HubSpot Case Study: UK Travel Company Streamlines Marketing Operations With HubSpot Enterprise

This leading UK ferry & holidays business provides essential ferry services carrying passengers, vehicles, and freight, as well as offering holiday packages with ferry-inclusive accommodation and attractions.

By late 2024, their marketing team faced a pressing challenge. Their existing platform, Dotdigital, was due to expire at the end of the year, and they needed to migrate all marketing activity quickly to a new system. Their data was spread across multiple platforms - Dotdigital, Hootsuite, Google Ads, Yieldify, and spreadsheets. This made it difficult to track performance, automate campaigns, or get a clear view of customer journeys.

They chose HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise to unify their marketing under one system, and partnered with JDR Group to manage the implementation and training programme. They were looking for a swift transition, expert guidance, and a clear path to self-sufficiency.

Their HubSpot Package: HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise

At this stage, HubSpot was implemented solely for the marketing team, with plans to explore CRM migration and wider integration in the future.

Their Onboarding: A 90-Day HubSpot Marketing Implementation & Training Project

JDR designed and delivered a bespoke onboarding plan to replace Dotdigital and empower the marketing team to manage all campaign activity directly within HubSpot.

The programme included:

• Technical setup – including tracking code installation, domains, branding, and reporting setup.

• Email migration and training – helping them build and send all marketing and transactional emails from HubSpot.

• Data import & segmentation – migrating contacts from Dotdigital and BookIT (via their IT team) and teaching the team to use lists and filters effectively.

• Workflow and automation training – enabling marketing automations such as pre-trip reminders, post-trip follow-ups, and re-engagement emails.

• Campaigns & reporting setup – providing visibility across all marketing channels and activity in one place.

• Social media & ads training – integrating accounts and training the team to monitor and optimise ad performance.

• SEO & CTA setup – helping them to create and test calls-to-action, improve search visibility, and identify key content opportunities.

Throughout the project, JDR also collaborated with VERB, a third-party agency managing integration between HubSpot and their booking systems, providing consultancy on HubSpot’s technical requirements for transactional email delivery.

The Results:

1. Complete Migration From Dotdigital To HubSpot

By the end of the project, all marketing communications, including newsletters, transactional messages, and automation sequences, were running entirely through HubSpot.

2. Streamlined Marketing Operations

The team now manages all social, email, and ad campaigns from one system, with consistent reporting across every channel. This has replaced the fragmented tools and manual reporting previously managed across multiple platforms.

3. Automation Introduced Across Key Journeys

Using workflows and lists, the team can now automatically send pre-trip, post-trip, and re-engagement emails, maintaining communication with their database and enhancing the customer experience.

4. Clear Marketing Insights & Reporting

Custom dashboards and reports were built to track performance across campaigns, audience growth, and channel ROI, helping the marketing team demonstrate value and report effectively to directors and the board.

5. Confident, Independent HubSpot Users

Through hands-on training, the marketing team gained confidence using HubSpot’s tools day-to-day, from managing emails and ads to tracking campaigns and analysing performance. They are now self-sufficient in managing their marketing operations.

6. Foundation For Phase Two

JDR worked with their IT team to scope the next stage of integration; syncing booking and customer data from BookIT into HubSpot for advanced personalisation, automation, and reporting in the future.

In this project, we helped them transition from fragmented systems to an integrated, data-driven marketing platform. With HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise now fully embedded, the marketing team has full visibility across campaigns, automation to maintain customer relationships, and the foundation for future integration and CRM expansion.

See How We Can Help You Get More From HubSpot

We have been a HubSpot Partner since 2012, helping hundreds of businesses get more value from their investment in the platform. Our team has the expertise to ensure HubSpot works seamlessly for your business. We can help you with:

• HubSpot Onboarding, Implementation & Training
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