HubSpot Brand Amplifier: Turn Mentions Into Revenue

Introduction

In the high-stakes world of marketing, simply having a great product isn’t enough. Businesses must actively and leverage their public image and media presence to achieve their strategic goals through expert insights, marketing campaigns, and consistent brand messaging. But how can you translate brand recognition into tangible results using readily available tools? This tutorial will walk you through using the Brand Amplifier suite within HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise to craft a public image that drives sales.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Brand Amplifier Account

First, you need to ensure you have HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise. The Brand Amplifier tool is only available in that version. I had a client last year, a local real estate firm near the intersection of Peachtree and Lenox Roads in Buckhead, who tried to use the Professional edition for brand monitoring—it just doesn’t have the same capabilities. They quickly realized the upgrade was necessary.

Sub-step 1.1: Accessing Brand Amplifier

1. Navigate to Marketing > Social > Brand Amplifier in the main HubSpot navigation.
2. If this is your first time using the tool, you’ll see a “Get Started” button. Click it.

Pro Tip: Ensure your HubSpot user role has “Super Admin” or “Marketing Access” permissions to access and configure Brand Amplifier fully. Otherwise, you may encounter limitations.

Expected Outcome: You’ll be directed to the Brand Amplifier dashboard, where you can begin configuring your brand settings.

Step 2: Defining Your Brand Keywords

This is where the magic begins. Brand Amplifier needs to know what to listen for. Think beyond just your company name.

Sub-step 2.1: Adding Core Brand Terms

1. In the Brand Amplifier dashboard, click the “Brand Keywords” tab.
2. Click “Add Keyword Group.”
3. Enter a name for your group (e.g., “Company Name”).
4. In the keyword field, enter your company name, variations (e.g., “Acme Corp,” “Acme Corporation,” “Acme”), and common misspellings. Separate each term with a comma.
5. Click “Save Group.”

Sub-step 2.2: Including Product and Service Keywords

Don’t forget to monitor mentions of your key products and services. A IAB report found that 62% of consumers research products online before making a purchase, so tracking these mentions is vital.

1. Create a new Keyword Group (e.g., “Product X”).
2. Add relevant product names, features, and related terms. For example, if you sell “Cloud Storage Solutions,” include terms like “cloud storage,” “data backup,” “online file sharing,” etc.

Sub-step 2.3: Adding Competitor Keywords (Optional)

While not directly related to your brand, monitoring competitors can provide valuable insights. A Statista study shows that 45% of businesses track competitor activity for market analysis.

1. Create a new Keyword Group (e.g., “Competitor A”).
2. Add the names of your main competitors.

Pro Tip: Use quotation marks around multi-word phrases (e.g., “customer service”) to ensure Brand Amplifier searches for the exact phrase. Without quotation marks, it will search for any mention of “customer” and “service” separately.

Common Mistake: Only adding your company name. This misses valuable opportunities to engage with conversations about your products or industry.

Expected Outcome: Brand Amplifier will begin collecting mentions across the web and social media that match your defined keywords.

Step 3: Connecting Your Social Media Accounts

To get the most out of Brand Amplifier, connect your social media accounts. This allows you to respond directly to mentions from within HubSpot.

Sub-step 3.1: Connecting Accounts

1. In the Brand Amplifier dashboard, click the “Social Accounts” tab.
2. Click “Connect Account.”
3. Choose the social media platform you want to connect (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram).
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to authorize HubSpot to access your account.

Pro Tip: Connect all relevant social media accounts to get a complete picture of your brand presence. This includes accounts managed by your marketing team, customer support team, and even individual employees who actively engage with customers online.

Common Mistake: Forgetting to reconnect accounts after a password change or platform update. This can lead to missed mentions and delayed responses. I’ve seen companies near Perimeter Mall lose valuable leads because their social accounts weren’t properly connected.

Expected Outcome: Your connected social media accounts will appear in the “Social Accounts” tab, and Brand Amplifier will begin monitoring mentions on those platforms.

Step 4: Setting Up Sentiment Analysis

Brand Amplifier uses AI-powered sentiment analysis to automatically classify mentions as positive, negative, or neutral. This helps you prioritize your responses and identify potential crises.

