your resource center to protect your page load time.
Related: Page Speed Optimization - 5 Factors Bogging Down Your Website
\nNot Integrating a Mega Menu
\nResource centers are perfect for centralizing all of that content you work so hard to put out - but how do you get people there? While it may be a bit of an unexpected expense, we highly recommend adding a Mega Menu to your budget. A website Mega Menu acts like a central map for your entire website and allows you to be more granular in the content that you offer on your standard website navigation. You can feature full download content, break down your services or resource center into smaller categories and offer short descriptions that better help guide the user to where they need to go.
\n
Adding visual elements, showcasing popular pieces of content and really providing a guide for your website users will help them better find the information that they need as they go through their buying journey. Mega Menus and Resource Centers work closely together to keep website prospects moving through your content using the tools you provide within your resource center listing page and your mega menu as they move through additional resources.
Related: Why a Mega Menu Should Be Your Next Website Investment
\nNot hiring an expert
\nThis is an unfortunate mistake that we see many agencies and HubSpot customers make - hiring someone based on price rather than experience. Hiring an inexpensive or inexperienced web developer might feel like an okay thing to do in the beginning, but quickly you begin to see the issues as the project unfolds. Here are a few things you might notice if you hire an inexperienced web developer:
\n- \n
- Persistently changing timelines \n
- Sluggish response times \n
- Being ghosted \n
- Buggy issues with your resource center \n
- Long loading times \n
- Entire lack of strategy \n
We once received an agency’s partially completed website project from another developer whose resource center took more than a minute to load. While it looked great, the configuration was not well-conceived and because the developer wasn’t an expert in HubDB, they didn’t even realize they could have configured it much more simply within HubDB rather than using an external cloud server.
Now we’ve fixed it and their resource center loads in just a couple seconds, but they had to increase their budget for us to come in and fix this. Now they know that they need a skilled developer at their disposal for continued optimization and projects as their website evolves, and we’re here to make sure they can build sustainably.
If you’re in the middle of hiring for a website, we have a comprehensive list of questions to ask your HubSpot developer prospects when vetting them for a job.
Related: Why Hire an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn’t a Sub Sandwich.
\nEveryone messes up sometimes, and it’s totally fine. Your Resource Center project may not go perfectly - and you may change what you’d like to see within it; the formatting, the features and filters that you offer along the way. Try to partner up and create your strategy before you delve too far into the development process so that you can make sure you not only cater to your prospective buyer, but stay within a predictable budget and avoid some of the biggest and most costly mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
RELATED: Content Overload - It’s time for a content library or resource center
\n
We’ve seen a LOT of weird things - the good, bad and ugly when it comes to knowledge base designs for HubSpot CMS, and we’re here to help you learn from the mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Here are the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS:
Lack of planning
\n
Putting a category or topic filter on your resource center and leaving it at that doesn’t really give you much more than you’ve already got on your blog. Your blog is a great place to start when it comes to determining some of the categories that will help you organize your content library - but that’s just a starting point. You’ll need to map out your library by establishing subtopics from your main categories or topics and adding individual pieces of content into your sub categories. It can be helpful to establish a content tree or color code your content to help you better determine which categories and subcategories you want to include.
Establishing a general buyer journey guideline will help you reach a certain point in organizing your content library, but you’ll also want to look into buyer intent data, as buyer journey’s are increasingly self guided nowadays. Use data to plan. If you’re paying for an analytics resource software like HubSpot Marketing Pro, you have no shortage of reporting and analytics available to you to help you best determine the impact each piece of content is having and where you can help your buyers along by filling content holes that can help them have all the information they need to make buying decisions.
As you plan, ask yourself questions like:
\n- \n
- What is the goal of this content library? \n
- What are the most popular types of content that our customers are consuming? \n
- Where do we need to offer more information that our buyers need at certain steps in their buying journey? \n
- How can we make this information more accessible to buyers that are doing research independently? \n
- How can we structure and organize our content in a way that’s personalized and effective? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our buyer? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our sales process? \n
- Which industries do we want to feature, if any?
Not Going Custom
\n
Your business isn’t like other businesses and where best to showcase your unique spin on your products and services than your knowledge base or content library? We understand that not everyone has the budget to go fully custom with their website content library, but we think that it’s important to at least find a stable framework that can suit your needs and allow you to do a small amount of customization. More than likely in the planning process, you’ll uncover some features that you want to see.
