HubSpot goes freemium with new CRM offering

HubSpot now offers free email creation, sending, and analytics as part of the free HubSpot CRM to provide a more cohesive front end experience for their customers.

Growing businesses often suffer from app overload. According to a report from HubSpot Research, 82% of respondents indicated that they lose up to an hour a day logging into and managing disparate systems.

That lost time can be particularly damaging to a growing business that's working with small teams and limited budgets.

By bringing email and advertising tools into the free CRM, HubSpot is giving users the ability to manage those essential features in one connected system, saving them precious time and providing insight into the entire customer experience.

"Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of email marketing tools that are targeted to the needs of small or growing businesses," says HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar.

"Unfortunately, those free or low-cost solutions are often standalone and don't provide a full view of the customer experience. We believe that email and CRM belong together and that every marketer, no matter the size of their budget, should be able to see how their efforts are impacting their customers and, ultimately, their bottom line. We're offering email as part of our free CRM to enable growing businesses to finally see how their efforts impact their customers' experience beyond just a single email or interaction.

HubSpot CRM users are now able to create contact lists and send up to 2,000 emails per month, all with an email editor that is designed with efficiency and ease of use in mind. The company also announced today that it has expanded the capabilities of the free tier of its ads tools, which previously only supported Facebook lead ads.

"As a startup, we're always looking for new tools that will help us make an impact on a smaller budget. We often end up signing up for lots of disjointed tools, which can make it tough to get a full view of the customer journey," says Picmonic student outreach consultant Thomas Berry.

"With HubSpot's new email features, we're able to combine those automation tools with the insights we gather in the CRM. We always aim to put our customers first and with the launch of these powerful (and free) tools, we can provide them with an even better experience.

Starting today, users of HubSpot's free marketing tools can manage and track up to $1,000 per month of ad spend across Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn ads.

The tool also includes conversion-level reporting and up to two account connections. Both features feed insights back into the CRM, giving users a full view of how prospects and customers are interacting with their business.