Creating contact from webhook event trigger in workflow

[DJohnson4]

Hi,

Has anyone tried creating a contact with a webhook event trigger in a workflow? If so, would you be able to share the steps to make this happen?

For context, we have a third-party platform for our referral programme. When a contact signs up to join our referral programme, the contact is created within that system but they are not created in Hubspot, which we need them to be. We have been struggling to find a solution to this so far and the webhook event trigger seemed like a good solution. 

I have spoken to Hubspot support about this and they said

"As a general overview, that should be possible. If you have the Webhook that will trigger the workflow, then you can use the default "Create record" action to create a Contact Record."

This is where I have got to so far:

When I set up the webhook trigger, the test submission worked without problem, but when I try to replicate with the live workflow, the contact did not enrol into the workflow and there is no error log to show why they did not enrol.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

David

[HaVdb]

Hi @DJohnson4 ,

In the documentation on the product update page, HubSpot says it's possible to use webhook data to create a new record, but in the screenshot; they show the creation of a "deal" record.

When checking this Loom video from HubSpot on the use of the webhook, I briefly thought you'd be able to create a contact record; but unless it's done in the webhook itself (with the email mapping); I do indeed believe it's currently not possible to create a contact record via a contact workflow.

In the Knowledge base article they only talk about "retrieving data from another system to update your HubSpot records"; so I'm assuming you'd have to find a workaround still for the creation of contacts.

Does your tool integrate with Zapier? Cause I know we've used Zapier in the past for creation of contacts via Google Sheets, Eventbrite, etc.

Good luck with your search though!

[Olivia_Bagnall · Accepted solution]

Hi @DJohnson4 

My name is Olivia and I an ex-HubSpotter turned HubSpot expert for Baskey the agency. Happy to help here!

My thought process here is that since this is a contact-based workflow, the workflow needs to enroll a contact object. Since your referral form is not creating contacts in HubSpot then there is nothing for the workflow to enroll. 

A beter approach to this issue may be to use the HubSpot Form API on your referral form to pass contacts to HubSpot. 

Let me know what you think and I'd be happy to chat more about this over a call or email if needed. 

[DJohnson4]

Hi @Olivia_Bagnall,

That's what I thought. How can I enrol a contact into a workflow when the contact doesn't yet exist in Hubspot?

We think the third-party we're working with have come up with a solution to our problem.

thanks,

David 

[JBigio]

Hi @DJohnson4, how did you end up resolving the issues for this use case? I am trying to create contacts through the webhook trigger as well.

[Olivia_Bagnall]

@DJohnson4 You can't trigger a workflow unless there is an object to enroll. 

You will need to use the forms API to create the contact in HubSpot when the form is submitted. Have you explored this option yet?