HubSpot is an incredibly complex tool. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
Good because everything is in one place.
Bad because it's easy to make a mess.
The key to HubSpot success is starting with a clean slate, but that's often easier said than done. There are several common mistakes that new users make when implementing HubSpot that create problems down the line.
Whether you're a current HubSpot user running into issues or a new user getting ready to start the implementation process, this article will break down the common points of friction in the implementation process.
→ Related Content: A No-Nonsense Guide to HubSpot Hubs
10 Common HubSpot Implementation Mistakes New Users Make
→ Related Content: How to Successfully Implement HubSpot [Free Checklist]
1. Not defining sales processes
By default, HubSpot comes built with a standardized sales process that follows a contact from lead to customer (or lost deal).
However, this may not actually be reflective of your company's sales process. When it's not, you frequently run into issues with task assignment, reporting, and follow-up. Your best option is to create a sales process in HubSpot that matches your real-world sales process.
Yes, this step can be lengthy: however, it's worth the effort to ensure that your HubSpot account is usable for your team and accurately reflects your revenue generated.
Solution: Follow HubSpot's sales process tutorials to ensure your actual sales process matches your sales process in HubSpot.
➤ HS Tutorial: The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Sales Process
➤ HS Tutorial: How to Design Your Sales Process in HubSpot CRM
→ Related Content: How to Get Your Sales Team to Actually Use HubSpot
2. Ignoring lifecycle stages
Lifecycle stages are critical to be able to correctly track your conversions, leads, and revenue. Like with sales process, HubSpot comes with default lifecycle stages to match a standard buyer's journey.
In most cases these are relevant for your business, but you should still review them to ensure they are accurate. Beyond that, you need to make sure you're actually updating your contacts' information as they progress through the journey - you can do this manually and also using workflows based on actions taken.
→ Related Content: 5 Essential HubSpot Workflows to Copy
Solution: Define your buyer's journey and ensure the lifecycle stages in Hubspot match. Create a plan for updating stages as contacts progress through the stages.
➤ HS Tutorial: Create and Customize Lifecycle Stages
➤ HS Tutorial: Use Lifecycle Stages
➤ HS Tutorial: Update the Lifecycle Stage of Contacts or Companies in Bulk
3. Properties and objects are misaligned
Properties in HubSpot are specific definitions of data that are organized under objects. Default objects are contacts, companies, deals, and tickets. Properties are categories of data - examples include First Name, address, email address and industry.
One of the most common mistakes new HubSpot users make is associating a property with the wrong object. For example: capturing the property First Name under the companies object, when it should be under the contacts object.
Solution: Review all properties and objects in the CRM to ensure data is captured in the correct place.
➤ HS Tutorial: Create and Edit Properties
➤ HS Tutorial: Manage Your CRM Database
➤ HS Tutorial: Associate Records
4. Duplicate properties
This is by far the most common mistake that new HubSpot users make. It's very easy to accidentally create duplicate properties during the implementation process.
For example, you might have a company property called Business Location and another company property called Location. These two properties are actually capturing the exact same data, but because they have different names HubSpot's CRM will view them as two separate properties.
This duplicate data clogs up your system and makes it hard for your teams to use.
Solution: Review all properties and objects in the CRM to remove duplicates. Document this somewhere your whole team can access so they follow the right process when importing data.
➤ HS Tutorial: Create and Edit Properties
➤ HS Tutorial: The Ultimate Guide to Your New De-duplication Tool in HubSpot
→ Related Content: How to Import Your Contacts Into HubSpot's CRM
5. Duplicate form fields
Similar to the duplicate properties issue is the issue of creating duplicate form fields for each new form that mean the same thing instead of using existing fields or updating terminology.
When creating forms in HubSpot, you should always search for existing fields before creating new ones - for example, searching for City before creating a new City field.
Remember - you can always change the label on a field just in the form. So a form field could be "Comments" in the database, but you could update the label to say "How could we help you today?" or "Tell us how we did" depending on the form.
Solution: Review all existing form fields before creating new ones, to ensure you're not duplicating data.
