Local Councils Run Digital Campaigns Through HubSpot for Marketing

Let me paint you a picture of council communications in 2025.

A resident needs to know about bin collection changes. Another wants updates on the new community center. Someone else is searching for information about local parking permits. And hundreds more have different questions, different needs, different ways they want to hear from their council.

Now, how do you reach all these people? How do you make sure the right message gets to the right resident at the right time?

For most Australian local councils, the answer used to be: send everything to everyone and hope something works. Newspaper ads nobody reads. Flyers that go straight to the recycling bin. Generic emails that feel like spam. Social media posts that disappear.

It’s expensive. It doesn’t work well. And honestly, residents are tired of it.

But here’s what’s changing things: HubSpot for marketing is helping smart councils actually connect with their communities in ways that feel personal and helpful. Not through fancy tricks, but through smart communication that treats residents like real people, not just names on a list.

Let me show you exactly how this works and why it matters for your council.

Also Read: Navigate Complexity And Find Growth Paths With HubSpot Consulting Service

The Communication Problem Facing Australian Councils

Let’s talk about the big issue in council offices.

Community engagement is broken in most local areas. Not because councils don’t care. It’s broken because the tools councils are using were made for a different world.

Think about what councils are dealing with:

You’ve got older residents who still want printed newsletters and phone calls. Middle-aged residents who check email but ignore social media. Younger residents who live on Instagram and Facebook. Really young people who expect everything on their phone right away. New arrivals who need information in different languages. People with disabilities who need accessible formats.

How do you reach all these different groups with a tight budget and small staff? How do you know what’s working when your messages are scattered everywhere with no way to track results?

Most councils are guessing. They send out communications and hope for the best. They have no idea who’s actually reading anything, what messages work, or which ways of reaching out deliver results. They’re spending ratepayer money on communications that might not be working, with no way to tell.

A Sydney council we worked with was spending close to 180,000 dollars every year on printed newsletters, flyers, and newspaper ads. When we asked them if it worked, the answer was basically “we think so?” They had no data, no way to measure anything, no way to know if anyone actually paid attention.

That’s not communication. That’s just expensive noise.

Why Old Council Marketing Doesn’t Work Anymore

Let me be straight about why the old ways don’t cut it anymore.

• The newspaper ad problem: You spend thousands on an ad about your new recycling program. Maybe 30% of residents still get the paper. Of those, perhaps 10% notice your ad. Of those who notice it, how many actually read it and remember? You’re reaching maybe 3% of your community at best, and you have no way to measure if it worked.
• The flyer problem: You print 50,000 flyers about upcoming roadworks. It costs you 15,000 dollars for design, printing, and delivery. Most go straight to the bin without being read. The ones that do get read? You have no idea if people understood, took action, or even cared. No way to know. Just money spent.
• The generic email problem: You collect some email addresses and send everyone the same update. Your open rate is 12%. Click rate is 2%. You’re annoying 88% of people with information they don’t want while missing the people who didn’t give you their email. And you might be breaking spam laws without knowing it.
• The social media scatter: You post on Facebook, maybe Instagram, possibly Twitter. Some posts get likes. Others disappear. You have no way to know what works or why. You’re making content based on what feels right rather than what data tells you actually connects.

None of these things alone are terrible. But when they’re disconnected, not measured, and treated as separate activities, they’re really inefficient uses of ratepayer money.

Enter HubSpot for Marketing: A Different Way

So what makes HubSpot different for local councils? Why are smart councils across Australia making the switch?

HubSpot for marketing isn’t just another tool. It’s a complete change in how you think about talking to your community. Instead of sending messages and hoping they work, you’re building actual relationships with residents through personal, relevant communication sent through the ways they prefer.

Here’s the big difference: HubSpot lets you treat residents as individuals with specific interests, not as one big group.

Someone who signed up for event updates doesn’t get emails about planning applications unless they also want that. A resident who only cares about bin schedules gets exactly that, not your full newsletter. Parents with young kids get info about playgrounds, library programs, and school holiday activities.

The main things that matter for councils:

• One central place that tracks every resident talk across all channels
• Tools that let you group residents by interest, location, age, or how much they engage
• Email marketing that’s permission-based, trackable, and works
• Landing pages for specific campaigns without needing IT help
• Forms that capture resident info automatically
• Social media management from one place with scheduling and numbers
• Full reports showing what works and what doesn’t
• Marketing automation that sends relevant info at the right time without manual work

But here’s what really matters: HubSpot is made to be used by actual marketing staff, not IT people. Your communications team can make campaigns, build pages, and check results without waiting weeks for web developers.