Your resource center configuration and design should be as flexible as possible so that you can feature new pieces of content, website prospects can easily filter the wealth of information available to them, and you can dress it up beyond the standard category filter options. You can even add things like dynamic search to help your prospect find things they didn’t even know they needed. Employee Fiduciary’s website resource center is an example of a resource library that we recently worked on that has a simple, clean design and functionality with topic filtering, search and feature options.
What you want to deliver to your prospects and customers might be a totally different experience.
- \n
- Do you have different buyer personas that you may want a website prospect to select in a page before your prospect can review the content that most applies to them? \n
- Do you want them to be able to filter your content by industry? \n
The questions that you asked yourself in planning your content library or resource center are the ones that will ultimately guide design - so make sure that you take that first step to plan so that you can determine your list of wants and needs when the time comes.
Ignoring Mobile
\n
As of March 2023, 60.67% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. With more than half of your visitors viewing your pretty new resource center on mobile devices, you’ll want to START there. So many prospects approach us with designs with little to no advance consideration for how that design will translate to a mobile device. Rather than making hard choices to save space reactively, you can intuitively design the mobile view for the website first and then take those elements and add or move things around in your full size desktop version.
It is much easier to convert from mobile to desktop than it is to start with desktop and have issues deciding how your site will render when it sizes down to a smaller screen. This is particularly true for resource centers that have sidebar filter options, additional feature content, tables or other special features that may be more difficult to render on a small screen.
The more mobile friendly your website is, the better it ranks. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor with Google and because the percentage of mobile traffic continues to increase year over year, this will only become more important for increasing your conversion rates as well.
Related: Web development for SMBs, a mobile first approach to web design
\nIgnoring Load Speed
\n
How quickly your website’s resource center loads is such an important factor when it comes to optimizing it for conversions AND search engines. Google's Core Web Vitals update in 2021 focused heavily on page experience for the user, requiring companies that want to get noticed online to focus on page speed and user experience on their website. The statistics support this focus, because faster loading website pages are proven to increase conversion rates. Site load time decreases in retail website of just .1 second resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates on retail websites. When you’re funneling lots of traffic to your website, these small things matter and in your Resource Center, you’ll want to focus on them as well.
Image size is a huge factor that bogs down many websites. Be sure to pay attention to the size of the images, icons, buttons and other graphical elements that you add to your website. So often marketing managers add graphics and images to a website without looking at the size of the images that they’re uploading and over time this can bog down a website significantly. This is particularly true for resource centers, where you’re often loading large image graphics, icons and more onto a single page. Images that you load into your website resource center should be no larger than 200kb.
It is important to create a set of standards for anyone uploading content to your resource center to protect your page load time.
Related: Page Speed Optimization - 5 Factors Bogging Down Your Website
\nNot Integrating a Mega Menu
\nResource centers are perfect for centralizing all of that content you work so hard to put out - but how do you get people there? While it may be a bit of an unexpected expense, we highly recommend adding a Mega Menu to your budget. A website Mega Menu acts like a central map for your entire website and allows you to be more granular in the content that you offer on your standard website navigation. You can feature full download content, break down your services or resource center into smaller categories and offer short descriptions that better help guide the user to where they need to go.
\n
Adding visual elements, showcasing popular pieces of content and really providing a guide for your website users will help them better find the information that they need as they go through their buying journey. Mega Menus and Resource Centers work closely together to keep website prospects moving through your content using the tools you provide within your resource center listing page and your mega menu as they move through additional resources.
Related: Why a Mega Menu Should Be Your Next Website Investment
\nNot hiring an expert
\nThis is an unfortunate mistake that we see many agencies and HubSpot customers make - hiring someone based on price rather than experience. Hiring an inexpensive or inexperienced web developer might feel like an okay thing to do in the beginning, but quickly you begin to see the issues as the project unfolds. Here are a few things you might notice if you hire an inexperienced web developer:
\n- \n
- Persistently changing timelines \n
- Sluggish response times \n
- Being ghosted \n
- Buggy issues with your resource center \n
- Long loading times \n
- Entire lack of strategy \n
We once received an agency’s partially completed website project from another developer whose resource center took more than a minute to load. While it looked great, the configuration was not well-conceived and because the developer wasn’t an expert in HubDB, they didn’t even realize they could have configured it much more simply within HubDB rather than using an external cloud server.
