Businesses today continue to feel the impact of the pandemic that started in 2020. Sales and marketing professionals are facing additional challenges with many places remaining under some form of restriction. But companies need to reach out to more people and convert them to customers to grow and become profitable. Technology provides some help through
customer relationship management (CRM) software like Keap and
HubSpot that enables companies to analyze data, create strategy, and reach out in a smart and safe way.
Sales and CRM software helps companies of all sizes, especially small businesses, gain insight and build a customer experience that results in new customers, repeat orders, and brand loyalty. This Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) vs.
HubSpot article presents the two CRM solutions’ similarities and differences in their features and approach in helping users streamline the sales process, track and convert leads, and generate insightful reports.
Benefits of CRM software
Companies invest in CRM software so they can take advantage of modern tools to get organized and achieve growth. However, not all solutions are the same, and one system can be a better match for a business at a certain size or level of growth. In general, CRM software provides the following benefits:
- Simplifies the process for sales people
- Provides sales managers easy reporting tools
- Organizes contact information in a friendly database
- Helps qualify leads to reach deals
- Improves conversion management with suggestions and solutions
- Reminds users periodically to engage customers to improve relationship
The Keap approach
Keap is the company formerly known as Infusionsoft, which changed its name in 2019 to better represent their mission of helping entrepreneurs to keep going, keep serving, and keep growing. With new Keap products, the Infusionsoft product is now called Keap Max Classic. The small business CRM provides a rich set of features to organize leads, boost productivity, expand reach, and manage payments. It has tools for contact management, segmentation, web forms, landing pages, lead source tracking and scoring, dashboards, sales pipeline, and email marketing, among others.
Advanced automation
Keap includes an advanced automation builder that allows users to automate any sales or marketing process. It is a flexible and customizable tool that can streamline the sales process. Research shows that to complete a sale, you need at least four follow-ups after the initial contact. Keap allows you to create a sequence of email messages that get sent based on triggers such as time or client action. A trigger can be a customer booking an appointment or a prospect downloading an ebook. Advanced automation can also tag new leads or assign repeating tasks.
Client management
Keap provides users an easy-to-use client database where they can organize all client information, activity, and communication in one place. The tools connect with Gmail or Outlook to automatically update client information from every email sent and received. Users can choose from pre-written emails to respond to customers promptly. Information is well organized so you can see all important information at a glance, retrieve files, documents, images, or proposals quickly, and refer to emails, conversations, contracts, or meetings easily.
Reporting and analytics
Keap’s analytics lets you get reports as often as you need them to check the effectiveness of your campaigns, to make informed decisions, or to make adjustments. Marketing reports can sift through data points to provide important numbers or trends about conversions, form completions, email open rates, click-throughs, and campaign performance. Sales reports can track sales by day, week, or month, with comparisons to previous similar periods. The software can also provide analytics data on customer growth and engagement as well as payment and revenue.
The HubSpot approach
HubSpot is a CRM platform for inbound marketing, sales, and service. It is a platform where different sets of tools and integrations are available depending on the requirement of your business. The Marketing Hub includes tools such as email and forms to grow traffic and leads. The Sales Hub has both core and advanced features that range from free contact, deal, and task management to premium features such as sales automation and predictive lead scoring. It also has a Service Hub for customer support and a CMS Hub for building websites that increases conversion.
Sales automation
HubSpot includes automation features to help you simplify the sales process. You can set up a series of personalized emails and follow-up tasks to stay in close and regular contact with your prospects or clients. To help improve the relationship, the CRM software also has an appointment and meeting scheduler that syncs with Google Calendar or Office 365 Calendar. Send your client a link and let them choose a time where everyone is available. It also has a live chat tool to connect with your client directly while they are engaging with your website.
Tracking and communication
HubSpot helps you track leads by letting you know when a prospect opens an email. This gives you a chance to follow up at the right time. You can save time by using email templates from your team. Personalize it with data from your CRM database, and its ready to send. The software also has features to let you track calls and make them directly from your browser. It allows you to record your sales calls and automatically creates logs.
Analytics and reporting
You can manage your sales pipeline with visibility and ease with
HubSpot. The CRM brings all data in one place with a clear view of your whole sales process. Sales reports and performance management provides deep insights so you can build more accurate forecasts. Ready-to-use reports include deal forecast reporting, funnel reports, and sales activity reports. You can also customize reports to get special forecast reports and pipeline analytics and change history reports.
Ready to decide on Keap vs. HubSpot for your CRM?
Both Keap and
HubSpot provide modern tools and features to help your sales team simplify the process, unify the data, and get insights to pursue the right leads and deals. Both CRM software are available in iOS and Android mobile platforms.
Keap is ideal for small business and growing companies that needs an all-in-one CRM solution with the right features to bring them to the next stage of growth. New products can cater to a wider array of customers and business. It offers a free 14-day trial.
HubSpot is a CRM solution for businesses of all sizes with both free and premium tools. The modular design of the software gives companies the flexibility to choose only one or more depending on their needs. It also has a growing app marketplace and service partners.