How Smart Councils Use HubSpot

Let me share some real examples of how Australian councils are changing community engagement through smart use of HubSpot for marketing.

Targeted Community Input

A Melbourne council faced a problem familiar to anyone in local government: getting real community input on draft plans. Old ways meant a few dozen replies, mostly from the same people who comment on everything.

Using HubSpot, they totally changed their approach. Instead of publishing a huge document and hoping people would read it, they created a campaign that:

• Found residents most likely to be affected by the changes based on where they live and past engagement
• Sent personal emails explaining how the changes would impact their specific area
• Made short videos explaining key ideas in plain language
• Built easy-to-use pages where residents could give feedback on specific parts
• Sent reminder emails to people who showed interest but hadn’t given input yet
• Tracked engagement to understand which ideas got most interest

The result? Input increased by 340%. More importantly, the quality of feedback got much better because residents understood what was being proposed and how it affected them.

Event Promotion That Gets People to Come

Here’s a problem every council faces: you organize great community events with real money invested, then struggle to get people to show up.

A Brisbane council was running monthly community workshops on topics from composting to digital skills. Attendance was disappointing even though the events were free and valuable. They were promoting through their website, Facebook posts, and mentions in their newsletter. The usual people showed up, but reaching new people felt impossible.

After putting in HubSpot for marketing, they built a proper event promotion system:

• Made groups based on interests (environment lovers, tech learners, parents, seniors, small business owners)
• Built landing pages for each workshop with clear benefits and easy sign-up
• Set up automatic email sequences promoting upcoming events to the right groups
• Used social media scheduling to promote regularly across platforms
• Tracked which ways of promoting got sign-ups for each event type
• Sent automatic reminders to people who signed up, reducing no-shows

Waste Management Education Done Right

Every council struggles with waste problems. Residents put the wrong things in the wrong bins, making recycling less effective and costing more. Old education approaches involve generic information that may or may not reach the people who need it.

A Perth council took a targeted approach using HubSpot:

• Made specific campaigns for common problems (soft plastics, food waste, e-waste)
• Grouped residents by area based on what was going wrong in their neighborhood
• Sent personal emails addressing specific issues for each area
• Built easy content helping residents work out correct ways to throw things away
• Tracked which messages worked and changed campaigns based on that
• Measured actual improvement in targeted areas

Crisis Communication When It Matters Most

Bushfires. Floods. Bad storms. Big problems with roads or water. Councils need to share critical information quickly during emergencies.

A regional Victorian council used HubSpot to build a crisis communication system that:

• Kept up-to-date resident contact info with multiple ways to reach them (email, text, social media)
• Made pre-built message templates for common emergency situations
• Let them quickly send targeted messages to affected areas only
• Tracked message delivery to make sure critical info reached residents
• Gave them a dashboard showing which residents had been contacted
• Worked with social media for broad reach while keeping direct contact with vulnerable residents

The Technical Side: How HubSpot Actually Works for Councils

You’re probably wondering about the practical side. How does this actually work day-to-day for council staff who aren’t marketing experts?

Let me walk you through the typical workflow that makes HubSpot easy for local government teams.

Contact Management

Everything starts with building a clean database of residents and people you work with. HubSpot becomes your central place for everyone your council talks to, whether they’re residents, local businesses, community groups, or other people.

Contact records automatically capture what happens. When someone opens an email, clicks a link, visits your website, downloads a document, or fills out a form, that activity is recorded. Over time, you build a rich picture of each person’s interests and how much they engage.

This isn’t creepy watching. It’s smart communication planning. When you know someone is interested in local planning because they’ve looked at planning content three times, you can send them relevant updates rather than burying that info in a generic newsletter they’ll ignore.

Grouping and Lists

HubSpot lets you make smart audience groups based on any factors you choose. Location, interests, how much they engage, basic info, past interactions, or any mix of things.

Want to talk about a new dog park? Target residents who’ve looked at pet content or live within 2 kilometers of the proposed location. Planning a business workshop? Reach local business operators who’ve shown interest in economic topics.

The grouping is dynamic. As people’s interests and engagement patterns change, list membership updates automatically. You’re always working with current, relevant audience groups.

Email Campaigns That Don’t Feel Like Spam

HubSpot’s email tools are made for permission-based marketing. Residents choose to get specific types of communication. They can easily manage what they want or stop getting emails entirely. You keep full records of permission for compliance.

