HubSpot CRM integration

When you connect to HubSpot CRM we sync all of your contacts, along with companies, deals, tickets, line items, products, quotes, and custom objects. You can leverage Ortto’s powerful campaignreporting, and dashboard features on your customer data from HubSpot.

Read the HubSpot CRM guide below for additional information on integrating with and using HubSpot, and troubleshooting.

HubSpot prerequisites

This integration process requires having a HubSpot CRM account for which you have administrative permission to install apps.

Use of the journey and playbook actions associated with HubSpot is determined by your Ortto plan.

Connect from Ortto

To connect to HubSpot CRM:

  1. On the Data sources page, click New data source.
  2. Under CRM or All data sources, select HubSpot, then Get started.
  3. On Connect to HubSpot, if needed, select Advanced options to:
    • Choose which CDP fields can be modified from the HubSpot data source, or
    • Choose not to modify CDP data fields that already have a value.
  4. Click Connect then sign in to your HubSpot account.
  5. Choose the HubSpot account to connect, then click Connect app.
  6. At Fields, choose which HubSpot objects and their fields will be synchronized across to your Ortto account’s customer data platform (CDP).
    You can sync a maximum of 5 contact and 5 organization (company) objects (10 objects in total) from HubSpot to Ortto. Objects are identified as either contact or organization objects by their field type — see the description against the object name.
    Expand any objects on this page to then select any other fields to be synchronized with Ortto. Each object you select will create associated activities.
    At this point, you can set the email and SMS permissions for HubSpot contacts synced to Ortto. This ensures that any new contacts added to your CDP are given the correct permissions as set in HubSpot (otherwise, new contacts added to your CDP are automatically subscribed to email by default).
  7. At Data retention, select to either:
    1. store only the last 90 days of activity data, or
    2. select the time frame for the data stored, and the activities which will be stored.
  8. On the Select records page, choose between syncing all your chosen object data in the previous step across to Ortto (by leaving Sync all selected), or click Selectively sync to specify conditions on HubSpot CRM object data related to people or organizations in your Ortto’s CDP that will be synced.
  9. On the Merge page, select the appropriate strategy by which people’s (customers') data is merged from HubSpot into your Ortto’s CDP.
  10. Click Done to exit the setup.

NOTE:

  • By default, ContactDeal and Company objects are selected for sync. Contact and Deal objects cannot be deselected, as they are required for creating and associating contacts via unique identifiers in your CDP.
  • For objects mapped to your CDP, there is a limit of 100 custom contact fields and 50 custom organization fields cumulatively across all objects (the limits do not include default fields).
Option to select fields to determine email and SMS permission for HubSpot contacts

NOTE: It is recommended to set the data retention limits while setting up the data source. Updating the data retention limits in the future will require a resync of the data source, which may affect multiple audiences and campaigns within your customer data platform (CDP). Learn more about configuring data retention under Configuring data retention.

NOTE: Each HubSpot object can be associated with a maximum of 50 records.

NOTE:

The merge options:

  • Import and merge new records only,
  • Import and overwrite any records that exist, and
  • Import new records only

are equivalent to the respective emerge strategies for people:

  • Append only,
  • Overwrite existing, and
  • Ignore

How is the data merged into Ortto?

Data is merged from HubSpot to Ortto on the initial connection. Subsequently, new modified objects are synced approximately every 15 minutes.

The HubSpot integration is initially configured as read only, which means that no data is sent from Ortto to HubSpot.

Should you wish to send data from Ortto to HubSpot, you can create a playbook or journey with Actions that create or update object records, such as an action to change a deal’s status. Learn more about HubSpot actions.

When a person is added to your CDP from the HubSpot data synchronization, if they do not already exist as a contact in your CDP, they are added as a new contact. If you did not determine your HubSpot contact’s email and SMS permission during the integration setup, then any new contacts are automatically subscribed to receive email communications. (New contacts are unsubscribed to SMS by default.)

If a contact synced from HubSpot already exists in Ortto, the contact will not have their email or SMS permissions changed; they will remain as they were set in HubSpot.

Initial data sync

Data associated with the default objects and any custom objects you selected are merged into the Ortto CDP. The merge follows the data merge strategy selected during the initial connection with HubSpot. Ortto activities store data based on the objects you chose to be synced during the integration.

Ongoing data sync

HubSpot data is merged in to Ortto approximately every 15 minutes.

Resynchronizing data

HubSpot data is resynchronized when the data source is reconnected and when the data retention limits are adjusted. The resync will not perform a full backfill of data, it will only import changes that occurred since the last Ortto request for HubSpot data.

A resync of the HubSpot data may affect the audiences and campaigns within the CDP by resetting the attributes for the person, and activities, causing a person to potentially re-enter an audience or campaign within the CDP.

What does the data source add to my account?

The HubSpot data source adds:

  • HubSpot contact and company records and their associated fields to your CDP, known as people or organizations respectively in Ortto.
  • HubSpot activities, based on the objects selected during setup, from the last 90 days. In some cases, however, it may be necessary to store an activity and its attribute data for longer. Therefore, Ortto provides a mechanism for customers on selected Ortto plans to opt-in to selectively store their activity data for longer. Learn more about data retention under Configuring data retention.
  • Playbook and journey Actions to create or update object records, or send a message. Learn more about HubSpot actions.
  • The ability to use Liquid syntax in campaign messages to personalize your messages using merge tags for HubSpot person fields and activity attributes. Learn more about using Liquid syntax under Personalizing campaign content with Liquid.



Example showing HubSpot merge tags used in an email message

NOTE: Deleting a HubSpot data source connection will not remove the current entries in the CDP for people or activities that were merged from that HubSpot connection.

View Hubspot fields in your CDP

Customize your CDP field visibility and add HubSpot fields by clicking the cog icon, then select or clear the fields you want to show or hide. HubSpot fields are indicated with the small HubSpot icon.

Example showing HubSpot fields selected for view in the CDP

Access the HubSpot data source view

When a data source is connected, you are provided with a data source view. On the Data sources page, click the data source you wish to view.

A data source’s view is the administration page where you can:

  • view and manage the data source in the left-hand details panel, and
  • under the relevant tabs on the right-hand side, view:
    • an Overview of the data source,
    • an Activity feed, and
    • an Audience table, which displays the people imported from HubSpot.

In the details panel, you can give the data source a new name (this will not affect your HubSpot account settings). To do so, hover over the name and click the pencil icon, then type the new name and click on a blank area of the page to save the name. You can also disconnect the data source, and edit:

  • whether to modify system CDP fields,
  • the merge strategy,
  • the default and custom HubSpot fields to sync, and
  • the data retention period.

Learn more about the data source view under Managing data sources.

Using HubSpot

Learn about how you can use HubSpot with Ortto’s filters, reports, dashboards, campaigns, and coupons to get the most out of your integration under Using HubSpot in Ortto.

Troubleshooting HubSpot

For help with common questions or issues you may encounter when using HubSpot as a data source, including backfilling data and syncing Ortto activities to HubSpot, view Troubleshooting HubSpot.