Education Providers Managing Enquiries With HubSpot Pipedrive

There’s a moment in every education provider’s year when enquiry volume spikes dramatically. Maybe it’s the start of the new academic year, or right after HSC results drop, or when your latest open day campaign goes live. Suddenly, your admissions team is drowning in emails, phone calls, form submissions, and social media messages from prospective students and concerned parents.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: every enquiry that falls through the cracks is a potential enrolment lost. That international student who never received a follow-up? They enrolled elsewhere. That parent who asked about scholarship opportunities three times without getting a clear answer? Their child is now attending your competitor down the road.

Education is intensely competitive in Australia. From RTOs and private colleges to universities and specialist training providers, everyone’s fighting for the same pool of prospective students. The institutions that win aren’t necessarily those with the best courses or the fanciest facilities. They’re the ones that respond faster, follow up consistently, and make the enrolment journey genuinely smooth.

Managing student enquiries effectively requires more than just a shared inbox and good intentions. It demands systematic processes, clear visibility, and tools designed specifically for nurturing relationships over time. This is where CRM platforms like HubSpot and Pipedrive become game-changers for education providers.

The Unique Challenge of Education Enquiries

Before we compare platforms, let’s acknowledge what makes education enquiries different from typical sales leads. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify what you actually need from your CRM.

Education enquiries involve long consideration periods. Prospective students rarely decide instantly. They research for months, compare multiple providers, attend information sessions, speak with current students, and consult with parents or partners. Your system needs to nurture these relationships over extended timelines without losing momentum.

Multiple stakeholders complicate the process. You’re not just engaging with the prospective student. Parents often play decisive roles, especially for younger students or international applicants. Employers might be involved for corporate training. Sponsors, guardians, education agents. Your CRM must track all these relationships without creating confusion.

Enquiries come through numerous channels. Website forms, phone calls, email, social media, live chat, education fairs, open days, agent referrals. Each channel needs proper tracking so nothing disappears into the void.

Enquiry quality varies dramatically. Some prospective students are ready to enrol tomorrow. Others are doing preliminary research for courses starting in two years. Some are genuinely interested. Others are comparing ten institutions and will never seriously consider yours. Your system needs to help identify and prioritise appropriately.

Peak periods create capacity challenges. When enquiry volume doubles or triples during busy seasons, your processes need to scale without compromising response quality. Manual systems collapse under load. Proper CRM automation prevents that collapse.

Also read: Scaling Globally Made Easier With HubSpot Professional Services

HubSpot for Education Enquiry Management

HubSpot approaches education enquiries through comprehensive lifecycle management. The platform treats enquiries not as isolated transactions but as the beginning of long-term relationships that extend through enrolment, study, graduation, and alumni engagement.

The HubSpot model gives you multi-stage tracking. Prospect becomes enquiry, enquiry becomes applicant, applicant becomes student, student becomes alumnus. Each stage has different engagement requirements and communication strategies. The platform handles these transitions smoothly while maintaining complete history.

HubSpot’s forms and landing pages capture enquiries with sophisticated data collection. You can create custom forms for different courses or student types, implement progressive profiling that gradually collects more information, embed forms directly on your website without technical expertise, and track form analytics to optimise conversion rates.

Once enquiries enter your system, HubSpot’s automation takes over. Welcome emails send immediately. Follow-up tasks get assigned to appropriate admissions staff based on course interest or location. Nurture sequences deliver relevant content over time. Nothing requires manual intervention unless it should.

Email marketing capabilities help nurture long-term prospects. You can create segmented campaigns based on course interest, study level, location, or engagement behavior. Prospective international students get different content than local applicants. People interested in short courses receive different messaging than those considering degree programs.

HubSpot also excels at tracking engagement. You can see which emails prospects open, which website pages they visit, which course information they download, and which webinars they attend. This behavioral data helps admissions teams prioritise follow-up and personalise conversations.

The platform’s reporting shows enquiry sources, conversion rates by source and course, time to enrolment from initial enquiry, team performance metrics, and campaign effectiveness across channels.

Pipedrive’s Approach to Admission Pipelines

Pipedrive takes a more focused approach, treating student enquiries as opportunities moving through defined stages toward enrolment. The visual pipeline structure maps naturally to admission processes many education providers already follow.

Pipedrive’s visual pipelines make enquiry stages immediately clear. You might create stages like: Initial Enquiry, Information Sent, Follow-Up Scheduled, Application Submitted, Interview Completed, Offer Made, Enrolled. Every prospective student appears as a card in the appropriate stage. Admissions staff see instantly where each enquiry stands and what actions are needed.

The platform emphasises activity-based management. Each enquiry gets assigned activities: send information pack, schedule phone call, follow up on application. These activities create clear next steps that prevent enquiries from languishing without attention.