But here’s what makes the emails work: they’re personal, relevant, and trackable. You see exactly who opened each message, which links they clicked, and what actions they took. This data feeds back into your grouping, making future communications even more targeted.

A quick example: You send an email about library programs. You can see that parents with young kids had a 65% open rate and 28% clicked through to sign up for story time. Seniors had a 45% open rate but only 8% clicked through. That tells you the message worked differently with different groups, and you should change your approach for future campaigns.

Landing Pages and Forms

Every campaign needs a place to go. HubSpot lets your communications team build professional landing pages for specific things without technical skills or IT help.

Need a page for residents to give feedback on a draft policy? Build it in an hour with a simple drag-and-drop tool. Want to collect sign-ups for a community event? Make a form that automatically adds people to the right email sequences.

These pages work on phones, load quickly, and work smoothly with your campaign tracking. You see exactly how people found the page, what they did when they got there, and whether they did what you wanted.

Social Media Work

HubSpot’s social media tools let you manage Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter from one place. Schedule posts ahead of time, watch engagement, and track which content works best across platforms.

More importantly, social media works with your broader marketing efforts. Someone who engages with your Facebook post about local events can be added to your events contact list automatically. Social media becomes part of your overall communication plan rather than a separate thing nobody knows how to measure.

Numbers and Reports

This is where HubSpot really shines for councils that need to justify communication spending and show value to elected members.

You get full dashboards showing campaign performance, which channels work best, engagement trends, and ROI measures. You can answer questions like:

• How many residents are we actually reaching?
• Which ways of communicating give the best results?
• What topics get the most engagement?
• How has our community engagement changed over time?
• What’s the cost per resident reached for different campaign types?

A regional NSW council used HubSpot analytics to show that their digital campaigns were reaching 12 times more residents per dollar spent compared to old print communications. That data justified moving budget toward more effective digital channels while keeping print for people who genuinely preferred it.

Setup Challenges and How to Fix Them

I’d be lying if I said putting in HubSpot for marketing in a local government setting was always smooth. There are real challenges you need to deal with up front.

Challenge 1: Staff Digital Skills

Not everyone on your communications team will be comfortable with marketing technology. Some staff have been doing things the same way for 20 years and see no reason to change.

The fix: Full training and ongoing support. At Smartmates, we don’t just set up the technology and leave. We give hands-on training tailored to different skill levels, make documentation specific to your council’s uses, and offer ongoing support as staff get comfortable with new approaches. Change management is as important as technical setup.

Challenge 2: Data Quality and Moving

Your existing contact data is probably a mess. Multiple spreadsheets, old information, duplicate records, no consistent format. Moving this into HubSpot needs careful cleaning.

The fix: Professional data moving services that clean, standardize, and check information before bringing it in. We’ve done this dozens of times and know exactly how to handle the common issues that trip up councils trying to do it themselves.

Challenge 3: Getting Elected Members on Board

Councillors may question spending money on “fancy marketing software” when old approaches seem to work fine. They want to see clear value before supporting budget allocation.

The fix: Pilot programs that show results before full commitment. Start with a specific campaign or department, measure results carefully, and present data showing better outcomes. Success stories are far more convincing than theoretical benefits.

Challenge 4: Privacy and Following Rules

Local government data has strict privacy requirements. You need to make sure HubSpot setup follows Australian privacy law and council policies.

The fix: Proper setup by partners who understand government compliance needs. We set up consent management, data keeping policies, access controls, and check trails that meet legal standards. Compliance is built into the setup, not added on later.

Challenge 5: Working with Existing Systems

Your council probably has multiple systems: rates database, CRM for customer service, website CMS, asset management software. HubSpot needs to work with these systems to be truly useful.

The fix: Smart integration planning that connects HubSpot with critical systems through APIs and data sync. Not everything needs to integrate right away. We prioritize connections that give the most value first and build from there.

The Smartmates Advantage for Council Setups

Here’s why councils across Australia choose Smartmates for their HubSpot for marketing setups rather than trying to do it themselves or working with generic marketing agencies.

We understand local government context. Marketing for councils is really different from business marketing. You’re not selling products. You’re building community engagement, giving essential services, and maintaining democratic accountability. We get those differences and put in solutions made for government, not copied from business templates.

We’re certified HubSpot experts with proven methods. Our team includes HubSpot-certified specialists who’ve successfully put in solutions for different organizations. We’re not learning on your project. We’re using proven approaches refined through dozens of successful setups.

We give full support beyond initial setup. Technology is only useful if people actually use it well. We offer training, documentation, ongoing improvement, and responsive support making sure your team gets maximum value from your investment.

