Here's our overview of the benefits of a HubSpot website.
Building your website on the HubSpot platform allows you to take full advantage of the HubSpot Content Optimization System (COS) features including:
The use of templates and custom modules allow us to develop a site and train marketers to be able to quickly edit, add or remove site pages without any HTML knowledge.
Hubspot's COS platform allows you to dynamically change content on any page of your website based on information known about the site visitor. For anonymous visitors, you can trigger targeted content based on:
For known leads who have previously converted on another form on your site and are in your contacts database, you can target by any characteristic data point (industry, persona, revenues, job role, etc).
This feature (available with Professional" or "Enterprise" subscriptions) allows you to create a queue of questions within a single form. If a visitor has already answered a question, the form is automatically changed to request only the information you haven't yet captured.
With one click, you can view existing CTAs and insert them within a site page, blog post, landing page or e-mail.
The HubSpot platform is a proprietary system that HubSpot maintains. They do not allow external access to their servers. Instead they maintain the software for you which means your site is more protected than in an open environment like WordPress, which allows for the addition of external plugins. API integrations can also be used as well as an extensive network of providers.
HubSpot does integrate with WordPress. However, you will sacrifice some functionality should you choose to develop your site using this platform (i.e. Smart Content & Smart Forms).
However, there are cases where WordPress is the better platform choice. In these instances, here's how HubSpot works with it.
HubSpot forms - Create a form within HubSpot and simply embed it onto a page within WordPress. This will allow the passing of the form fields to your contacts database. However, you will not have access to progressive profiling or Smart Fields when using external versions of forms.
Analytics - HubSpot's WordPress plug-in allows for the passing of all site analytics between your website and their platform. You will enjoy full access to all reporting tools.
CTAs - Similar to forms, you can embed a HubSpot CTA within a WordPress page. You will not enjoy the one-click integration access as you would on the COS, but you can utilize this feature.
Customization - WordPress is an open source platform which allows for a lot of customization by a developer. There are numerous third-party plugins available to expand the functionality of your site. These plugins may include items such as shopping carts, member only access to specific content and more.
Ease of use - Similar to HubSpot, you can create a WordPress environment through the use of templates that allows you to train users to edit/add/delete content from your site. This includes new product pages, updating images and adding new category tags.
Security - Because WordPress is an open source platform, it can be a target for hackers to inject malicious code. Should you choose to utilize the WordPress platform, our recommendation would be to select a hosting vendor that will maintain your core WordPress files to ensure that you are always on the latest version of the software to reduce any vulnerabilities.
Here at media junction, we utilize WP Engine for client's WordPress hosting needs because of their focus on security and scalability.
Plugins - We encourage clients to be aware of what plugins they are downloading and adding to their site as this can be a point of access for malicious code. We strongly recommend purchasing plugins from reputable developers that offer ongoing support.