Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync

FransLeys — Mon, 10 May 2021 09:24:20 GMT

Hi everyone,

I’m Frans from the Data Sync team and here’s a list of best practice tips that you can apply to Data Sync by HubSpot. The team and I will do our best to keep this list of tips and trick up to date over time. If you have tips and tricks of yourself, feel free to share them in the comment section below!

Tip 1: One way or two way?

See those two arrows between the two boxes? That tells you you’ve got a two-way sync set up. It doesn’t have to be that way though! You can turn your integration into a one-way sync when you select “No contacts” instead of “All contacts”.

As you can see on the right, for personal CRMs like Google Contacts, this is in fact the default sync setup and contacts will only sync from HubSpot to Google Contacts. Just like before, you can always override it. Just select “All contacts” from the dropdown.

If you stick to the one-way sync, you will always have the most up-to-date records in your connected app, based on the information in the HubSpot CRM.

There’s of course another one-way sync possible. The other way round. When you choose “No contacts” from the HubSpot dropdown, you will only feed new data into HubSpot.

Why would you want this one-way? When you’re just starting out with HubSpot – your HubSpot database is still empty – it may be interesting to use this sync as an alternative to import your app’s records into HubSpot. Once you’re happy with your records living in HubSpot, you can then switch around the configuration of this sync.

Even when you already have contacts in HubSpot, you can opt for a simple one-way. In fact, for some apps, this is the default suggested sync direction. An app like Freshdesk or Mindbody doesn’t typically need a fresh influx of new contacts coming from HubSpot. You just want them to sync into HubSpot.

Tip 2: Filter on both sides

Syncing is pretty intense. Data sync comes with filters to help you determine what contacts can be part of the sync and which ones should be left alone. If you’re syncing for the very first time, you should always set up a filter.

It’s always better to start slow and sync too little and then widen your sync scope gradually, than to yolo-sync “All contacts”, causing you to clean up all the records that you didn’t need afterward.

Applying smart filters on both sides lets you keep a two-way sync, all the while maintaining control.

In this example on the right, Zoho’s marketing eligible contacts make it over into HubSpot, while on the HubSpot side an active list acts as a gatekeeper. Only the contacts that match the criteria of that inclusion list will become leads in Zoho. It’s still a two-way sync.

Tip 3: Set up a limited test sync

Leveraging filters on both sides of the sync, you can have HubSpot only sync a sliver of your contacts. This is for when you’re just trying to get a taste of a sync.

In your connected app, you can create a test tag and apply it to a limited set of records and use that tag as your filter. Syncing a marketing automation tool? Create a dedicated list or audience, and populate it with one or two contacts and filter on this list before actually syncing your massive list. Or create a dummy test contact with a funny recognizable fake name.

On the HubSpot side, you filter using lists. These could be static lists or active lists. The easiest is probably to create a static list for the sole purpose of running this test sync. Give it a recognizable name, add one or two test contacts in that list, and then set this up as a filter.

Seeing how this handful of contacts sync will in fact better inform you on how to tweak field mappings. That’s the segue into my next tip.

Tip 4: Sync now, map later

For most apps, the default mappings are a great start. But if you’ve scrolled down this far, than the thought of having custom mappings has probably already occurred to you.

While there are some limitations as to what can be set up as a field mapping - not everything can be directly mapped - you’re probably keen to have a bunch of properties moved over.

Don’t worry about building out all the field mappings you need beforehand. In fact, it’s better to first run a sync with the default field mappings on a limited dataset (see the previous tip).

Diligently trying out a sync includes first validating how contacts make it over from one app into the other with the default mappings. This lets you test your filters and it’s a sanity check to see if the essential fields populate nicely.

Only after, you then gradually set up more field mappings.

But wait, if I add field mappings only in a later phase, won’t I end up with a bunch of contacts with only partially filled up fields?

Nope! Unlike an integration app like Zapier, or even HubSpot’s workflows where you have to carefully plan ahead all possible scenarios, adding or removing field mappings in data sync is a very forgiving process.

Whenever you make changes to the field mappings table of an active data sync, HubSpot will catch up with whatever it needs to.

Re: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync

JKino — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 01:54:58 GMT

Hi there,

I am a PieSync customer and in PieSync I have the abililty to filter by mutiple items

Where as in the Sync in HubSpot that is going to replace PieSync I can only filter by 1 item

Please bring the fuctionality from PieSync into HubSpot sync.

Thanks,

Joel

Re: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync

FransLeys — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 07:20:53 GMT

Working on that. For now, a workaround I'm thinking of is to filter on the basis of a very specific field in your other app. For example, you'd create a custom checkbox "Sync to HubSpot" in your other app and this is what the filter would become. But I definitely agree it's easier to have multiple filters too 🙂

topic Re: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync in Data Hub

Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync

Tip 1: One way or two way?

Tip 2: Filter on both sides

Tip 3: Set up a limited test sync

Tip 4: Sync now, map later

Re: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync

Re: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Data Sync