Pipedrive’s email integration keeps all communication centralised. Emails sent to prospects get automatically logged. Responses trigger notifications. Admissions staff can see complete communication history without switching between systems.

Automation in Pipedrive focuses on practical workflows. When an enquiry moves to a new stage, the system automatically creates relevant tasks, sends appropriate emails, notifies responsible staff members, and updates custom fields with timestamps.

The platform also offers strong mobile functionality. Admissions staff attending education fairs or open days can log enquiries immediately from their phones. Follow-up activities created on-site sync automatically. This mobility prevents the common problem of enquiries scribbled on paper that never make it into your system.

Pipedrive’s reporting emphasises conversion metrics. You can track how many enquiries convert to applications, application to enrolment conversion rates, average time in each pipeline stage, and individual team member performance.

Comparing Multi-Channel Enquiry Capture

Education enquiries arrive through numerous channels. Your CRM needs to capture them all without creating duplicate records or losing information.

HubSpot provides comprehensive multi-channel capture. Website forms obviously work well, but the platform also handles live chat conversations through HubSpot’s native chat tool, Facebook and Instagram messages through social media integrations, phone calls logged automatically with calling integrations, email enquiries forwarded to your CRM inbox, and chatbot interactions that qualify prospects before human engagement.

HubSpot’s forms are particularly sophisticated. You can create different forms for undergraduate versus postgraduate enquiries, international versus domestic students, corporate training versus individual learners, and specific course categories or campuses.

The platform’s progressive profiling gradually collects more information. Initial enquiries might only require name and email. Subsequent interactions request phone numbers, course interests, intended start dates, and funding sources. This gradual approach improves form completion rates while still building comprehensive profiles over time.

Pipedrive handles essential channels effectively. Web form integrations capture website enquiries, email integration logs all email communication, mobile app enables on-site enquiry capture, and LeadBooster add-on provides web chat and chatbot functionality.

Pipedrive’s approach is more straightforward but covers the critical channels most education providers rely on. For institutions with simpler enquiry sources, this focused functionality often suffices without overwhelming users with options they won’t use.

Here’s how the platforms compare for enquiry capture:

Feature	HubSpot	Pipedrive
Website forms	Advanced with conditional logic	Standard form capture
Email integration	Native with tracking	Strong Gmail/Outlook integration
Live chat	Native with chatbots	LeadBooster add-on required
Social media	Direct Instagram/Facebook integration	Manual or third-party
Mobile capture	Comprehensive mobile app	Excellent mobile functionality
Progressive profiling	Yes, built-in	Requires manual setup
Duplicate detection	Automatic and sophisticated	Basic duplicate checking

Nurturing Long-Term Prospects

Education decisions often take months. Your CRM needs to keep prospects engaged throughout extended consideration periods without overwhelming them or letting them forget about you.

HubSpot excels at long-term nurturing through sophisticated automation. You can create drip campaigns that deliver relevant content over months, trigger emails based on specific behaviors or interests, segment audiences for highly targeted messaging, and create workflows that adapt based on engagement levels.

For example, you might create a six-month nurture sequence for prospects considering courses starting next academic year. The sequence delivers course information, student testimonials, career outcome data, application guidance, scholarship information, and campus life content at strategic intervals.

HubSpot’s lead scoring helps identify hot prospects within your long-term nurture pool. Points get assigned for behaviors indicating serious interest: attending virtual open days, downloading course guides, visiting tuition pages multiple times, opening multiple emails. High-scoring prospects get flagged for immediate personal outreach.

The platform’s content tools also support nurturing. You can create landing pages for specific courses, blog content addressing common questions, course comparison guides, downloadable resources about application processes, and video content showcasing campus life and facilities.

Pipedrive handles nurturing through simpler automation and activity management. You can schedule follow-up activities at appropriate intervals, set up email sequences for different enquiry types, create reminders to check in with long-term prospects, and use custom fields to track intended start dates and engagement levels.

Pipedrive’s approach requires more manual process design but often works well for education providers with smaller volumes or straightforward nurturing needs. The key is consistent execution, which Pipedrive’s activity-focused design encourages.

Managing Multiple Stakeholders

Education enquiries rarely involve just one person. Your CRM needs to handle complex stakeholder relationships without creating confusion.

HubSpot manages multiple contacts elegantly through its contact-to-company model. You create a primary record for the prospective student, then associate parents, guardians, sponsors, or education agents as separate contacts linked to the same deal or opportunity.

This structure lets you communicate appropriately with each stakeholder. Parents might receive emails about fees and campus safety. The prospective student gets course content and student life information. Everyone’s interactions get tracked against the single enrolment opportunity.

