Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

ConnorSlivensky
Key Advisor | Elite Partner
Key Advisor | Elite Partner

What Functionality Will We Lose Moving To Umbraco

My companies website is currently on Drupal 7 and is moving to Umbraco. The Marketing department has been blogging on HubSpot and using the Marketing Suite for data analytics and reporting with some data being imported from our CRM system. 

 

Our in house developer is pushing to move the blog out of HubSpot and I've been tasked with figuring out what functionality we lose if we move out of HubSpot and just use it as a reporting tool. 

 

The only thing I could think of right away was the ability to track where templates,ctas ect are used across the site which doesn't work on external pages. 

 

If anyone else has ideas please let me know. I'd love to stay in HubSpot as much as possible but need to get concrete reasons why beyond we like it. 

0 Upvotes
3 Replies 3
MFrankJohnson
Thought Leader

What Functionality Will We Lose Moving To Umbraco

We hear a similar song and dance from non-HubSpot developers literally every week. (head shaking)


And while some of them actually have a clue, many are 'go-cart drivers' who've never even seen a real marketing automation platform in action, much less worked on a Formula One platform like HubSpot.

 

Infographic_-HubSpot-Formula-One-MarTech-1574x768-c00-v01.jpg

 


Typically, these unsubstantiated complaints are little more than resistance to learning another dev platform -- their chosen profession by the way, or power-plays to wrestle CONTROL of the blogging platform away from day-in / day-out marketers who actually have skin in the game -- aka: performance-based compensation.
[We've yet to meet a single developer willing to accept performance-based compensation when recommending a platform swap AWAY from HubSpot. Not a single one in nearly a decade!]

 

how-much-400x224.png
The next time a non-HubSpot developer recommends moving your HubSpot blog away from HubSpot, ask this single question then sit back and just listen to the hemming an'a hawing.


HOW MUCH WILL IT COST US?


If their answer doesn't include a MAJORITY of the following, tell 'em to shutthehellup and get out of your office! haha 😉


BEFORE THE MOVE
- COST to project manage the move.
- COST to plan an updated URL strategy to help mitigate page rank loss.
- Initial development COST of the new blog platform.
And if they utter those fateful words, "WordPress is free", secretly trigger the ringer on your smartphone and tell 'em you have to take it. Then tell everyone in the marketing department to avoid them the rest of the time they work there. (seriously)


THE MOVE
- COST to move the actual content.
- COST to retrain the editorial staff on the use of the new blog platform.

 

AFTER THE MOVE
- COST of page rank loss due to the move -- aka: LOSS OF REVENUE.
And while it is possible to actually increase revenue as a result of a blog platform change, that's more often the exception. Not the rule.
- COST of increased advertising due to page rank loss.

- Recurring COST for functionality (plugins) on the new blog platform.
- Recurring COST of new blog platform security -- (included with HubSpot blog).
- Recurring COST of new blog platform CDN -- (included with HubSpot blog).


Good luck.

 

Signed,

The Marketing Department! 😉

 

Note: Please search for recent posts as HubSpot evolves to be the #1 CRM platform of choice world-wide.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Be well,
Frank


www.mfrankjohnson.com
0 Upvotes
catbyerly
Participant

What Functionality Will We Lose Moving To Umbraco

I love this answer. While we do build blogs both in HubSpot and in other CMSs for clients, you're absolutely right that MANY of those things should be handled VERY carefuly when migrating a blog. 

 

But also, shouldn't those tires be Pirellis?


0 Upvotes
Ben_M
Key Advisor

What Functionality Will We Lose Moving To Umbraco

It's hard to really say there is a better solution because there are valid arguments for both. For instance, the functionality advantage of Hubspot is that it is integrated with the solution further and provides some things in an easier interface as opposed to some CMS platforms. There's also an advantage to having the blog on your www or primary subdomain as opposed to have a site and a blog on a separate subdoamin because more pages and links means more crawling of your site which can help rankings as opposed to having things on different subdomains/servers.

 

The question I would pose, is why was blogging not done on Drupal prior? Drupal is perfectly capable of running a blog and moving from Drupal to Umbraco is a complete system architecture change (PHP to .NET). Was IT not willing or did they not have enough resources to help you with blog customizations when you were on the Drupal platform? It's possible this question may be impossible to answer because it sounds like there is a bigger change happening where maybe the old IT department was PHP/Linux and the new one is .NET/Windows.  But if IT wants to take on the responsibility, they need to be able to support your needs of the blog so that it can continue to thrive no matter where it is hosted.