When I’m training and troubleshooting there are people who want to know the detail and those who ‘’don’t care what it’s called, just tell me what it’s going to do for me’’.
There is some terminology and information about the data structure that can benefit all HubSpot users, HubSpot Objects and Properties is one.
Why does it matter?
Having a clear understanding of HubSpot Objects and Properties leads to improved productivity and accuracy when building lists and reports and confidence when using in automation.
When I’m talking to clients during the HubSpot Best Practice Healthcheck, they often mention issues such as:
· Lists not showing the correct contacts
· Emails have been sent to the wrong contacts
· Gaps in the data
· Inconsistencies in the data
· Reports & Dashboards inaccurate or missing data
· Low confidence to use automation due to the issue above
What are HubSpot Objects?
An Object is the highest level of category or relationship in the HubSpot CRM such as Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Tickets. There are many more, but these are the ones used daily.
What are HubSpot Properties?
HubSpot Properties are stored in HubSpot Objects. They capture and store information specific to that Object such as:
First Name and Email address for a Contact
Number of Employees and Industry in the Company Object
If Objects and Properties were a floorplan:
Imagine a floor plan of a building. Each room is an Object. Each room has relevant useful such as the oven in the Kitchen or a TV in the Living room. For HubSpot, this would be the First Name, Last Name and Email in the Contact Object. Each Property then has a ‘value’ such as Airline under Industry or 100 in Number of Employees.
If Objects and Properties were a spreadsheet:
Imagine that all your data is in a spreadsheet instead of HubSpot. Each HubSpot Object would have a sheet or a tab. The Properties would be the column headings in each sheet /tab such as First Name or Email Address for a Contact, or Number of Employees or Industry for a Company. Each Property then has a ‘value’ such as Airline under Industry or 100 in Number of Employees.
What if I need the information in more than one Object?
Sometimes you might want to use data in two places such as Target Account in both the Company AND a Deal for Sales. Another could be the Region for different sales teams to manage to the Deal.
Best practice is to agree where the data will primarily be held, in this case it would be the Company. You can then copy the data to the other Object such as when a Deal is created. You’ll often need to create a Custom Property such as Target Account in the Deal Object so you can copy the data.
Copying data from one Object to another used to a job for workflows if you have a Professional or Enterprise subscription. This is now possible via ‘Sync properties’ which is so much neater.
Using this process, the data is consistent across both the Company and the Deal and it’s more efficient as it’s only added once.
If you’re having issues with your data, the HubSpot Best Practice Healthcheck might help.
Or if you’d like further information on Training, options include in-depth 1-1 Training and team training courses.