topic Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects in Ask Me Anything and Panel Discussions

[Closed] Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ajoselow — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:29:21 GMT

Hi everyone,

My name is Adrienne and I am a member of the Product Marketing team at HubSpot. As you may have heard, HubSpot introduced a very exciting new feature at INBOUND, custom objects. This tool is something we’ve been working on for quite some time, and we’re excited for you to finally get to try it out.

Whether you’ve been eagerly awaiting this release, or you’re just starting to familiarize yourself with the tool, we want to hear from you and answer any questions you may have about custom objects.

To ensure you're set up for success with custom objects, we've brought together our most knowledgeable HubSpotters to answer all of your questions.

We will be answering questions from Monday October 5 - Friday October 9.

Ask a question below and learn from:

@ajoselow - Product Marketing Principal

@ebeck - Product Marketing Manager

@jeffreyr - Director, GTM

@KyleJepson - Academy Professor

@mhodsdon - Solutions Architect

@nmedina - Product Marketer

@ncarbone - GTM Manager

@Shelby - Product Marketer

Not sure what to ask? Here are a few sample questions to get the conversation started:

What are custom objects?
When should I use a custom object versus a custom field?
How can I learn more about custom objects?

Want a primer? Here are the basics:

Custom objects are a set of customizable records within your CRM that supplement standard CRM records in a more flexible way. Custom objects allow you to supplement data in a scalable way with flexible associations, so you can name the object, determine what properties it has, and decide what other objects it can be associated with in your CRM. For more details and use cases, I encourage you to check out the custom objects feature page for an overview of this powerful new feature.

How to get involved: Drop your question in the comments below and we’ll respond throughout the week. If you see a question you’re interested in following, give it an upvote to ensure we know you’re interested in learning more!

This AMA is now closed. Thank you everyone for your participation and questions. Stay tuned for more AMAs to come!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

GuyTaylor — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 20:55:48 GMT

Sounds interesting! This is my first time hearing about custom objects so a basic explanation and maybe a few use-cases would be great.

Cheers,
Guy

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

kelseyingram392 — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 21:26:16 GMT

Hey team, couple of questions!

Can you use custom object properties as Active List criteria?
Can you deduplicate/merge custom object records?
Can you still create custom calculation properties based on associated objects?

Thanks!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

phdm3 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:11:45 GMT

Many of our contacts are assosicated with several companies. Would custom objects be a good way to store data about a second company and associate that second company to a contact?

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

jen_vaughn — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:17:43 GMT

I know that HubSpot prides itself on usability, but Custom Object are currently only usable if you have someone with the technical knowledge to work with an API. Are there plans to make this accessible to the average HubSpot user? Is there timeline or roadmap as to when that's scheduled to happen?

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

Alex_Green — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:20:09 GMT

This is the first time I'[ve heard about custom objects, so like many others I am sure, I'd love to have a basic overview on what they are, how they are best used and examples.

I'd be interested to understand if they could be used for our event attendance. We run multiple events but each contact can attend 20 or so a year and we need to record how they applied, registered and whether they attended for every event. And in what capacity - paying delegate, media, speaker, sponsor etc. And of course they can be a speaker at one event and a delegate at another, so there are multiple variations of the data per contact record. May be Custom Objects is the answer!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ajoselow — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:03:17 GMT

Hi Guy!

Great to hear from you. Thank you for the question! Here is some information to get you started...

For more details and use cases, I encourage you to check out the custom objects feature page for an overview of this powerful new feature.

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ajoselow — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:12:45 GMT

Hi Alex!

Thank you so much for reaching out! Based on your use can use either custom objects or custom fields to record this activity.

Let's start with custom objects. Custom objects are a set of customizable records within your CRM that supplement standard CRM records in a more flexible way. Custom objects allow you to supplement data in a scalable way with flexible associations, so you can name the object, determine what properties it has, and decide what other objects it can be associated with in your CRM.

For more details and use cases, I encourage you to check out the custom objects feature page for an overview of this powerful new feature. Once you've decided on this approach, you can then checkout this resource on how to get started with custom objects in HubSpot today.

Lastly, you may also want to evaluate if custom fields could help in this case. Custom fields can be introduced to standard or custom objects. Custom fields + standard objects are perfect when you need to introduce a net new field into your CRM with fixed relationships (i.e. “anniversary”). Custom fields + custom objects are the right choice when you need flexible relationships (i.e. assigning one deal to multiple contacts).

We are excited to hear how you put these to use for your business!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

hyoung22 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:44:02 GMT

Hi team,

Excited to hear about the custom objects. Is there a plan to enable these custom objects to sync with a standard to custom object in Salesforce? We only use the force.com platform so most of the HS "out of the box" Saleforce syncing doesn't apply to us. This would be a game changer for us. Thanks!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ajoselow — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:26:22 GMT

Hi Jen!

