HubShots Episode 318: Consolidating the Stack + 10 HubSpot Quick Wins

Welcome to HubShots Episode 318: Consolidating the Stack + 10 HubSpot Quick Wins

This edition we dive into:

• The move to consolidation of tech stacks
• Quick HubSpot improvements to GSuite add-in
• Custom fonts in marketing emails
• AEO tool initial thoughts
• Sending SMS to contacts whose emails bounce
• Adding line items to deals in a workflow
• Bulk updating the domain on pages
• Historical snapshot reports on deals
• Customer Agent handoff tweaks
• HubSpot Assistant tips
• SaaS losing relevance
• Claude Design launched

How to consume HubShots:

• You can watch this episode on the HubShots YouTube channel
• We’re also available on Spotify or Soundcloud or Apple podcasts if that’s easier for you
• Full show notes for all episodes are available on our website

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Recommended Resources:

• Have you downloaded the latest version of the HubShots Framework yet? (It’s your 5-Stage plan for getting the most out of HubSpot).
• Have you signed up for our HubShots Daily Tip (a quick HubSpot tip or reminder in your inbox everyday)?
• Have you joined our HubShots Community (concentrated courses covering real world HubSpot scenarios)?

Watch on YouTube:

🌱 Shot 1: Growth Thought of the Week

GROW 2026

We had fun catching up at GROW 2026 in Sydney. Spent the entire chatting with clients, partners and HubSpot employees.

Aside: UNBOUND is on in September.

What is musical bingo?

Consolidation

Companies are overwhelmed by the number of tools and platforms they use.

One of HubSpot’s differentiation claims has been the ‘all-in-one’ platform approach.

Some customers complain about how ‘expensive’ HubSpot is, but compare it to only a few other platforms they can use to replace parts of HubSpot. The cost of an entire suite of platforms can be surprisingly high, not to mention the switching costs and training required.

Sunk costs (eg salaries of people) are often left out of the comparison, when they should be included as an opportunity cost. Eg save $10K on annual HubSpot subscription by moving to another platform, but spend $30K in staff time managing the process.

Ensuring fit with HubSpot is the key.

Just using it as a marketing email broadcast tool isn’t a good fit (ROI)…

• But add in automated workflows with nurture emails and it gets more interesting
• Then layer on forms that are easy to build, with landing pages that use the same drag and drop experience as the email builder and it starts getting much more palatable
• Now add in automated SEO and AEO tools, and it grows
• Now include tracking of deals and the activities that drive revenue and the value increases
• Next add in a Helpdesk that can see all the previous communications and it compounds
• Now add in the inbuilt reporting and it gets even more powerful.

BTW we deliberately haven’t mentioned AI.

✨ Shot 2: Quick Shots of the Week

Here’s a few quick items of interest we noticed:

• Google Email Toolbar
• ‘Is Equal To’ filter operator
• GSuite Meeting details enhancement

Google Email Toolbar Enhancement

It’s the little things… like being able to configure your toolbar in Gmail:

You can easily remove/add the tools you use:

Filter Operator: Is equal to property

Nice little enhancement to operators available in segment filters:

Frustration: Customer Agent Multi-brand Malarkey

One of the most requested enhancements to Customer Agent has been the ability to create multiple customer agents in a portal.

Recently HubSpot rolled out muli-brand support, which is a step in the right direction, but sadly misses the mark (it requires brand add-ons).

Simple use cases we want to provide to clients:

• Customer agent per region
• Customer agent per product
• Customer agent per department (eg different agent for sales versus support)

You can have your say in this Community thread.

GSuite Meeting Enhancement

A nice little tweak to the Meeting experience in Google Calendar - you can quickly add meeting invitees into HubSpot:

🚀 Shot 3: HubSpot Marketing Feature of the Week

AEO Tool (Beta)

The importance of setting the prompts correctly.

Who is ‘realistically’ going to use this?

We’ve been playing with this in our own portals and with clients, but it’s too early to give details on the results. More on this in future shows.

Custom Fonts in Emails

There’s a beta (possibly live now) that allows using custom fonts in marketing emails.

For most of our clients this isn’t a concern, but for a few who are very specific about branding in emails, this is a very welcome update. Companies who value the visual accuracy (eg designers, jewelry, fashion, restaurants, etc) love this.

One of our clients used images for all their headings, purely to keep company branding. This is a big win for them.

💰 Shot 4: HubSpot Sales Feature of the Week

Data Quality Tip: Send SMS to bounced email contacts

Can be used in sales and marketing.

Using SMS is another way to help with data quality.

When sending a sequence or marketing email, if you get a bounce back, send an SMS asking for an updated email.

It will come back to your personal mobile (unless it is sent from a number that is integrated into HubSpot), but you can then update it manually in HubSpot.

Here is an example of one we send using Sinch:

Hi , I have tried to send you emails but it says that your email is invalid. Could you send me your new email?

Thanks, Ian Jacob

ian+hubshots@searchandbefound.com.au

Here is the segment and the workflow:

Start with the segment:

Then use it in this automation/workflow:

👨‍🔧 Shot 5: HubSpot Workflow Feature of the Week

Add Line Items to a Deal

You can easily add line items into a deal as part of a workflow:

You can choose the enrolled deal, or associated deals. And then choose which product (from your product library) to add:

Use case: using properties of a form submit to selectively add line items to a deal.

Note: the Quantity value can be set by a property.

Analyse

The Analyse tabs on tools (email, forms, workflows, etc) are often overlooked.

But they can be useful for seeing trends across objects.