Now we’ve fixed it and their resource center loads in just a couple seconds, but they had to increase their budget for us to come in and fix this. Now they know that they need a skilled developer at their disposal for continued optimization and projects as their website evolves, and we’re here to make sure they can build sustainably.
If you’re in the middle of hiring for a website, we have a comprehensive list of questions to ask your HubSpot developer prospects when vetting them for a job.
Related: Why Hire an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn’t a Sub Sandwich.
\nEveryone messes up sometimes, and it’s totally fine. Your Resource Center project may not go perfectly - and you may change what you’d like to see within it; the formatting, the features and filters that you offer along the way. Try to partner up and create your strategy before you delve too far into the development process so that you can make sure you not only cater to your prospective buyer, but stay within a predictable budget and avoid some of the biggest and most costly mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.
RELATED: Content Overload - It’s time for a content library or resource center
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We’ve seen a LOT of weird things - the good, bad and ugly when it comes to knowledge base designs for HubSpot CMS, and we’re here to help you learn from the mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Here are the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS:
Lack of planning
\n
Putting a category or topic filter on your resource center and leaving it at that doesn’t really give you much more than you’ve already got on your blog. Your blog is a great place to start when it comes to determining some of the categories that will help you organize your content library - but that’s just a starting point. You’ll need to map out your library by establishing subtopics from your main categories or topics and adding individual pieces of content into your sub categories. It can be helpful to establish a content tree or color code your content to help you better determine which categories and subcategories you want to include.
Establishing a general buyer journey guideline will help you reach a certain point in organizing your content library, but you’ll also want to look into buyer intent data, as buyer journey’s are increasingly self guided nowadays. Use data to plan. If you’re paying for an analytics resource software like HubSpot Marketing Pro, you have no shortage of reporting and analytics available to you to help you best determine the impact each piece of content is having and where you can help your buyers along by filling content holes that can help them have all the information they need to make buying decisions.
As you plan, ask yourself questions like:
\n- \n
- What is the goal of this content library? \n
- What are the most popular types of content that our customers are consuming? \n
- Where do we need to offer more information that our buyers need at certain steps in their buying journey? \n
- How can we make this information more accessible to buyers that are doing research independently? \n
- How can we structure and organize our content in a way that’s personalized and effective? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our buyer? \n
- Which content categories are most important to our sales process? \n
- Which industries do we want to feature, if any?
Not Going Custom
\n
Your business isn’t like other businesses and where best to showcase your unique spin on your products and services than your knowledge base or content library? We understand that not everyone has the budget to go fully custom with their website content library, but we think that it’s important to at least find a stable framework that can suit your needs and allow you to do a small amount of customization. More than likely in the planning process, you’ll uncover some features that you want to see.
Your resource center configuration and design should be as flexible as possible so that you can feature new pieces of content, website prospects can easily filter the wealth of information available to them, and you can dress it up beyond the standard category filter options. You can even add things like dynamic search to help your prospect find things they didn’t even know they needed. Employee Fiduciary’s website resource center is an example of a resource library that we recently worked on that has a simple, clean design and functionality with topic filtering, search and feature options.
What you want to deliver to your prospects and customers might be a totally different experience.
- \n
- Do you have different buyer personas that you may want a website prospect to select in a page before your prospect can review the content that most applies to them? \n
- Do you want them to be able to filter your content by industry? \n
The questions that you asked yourself in planning your content library or resource center are the ones that will ultimately guide design - so make sure that you take that first step to plan so that you can determine your list of wants and needs when the time comes.
Ignoring Mobile
\n
As of March 2023, 60.67% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. With more than half of your visitors viewing your pretty new resource center on mobile devices, you’ll want to START there. So many prospects approach us with designs with little to no advance consideration for how that design will translate to a mobile device. Rather than making hard choices to save space reactively, you can intuitively design the mobile view for the website first and then take those elements and add or move things around in your full size desktop version.
It is much easier to convert from mobile to desktop than it is to start with desktop and have issues deciding how your site will render when it sizes down to a smaller screen. This is particularly true for resource centers that have sidebar filter options, additional feature content, tables or other special features that may be more difficult to render on a small screen.
