HubSpot studies show that clients who buy COS websites with their marketing package have a much lower churn rates that the ones with their webs out of the platform.
HubSpot incorporates all your online marketing needs in just one platform. As well as easily integrating with other applications, it helps us to create advanced Inbound marketing strategies such as creating and editing content on our pages thanks to the CMS integrated COS (content optimization system).
The COS allows us to host our website within the Hubspot platform with the added value this gives us: we can forget about platform updates, security issues, data backup, access speed and complete integration with our marketing tool. However, the COS has had a major drawback for many years when compared with other CMS platforms on the market: there was no database feature, greatly limiting the editing possibilities for dynamic pages, something so important for a website nowadays. Working with HubSpot guarantees that the development team continuously works to improve their suite, as in last October when HubSpot announced the much awaited feature to work with a database which has turned the COS into one of the top players on the CMS market.
So let’s review the differences between Hubspot and other CMS platforms. With the COS we have the possibility to create and edit our own personalized templates, to easily adapt them to the needs of our pages and landing pages, without having to have an extensive knowledge of coding.
Some advantages that HubSpot COS currently includes, when creating our own templates, compared to other CMS on the market are:
1. Creating templates with Template Builder.
In Design Manager, we can build our template by adding and editing different types of modules depending on the design of our page with the Template Builder.
In some cases without needing to write a single line of code, we can create and organize columns, add different types of modules (image modules, text modules, forms...) and edit each of their characteristics (font size, colors...)
2. Fully Responsive Templates and Cross Browser.
HubSpot COS templates are integrated with a fully responsive CSS grid and visible on any device. Although it currently uses a system of rows and columns based on FrameWork Bootstrap 2, many developers are awaiting the arrival of the update to Bootstrap 3, so there may be some limitations using an old version of FrameWork.
3. Creating and editing Modules to build templates.
HubSpot provides different types of Modules, some general and others we can create ourselves to make them more customizable.
3.1 Modules or Global Groups
These modules, or group of modules, called global, can be used on different pages at the same time. This way we only have to edit them once and the changes are applied to all the pages where they have been used, which greatly improves development time.
3.2 General Modules
HubSpot offers a series of general modules that we can use to create the structure of our page.
However, these modules are limited when we want to build advanced designs and complex features. So we have to create our own Custom Modules in order to satisfy our design needs or those of our clients.
3.3 Custom Modules
To build advanced designs and complex features, HubSpot has the option to create our own Custom Modules. Therefore, the features of HubSpot increase by default.
However, to create this type of module we need to have a greater knowledge of coding, so we would have to rely on an expert developer in Hubspot COS to create the required structure so that the marketing professional or client can edit their content easily without needing to touch any code.
Here we can see some examples of what we would need to create custom modules:
- Customized image gallery or customized sliders
- Events listings
- List of team profiles, with their profile image, biography and links to their networks.
- A section that allows the user to choose between different background colors or font to control the styles of the page.
- Events calendar
- Integration of an online shop – E-commerce
- Client Testimonials Carrousel
4. HUBL
To build custom modules we can use HubSpot Markup Language (HUBL), an integrated language on HubSpot that allows us to program functions and create complex structures.
5. Smart Content
In most CMS platforms the same content is always shown, whether you are a user visiting the page for the first time or a registered client.
On HubSpot COS, you can work with filtered content according to the user information with the Pro and Enterprise packages. This way we show different information depending on the type of user.
This means a big innovation in terms of content management, allowing marketing professionals to customize content according to the level of commitment that a user has with their company.
6. HubDB
HubDB, is an integrated database on HubSpot, eagerly awaited by everyone, allows developers to create content and embed it in web pages and landing pages, as well as marketing professionals to easily edit content in the database.
HubDB users can create for example
- Products List
- Pages of team profiles
- Events Listings
- And much more...
7. And finally Local HubL Server with FTP
HubSpot offers developers the possibility to develop their templates and CSS files locally. Therefore, the developer can work locally and upload files to the platforms once finished, or even synchronize them with their production account via FTP.
This way the developer can work in the environment where they feel most comfortable, improving development time.
The best feature of the Hubspot COS Design Manager is that it offers a customizable environment and is easy to use for all users.
However, in some cases, we have to rely on developers specialized in Hubspot COS to help us achieve the advanced features we need.
HubSpot is a platform that is continually growing and improving its tools, both in terms of marketing as well as in design. We hope that they continue to improve the design tools to match or exceed the quality of the advanced marketing tools currently on offer.
And I’d like to ask the community if after knowing all that you will consider training your development teams on COS and how helpful you’d find a crash course in COS for them.
Best,
Jordi Navarrete
www.cosdesignstudio.com