The workflow (or Automation) tool has an nice Analyse tab for viewing trends (eg enrollments). The one I found the most illuminating in our portal was how we’ve only automated a few objects (contacts, companies, deals, tickets) - see it in the bottom right. There are so many other objects we could potentially automate!

Here’s how it looks:

🔥 Shot 6: HubSpot Content Hub Feature of the Week

Reminder: Bulk Update Domain

A handy feature in the Web page and Landing page listing is the ability to bulk update domains on pages:

We often use this when pushing a new website live in a portal that is switching over to HubSpot (eg from WordPress). The site has been built in staging or on a subdomain. When it’s time to move them all over to the main domain this can be a huge timesaver.

It is also useful for moving a bunch of pages that are to be archived over to a backup subdomain.

🏈 Shot 7: HubSpot Service Hub Feature of the Week

Customer Agent Handoff

Strictly speaking Customer Agent isn’t tied to Service Hub (you just need a Pro seat in Marketing, Sales or Service).

But since it still sits under the Service menu for now, we’ve included it as a Service Hub tip 🙂

Consider this a reminder to revisit your Customer Agent setup - the handoff process has improved since Customer Agent was first launched.

🏪 Shot 8: HubSpot Report Feature of the Week

Historical Snapshot Reports

Snapshot reports allow you to analyse Deals over time, but showing the stage they were in at the time - available from the Sales > Forecast section:

Here’s an example (using count of deals, but you can switch out for $ amount easily):

To be clear: this is showing the deals, with a breakdown of the deal stages they were in, in each month, as opposed to the stage they are in now.

There’s a quick reporting video walkthrough here if you are interested in creating one from scratch (as opposed to starting from the Historical Snapshots template).

✨ Shot 9: HubSpot AI Feature of the Week

HubSpot Assistant Full Screen View

I’m not anti-AI, but I am anti-Ai feature slop. Half of the AI garnish added to HubSpot feels like - in my opinion - irritating noise.

So, in the show we aim to just focus on the AI parts that are actually useful.

HubSpot’s Assistant has been improving significantly this year. I like to open it in full screen mode:

Tip: keep it open in a spare tab and switch to it any time you want to ask a question.

BTW you can ask it anything (not just HubSpot related), it will search and give you a good summary:

Plus it supports Projects, and you can save specific Prompts.

Doesn't consume credits (yet), and is available in all Tiers.

Chats seem to be private per user (unless sharing Prompts) for now (but I'd assume Admins will be able to access in future).

🤯 Shot 10: HubSpot Gotcha Items of the Week

New Sales Workspace removes ability to switch users

The new Sales Workspace has removed the ability to switch between users.

(This rolled out on 27 April 2026)

Instead you can set up Views in each tab, that filter based on user. This is manageable, but the legacy switching experience was really nice.

Sales Performance is being sunset

Looks like users didn’t find the Sales Performance tool as useful a fit as originally intended.

✍️ Shot 11: Listener Feedback of the Week

Wonderful to meet Rebecca Mills at GROW. A long time listener. So good to meet you in person.

📚 Shot 12: Thought of the Week

SaaS is losing relevance

Much has been reported on the SaaSpocalyspe this year, and HubSpot hasn’t escaped the scrutiny. The focus has been on business models (and valuations) and in particular the move to outcome and usage based pricing.

AI is the disruptor of course, mostly due to the potential for agents to connect and update items (reducing the need for people using paid platform seats).

(Note: the breathless vibe coding discussions are probably more of a distraction than a real threat, especially in mid-large operational processes).

The question: how to respond?

If you’re a HubSpot shareholder: good luck

If you’re a HubSpot user: ask yourself: Does HubSpot still help you achieve the business outcomes you need well?

If so, then push ahead. If not, continually review your tech stack. Tech (especially SaaS platforms) are increasingly disposable. You can switch out specific parts, through to entire platforms, with relative ease these days.

We know this, because we’re regularly onboarding companies onto HubSpot from other platforms. Moving off HubSpot is equally possible.

Take away: Build the basics.

💡Shot 13: Quote of the Week

I’ve just finished reading Beyond Belief by Nir Eyal.

In the final chapter he covers the whole ‘visualising’ topic. An important insight he highlighted for me: Visualising needs to include both goals and obstacles. Most visualising (see also ‘manifesting’) focuses on just the goal, which essentially just becomes wishful thinking. But by visualising the obstacles you’ll face on the path to your goals, you can take action on them!

Aside: I liked the book, some helpful insights. Warning: it starts with the ridiculous Dr Curt Richter study of drowning rats from the 1950s, that Nir somehow forces into a resilience trait in humans. As long as you get past that and keep an open mind, there are some useful ideas to consider.

🎓 Shot 14: Article of the Week

Claude Design Review

Claude Design launched a few weeks ago.

The XEN Create team have been playing with it and wrote up an overview.

💪 Shot 15: Have You Signed Up for the HubShots Daily Tip?

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🏋️ Shot 16: Have You Downloaded The HubShots Framework?

HubShots Framework Poster

Download a copy of the HubShots Framework A3 PDF poster (recently updated with colour coding and more).

🧲 Shot 17: Follow Us on the Socials

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Connect with Ian Jacob on LinkedIn and Craig Bailey on LinkedIn plus check out his personal YouTube channel.

HubShots, the podcast for marketing managers and sales professionals who use HubSpot, hosted by Ian Jacob from Search & Be Found and Craig Bailey from XEN and XEN Create.

HubShots is produced by Christopher Mottram from Podcastily.

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