Costs & Contracts
Part of Marketing stack consolidation
Comparing consolidation savings with migration effort
Compare avoidable future charges with migration, double running and ongoing work before combining marketing tools.
Compare the future cost of keeping the current route with the future cost of moving to the proposed route over the same period. Count an old charge as saved only from the date it can actually stop. Set migration, double running and ongoing work against that saving; exclude costs already paid that the decision cannot change.
Set the period and inputs
Choose a period that covers the proposed move and relevant contract dates. From signed documents, record the old commitment, renewal and notice terms.
Obtain a proposed destination charge for the users, contacts, usage, support and integrations the work requires. State the currency, whether figures include GST and the conversion basis for any non-AUD amount.
Label each input as confirmed, quoted or estimated. Keep supplier payments, external project work and internal staff hours separate. Internal hours affect capacity; they do not automatically become another supplier payment.
Compare the two routes
| Cost or effort | Keep the current route | Move to the proposed route |
|---|---|---|
| Future supplier payments | Charges payable if nothing changes | Remaining old charges, new charges and overlap |
| One-off work from this point | Work required to keep the route | Export, mapping, rebuilding, checking and training |
| Ongoing work | Administration and manual repair | Administration, monitoring and new manual work |
| End state | Existing tools and obligations | Charges that end and work that remains |
Net future cash difference equals future cash cost of keeping the current route minus future cash cost of moving it. Show internal hours alongside that figure.
For Marketing Hub subscriptions with marketing contacts, HubSpot says exceeding the current contact tier by adding marketing contacts automatically upgrades the account to the next contact tier and charges accordingly until the next renewal date. Check the account and signed terms before assigning a saving date.
Estimate the migration work
Break the move into retrieval, field and status mapping, rebuilding, connection changes, checks, training and any history that must remain accessible. Give each task an owner and an estimate or an open question. Inspect a representative export and the intended import route before treating portability as settled.
Mailchimp says account exports can include audiences, templates, marketing emails and SMS data, and that exported data can be re-imported except for email and SMS reports. Check whether the data needed for the move can be exported and re-imported. Continued access or an archive may add cost or work to the proposed route.
Make the decision at the realistic saving date
Record when the destination must be usable, when each old charge can stop and how long both routes must operate. Compare the cash difference with the internal work and the reliability of essential tasks. A positive cash difference alone does not establish that the move is worthwhile.
State the organisation's decision threshold and the assumptions that could reverse it. The result may be to proceed, wait for renewal, narrow the move or retain both tools for different work. Recalculate when an actual quote, export finding or contract clarification changes an input.