We connect with your existing systems. HubSpot doesn’t exist alone. We connect it properly with your website, rates database, CRM, and other critical systems making a unified communication setup rather than another disconnected piece.

We deliver measurable results. Our setups include clear success measures, full reporting, and ongoing improvement based on performance data. You’ll know exactly whether the investment is giving value, and we’ll continuously improve results over time.

Getting Started: Your Council’s Digital Change Journey

So you’re interested in exploring HubSpot for marketing for your council. What does the journey actually look like from first consideration to fully working campaigns?

Phase 1: Discovery and Planning (Weeks 1-2)

We start by understanding your current communication challenges, goals, audience groups, and existing systems. This involves talking to key people, looking at data, and building strategy. We find quick wins and long-term chances, making a roadmap that fits with your budget and abilities.

Phase 2: Technical Setup (Weeks 3-6)

We set up HubSpot specifically for your council’s needs, set up contact management structures, make email templates reflecting your brand, build landing page frameworks, set up reporting dashboards, and connect with existing systems where appropriate. Testing happens throughout to make sure everything works right before going live.

Phase 3: Data Moving and Checking (Weeks 5-7)

We clean, remove duplicates, and move your existing contact data into HubSpot. This critical phase makes sure you start with accurate information rather than continuing existing data quality problems. We check the move carefully before going forward.

Phase 4: Training and Handover (Weeks 7-8)

We train your team through hands-on workshops covering contact management, campaign creation, email marketing, landing page building, social media management, reporting, and analytics. Training is tailored to different roles and skill levels making sure everyone feels confident using the platform.

Phase 5: Pilot Campaign (Weeks 9-12)

Rather than launching everything at once, we recommend starting with a pilot campaign addressing a specific communication challenge. This lets your team build confidence, refine processes, and show results before expanding to full setup.

Phase 6: Improvement and Expansion (Ongoing)

After the pilot proves successful, we expand HubSpot use to more campaigns and departments. Ongoing improvement based on performance data continuously makes results better. We give support as your team’s abilities grow and your use of HubSpot becomes more advanced.

Most councils achieve real results within 3-4 months of initial setup, with continuous improvement after that as your team’s skills and strategic thinking develop.

Transform Your Council’s Community Engagement

Here’s where we are in this conversation.

You understand that old council communication approaches are expensive, can’t be measured, and don’t work well at reaching modern Australian residents who expect personal, digital-first communication.

You see that HubSpot for marketing offers a really different approach built around targeted, measurable, cost-effective campaigns that treat residents as individuals rather than one big group.

You’ve seen concrete examples of Australian councils getting remarkable results through smart use of modern marketing technology.

The question now is: will your council lead this change or reluctantly follow years later when outdated approaches finally become completely useless?

The choice facing you is genuinely straightforward:

Keep spending big budgets on old communications with minimal measurement and declining effectiveness, hoping somehow that newspaper ads and flyers will magically start working better.

Or embrace modern marketing technology that lets you reach more residents, get higher engagement, show measurable value, and actually know whether your communications are working. All while spending less money and freeing your team to focus on strategy rather than production work.

At Smartmates, we’ve made council digital change our specialty. We’re not generic marketing consultants trying to sell you business solutions that don’t fit government context. We’re HubSpot experts who understand local government communication challenges and put in solutions specifically made for council environments.

We bring technical skill, government sector knowledge, proven methods, and genuine commitment to your success. We don’t disappear after setup. We’re your ongoing partner making sure your investment gives sustained value as your abilities mature and your needs change.

Your residents deserve modern, effective communication that respects their time and preferences. Your staff deserves tools that make their work more effective and less frustrating. Your elected members deserve clear data showing communication investments give genuine value.

This change is happening right now across Australian local government. Smart councils are showing what’s possible when you replace outdated approaches with modern, strategic, measurable communication.

Ready to transform your council’s community engagement through HubSpot for marketing?

Contact Smartmates today for a free consultation. We’ll look at your current communication challenges, find specific chances for improvement, and show you exactly how HubSpot can transform your community engagement while reducing costs.

No strings attached. No pressure. No generic sales pitch. Just honest expert advice from a team that understands both advanced marketing technology and practical local government realities.

Because your council deserves better than hoping your communications might possibly be reaching residents. You deserve systems that guarantee effective engagement while showing clear value for every ratepayer dollar invested.

Let’s make this change happen together. Visit smartmates.com.au or reach out to our local government specialists today.

Your communication revolution starts now.