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Organizing and tracking sales documents is a powerful component of your sales management and sales enablement efforts. You can save your staff a lot of time by getting organized while making sure your best content is being used correctly. If done right – with the right tools – you can also gain critical insights that will shape your content marketing efforts.
HubSpot has sales document tracking features and this article goes deep on how it works, the benefits, the cost, and the limitations as well as comparing it to Content Camel’s sales enablement tool.
Hubspot’s document tracking helps to empower sales teams in a number of ways:
Attaching content The user interface allows you to attach your updated content from a drop down menu right from Gmail or Outlook.
Desktop alerts Instant desktop alerts are sent once a prospect has engaged with your content, and information is continually captured. Clicks, time spent on page, and other metrics are recorded and shareable in an easy to manage library that your sales team can access and appraise.
Hubspot’s methods for document tracking have some hiccups, however.
Some users report false positives on their engagements, any false information can be damaging to your efforts as it paints a misleading picture about your content.
Hubspot also requires that any pictures or other files be uploaded through Hubspot in order to attach them to emails or documents. This clunky process can be made worse by the email client itself being limited. Some users report poor support and unclear instructions when attempting to use the email client or the browser extensions.
Tracking Limitations Even if you manage to properly set up your document tracking and upload all your desired files correctly, the free version of Hubspot only allows you to track 5 documents at a time. In addition, the free version only allows users to receive a maximum of 200 notifications a month. For most businesses, this is drastically too low to meet the data gathering needs associated with document tracking. In this way, Hubspot encourages the purchase of its premium model.
Premium options are not without their catches, though. 😳
Document Permission Issues It’s hard to imagine that as marketers working with Sales, that you wouldn’t want some assets locked down and permissions to control who can delete, add, and change assets. But Hubspot is a little bit behind in this area 🤦♀️:
Source: Hubspot Community
Contract Term Issues
Hubspot CRM operates on a Freemium business model, meaning it offers the core services for free and sells add ons meant to increase functionality. These add-ons can prove quite costly, as they contribute to one of Hubspot’s greatest weaknesses; contract cancellation.
Hubspot’s cancellation process is designed to be as unforgiving as possible when you seek to terminate your relationship with them.
To cancel your subscription, you must do so completely, with every subordinate profile and add-on requiring individual cancellation before your account is fully terminated. This level of busy work is further exacerbated by your content itself, which is likely still all stored on Hubspot. If you’re shifting your business away from Hubspot entirely, it’s recommended you export your content so you don’t lose anything.
Even if you manage to correctly deactivate all of your profiles and extensions related to your account, a cancellation is far from a refund. You will be on the hook for the remainder of the commitment length of the contract, rendering your cancellation moot from a financial standpoint.
These restrictive cancellation procedures are designed by Hubspot to retain business, maximize their revenue, and dissuade any clients from leaving for a competitor.
Hubspot has basic functionality for document tracking but it’s a bit of a learning curve for sales people and requires everything to be setup in HubSpot correctly:
Document links are critical for tracking content performance and managing content attribution. And, in Hubspot, and this is how you do it:
Hubspot’s content organization and management can help to keep your team on the same page with the most recent material at their disposal. Documents can be moved to and from different folders, and access and some editing permissions can be established.
While most can sort their content into more specific categories for easier navigation, users in specific industries have reported difficulty adapting Hubspot’s system to their needs.
In cases where a prospect has multiple business locations, Hubspot lacks the functionality to adequately keep up with the different sites.
Sharing document links is simple with Hubspot; add the document to your Dashboard, then create a shareable link in a matter of clicks. Hubspot is also compatible with popular email clients Gmail, G Suite, Outlook, and Office 365. This allows users the familiarity of their preferred mailbox.
Hubspot sends immediate notifications directly to your desktop when your content experiences an engagement. It accomplishes this by sending cookies that identify the initial opener of your document and, with their email address, subsequent actions they take with the document. They only need to input their email address for the first engagement, and cookies are managed across contacts so sharing with other colleagues is painless if they’ve also interacted with you before.
While tracking your documents with Hubspot has its advantages, there are other document tracking solutions that are easier on your IT department and your budget.
Content Camel offers best in class document tracking and content management, without the inflexible contracts or steep learning curve.
Content Camel allows you to use your entire catalog of content from one easy spot. Managing your content library by terms such as funnel stage and type will make for faster navigation, and the added organization will make it easier to update your work as you continue to develop your documents.
When you decide to share your documents, a custom, smart shortlink is generated to provide a direct path for your client. You can also create a custom domain to house your assets, with personalization options to represent your brand.
With Content Camel’s Chrome Extension, contacts can be managed and any documents or assets shared can be tracked and analyzed following the initial engagement. Bundling a client’s engagements in this way will provide a more detailed, focused view of their experience, and this granular view can help to identify issues that may not be visible from a more holistic perspective.
Every organization has an increasing stockpile of old, similar content (think new versions!) and this presents a huge roadblock to sales and marketing teams. It creates confusion when looking for the most up-to-date version of a document or slows things down as workers trawl through old folders.