Sub-step 4.1: Reviewing Sentiment Settings

1. In the Brand Amplifier dashboard, click the “Sentiment Analysis” tab.
2. Review the default sentiment settings. These settings determine how Brand Amplifier classifies mentions based on the language used.

Sub-step 4.2: Customizing Sentiment Triggers (Optional)

You can customize the sentiment triggers to better reflect your brand’s specific needs. For example, you might want to flag mentions that contain specific keywords as negative, even if the overall sentiment is neutral.

1. Click “Add Custom Trigger.”
2. Enter the keyword or phrase you want to trigger the sentiment change.
3. Select the sentiment (Positive, Negative, or Neutral) you want to assign to mentions that contain the keyword.
4. Click “Save Trigger.”

Pro Tip: Regularly review and adjust your sentiment triggers to ensure they accurately reflect your brand’s voice and values. The nuances of language are always changing, and AI needs a little help sometimes.

Expected Outcome: Brand Amplifier will automatically classify mentions based on sentiment, making it easier to prioritize your responses.

Step 5: Creating Automated Workflows

The real power of Brand Amplifier comes from its ability to trigger automated workflows based on brand mentions. This allows you to respond quickly and efficiently to both positive and negative feedback.

Sub-step 5.1: Creating a “Thank You” Workflow

Let’s start with a simple workflow that automatically sends a personalized thank-you note to anyone who mentions your brand positively.

1. In HubSpot, navigate to Automation > Workflows.
2. Click “Create Workflow.”
3. Choose “Start from Scratch” and select “Contact-based” workflow.
4. Set the enrollment trigger to “Brand Amplifier Mention” and filter by “Sentiment is Positive.”
5. Add an action to “Send Email.” Create a personalized email template that thanks the person for their positive feedback and encourages them to share their experience with others.
6. Activate the workflow.

Consider how Klaviyo’s practical marketing features can complement these automated thank you notes.

Sub-step 5.2: Creating a “Crisis Management” Workflow

Now, let’s create a workflow that escalates negative mentions to your customer support team.

1. Create a new contact-based workflow.
2. Set the enrollment trigger to “Brand Amplifier Mention” and filter by “Sentiment is Negative.”
3. Add an action to “Create Task.” Assign the task to a member of your customer support team and include details about the negative mention.
4. Add an action to “Send Internal Email Notification” to the customer support manager.
5. Activate the workflow.

Pro Tip: Use HubSpot’s personalization tokens to create highly targeted and relevant responses. For example, you can use the “Mention Text” token to include the actual text of the mention in your email or task description.

Common Mistake: Creating overly complex workflows that are difficult to manage and maintain. Start with simple workflows and gradually add complexity as needed. We ran into this exact issue at my previous firm – too many steps, too little action.

Expected Outcome: Automated workflows will trigger based on brand mentions, allowing you to respond quickly and efficiently to both positive and negative feedback.

Step 6: Monitoring and Reporting

Regularly monitor your Brand Amplifier dashboard to track your brand mentions and identify trends. Use the reporting features to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and identify areas for improvement.

Sub-step 6.1: Monitoring the Dashboard

1. In the Brand Amplifier dashboard, review the “Mentions” feed to see the latest mentions of your brand.
2. Use the filters to sort mentions by sentiment, source, and keyword group.
3. Respond to mentions directly from the dashboard.

Sub-step 6.2: Running Reports

1. In the Brand Amplifier dashboard, click the “Reports” tab.
2. Choose from a variety of pre-built reports, such as “Sentiment Analysis Over Time,” “Top Mention Sources,” and “Keyword Performance.”
3. Customize the reports to track specific metrics.
4. Export the reports to share with your team.

Pro Tip: Set up regular reporting schedules to automatically generate and distribute reports to your team. This ensures that everyone is aware of your brand’s online presence and can take action as needed.

Expected Outcome: You’ll have a clear understanding of your brand’s online presence and be able to make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

Mastering HubSpot’s Brand Amplifier is about more than just tracking mentions; it’s about building a proactive, responsive, and data-driven brand strategy. Configure your workflows to automatically thank positive reviewers and immediately address any negative feedback. Start with a small, testable subset of keywords, monitor for a week, then scale up. This way, you can and leverage their public image and media presence to achieve their strategic goals through expert insights, marketing campaigns to achieve real growth.

Remember, actionable marketing is key to seeing real results.