I got to the end of the free WordPress account for my small business account and I wanted to analyse my CRM and sales data better. I wanted to dial up my sales and marketing, and, of course, use data to understand my audience better. With the free WordPress edition, I could not do some of the things that I wanted, such as HubSpot integration and advanced analytics.
Why CRM?
As a small business, I rely on a lot of word of mouth business. When business leads come in, I need to track them properly. I have not always been very good at following-up in the past, and I am learning to get better at actioning and following-up.
I love the HubSpot CRM solution, and I decided I’d take it a step further by integrating HubSpot with my WordPress website, which is hosted in Azure and you can see my Data Relish company site here, with the final result. HubSpot have got great help files here, and I am referring you to them.
What technology did I use?
Microsoft Azure WordPress – Azure met my needs since it could give me the opportunities for integration, plus additional space for storing resources such as downloads or videos.
Power BI – great way to create dashboards
HubSpot – CRM marketing and sales for small business
I found that using Microsoft Azure was a great way to make the jump from free WordPress to a hosted solution. Now, I am not a web developer and I do not intend to become one. However, I do want to use technology to meet my small business needs, and to do so in a way that is secure. I’m going to write up some posts on how to get started.
To get started with a website in Azure, you can follow the instructions here or watch the Channel 9 video for instructions.
Now, I needed a way of working with the HubSpot data in Power BI, and this is where the CData PowerBI and HubSpot connector comes in.
In running a small business, you need to be super-precious with your time. I could spend ages trying to create my own connector, or I could use a robust, off-the-counter connector that would do it for me.
In a small business, spending your time badly is still a cost.
In a business, you have to decide between spending money or spending time on an activity. If something is taking too long to do by yourself and someone/something could do it better but you have to pay for it, then it’s a false economy and a bad decision to do it by yourself. You’ve got a choice between expending time and effort, or a choice between spending money. Experience will tell you when to do what, but wasting time is difficult to measure.
There aren’t many options for Power BI and HubSpot, but I was pleased to find the CData connector.
Disclaimer: I didn’t tell HubSpot or CData that I was writing this blog so it isn’t endorsed by either of them.
What does CData look like?
You can download the CData ODBC Driver, which connects Power BI to HubSpot. Here’s a snip of their site:
I downloaded the trial, and then went through the install. It was easy and ‘next next next’. When it is installed, it launches a browser to ask you to log into HubSpot, which I did. Then, quickly, I got the following screen – yay, I am in business!
Then, off to Power BI to download the latest edition of Power BI Desktop. It’s easy to install, and I could get cracking very quickly.
How do we get access to the HubSpot data?
In Power BI Desktop, click on the Get Data icon in the Home tab, and then choose the ODBC option.
Click on the Connect button
Look for the HubSpot ODBC connector in the drop-down list. It should appear something like this:
Then, you will be asked for your name and password, and then click Connect:
Once you have connected, you will be presented with a list of HubSpot tables
Click the tables that you want, and the data will be loaded into Power BI.
If you don’t know which table you want, load in the tables starting with Deals first, then then compare it with the HubSpot screen. This will help you to understand better how the columns relate to your HubSpot data on your screen.
I’ll add more about HubSpot analysis in the future, but for now, happy PowerBI-ing!
Great post! You make the steps easy to understand. I just wanted to add that there is another off the shelf connector for HubSpot to Power BI that has some additional benefits to the method you described. In the HubSpot App Marketplace, you can find our Power BI integration for HubSpot: https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace/apps/marketing/analytics-data/powerbi. It’s completely point and click to set up, includes an Azure data warehouse and a reporting template. The Azure data warehouse enables automated refreshing of your Power BI reports and dashboards. $99 a month for a daily refresh rate. (Apologies for the shameless self promotion, but wanted to let your readers know about other options). Thanks!