With Powerful Search Features, Content Camel gets the assets you need quickly and painlessly.
There are different types of search options when using Content Camel, each with their own ideal function:
Basic Search The Basic Search uses AI to search intelligently based on keywords or terms you entered, it even has spell check in case you make a mistake. This option is the fastest, but as it is the least specific, it may not have the pinpoint accuracy of the others.
Filtered Search The Filtered Search utilizes tags and content details to find what you’re looking for. Sorting by funnel stage and asset type can give you a comprehensive look at that stream of content, as well as making it easy to find what you’re looking for within. You can fine tune this search further by inputting industry and geographic information into the fields.
Default User Search The final method of searching may become a client’s most utilized; Default User Search. Presetting your search parameters can save time and hassle as consistent factors, such as location or industry, are automatically included in search parameters.
The Default User Search can be applied with the Basic and Filtered methods, and preset parameters can be changed or deleted as necessary.
Complimenting the smart shortlinks generated automatically, users are able to customize how they share their content so that they retain control of their material.
User permissions can be modified in order to give team members access to what they need without granting them superfluous access across the board. This allows for better accountability as it’s easy to retrace who did what and when with a document.
Content Camel also allows users to build personalized campaigns with custom collections and site resource pages designed to cater specifically to your ideal prospect. Creating these collections can help to consolidate successful documentation for a specific client, which can then be examined to determine why they were so successful.
Advanced Analytics Document tracking is as valuable as the information gained from it. Content Camel comes with a suite of advanced analytics tools to identify the key strengths and weaknesses in your documentation.
Real Time Metrics Through real-time share and view metrics, users can perform in-depth content audits without digging through multiple spreadsheets. Once you’ve determined what is worth keeping, what needs improving, and what is getting cut, you can create export reports to articulate your findings and provide a foundation for your plans going forward.
Content Wishlist Sales team members can request a specific piece of content be created to help with an engagement. Other sellers can upvote the request to increase priority and provide feedback on the final product.
The information gained through document tracking is critical for sales teams as they seek to gain insight into their customers' wants and habits.
Tracking can inform your team on how your clients interact with your documents, where they spend their time on the file, when they opened it, and whether or not they’ve shared it further.
Using additional tools like a lead capture form, your customers can add to the data themselves to paint a more complete picture of themselves.
The information gained from document tracking still requires some nuance to understand fully.
If a client is sharing your document widely, it’s likely that something has captured their interest about your product/service.
On the flip side, document tracking will tell you when your file hasn’t been opened at all, this level of client apathy or miscommunication should trigger alarm bells to start ringing and new documentation strategies may be necessary.
So, what’s the problem with not tracking documents?
When sales teams neglect document tracking and the associated analytics, your marketing and sales strategies suffer.
Missing Critical Metrics Understanding customer habits and desires will be much easier if you are able to determine how they are using your documents, but there are also pitfalls associated with bad or no document tracking.
Disorganization The organization afforded by document tracking and management solutions can provide a much needed tidying up of digital work spaces. Through organizing content by type or funnel phase, you are afforded a birds eye view of your process and may be able to notice gaps which you can then address.
Sharing Outdated Assets Maintaining an updated list of assets should always be a priority, and with the insights gained through analyzing document use, your team should be able to continually optimize and innovate their documentation.
Sharing Information Prematurely This doesn’t just mean adding new features as they arrive. Communication between sales and developers can sometimes be strained, so extra care should be taken to ensure that a document about a new feature is actually scheduled to be shared, rather than advertising for a new implementation that is still far from being delivered.
Ultimately, document tracking is as valuable as the data it provides, and that data itself is only as useful as your understanding of it.
Document tracking doesn’t even have to be limited to sales activities, it can be utilized for internal projects as well.
Proper doc tracking can help to perform a successful audit or ensure your team got the latest HR training module.
Through permissions and access controls, you can keep your team locked onto their part of the project, then bring together the full picture after. By restricting access to unnecessary files, you avoid having too many cooks in the kitchen and maintain individual focus.
Tracking a work document can be a useful way to keep up with the progress of your project, as you can manage and check in on who and what has been done.
Content Camel is designed to be an easy and comprehensive sales enablement tool to align content marketing, product marketing, and sales enablement by bringing all assets together.
Give sales reps the eBooks, datasheets, white papers, blog posts, and videos they need to serve buyers and close deals faster, whether online or offline. Organize your content with detailed tags and filters to enable powerful search capabilities to instantly get the content you need.
Content Camel offers troubleshooting support around the clock via phone, email, and app, to provide the best experience for its users. Quick response times and knowledgeable help gets your team back to work quickly.
Content Camel is available for free to solo entrepreneurs, with affordable and effective packages for teams and enterprises starting at just $15/user/month.
Looking to keep all your marketing content in one place, ready for sales? start a FREE trial of Content Camel now.
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Content Camel is a sales enablement tool used for sales content management. High-growth sales teams use our system to quickly find and share the right content for each specific sales situation and measure content use and effectiveness.