Marketing technology costs and contracts

Assess a marketing tool against the full cost for the commitment period, then review the terms controlling changes and exit. A monthly payment may still sit within a longer commitment.

Establish the cost and commitment

Start with the proposed order. Record product and edition, included users and usage, billing currency, payment schedule, commitment term and any required setup. Add migration, integrations, training, administration and separately purchased support. Keep supplier payments separate from internal staff time, and do not count an existing shared licence twice.

Model an ordinary month and a plausible busy month. Ask which count triggers a higher charge and when a later decrease can affect the bill. Published pricing pages use different mechanics, so check how the relevant product counts contacts, usage or credits and whether onboarding or set-up is required.

Mailchimp’s paid monthly marketing plans combine a contact tier and send limit, with additional charges if either limit is exceeded. A public pricing page is not a quote for your organisation.

Mailchimp’s contact and send mechanics do not by themselves establish a dollar cost; add-on block prices vary by plan and pricing tier. Confirm the selected Mailchimp price and expected add-on charges, and the HubSpot price for the selected products and term, before approving a budget.

Key Facts on Australian Marketing Tech Costs and Compliance

Check how usage is counted

For Mailchimp paid monthly plans, the monthly bill reflects the highest contact total stored during the billing period, not only the count at the end. Archived and cleaned contacts do not count towards the contact limit, and the contact limit can be changed at any time.

If a Mailchimp account exceeds its contact or send limit, the additional charge is based on add-on contact blocks. Block size, included contacts and sends, and price depend on the plan and pricing tier; exceeding the allowance by more than one block can mean multiple blocks are charged.

Mailchimp’s example for its Standard plan sets the send limit at 12 times the contact limit. One add-on block of 1,000 contacts includes 12,000 additional sends, showing how a higher contact allowance can also change available send capacity.

Mailchimp also offers Pay As You Go, where email credits are bought as they are sent. Check whether it better suits an irregular sending pattern, and confirm how credits fit expected volume before using it as a budget assumption.

Read the agreement as an operating document

Put the order form, product terms and amendments together. Establish commitment and renewal dates, notice method, when capacity can be reduced, which prices may change, included support and how data can be retrieved. Ask which document governs if a sales summary and the order differ.

HubSpot distinguishes billing cycle from commitment term: monthly payments can form part of an annual commitment. Check the signed terms and account details for your purchase.

The exact notice period, termination rights and any price-increase cap are not specified here. Before signing, check the Order Form and applicable terms for each; do not assume a monthly payment gives a monthly exit.

Separate the term from the payment schedule

HubSpot’s renewal guidance distinguishes commitment term from billing cycle. Starter subscriptions can have monthly or annual commitments, while Professional and Enterprise subscriptions require an annual commitment; depending on tier, payments may be monthly, quarterly or annual.

For HubSpot, the purchase date and commitment term determine the renewal date. The renewal date is the date after the commitment ends; use the signed Order Form and the account’s renewal details to establish the actual date rather than inferring it from payment frequency.

HubSpot says auto-renewal is enabled by default unless the Order Form specifies otherwise. Preventing auto-renewal requires turning it off in the account before the next renewal term; assign account access and responsibility for that action.

Include data handling in exit planning

For organisations covered by the Privacy Act 1988, the OAIC says reasonable steps are required to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. The same guidance requires destroying or de-identifying information when it is no longer needed, unless an exception applies.

APP 11.3 identifies technical and organisational measures as part of reasonable steps for information held after 11 December 2024. It applies regardless of whether the information was acquired or created before or after that date, so account for this work when reviewing retrieval and exit terms.

Record the decision and its owner

Name a business owner and someone authorised to act on the agreement. Store signed documents, the cost view and renewal details where a deputy can find them. Set an internal decision date early enough to compare actual invoices and expected use, obtain a revised offer if needed, and complete required notice action.

The business owner should own the recommendation and cost case; the authorised signatory should confirm the final terms and have authority to commit the organisation. Name both before signing, and make sure the decision record is accessible to a deputy.

A useful decision record states required use, full-period cash cost under ordinary and busy scenarios, internal work, terms that limit changes, unresolved questions, owner and action date. Detailed calculations, pricing-model comparisons and a multi-tool renewal register belong in the related guides.

For a HubSpot subscription, the decision record can include the applicable product and commitment term, renewal date, and whether auto-renewal is enabled. Assign someone with the necessary account access to verify the setting against the signed Order Form and act before the renewal term if the organisation decides not to continue.