Let me start this off by saying this… I like Hubspot, I think Hubspot is great!
In my opinion, it can be VERY valuable to the right company or organization. If you’re a company that creates a ton of content, regularly produces worthwhile downloads, and is looking for a single source CRM and inbound marketing platform—then Hubspot could be exactly what you need.
With that said, sometimes these platforms seem like a good fit and just don’t work out. Maybe your company has changed marketing strategies, or your budget got reduced, or perhaps your CMO has become smitten with another platform. Whatever the reason, it happens.
This happened with one of our clients recently, they just decided it wasn’t the right tool for the job.
But this isn’t about the merits of whether or not Hubspot was a good fit this particular client.
It’s about content, a lot of content, and what we ended up having to do with that content.
Here’s a brief summary of the situation:
Our client had years of blogging under their belt, we’re talking hundreds of blog posts. When they partnered with Hubspot they migrated all of their blog posts from their existing website over to the Hubspot platform, where they continued to add blog posts on a regular basis. Now that they were finished with Hubspot, they wanted to migrate all their blog posts over to their WordPress website. Here’s the rub, this is not nearly the straight-forward process it was migrating from WordPress to Hubspot. There are no automated tools, and there is no easy button, and most companies have to code their way out of the situation.
So what did we do? We did what we always do… we coded our way out of it, but we decided to build a WordPress plugin specifically designed for:
Moving Content Away from Hubspot
Full disclosure: I’m skipping over all the nerdy bits here. Just know that our developers spent some time building, testing, and refining the plugin—they are awesome and deserve a ton of praise! Therefore, I am not going to dishonor their craft by writing a cringe-worthy account of what they did. Let’s just call it magic and fast-forward to the part where I installed the completed plugin.
So once I installed our new plugin, setting up and using it to import was easy, here’s how it works:
1.) A WordPress user simply accesses the Importer from the Tools menu
2.) They fill out some information about the Hubspot account in the settings area
3.) Once the settings information has been added the user can begin the import process
4.) The Importer shows a list of blog posts available for import
5.) The user selects and imports one or more of the posts at their discretion
At that point the importer simply goes to work, it sets all post attributes, it imports images from HubSpot into the WordPress Media Library, and updates the paths. It even shows the import status of each of the posts right in the interface.
Hooray! Now that we have everything built our next client that decides ditch Hubspot will have a seamless solution for retrieving their lost blog posts and we’ll have zero headaches.
In the words of John “Hannibal” Smith: “I love it when a plan comes together!”
If you or your company needs help migrating data from one platform to another, give us a shout. We’ll be happy to lend a hand!
