Table of Contents
Introduction
The Need to Build A Better System
Meaningful work can transform and enrich a person’s life. But first, they need to find the right opportunity. For 75 years, Kelly Services, a global leader in workforce solutions, has connected people with companies that value their employees, creating rewarding experiences and maximizing productivity for everyone.
However, internally, Kelly Services faced challenges. The creation of four distinct business units in—each with their own marketing teams—significantly increased demand for the company’s central marketing function while hindering a cohesive strategy. Combined with cumbersome legacy systems, Kelly’s relationship with customers became more transactional than relational. The marketing lacked the personalization needed to engage with customers beyond basic announcements and immediate actions.
To tackle these challenges, Kelly Services adopted HubSpot as a change agent, aiming to unify its business units, reduce administrative burden on the central marketing team, and develop a customer-centric approach through a cohesive marketing and content strategy.
The Transition to HubSpot
Kelly Services underwent a structural reorganization into specialized Business Units (BUs), each with new marketing leaders and decentralized teams responsible for their own marketing—copy, design, campaigns, and more.
Kelly Services’ legacy marketing automation and content management systems proved to be inefficient for its modern marketers. They were slow and complicated, making personalization difficult and campaign management cumbersome. Even sending an email required multiple team members and tools, causing significant delays.
“Your technology is a backbone,” says Elizabeth Riley Boyer, Kelly’s Vice President of Business Unit Marketing. “Our tools were hard to use by everyone on the team and didn’t talk to each other, so we weren’t able to do content-based marketing effectively.”
Marketing leadership, including Elizabeth, considered various well-known platforms, but ultimately chose HubSpot for its user-friendly interface, robust integration capabilities, and personalization features. The adoption process required HubSpot champions to win over stakeholders from marketing to IT and procurement, each with unique priorities.
Implementation partner New Breed, initially helped Kelly migrate its marketing automation platform to Marketing Hub, ensuring everyone in marketing was well-equipped and trained to use the tool effectively. Over time, select Sales team members across all four business units, piloted Sales Hub with the help of New Breed.
Two years into the implementation, New Breed also assisted Kelly with migrating its CRM data to HubSpot and fully integrating it with Microsoft Dynamics 365, improving workflows and data quality, which reduced manual tasks and enhanced efficiency for sales teams.
Following this success, New Breed further helped Kelly expand the use of Sales Hub and on boarded over 300 users across 15 teams. This accelerated implementation, completed in just three months, included targeted training sessions, custom configurations, and multiple technology integrations, resulting in smooth operational transitions and improved user adoption.
HubSpot became the cultural change agent Kelly needed, unifying its BUs across marketing and sales and streamlining marketing operations. This unified experience allowed Kelly Services to focus on growth, creativity, and innovation.
A Connected Marketing Experience
The switch to HubSpot resolved the disconnect between teams, but Elizabeth knew more was needed to create a personalized customer experience. “Our relationship with customers was very transactional,” she says. “When we made announcements, we blasted them to our entire database. There wasn’t a thoughtful approach to audience segmentation.”
The move to Marketing and Content Hub enabled Kelly Services to build its audience and generate leads. By using both products together, Kelly Services centralized its customer data, making audience segmentation and content personalization easier. Enhanced tracking capabilities enable them to analyze and replicate successful lead journeys, driving better results.
A great example of this cohesion is its global-scale Re:Work Report. Every year, the team develops a workforce survey of companies and employees, and uses HubSpot to publish the report, disseminate it, incorporate ads, and track its progress. “Your content is only as good as the tools it rests on,” Elizabeth says. “It’s key to have Marketing Hub and Content Hub connected because it makes campaign building and content personalization so much easier.”
Kelly Services has found great value in Content Hub, in particular. They migrated all its websites to HubSpot’s Content Hub, enabling them to track customer journeys more effectively without technical assistance. This shift empowered Kelly to respond faster to customer needs, improving communication and service. The move resulted in a 32% increase in site users and a 26% rise in sessions in the eight months following the launch.
With Content Hub, Kelly Services’ marketers can easily produce social posts, landing pages, newsletters, and even explore launching a podcast. This streamlined content strategy has led to a 60% increase in conversions. “Across the entire organization, we’re producing content regularly, which is a huge win as that wasn’t happening prior. The content that was being produced before was so general, it was speaking to no one. Now, we’re all tapped into our industries and producing things that people want to read or hear about.” Elizabeth shares.
Kelly Services has transitioned from generic marketing to personalized, customer-centric content marketing. They can now easily track lead journeys, replicate successes, and focus on creating high-quality content.
“It’s key to have Marketing Hub and Content Hub connected because it makes campaign building and content personalization so much easier.”
Automation Features As A Marketing Extension
To further enhance content creation and customization, Kelly Services began testing and piloting key automation features within HubSpot’s Content Hub. While aiming for efficiency, Kelly ensures these tools support, rather than replace, human creativity. “If everyone uses AI to create content, we’ll end up in an echo chamber. Nobody will say anything new,” Elizabeth remarks.
Kelly Services started to experiment with Content Remix in Content Hub. This tool allows marketers to take their existing content and remix it into different formats. Blog pages can become social posts all in one click. It serves as an extension of the marketer, enabling faster content creation while maintaining the quality of the marketer's original piece.
Another feature that has aligned with Kelly Services mission is Content Hub’s blog narration feature. This feature allows Kelly Services to convert its blog content into audio, making it accessible for both listening and reading. “So much of our audience cares about accessibility,” Elizabeth says regarding the Kelly Education division. “We need to be an organization that embodies this. With this feature, we can walk the walk.”
This strategy maintains Kelly’s commitment to high-quality, human-centric content while leveraging technology for operational efficiency.
Conclusion
Kelly Services’ journey showcases the power of adopting a unified, people-first approach. By connecting divisions through one platform, Kelly transformed its marketing and sales efforts, created personalized customer experiences, and empowered its teams to focus on growth and creativity. This successful transformation, powered by HubSpot and New Breed, highlights how businesses can turn internal challenges into opportunities for innovation and success. "Our goal ultimately is to become a customer-centric organization. Not just in the marketing department, but everywhere. HubSpot has been a cultural change agent, helping us transition away from transactional communications to truly anticipating and meeting our customers' needs."
With the continued use of HubSpot’s innovative tools, Kelly Services remains committed to driving meaningful connections between people and employment opportunities.
-1.png)