Thank you for reaching out - we definitely do pride ourselves on being both easy to use and powerful. Custom objects is firmly in the powerful category -- adding a lot of flexibility and customization within our CRM. At this time defining a custom object in HubSpot is API only given the relative sophistication of this solution. However, we will keep a close eye on use cases and continue to evaluate if further usability enhancements are needed in the future.

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

markaiello — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:27:17 GMT

Most of our Contacts are Clients or Candidates and sometimes can be both. Should we create 3 contact types or should we create 2 custom objects (Clients and Candidates) and link the records together when a contact is both?

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ridingforlife — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:28:50 GMT

Excited to hear about custom objects! A few questions I have to start with are:

Can custom objects be used with workflows? If yes, how?
Will the ability to create custom objects be available in the UI so a developer is not needed?
Once a custom object is created through the API, can you create new records of that custom object in the UI?
Can custom objects and their properties be used to personalize marketing emails?

Thanks!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

ajoselow — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:30:22 GMT

Hi there! Thank you for your question - it's an important question and has a bit of nuance. It isn't advisable to make a new custom object to represent a Company. Instead, it's best to use the Standard Company Object in HubSpot. This will allow you to retain the right type of data in the right object.

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:31:02 GMT

Hi @GuyTaylor !

In addition to the resources @ajoselow mentioned, HubSpot Academy has also put out a free online lesson that goes through this in depth: https://academy.hubspot.com/lessons/custom-objects?library=true

--Kyle

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:36:42 GMT

Hi @phdm3 ! This is an excellent question. You absolutely could do this using custom objects, but I would actually recommend not doing that. We know the ability to associate multiple companies to a single contact is needed by many of our customers, and we are actively working toward getting that built! I don't know exactly when it will be available, but I expect it'll be in beta by the end of 2020.

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

jeffreyr — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:42:22 GMT

Hi Jen! That's a great question. You are correct that today, you need to be competent with HubSpot APIs to initially set up / define your Custom Objects. Once your objects have been defined, they work pretty much the same way other objects do right in the user interface, and don't require any technical knowledge.

Making it possible to set Custom Objects up without technical knowledge is something we are investigating, though I can't speak to any specifics around if/when this will come to fruition just yet. As you pointed out, our goal is always to make HubSpot as easy and usable as possible. In this case, we also feel a responsibility to help customers take a thoughtful approach in how they are using Custom Objects (especially non-technical folks who likely have less experience with topics like data architecture.)

In the shorter term, I can point out that we have a growing number of partners with experience rolling out Custom Objects in HubSpot that you can see here. With a little bit of searching online, you'll also find that many partners have published how-to guides and even some tools that can help you through the process of implementing Custom Objects if you do feel confident to do it yourself.

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:49:02 GMT

Hi @jen_vaughn ! I've heard this concern a lot since we launched custom objects. I have a couple resources that I think will help:

First, this video I posted on LinkedIn. It's just over 8 minutes long and gives my view on why the API interface hopefully won't be an obstacle to the average HubSpot user. (It turns we've already built a form-based approach to building custom objects, it's just tucked away in a place you wouldn't expect it.)

Or, if you'd rather read a blog post than watch a video, here's a writeup from a Canadian company that makes a lot of the same points as my video does.

I hope this helps! If it doesnt, please let me know--making this knowledge as accessible and helpful as possible is sort of my whole job!

Kyle

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 17:50:41 GMT

Hi @Alex_Green ! In addition to the stuff @ajoselow said, I'd also recommend checking out the HubSpot Academy lesson that gives an overview of custom objects and other data-storage solutions in HubSpot: https://academy.hubspot.com/lessons/custom-objects?library=true

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:17:37 GMT

Hi @ridingforlife ! These are great questions. Here are some (hopefully equally-great) answers:

Yes! When you create a workflow, you have the option to select contact-based workflow, company-based workflow, etc. Once your custom object is created, you'll see it listed there, too, and the process for creating a workflow will be exactly the same as what you're used to with standard objects.
This question was discussed elsewhere in this thread, with three different people weighing in on it. Check that out for the official answer on when/if a UI will be created, but my unofficial answer is that there already is a UI (kind of). You can watch a video of me using this secret UI here.
Yes! Once the object is defined, it gets a page just like the one for contacts and companies. You can filter, save views, and create new records just like normal.
Yes! ~~I believe this feature is currently in beta, but it does exist and will be generally available before long.~~ UPDATE: Actually, this is live and available now. Sorry to misspeak!

I definitely recommend checking out HubSpot Academy's lesson about custom objects--it answers these questions and more!

Re: Ask Me Anything: Custom Objects

KyleJepson — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:24:42 GMT

Actually, @Alex_Green , forget everything both of us said. A new standard object for tracking marketeting events is now in beta: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/integrations/use-marketing-events