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BOSTON — HubSpot unveiled a series of product updates today on the first full day of its 21,000-attendee INBOUND customer conference taking place at the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center.
The updates include integrations with Facebook (advertising), Shopify (ecommerce) and a new "Conversations" tool that, with the help of chatbots, unites customer messages into one inbox.
HubSpot is a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of CRM, marketing, sales and customer experience software.
Introducing HubSpot Conversations
HubSpot debuted plans for its new Conversations tool, which will brings customer conversations from site pages, Facebook, Slack and other messaging channels into one inbox.
Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and chief technology officer for HubSpot, called the tool the "biggest project in the company's history" during his afternoon keynote today. He stressed the importance of companies handling customers' and prospects' requests whenever and however customers want.
Features include conversation tie-ins to HubSpot CRM and the ability to build chatbots to aid the conversations process — leveraging technology from HubSpot’s recent acquisition of chatbot platform Motion AI.
Jeff Russo, director of HubSpot's product marketing team, told CMSWire customers communicate with brands via multiple messaging apps on — and not just to speak with sales.
Having messages in one place is critical for moments like the "handoff from sales to support," Russo said. "Conversations is the evolution of our live chat platform."
New Facebook, Instagram Integrations
The HubSpot Marketing Hub will now include Facebook Lead Ads integration, Facebook Ads audience sync and Instagram integration.
The new Facebook Ads audience sync is designed to help HubSpot Ads users to convert Facebook users based on HubSpot data. Marketers can sync HubSpot lists to Facebook audiences.
Russo told CMSWire the Facebook audience sync helps marketers deliver granular, targeted advertisements via Facebook.
"Facebook has made it possible to do really specific messaging," Russo said.
Users can also leverage Facebook’s machine learning feature Lookalike Audiences.
The Instagram integration allows marketers to create and schedule posts inside the HubSpot desktop experience.
"It's really hard to generate leads for B2B companies on social media," Russo said. "It's been a tough nut to crack for a lot of folks. We think Facebook Lead Ads is a big step in right direction for B2B marketers."
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Ecommerce Partnership with Shopify
Customers of both HubSpot and Shopify can now access Shopify and its data, including customers, orders and products in the HubSpot platform.
This allows users to tackle ecommerce tasks such as sending transactional emails and building workflows around shopping carts.
“We’re looking forward to deepening our partnership with HubSpot in pursuit of our shared mission to give all companies, big or small, access to the tools they need to start up and scale up,” Tobias Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify, said in a statement.
HubSpot customers who don't use Shopify can instead use a new Ecommerce Bridge framework, an API package for developers to build custom integrations and ecommerce integrations.
A New Hub for HubSpot Customers
HubSpot also added a Customer Hub to the HubSpot platform. It will include:
- Customer inquiry management, live chat, ticket escalation
- Automated customer feedback and Net Promoter Score
- Sentiment analysis and churn forecasting
- Automated customer testimonial captures
- Knowledge center.
The Customer Hub is built on the HubSpot CRM free edition.
INBOUND, HubSpot Growing
HubSpot has nearly doubled its employee ranks since the 2015 INBOUND show at the same venue. It reported 1,777 employees as of June 30.
About 14,000 attended 2015 INBOUND and another 20,000 descended on Boston for INBOUND 16.
Last year at INBOUND, HubSpot unveiled its Growthbot, a chatbot for sales and marketing.
This year, the company doubled down on its artificial intelligence offerings with two acquisitions — Kemvi in July and Motion AI this month.
HubSpot reported $89 million in revenue with losses of $9.5 million in its most recent quarterly report.