The more mobile friendly your website is, the better it ranks. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor with Google and because the percentage of mobile traffic continues to increase year over year, this will only become more important for increasing your conversion rates as well.
Related: Web development for SMBs, a mobile first approach to web design
\nIgnoring Load Speed
\n
How quickly your website’s resource center loads is such an important factor when it comes to optimizing it for conversions AND search engines. Google's Core Web Vitals update in 2021 focused heavily on page experience for the user, requiring companies that want to get noticed online to focus on page speed and user experience on their website. The statistics support this focus, because faster loading website pages are proven to increase conversion rates. Site load time decreases in retail website of just .1 second resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates on retail websites. When you’re funneling lots of traffic to your website, these small things matter and in your Resource Center, you’ll want to focus on them as well.
Image size is a huge factor that bogs down many websites. Be sure to pay attention to the size of the images, icons, buttons and other graphical elements that you add to your website. So often marketing managers add graphics and images to a website without looking at the size of the images that they’re uploading and over time this can bog down a website significantly. This is particularly true for resource centers, where you’re often loading large image graphics, icons and more onto a single page. Images that you load into your website resource center should be no larger than 200kb.
It is important to create a set of standards for anyone uploading content to your resource center to protect your page load time.
Related: Page Speed Optimization - 5 Factors Bogging Down Your Website
\nNot Integrating a Mega Menu
\nResource centers are perfect for centralizing all of that content you work so hard to put out - but how do you get people there? While it may be a bit of an unexpected expense, we highly recommend adding a Mega Menu to your budget. A website Mega Menu acts like a central map for your entire website and allows you to be more granular in the content that you offer on your standard website navigation. You can feature full download content, break down your services or resource center into smaller categories and offer short descriptions that better help guide the user to where they need to go.
\n
Adding visual elements, showcasing popular pieces of content and really providing a guide for your website users will help them better find the information that they need as they go through their buying journey. Mega Menus and Resource Centers work closely together to keep website prospects moving through your content using the tools you provide within your resource center listing page and your mega menu as they move through additional resources.
Related: Why a Mega Menu Should Be Your Next Website Investment
\nNot hiring an expert
\nThis is an unfortunate mistake that we see many agencies and HubSpot customers make - hiring someone based on price rather than experience. Hiring an inexpensive or inexperienced web developer might feel like an okay thing to do in the beginning, but quickly you begin to see the issues as the project unfolds. Here are a few things you might notice if you hire an inexperienced web developer:
\n- \n
- Persistently changing timelines \n
- Sluggish response times \n
- Being ghosted \n
- Buggy issues with your resource center \n
- Long loading times \n
- Entire lack of strategy \n
We once received an agency’s partially completed website project from another developer whose resource center took more than a minute to load. While it looked great, the configuration was not well-conceived and because the developer wasn’t an expert in HubDB, they didn’t even realize they could have configured it much more simply within HubDB rather than using an external cloud server.
Now we’ve fixed it and their resource center loads in just a couple seconds, but they had to increase their budget for us to come in and fix this. Now they know that they need a skilled developer at their disposal for continued optimization and projects as their website evolves, and we’re here to make sure they can build sustainably.
If you’re in the middle of hiring for a website, we have a comprehensive list of questions to ask your HubSpot developer prospects when vetting them for a job.
Related: Why Hire an Experienced Web Developer? Your Website Isn’t a Sub Sandwich.
\nEveryone messes up sometimes, and it’s totally fine. Your Resource Center project may not go perfectly - and you may change what you’d like to see within it; the formatting, the features and filters that you offer along the way. Try to partner up and create your strategy before you delve too far into the development process so that you can make sure you not only cater to your prospective buyer, but stay within a predictable budget and avoid some of the biggest and most costly mistakes we’ve seen others make.
Your HubSpot website knowledge base or resource center is your home base when it comes to helping customers along in their buyer journey. While the blog summary page has played a significant role until now in helping your website prospects find the information they need, as you’ve adapted your efforts, your content arsenal has become increasingly varied. From recorded webinars to podcast archives, YouTube videos, white papers and other resources, you’re practically overflowing with content. If you haven’t already created a knowledge base or resource center in HubSpot CMS, you may be exploring what to incorporate in your content library or best practices when it comes to designing a knowledge base in HubSpot CMS.