Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have heard of HubSpot. Their incredibly powerful CMS gives B2B marketers the tools to present a web experience tailored to the needs of individual users, nurture them with curated content, and convert them into satisfied customers.
But to really leverage HubSpot and tap into the business benefits it offers, you need to know about key features of the HubSpot CMS.
In this article we’ll show you 9 powerful HubSpot CMS features to take your B2B marketing to the next level.
Feature 1: CMS Developer Sandbox
Benefits for B2B marketers: risk-free development and iterative design improvements in a collaborative environment.
What it is and how to use it: the Developer Sandbox is a development environment where developers can create and test content and templates before pushing them live. This ring-fenced area is great for testing new features and designs without disrupting your live site, or the experience of your users.
The Developer Sandbox also facilitates collaboration between marketers and developers, leading to a digital experience that leverages insights from across your company and responds to a broader range of customer needs as a result.
As well as developing and trialling new features, the Developer Sandbox allows for smooth resolution of any issues that may arise with your live site.
To use the CMS Developer Sandbox, sign up for an account here.
Feature 2: Content Search
Benefits for B2B marketers: a more engaging and better organised content strategy, with improved productivity and clearer metrics.
What it is and how to use it: all content you create within the HubSpot CMS is indexed in their native search engine, meaning users can quickly and easily find the content on your site that meets their needs.
What’s more, HubSpot’s Content Search offers powerful customisation tools that allow you to sculpt the results that appear when a user initiates a search. This gives you the chance to present a more tailored web experience, and by extension to better satisfy your user’s search intent.
Content Search is included by default in the HubSpot CMS, and can be customised with the Site Search API.
Feature 3: Multi-language
Benefits for B2B marketers: it’s easier to expand your reach and provide localised content, giving customers worldwide a personalised brand experience.
What it is and how to use it: for businesses that operate in more than one region, creating and maintaining multiple versions of some or all of the pages on your website can be a complex process. HubSpot’s Multi-language Content tools are designed to make this easier by automatically doing the following:
- Updating your sitemap with the translated name and URL of a new page
- Updating the <head> tag in page templates
- Applying required markup for multi-language pages to avoid duplicate content issues
- Rewriting links to prevent you from having to manually update links to translated content
Multi-language tools are included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 4: File Manager
Benefits for B2B marketers: efficiently manage your assets and streamline the collaborative creation of better content, with full version control should you need to roll back.
What it is and how to use it: the File Manager is a centralised repository for files used on your site. All uploaded files are served by HubSpot’s content delivery, meaning a fast and efficient website experience for your users.
Files uploaded through the file manager are easily accessible through fields in the HubSpot backend, giving your website managers and content creators access to the assets they need and streamlining the creation and maintenance of new content.
File Manager is included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 5: Content Staging
Benefits for B2B marketers: experiment with new designs with zero impact on customer engagement with your live site, then schedule new content to go live at the optimal time.
What it is and how to use it: where the CMS Developer Sandbox is tailored for developers testing new functionality, the Content Staging environment is great for marketers and content creators who want to preview new or updated web content before pushing it live. This environment is more geared towards content management and UX, ensuring content is created and updated with no disruption to the user.
Content Staging is included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 6: HubDB
Benefits for B2B marketers: create dynamic, data-driven web content with no reliance on complex coding.
What it is and how to use it: HubDB acts as a centralised and organised repository for different types of information on your site, from product descriptions to team member profiles and everything in between. This information can be pulled through to templates and layouts, giving rich front-end experiences to your users.
HubDB also integrates with workflows and other HubSpot tools to give you powerful ways to expand your dataset, and dynamically update existing content, both further improving your content output and strategy.
HubDB is included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 7: Membership
Benefits for B2B marketers: nurture leads with exclusive access to personalised content, and access valuable insights into their behaviour: a win-win!
What it is and how to use it: Membership allows the creation of exclusive communities and membership programs, where members can access content and other resources unavailable to your general user base. By fostering this sense of community and rewarding engagement, marketers can collect and nurture leads across multiple brand touchpoints, gradually increasing engagement and conversions over time.
Membership is included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 8: Serverless Functions
Benefits for B2B marketers: expand the core functionality of HubSpot CMS with automated tasks and integrations with third-party services.
What it is and how to use it: Serverless Functions is an intuitive way for marketers to make the most of their HubSpot CMS by automating tasks and developing custom solutions to challenges they are facing. By removing the need to manage server infrastructure, this feature further improves the convenience of HubSpot, freeing up your time to focus on other more lucrative areas of your business.
Some use cases for Serverless Functions include:
- Automating form submissions: automatically send a follow-up email to a lead who fills in a specified form on your site
- Dynamic content generation: display personalised product recommendations to users based on their browsing history
This feature is included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
Feature 9: HubSpot APIs
Benefits for B2B marketers: seamless integration with other marketing platforms to facilitate smooth, automated workflows that leverage data from multiple sources to deliver an integrated customer experience.
What it is and how to use it: API stands for application programming interface, and they are the protocols that allow different apps and software to communicate. HubSpot APIs give you the tools to connect the platform with myriad other marketing systems and software packages to extend its functionality and bring various aspects of your marketing efforts into harmony.
Some use cases for HubSpot APIs include:
- Custom reporting: by linking HubSpot with third-party reporting tools, you can combine datasets and draw powerful insights to inform your ongoing strategy
- E-commerce integration: linking HubSpot with e-commerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce lets you better track customer interactions, nurture leads, and make more sales
HubSpot APIs are included by default in the HubSpot CMS. Learn more here.
The Features that Set HubSpot Apart
While other marketing platforms may offer staging environments, database functionality, and other features included in the list above, it’s the complete package and harmonious integration that sets HubSpot apart.
For marketers looking to streamline their marketing and tie together currently separate facets of their efforts, HubSpot really is the most powerful solution on the market. From hooking it up to other platforms with HubSpot APIs, to dynamically generating the content that will appeal most to each user based on complex insights drawn from an enormous bank of data, the features at the heart of the HubSpot CMS are built by marketers, for marketers.
Tap Into the Benefits of HubSpot CMS with a Dedicated HubSpot Agency
As both the UK's leading B2B digital marketing agency and a HubSpot Diamond Solution Partner, Digital Media Stream is uniquely positioned to revolutionise your online presence and marketing efforts. Our expertise spans all areas of HubSpot and the wider digital marketing landscape, and our experts will advise on the most effective blend for your business.