➤ HS Tutorial: Edit Your Form Fields
➤ HS Resource: Forms FAQ
6. Not customizing views
This is something that's often overlooked in the implementation process, but something that makes it so much easier for your teams. There are several areas in HubSpot where you can customize what information is displayed and in what order.
For example, when you view specific clients or companies in HubSpot, by default an about section on the left will display key information for that contact/business.
Take the time to select what information displays and in what order to make it easiest for your teams to pull the critical information they need at a glance - like phone numbers, lifecycle stage, etc.
Solution: Create custom views in HubSpot, designed for each team and/or team member.
➤ HS Tutorial: Select Properties to Show in the About Section on a Record
➤ HS Tutorial: View and Filter Records
7. Not using the reporting tools
The reporting feature is a powerful tool for many aspects throughout HubSpot and across the various Hubs. However, it's often one that's ignored.
Reports not only show you important information about leads, but they also give you insights on marketing, sales, service - really, every aspect of your business. Luckily, HubSpot also makes it easy to create reports and store them using dashboards.
Solution: Use dashboards to store reports for reference. Create custom reports as needed.
➤ HS Tutorial: Create and Manage your Dashboards
➤ HS Tutorial: Create Reports With the Custom Report Builder
→ Related Content: 5 HubSpot Sales Dashboard Templates to Try
8. Never using campaigns
The campaigns tool in HubSpot allows you to group all your marketing efforts under specific umbrellas. This makes it much, much easier to get accurate and specific data out of HubSpot.
However, many new HubSpot users don't set up campaigns at all and just lump all of their marketing into one place. Creating campaigns for specific initiatives allows you to pull data for those specific efforts and compare efforts against each other.
Additionally, it makes it a lot easier to delete or archive assets in the future when they're no longer relevant.
Solution: Create campaigns for specific initiatives and assign content assets to them for easier reference and reporting.
➤ HS Tutorial: Create Campaigns
9. Ignoring ChatSpot
A newer tool within HubSpot, ChatSpot is an AI-powered sales and marketing assistant designed for businesses. It's powered by ChatGPT, but what makes ChatSpot different from other generative AI tools is that it connects to your current HubSpot account, to tap into your specific sales, marketing and customer service data.
This means you can use ChatSpot to help you during the implementation process. Forget where to go to find something? Just ask Chatspot. Need to double-check for missing data? Ask ChatSpot. It's a nifty tool that can automate some of those basic questions and processes.
Solution: Use ChatSpot to simplify processes and answer basic questions.
➤ Tutorial: 5 ChatSpot AI Prompts to Try
10. No clear process documentation
As I've covered throughout this article, duplication is an easy problem to run into in HubSpot. One of the root causes is having various users in the system without process documentation. It's understandable that each person on your team would use slightly different naming conventions or create duplicate properties - if you don't have a place where process is clearly laid out, then each person is going to use the system differently.
How you want to go about process documentation is up to you. Our team uses shared Google Sheets that everyone can reference to see all existing contact properties, naming conventions, and currently-running campaigns.
Solution: Create internal documentation for naming conventions, sales processes, lifecycle stages, and all other custom properties and objects within HubSpot that any team member can reference.
Get the Most Out of HubSpot
If you've been following along, your head might be spinning. Getting HubSpot implemented is a ton of work. That's why you don't have to go it alone.
Working with a HubSpot partner agency means you don't need to become an expert in HubSpot to get up and running.
BizzyWeb is a HubSpot Platinum Partner and we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for all hubs. Our team has over 196 certifications in HubSpot (and constantly growing). No matter what your HubSpot needs are, our team is ready to handle them.
Plus, we are the only agency in Minnesota with a Platform Enablement Accreditation from HubSpot - sounds fancy, but it means we're top-notch in making HubSpot work within your business.
BizzyWeb is a Minneapolis-based digital marketing and web design agency that helps companies get the high-quality leads they need to grow and thrive. Our tactics include inbound marketing, SEO, advertising, web design, content creation and sales automation. We are an accredited HubSpot Platinum Partner and we offer full-service HubSpot onboarding, enablement and strategy for new and current users.