HubSpot’s deal associations also let you link relevant faculty members, admissions counselors, or program coordinators to opportunities. Everyone involved can see the complete picture without accessing a different system.

Pipedrive handles multiple stakeholders through linked contacts and organisations. You can associate multiple people with each deal, track which stakeholder is the primary decision-maker, log activities specific to each person, and ensure communication reaches appropriate parties.

Pipedrive’s approach is more manual than HubSpot but works effectively for straightforward stakeholder situations. For complex international student enquiries involving agents, parents, sponsors, and the student themselves, HubSpot’s structure provides clearer relationship mapping.

Reporting for Education Institutions

Education providers need specific insights to optimise their enquiry management and enrolment outcomes.

HubSpot delivers comprehensive reporting across the entire enquiry lifecycle. You can track enquiry volume by source and course, conversion rates at each stage, time from enquiry to enrolment by course type, marketing attribution showing which campaigns generate applications, individual staff performance metrics, and forecasted enrolments based on pipeline.

The platform’s attribution reporting is particularly valuable. You can see which marketing activities actually drive enrolments, not just enquiries. That expensive Google Ads campaign might generate lots of enquiries, but if those enquiries rarely convert to enrolments, the ROI story changes dramatically.

HubSpot also lets you create custom reports answering education-specific questions. Which open day sessions generate the highest-converting enquiries? How do international versus domestic conversion rates compare? What’s the average time from enquiry to enrolment for different study levels?

Pipedrive provides focused reporting on pipeline metrics and conversion. You can see enquiry-to-application conversion rates, application-to-enrolment conversion rates, average time in each pipeline stage, deal win rates by course or admissions counselor, and revenue forecasts based on anticipated enrolments.

Pipedrive’s visual reports make patterns immediately obvious. If enquiries are piling up at the “Application Submitted” stage, you spot the bottleneck instantly. If certain courses convert at much lower rates, the data highlights that clearly.

For education providers focused primarily on enrolment metrics rather than broader marketing analytics, Pipedrive’s reporting often provides exactly what’s needed without excess complexity.

Integration with Education Management Systems

Your CRM doesn’t exist in isolation. It needs to connect with your student information system, learning management platform, marketing tools, and other education-specific software.

HubSpot’s extensive integration ecosystem includes many education platforms. Common integrations for education providers include student information systems like Salesforce Education Cloud or Campus Management, learning management systems like Canvas or Blackboard, event management tools for open days and webinars, payment processors for application fees and deposits, and email marketing platforms if you’re using specialised tools.

HubSpot’s operations hub also enables custom integrations. If your student information system has an API, you can likely build bi-directional sync that keeps enrolment data updated across both platforms.

Pipedrive offers solid integrations covering essential tools. Education providers typically integrate with email platforms for communication at scale, calendar tools for scheduling interviews and tours, document management for application materials, and payment processors for fees.

Pipedrive’s marketplace includes fewer education-specific integrations than HubSpot, but most essential connections are available. For institutions with simpler tech stacks, Pipedrive’s focused integration options often suffice.

At Smartmates, we specialise in connecting CRMs with the broader technology ecosystem education providers rely on. We’ve built custom integrations between HubSpot and various student information systems, created workflows that automate data transfer between platforms, and designed architectures that maintain data integrity across multiple systems.

Handling Peak Enquiry Periods

Education institutions experience dramatic enquiry volume fluctuations. Your system needs to handle these peaks without collapsing.

HubSpot scales through automation and smart distribution. When enquiry volume spikes, automated workflows handle initial responses and nurturing without human intervention. Lead assignment rules distribute incoming enquiries across available staff based on capacity, specialisation, or geographic responsibility.

The platform’s chatbots can also handle initial qualification during peak periods. Basic questions get answered automatically. Complex enquiries get escalated to human staff. This tiered approach prevents admissions teams from drowning while ensuring important enquiries get appropriate attention.

HubSpot’s sequences allow teams to enrol multiple prospects in standardised follow-up programs. Instead of manually crafting individual responses to hundreds of enquiries, admissions staff can enrol prospects in appropriate sequences that deliver personalised communication automatically.

Pipedrive manages peaks through clear visibility and activity management. When volume increases, the visual pipeline shows exactly where workload sits. Managers can redistribute deals across team members to balance load.

Bulk actions help teams process multiple enquiries efficiently. Send information packs to 50 prospects simultaneously. Move all applications received today to the next stage at once. Create follow-up tasks for an entire group.

Pipedrive’s simplicity actually becomes an advantage during chaotic peak periods. When everyone’s stressed and working at maximum capacity, intuitive tools with clear visual feedback help teams stay organised and productive.

