Tracking lead sources and conversions

[VIyengar]

Hi All,

As we continue to rely on HubSpot increasingly for accurate data and processes, I'm trying to figure out the most efficient and reliable way to track lead sources. 

For all inbound leads, HubSpot has an array of sources which we're figuring out, but what about leads that come in via other channels, e.g. someone the team met at an event, a referral, or from outbound efforts?

How do we track these alongwith the inbound sources from HubSpot, so that there's one field with the original source, across contacts deals and companies? 

Is this possible at all and is this even the right approach?

I'd love to know how others handle this and look forward to your replies. 🙂

Thank you!

[jonojeff]

This is a fantastic use case for https://sales.studio 

🙂

[THayes3]

I've typically relied on a custom property I title just "Offline Sources", a drop down select for imports, events, conferences, integrations, etc. I usually have a few reports dedicated to this property, a Pie Chart and a Pivot Table breaking down Offline Sources specifically.  

For a conference or event heavy client I'll go one step further and have a second custom property called something like "Conference Name" This requires a naming convention and regular maintence but I usually find it's easy enough to maintain this myself or train someone at the client on how to maintain standards for import lists. I provide an import guide with property mappings, a naming convention, screenshots from HubSpot for each step, etc.

To get all sources into a single display/reportable property you could create a custom property, call it "Master Source" or similar, a single line text. Then using a workflow, populate this property copying Original Source unless it's "Offline Sources"  in which case copy the value you have in the "Offline Sources" custom Property.

Hope that helps

Tommy Hayes

HubSpot Implemenations

Sales and Marketing Ops

[SteveHTM]

A teriifc best practices question for the community! Every one of this has tried to answer this question at one time or another!

My experience is that teams tend to over engineer the lead source tracking - vcreating two many properties, with too many options) and end up with problems getting data entered correctly/consistently across a larger team. When the data gets inconsistent, the value of reports that draw on that data is severely undermined.

My starting point implementation, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, is to try and illuminate the sources of Offline contacts - which tend to come from imports and integrations. As a kick off, I introduce two properties:

- A dropdown selector of key offline sources - tradeshow, conference, sales propsecting, and a list of integrated apps for example, I tend to call this Marketing Source.

- A single line text property , called marketing Source detail which can be used to indicate which trade show, conference, marketing initiative, etc. was the driver for Contact creation under each top level categoty.

Recognize that this is a compromise beween maintainability (avoiding frequent updates to a dropdown slection for example) and the constraints necessary to keep data entered in an unambiguous way. Then consider what else migh tbe useful for reporting - but beware over engineering!

Hope this is helpful!

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @VIyengar 

There's no native or one right way to do this in HubSpot - or any other platform. 

My recommendation would be to create one or two custom contact properties:

1. One to track offline sources in more detail - this can contains the sources such as 'met at event', 'introduciton', etc. This will most likely have to be set manually by sales reps as they add contacts, although marketing may be able to set in bulk or automatically in certain situations. 
2. A second property could be used to conditionally store the most accurate source value - this would probably be the Original Source value that HubSpot generates unless it is 'Offline sources', in which case you would use your custom property value. 

Hope this helps.