Analogies for HubSpot Tools: Pages, Properties, and Emails

Ever have difficulty wrapping your head around the HubSpot product? The three pairs of HubSpot tools or product areas below can create some confusion. They may appear almost identical on the surface, but they're actually quite different.

You can use analogies to approach them from another angle. The analogies below put a real-life spin on technical concepts, helping you better understand the tools and drive your marketing and sales success.

1. Website Page vs. Website Template

That template preview may have you thinking you're looking at the live website page itself. You find a template with that perfect design, and you think that the page is done.

Not quite. A website page and a template are two separate areas of the tool.

A website page is the basic content and structure of the page, complete with a URL that is published to your site. It's where the bulk of your content lives. However, without a template, that content will be pretty plain.

A website template includes the design elements of the page, giving the page's content a look and feel. The template does not have a URL that is published. Instead, it is applied to website pages to add stylistic elements.

Analogy: Paper dolls

If you've ever seen a paper doll in a magazine, you'll know that the doll itself has plain shorts and a tank top drawn on. Think of the doll as the website page.

The doll also comes with cut-out outfits. These can range from fancy winter coats to swimwear. The outfits cannot stand on their own without a doll, however. Instead, they are put on the doll for style. Think of those outfits as website templates. The outfits change the look of the doll, but the doll itself is still the same. Templates change the look of your website page, but the basic content is still the same.

Occasionally, you may grow bored with an outfit on the paper doll, so you swap it out for a new one. The same goes for websites: swap out the old template for the new one, and the look of your page can be completely different.

Pro tip: Swapping to a template with different modules will affect what content can be on the page. Just as you would dress your paper doll in an outfit that fits, when applying a template to a page, try to go with a template with the same module types or without default content that will replace all of your existing content.   

2. "Company Name" vs. "Name"

Contacts and companies are two different record types in your HubSpot CRM. Both have their own properties: contacts have contact properties and companies have company properties. However, there are some properties that appear to be the same. “Company name” (a contact property) and “Name” (a company property) are in fact unrelated.

“Company name” is a contact property where you can store the name of the contact’s company. This lives with the contact record’s other contact properties, accessed by clicking “View all properties” in a contact’s "About" section.

“Name,” on the other hand, is a company property, referring to the name of the contact’s associated company. This lives with the associated company’s company properties, accessed by hitting “View all properties” in a company’s About section. Or, you can see the property from the contact record's associated company card in the left-hand section.

Analogy: A company trade show

At a trade show, people from different companies work at their respective company booths and wear a name tag that lists their company’s name. The company booth, which stores company information, such as the company’s name, photos, and business cards, is the associated company record. The name on the booth’s display is the company property “name.”

The name tag that the employee wears, with the company name written on it, is the contact property “company name.” Below is a visual of what a contact property's “company name” looks like:

And here is what a company property's "Name," which exists on the company record and can also appear on the contact's "Associated Company" card, looks like:

Sometimes, people can work at a company booth but not wear their name tag. That would be a contact with an associated company that has a value for the "Name" company property but no value for the contact property, "Company Name."

Also, some people can wear a name tag that shows the name of the company they work at, but their company doesn't have a physical booth at the trade show. This would represent a contact record with a value for the contact property, "Company Name," but no associated company card that stores a "Name" company property. 

3. Marketing Email vs. Sales Email

Email exists in both HubSpot Marketing and HubSpot Sales/CRM. While both tools may include emails, they each serve a unique purpose.

A marketing email is an email sent to a group of recipients with the intent of raising awareness and driving interest. These are typically more geared toward drawing attention to a product or service offer. They may also fall along the lines of a newsletter or blog subscription email.

A sales email comes directly from the sender to one recipient. These are meant to be more personalized to build relationships with prospects. These emails can be tracked and logged from your email client or created and sent right within HubSpot, either from scratch or using a template.

An easy way to think of it is:

• A marketing email is a one-to-many relationship.
• A sales email is a one-to-one relationship.

Analogy: Job hunt

When you're out of a job and are actively searching for a position, you will probably send out a more general résumé to a number of different companies to raise awareness and drive interest. This is similar to a marketing email, sent to a larger recipient list to build interest in a particular content offer.

One of those companies may express interest in getting to know you better, possibly even hiring you. You would then interview to build a relationship with the company, get to know the team, and provide more documentation on yourself, such as a more specific cover letter, work samples, and resources that are more tailored to the company and specific position. This is similar to a sales email, sent to one recipient and tailored to that particular prospect.

Keeping analogies in mind when tackling HubSpot enables you to take a step back from the technical world and apply your everyday software to reality. With that mindset, you are on your way to conquering any tricky areas of the product!

Do you have any analogies that help you navigate HubSpot? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!