4 Features That Just Made HubSpot Way More Content Marketing-Friendly

 HubSpot is a powerful tool, but it’s just that -- a tool.

Back when I was in client service, I often heard people complain when their website traffic and conversions didn’t just magically skyrocket after buying HubSpot, but that expectation was unrealistic in the first place.

Like a hammer, pair of scissors, or even a flat iron, HubSpot doesn’t do the work for you, but it makes your work significantly easier to do.

One area HubSpot has made particular advancement in recently is content creation and strategy.

Sorry, HubSpot still won’t write your blog articles for you, but thanks to a number of new features announced this afternoon at INBOUND 2016, the marketing automation software has taken many steps forward in its ability to help you develop, execute, and improve your content marketing strategy -- and overall be a more holistic content creation resource.

Below I’ve broken down four of the exciting new features that have made HubSpot more content marketing-friendly and explained what they mean for us all.

1. HubSpot Content Strategy

Thanks to HubSpot’s new Content Strategy tool, creating and fine-tuning your content marketing strategy has never been easier.

With this feature, marketers will be able to see definitively what’s working and what’s not from a content standpoint and then use this insight to take more effective, lead generating strategic action.

To be more specific, the Content Strategy app starts by showing you relevant topics your website is already ranking for as well as supporting long-tail keywords. From there, it references over 3 billion records to analyze search opportunities and create a list of recommended content to create and questions to answer.

No more wracking your brain to think of new topics!

Overall, Content Strategy will help you see content is bringing in the most leads and give you the data you need to validate your strategy to your higher-ups or if you’re an agency like IMPACT, your clients.

2. HubSpot Composer

No surprise, but I write a lot of content.

I love doing it, but truth is, even I have moments where I get off task and lose sight of the article, eBook, landing, page, etc. at hand -- especially when I’m jumping back and forth between Google Docs and other browser windows.

Recognizing this, HubSpot has released Composer.

Composer (you’ve might have seen it in beta) is a minimalist writing space that helps you focus on your content by removing all of the distractions of your other work activities.

Similar to Google Docs, Composer allows you to draft content with all of your essential formatting options (i.e. bullet points, links, headers, images, etc.), but with the added benefit of never having to leave HubSpot.

The tool also enables you to easily share and “collaborate” on your composition with your members of your team, as well as leave comments:

Then, when you’re done writing, all you have to do is hit “next” and the platform will help you transfer the content into a blog draft:

I don’t know about you, but one of the most time-consuming activities of maintaining an efficient blog is editing, formatting, and optimizing articles.

With content being composed and revised directly in HubSpot, a great deal of the time we used to spend copying text, fixing lost formatting, and uploading images can now be allocated to more valuable activities.

3. HubSpot Collect

When you come across an awesome idea on another site, how do you save it?

Email it? Bookmark it? Put it in your Pocket? I personally have a “note” on my desktop that acts as my inspiration swipe file, but I’d be lying if I said every idea that goes in there gets used.

This year, HubSpot realized that many marketing teams fall victim to this same bad habit. They find inspiration in a number of different sources, but without a single, unified place to save or share them, the majority get lost or forgotten.

With its new feature, Collect, HubSpot now gives you a place to house all of these ideas (links, notes, etc.) directly inside your portal.

All of your teammates can access and add to the space and then when you’re writing, HubSpot will show you the resource and give you the ability to insert it with just a few clicks. It even takes care of the attribution for you.

Collect takes sharing ideas and content collaboration to a whole new level.

4. HubSpot and Google AMP

Last, but not least, HubSpot has officially rolled out Google AMP to all websites and blogs hosted on its platform.

While accelerated mobile pages aren’t fit for everyone’s goals, the offering gives most marketers the opportunity to improve their content delivery and overall experience on mobile devices. It also a sign how HubSpot keeps its finger on the pulse of the changing industry.

To turn on Google AMP for your pages, simply go to “Content” > Content Settings, select “Blog” from the left-hand menu, then click “Templates.”

At the bottom of this section, check off “Enable Google AMP formatted pages” as pictured below and you’re good to go:

Content’s not the only thing HubSpot’s great at…

Content creation aside, HubSpot is a robust all-in-one software for sales and marketing teams of all sizes. Debating it for your company?

Weigh all of the positives and negatives in our honest buyer’s guide, “The Ultimate List of HubSpot Pros and Cons.” Get your copy by filling out the form below: