We have compiled a list of the best product updates of 2017 so far! From free access to a HUGE database of free images to improving the productivity of your sales team with modifications to the CRM system, we’ve got the important stuff covered.

Learn about 60,000 free images for HubSpot users, an update in list segmentation to automate future events, parent-child relationships in HubSpot CRM, Facebook Ads integration and four brand new social reports for your marketing dashboard.

1. Hate Finding Images for Your Content? Not Anymore

Whether you're a content creator, designer or online marketing consultant you know finding the right image can be time-consuming, costly and full of legal complexities. This month, HubSpot has announced an integration with Shutterstock which will make 60,000 images from their gallery available FREE within HubSpot.

How does it work?

Head to File Manager and click on the new ‘Stock Images’ tab to access 60,000 images! Watermarks will appear on Shutterstock images within search. Once you save these images to your File Manager, watermarks are removed and will not appear in your live content. This is a great little update by HubSpot and a valuable partnership with Shutterstock for all inbound marketers.

2. Plan Ahead with Future Date Property Criteria

HubSpot is constantly advancing its segmentation interface to ensure we communicate with the people we really want to reach. List segmentation is one of HubSpot’s most impressive inbound marketing tools, as the criteria are extensive and it can be used across other tools in HubSpot such as manual lead scoring and workflow branching.

How can I utilise this update?

• Internal reminders: incorporate this rule into your workflow to remind lead owners that someone hasn’t progressed onto the next deal stage within a certain amount of time. This is set to repeat after X number of days/weeks etc.
• Smart content: Create a list of contacts whose trial is expiring in the next seven days. Show them a reminder banner when they visit your website.
• Workflow suppression or branching logic: Create a list of contacts whose renewal date is in the next week, and send them down a different workflow branch based on that list membership (or include them in your email suppression list).
• Social monitoring: Collect customers whose contract end date is less than 6 months from now, and create a social monitoring stream to track their Tweets over time.
• Lead Scoring: Award additional points if a lead’s contract with your competitor is ending in less than a month.

Where can I find this?

Courtesy of HubSpot.

3. Parent-Child Relationships in HubSpot CRM

As marketers, especially B2B, the companies you sell to can be complex and multi-tiered. But managing and understanding your relationship with them shouldn’t be. You can now relate two companies to each other in HubSpot CRM, “parent-child” style. Whether you work with franchisees, distributors, school branches or anything else, the new function enables you to navigate between related companies quickly and easily, saving you precious time.

How does it work?

Navigate to any company in HubSpot CRM that you’d like to relate to another company. Within the company record, scroll down to the “Related Companies” card.

Choose to add a child company or a parent company, then search for and select the company you want to associate.

4. Easier Emailing in HubSpot CRM

If you’re a sales rep, online marketing consultant or BDR you’ll be using email as a primary day-to-day tool and the more efficient you can be, the better you’ll be at your job. HubSpot now has the functionality to send emails from company and deal records in addition to contact records.

This update makes it quicker and easier to get into your prospects’ inbox. However, if your analytics are indicating nobody is opening your email OR your unsubscribe rate is at 0 for every campaign, you might have a deliverability issue. Email marketing is one of the best marketing channels for significant ROI, so don’t lose out on poor email marketing practice, data management or technological setup – speak to one of our online marketing consultants to improve your deliverability.

5. HubSpot Introduces Facebook to the Ad Gang

Along with Google AdWords and LinkedIn Sponsored Content, Facebook Ads has joined the top online advertising providers within HubSpot’s automated reporting machine – HubSpot Ads. This integration provides automatic ROI reporting, conversion tracking and the import of leads generated from Facebook Lead Ads for anyone with the Ads add-on.

6. Let’s Keep It Social

For the first time, you can add social data to any of your dashboards, including your Marketing Dashboard. Having your social media data alongside other KPI’s will give you a better view of your digital ecosystem. You’ll see four brand new report templates that can be added to your dashboard:

Social clicks: Tracks the total number of clicks on the links in your social messages, summed across channels.

Social clicks by channel: Shows you which specific accounts are sparking your social media success.

Social interactions: Aggregates the number of engagements across your social networks (see below for more details on how interactions are defined).

Social interactions by channel: Shows which specific accounts are driving the most engagement.

Courtesy of HubSpot.

Reminder: A social interaction is a click-like engagement on a social network.

For Facebook, an interaction is a Like or a Comment.

For Twitter, an interaction can be a Retweet, Reply, or Like.

For LinkedIn, an interaction can be a Like or a Comment.

For Google+, an interaction is a +1 or a Comment.

HubSpot is constantly updating and improving their inbound marketing tools to enhance our online strategies and here at Intellegentia, we are constantly improving the way we use these tools for our clients. If you want to speak to one of our professional online marketing consultants or maybe you’d like some training, we’d love to help!