Do I Need To Hire a HubSpot Admin, or Can Someone on My Team Handle It?

For many businesses, HubSpot touches all aspects of their customer journey. From form submissions and blog traffic through lead scoring, sales emails, and deal tracking through customer service.

But it doesn’t start out this way. Chances are, your team adopted HubSpot primarily as a marketing tool at first, then it spread to more teams and more aspects of the customer experience.

Or, maybe you’re not quite there yet. Perhaps you’re still in the early stages of HubSpot adoption, unsure of how best to administrate this central tool in your tech stack.

Jess Palmeri is a certified HubSpot trainer at IMPACT. She works with businesses in all stages of HubSpot implementation, from total novices to sprocket whizzes. Jess advises clients to ask themselves two questions before deciding on their HubSpot staffing needs:

• How do we use HubSpot now?
• How do we hope to use it in the future?

Whether you need to hire a HubSpot admin or not depends on your answers to these questions — as well as your budget and team structure. 

Let’s break down how you can make the best decision for your company.

You may need to hire a HubSpot admin if…

Here's when hiring an internal expert might make sense.

1. You’ve had recent turnover and need someone to jump in and handle HubSpot right away

If HubSpot is already a crucial tool in your marketing and sales process, you don’t have the time for a novice. Maybe your previous HubSpot owner left the company or was promoted. In this case, you’ll need an experienced expert who can jump right in and take control. 

2. Poor team dynamics have led to inconsistent use in the past

If you’ve got a content manager who only uses HubSpot for blogging, sales reps who track deals, and marketers who write and schedule newsletters, you need great team communication to make sure no one gets in each other’s way. Otherwise, it might be time to hire a dedicated HubSpot administrator to coordinate all the cooks in the kitchen.

“You can have different team members take different pieces of the HubSpot puzzle,” Jess advises, “but then you will have no unified approach unless you have really strong internal communication.”

A HubSpot admin can serve as the authority who sets the rules and keeps every piece of the HubSpot platform running smoothly.

3. Bad data is killing you

Organizations live and die by their data. The beauty of HubSpot is that you can segment your marketing automation to deliver the right message at the right time to the right prospect — and that you can track every stage of a deal. However, this only works if your data is clean.

“If you have sales reps consistently entering bad data,” says Jess, “You can make your database virtually unusable.” 

If you want to be able to confidently send emails only to people in the greater Boston area who have not attended a tradeshow in the last 12 months, your data needs to be clean.

If bad data is limiting your efforts, you might need someone in charge to regulate the process and keep the tool clean.

You probably don’t need to hire a HubSpot admin if...

Here's when you can likely use someone internally.

1. You’re new to HubSpot and have internal team members who can grow into the role

The longer you have HubSpot, the bigger the task of managing it becomes. If you’re new to the HubSpot ecosystem and have someone internal who can oversee its adoption, there’s no need to hire a specialist.

According to Jess, “If you're just starting out with HubSpot, then having someone who is also new to HubSpot is a really great, cheaper alternative to hiring an expert in HubSpot marketing automation.”

They can grow with the platform.

2. You have exceptional communication between teams

“The clients that succeed with HubSpot have really strong communications between marketing and sales,” says Jess. “Everyone knows how to contribute their piece of the puzzle of the customer journey.” 

In other words, if each team member does his or her part consistently, HubSpot can function smoothly without a central administrative figure.

Jess likens it to road traffic. If everyone is driving responsibly, there’s no need for a traffic cop. But if people start getting lax with the rules, you might need someone to keep everyone in line. 

Can someone else on my marketing team handle HubSpot?

Yes, but only up to a point. According to Jess, “it will become very apparent when your digital marketer who also handles HubSpot is getting stretched too thin.” If you’re expanding into ever more aspects of the HubSpot platform, asking one person to manage HubSpot in addition to other duties may become unrealistic.

As always, listen to your team. If a marketer shares with a manager that HubSpot duties are getting too big to bear, make sure to take something else off their plate, or look to hire.

🔎 Related: Which HubSpot Marketing Hub plan is right for you?

Can my HubSpot admin take on other duties as well?

Most likely, yes.

At IMPACT, every employee has a job scorecard that spells out the core responsibilities of their position. However, the nature of our work makes these scorecards subject to change. New responsibilities come up while others get deprioritized. If you’ve built strong relationships with your team, encourage open communication to know each person’s bandwidth.

Additionally, using a time tracking software like ClickUp can help managers see just how much time employees are dedicating to different tasks. With this information, you can better support and deploy your team.

When hiring, beware: Not all HubSpot experience is created equal

The HubSpot ecosystem is growing and changing so rapidly that Jess warns that experience needs to be recent to have real relevance. “If a candidate has HubSpot experience from several years ago, I would rank that below having more recent experience in another CRM,” she says.

Hiring a candidate with outdated HubSpot knowledge might mean they will get into the tool and find themselves in an entirely unfamiliar working environment.

HubSpot admin: Salary expectations

Salary ranges are always problematic. So much can depend on what part of the country you’re in, your industry, and what you’re expecting your new hire to do.

However, Jess generalizes that a HubSpot admin should likely earn in the $55,000-$75,000 range. As always, the more experience needed and the more responsibilities required, the more you can expect to pay. 

Hiring a HubSpot admin

If HubSpot is set up properly and administered effectively, your marketing can be automated to maximum efficiency. And it’s not just marketing. HubSpot can play a vital role in your sales and service, too.

Because the tool can be so effective, you might find yourself looking to hire a dedicated HubSpot manager who can really bring the tool to full maturity in your organization.

Use the criteria above. If you really need that HubSpot specialist, start looking for that highly organized, experienced, and creative traffic cop who can orchestrate your HubSpot portal.

Or, if you’re newer to the tool, hand responsibility to an internal team member who can take ownership and grow with the tool. Just be ready to remove other responsibilities as the HubSpot role becomes larger.