Cost Considerations for Education Budgets

Education institutions often operate with tight budgets, especially smaller RTOs and private colleges. CRM costs need to deliver clear ROI.

Pipedrive offers affordability that appeals to budget-conscious institutions. Pricing starts low, scales predictably with user count, and includes core functionality at every level. For small education providers with 5-15 admissions staff, Pipedrive often provides everything needed at very reasonable cost.

The platform’s transparent pricing means no surprise charges. You know exactly what you’re paying from the start, which helps with budget planning and approval processes.

HubSpot’s pricing is more variable. The free tier actually works well for very small education providers just starting with CRM. Basic features come at no cost, providing significant value for institutions testing CRM approaches.

As needs grow, HubSpot’s paid tiers provide increasing sophistication at increasing prices. Education providers leveraging marketing automation, advanced reporting, and full lifecycle management find the investment worthwhile. The unified platform eliminates costs for multiple separate tools.

HubSpot also offers education discounts for eligible institutions. These discounts can make the platform significantly more affordable for qualified providers.

Which Platform Suits Australian Education Providers?

The right choice depends heavily on your specific situation, size, and sophistication.

Pipedrive makes sense for smaller RTOs and colleges with straightforward admission processes, limited admissions team that needs intuitive tools, budget constraints requiring affordable solutions, primary focus on managing enquiry-to-enrolment pipeline, or relatively simple marketing and communication needs.

Many Australian vocational training providers find Pipedrive hits the perfect balance of functionality and affordability. It delivers clear enquiry visibility and systematic follow-up without overwhelming small teams or budgets.

HubSpot makes sense for larger institutions with complex admission processes, multiple campuses or course types requiring sophisticated segmentation, significant marketing investment needing attribution visibility, long consideration periods requiring sophisticated nurturing, integration needs across multiple systems, or growth plans requiring scalable platforms.

Universities, large private colleges, and ambitious education providers often choose HubSpot. The platform’s depth matches their complexity, and the unified ecosystem eliminates the data silos that compromise enquiry management.

The Smartmates Approach to Education CRM

We’ve implemented CRM systems for numerous Australian education providers, from small RTOs to large training organisations. Every implementation teaches us something about what actually works in education contexts.

Successful education CRM projects share common characteristics. Processes designed around the student journey, not just internal workflows. Configuration that matches how admissions teams actually work, not theoretical ideals. Training comprehensive enough that staff embrace rather than resist the system. Integration with existing education technology that avoids creating new data silos. Ongoing support that helps teams adapt as needs evolve.

At Smartmates, we don’t just implement software. We become partners in improving your entire enquiry management approach. We analyse your current processes, identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies. We design workflows that balance automation with personal touch. We train your teams thoroughly. And we stick around to ensure you get the enrolment results that make the investment worthwhile.

We’ve also migrated education providers between platforms when their needs changed. As institutions grow, they sometimes outgrow initial CRM choices. Proper migration preserves your enquiry history and maintains continuity through the transition.

Transform Your Enquiry Management

Every prospective student who contacts your institution represents opportunity. Opportunity for them to transform their career prospects through education. Opportunity for your institution to grow enrolments and make greater impact.

But opportunity vanishes quickly when enquiries aren’t managed properly. Response delays, lost follow-ups, inconsistent communication, missing information. These failures don’t just cost individual enrolments. They damage your reputation and compound over time.

You already know your current enquiry management needs improvement. You’ve experienced the stress of peak periods when things slip through cracks. You’ve watched enquiries go cold because follow-up was inconsistent. You’ve struggled to generate meaningful reports showing what’s actually working.

The question isn’t whether you need better systems. It’s which platform will actually deliver better outcomes for your specific situation and how to implement it successfully.

Both HubSpot and Pipedrive can transform enquiry management for Australian education providers when implemented properly. The platforms serve different needs and contexts. The key is honest assessment of your requirements, expert implementation, and committed adoption.

At Smartmates, we bring deep expertise in both platforms and genuine understanding of education sector challenges. We’re certified HubSpot partners. We’ve implemented Pipedrive successfully for numerous education clients. We know what works, what doesn’t, and how to configure systems that genuinely improve enrolment outcomes.

Ready to transform your enquiry management from chaotic to systematic? Stop losing prospective students to poor follow-up and disorganised processes. Get the visibility and automation you need to convert more enquiries into enrolments.

Contact Smartmates today. We’ll assess your specific needs, recommend the platform that actually fits your institution and budget, and implement it properly so you get the enquiry management capabilities your admissions team deserves. Because every prospective student deserves prompt, professional, personalised engagement. Let’s make that your reality.

Get in touch with Smartmates now and start converting more enquiries into enrolments.