How to Build a Team Page with HubDB

05/21/2019 4 min read Written by Lynton

There’s likely been a time you and the rest of your marketing team have determined an exciting new element for your company’s website, only to have your development team come back to you and tell you it’ll take a few weeks to implement. Or, worse – it may not be completely possible.

Lucky for us, HubSpot caught on to our website woes and introduced HubDB, their relational database that allows developers to create database-driven content that can be embedded within websites and landing pages. With HubDB, any website or landing page that features similarly formatted content can now be quickly built and managed directly on HubSpot – by the marketing team! So, in essence, HubDB allows you to adopt a more fluid state of your marketing.

All of this allows you to build dynamic websites, meaning each webpage can be generated by simply pulling one or more lines of information from a database (like a spreadsheet, but not as messy). From there, you can populate any webpage on the fly rather than having a developer from your company manually update and render that content.

If you’re wondering what you could use HubDB for, check out our infographic detailing many of its uses. One great use of this functionality is to create an “About Us” or “Team” page – especially if your company is experiencing rapid growth, or you want to have a more interesting team page that showcases your exciting facts and employee bios.

How to Create a Dynamic Team Page

To initially create your team page, you’ll need some knowledge of HubSpot’s CMS, HTML, and CSS. Most often, a developer builds your functionality within HubDB before passing it on to a member of the marketing team to manage. But, for developers, the steps to create a team page are simple:mock-hubdb-team-page

  • Set up your HubDB team member table. Remember to note the ID of your table (the last number in the URL). If you are unfamiliar with how to create a table within HubSpot, you can use this as reference.
  • Create a custom module. Once you generate your table, you’ll need to create a new template in Design Manager and a new custom module.
  • Add custom fields to your custom module.
  • Add logic to handle dynamic filtering by page URL.
  • Generate your team page!

Once it’s built, it’s easy to maintain. You can add whatever information about your team you find useful to share, whether it’s their employment history, certifications, or fun facts. Then, you can quickly edit that information as your team evolves.

Why You Should Use HubDB for Dynamic Pages

Before HubDB existed, trying to create dynamic pages involved a lot of use of third-party JavaScript to try and “hack” something together. HubDB makes HubSpot more flexible overall, so your team can efficiently deliver the pages you envision in your head.

Because these pages are dynamic, implementation is faster because you can generate your webpages from a single source of data. And that data can be used anywhere on your site! For example, if you feature team members or team bios on multiple pages, your content will automatically generate with the right information without you having to worry.

Using HubDB is also beneficial to the appearance of your website and landing pages, too. The visuals on your webpages will be clean. It can also provide easy filtering for your online visitors. This is particularly valuable if you choose to divide your team page into departments.

You don’t have to limit yourself to using HubDB for just your team page. You may also want to consider using it for: hubdb-resources

  • Event calendars. With HubDB, you can set a start and stop date to tell the system when to no longer display an event listing.
  • Resource centers. Marketers have a lot of different content offers – eBooks, guides, case studies – and HubDB’s filtering system makes showcasing them easy for you and your audience.
  • Store locators. HubDB’s geolocation data filtering can make finding your brick and mortar locations a cinch – and when you open a new place, you can add it without having to call IT.
  • Image galleries. Removing and add images to galleries across your website takes no time with HubDB.
  • And more!

Takeaway

HubDB is a table of structured data where you can pull information from as needed, which helps make your webpages more dynamic and appealing. Creating team pages in HubDB is a great and easy way to maintain your employee information. Or, you can use it for other significant elements on your site, like the examples mentioned above. No matter what, HubDB gives you advanced functionality on your site that’s simple for any member of your marketing team to support.

Have you used HubDB yet on your website or landing pages? If you need help or want advice on how to best use it for your unique business needs, contact us today.

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By: Lynton

Lynton is a HubSpot Elite Partner that provides certified knowledge and tools to grow your business through integrated inbound marketing, including lead generation strategies, website designs and development, and CRM integrations.

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