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Case Study

From CRM to growth engine: How CBD College scaled with HubSpot

CBD College logo

Over a multi-year partnership, Lupo helped CBD College consolidate a sprawling web presence, migrate to HubSpot, and build HubSpot into the operating hub of a multi-channel education marketing and admissions engine spanning referrals, integration, automation and AI.

Marketing Sales CMS Education Referral & Rewards AI

43% growth

Headline growth across the partnership

6,664 referrals

3,727 enrolments (~56% conversion), Referral & reward program

AI agent “Ben”

Handling routine queries, freeing staff for higher-value work

About the client

About CBD College

CBD College is one of Australia's largest vocational education providers, delivering nationally recognised courses across first aid, community services and beyond. As the RTO grew, its digital presence had sprawled across dozens of separate websites, and the business needed one connected platform to scale.

Industry
Education / RTO
Client since
2022
HubSpot
Marketing · Sales · Service · CMS
Engagement
Multi-year partnership

The challenge

A sprawling digital presence that couldn't scale

Core problem

CBD College's web presence had grown into 30+ separate websites with fragmented data and manual processes making it slow and costly to market, enrol and support students as the RTO scaled.

Fragmented web presence

30+ disconnected sites with inconsistent branding, SEO and reporting.

Disconnected data

Student and enrolment data spread across systems, with no single source of truth.

Manual referral tracking

A growing referral channel with no scalable way to capture, track and reward advocates.

Rising support load

Repetitive student and enquiry questions consuming staff time.

The solution

HubSpot at the centre of marketing, admissions and support

Lupo built HubSpot into the operating hub of CBD College's growth, across several connected workstreams:

CBD College team member using HubSpot on a laptop

  1. Website consolidation & migration

    30+ sites into one HubSpot platform, 1M+ records migrated into a single connected CRM/CMS.

  2. Referral & reward program

    A Referral Factory–powered program (6,664 referrals → 3,727 enrolments, ~56% conversion).

  3. Student Management System integration

    Connected HubSpot to CBD's Vasto SMS, integrating student enrolment and certification data (including completion dates) to power timely, targeted re-enrolment and upsell/cross-sell across the student lifecycle.

  4. Customer Agent (AI)

    An AI agent (“Ben”) handling routine student and enquiry questions.

  5. Multi-channel campaign engine

    HubSpot runs numerous campaigns across remarketing, lead gen, renewal, referral and brand, with strong first-aid and vocational emphasis.

  6. Connected tech stack

    Paid media (Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok), automation (Zapier, Blendr.io, n8n), revenue/ops (Xero, Stripe), AI (ChatSpot, OpenAI), multi-hub across Marketing, Sales, Service and Content.

Solution Stack

Platform

  • HubSpot CRM
  • Marketing Hub
  • Sales Hub
  • Service Hub
  • CMS Hub

Growth infrastructure

  • Website migration
  • SEO
  • Referral Factory
  • Vasto SMS integration
  • Multi-campaign engine
  • Automation (Zapier/Blendr.io/n8n)

Enablement

  • AI Customer Agent (“Ben”)
  • ChatSpot & OpenAI
  • Xero & Stripe
  • Team training
CMS Migration SEO Referral Factory Workflows AI Agent Xero Stripe

The results

Compounding growth across the partnership

43%

Overall sales growth since inception

6,664

Referrals → 3,727 enrolments (~56% conversion)

30 → 1

Websites consolidated onto HubSpot

1M+

Records migrated into one CRM

A record-breaking referral program

One of the platform's strongest globally, turning advocates into a reliable enrolment channel.

Before & after

What changed for CBD College

Before

After

30+ disconnected websites
One connected HubSpot platform (1M+ records)
Fragmented student & enrolment data
A record-breaking referral & reward program
Manual referral tracking
Vasto SMS integration with upsell / cross-sell
High, repetitive support load
AI Customer Agent handling routine queries

The client's voice

In their words

Lupo's partnership with CBD College since 2022 and our company growth achieved is remarkable. Working with this level of professionalism, their expertise and efficiency, and deep understanding of the Education and RTO sector in ANZ, has been paramount for us.

David Gee Co-Owner, CBD College

We went to Lupo for basic onboarding and our 30-website consolidation. They nailed it - but their strategy expertise then enabled so much more: our lead generation, Ben our AI agent, our SEO and referral challenges. To any RTOs considering a similar partnership: stop wasting time. Engage Lupo.

Matthew John Gee Co-Owner, CBD College

Questions buyers ask

FAQ

Yes. Lupo consolidated CBD College's 30+ sites onto HubSpot CMS and migrated over a million records into one CRM.

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