HubSpot Update November 2023; New Tools Bring Cautious Excitement

Every couple of months, I drop by IMPACT’s blog to talk all things HubSpot — with a special focus on what’s new, what’s coming, and how the everyday HubSpot user can get more out of the platform.

This time, we’re still coming down off our post-INBOUND high.

Which means we’ve all been playing around with the tools and features that were announced. And, let’s be honest, some are total home runs, and others just aren’t quite there yet. 

Below, I’ll dive into the details of what I like, what I don’t, and what you should be looking out for. 

Let’s dive in.

INBOUND ‘23: A look back

I think INBOUND this year was really about future casting — imagining the future of digital marketing in which the tools are smarter and the buyer’s journey is clearer. 

HubSpot rolled out a number of AI-powered tools. Some were new, some were updates to existing tools, and some were not yet out for the public, even in Beta.

For your reference, here’s the keynote from HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan, which focused heavily on artificial intelligence, both within the HubSpot platform and without.

As an attendee and a panelist at this year’s INBOUND, my head was swimming with possibilities. How could I use these tools to streamline my work — and how could I teach my clients to do the same?

And now, a few months later, I’ve gotten to try out many new features. Here are my main takeaways. 

The HubSpot feature you should be using now

Here are the tools that are ready to help you today:

HubSpot Content Assistant 

This AI-powered text generator can be used across a range of contexts: writing blogs, emails, landing page copy, CTAs and more.   

What it’s good at:

Alright, stop me if you’ve heard this one: You write a great email subject line — but then you want to run an A/B test and you’re not sure how to reword the killer phrasing you used the first time.

This is a perfect use case. AI can rephrase, paraphrase, and summarize till the cows come home. If you need copy alternatives, this thing is great.

What it’s not great at:

Like with a lot of AI, the shorter the assignment you give it (and the clearer the prompt), the better the outcome will be.

So, that complete blog you ask it to write may be pretty generic, but if you need a quick introduction, an article summary, or a social post you can tweak, this tool is a huge time saver. 

How to get started: 

This is easy, and it applies to all tiers. Navigate to Settings > Tools > AI Assistants and ensure that everything is properly turned on in your portal, like this:

HubSpot features that aren’t great…yet

Before I get into this, a general piece of advice. Technology is advancing so rapidly right now that the tool you tried today could be completely different in a couple of months. So, keep that in mind as I list a few tools that aren’t quite passing muster just yet. 

HubSpot rolled out some new features to great fanfare, which sometimes can set expectations a bit too high. 

For one, ChatSpot is HubSpot’s new AI marketing assistant, currently in Beta. At the INBOUND launch party, it promised to build entire marketing campaigns with a few clicks.

And while it can do this, what you’ll get is much more of a bare-bones outline than it is anything you’d use right out of the box.

Still, it’s a useful tool for getting you past the blank page phase. And it is sure to get better with future updates and refinements. 

Upcoming HubSpot feature I’m most excited about: AI-powered chatbot

I’m really excited to play with HubSpot’s AI-powered chatbot. It’s in Beta and there’s currently a waitlist, which you can access here. It’s slated to launch by EOY 2023 on HubSpot’s AI Roadmap.

According to HubSpot’s website, the chatbot allows you to “provide a GPT-powered chat experience right on the front lines of your website.” You provide the data to train the bot on your brand and your style, and HubSpot does the rest. The result is a smart, intuitive tool that can “help your website visitors get their needs met quickly while giving your teams the space to focus on high-value support work.”

One final piece of AI advice: Be the human in the loop!

Here’s an interesting experiment: Ask HubSpot’s Content Assitant to write a meta description for your blog and, guess what? It will write you something that does not adhere to HubSpot’s own best practices for meta descriptions!

This is one more reminder that for all the advances offered by AI, there are still substantial limitations. As the human in the creative loop, don’t blindly accept anything you get from the machines. At the very least, give it a good once over so you can be sure it’s something that your brand can stand behind. 

The fact that HubSpot’s own AI tool doesn’t observe HubSpot’s own best practices is a great reminder of this. 

Your spot for HubSpot expertise

Are you loving or hating your new HubSpot tools? Are they helping you get more done, or are you the tools too glitchy to be helpful.

You can always reach out to me on LinkedIn or at IMPACT to talk about ways you and your team can get more out of your HubSpot platform.