Need Feature to Archive Inactive Contacts

[jloascend]

There is no archive option for contacts at this time. If we would like to clean our database,  the only two options are to opt out or remove the contact from the portal.

Hubspot users would greatly appreciate the addition of a contact archive for invalid or inactive contacts. Our industry is highly mobile, people tend to change positions quite frequently and we need a way to keep the contact history while making sure that our email list is clean. 

Let Hubspot know what you think in the comments below!

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @jloascend,

I'm not sure if you've seen these or not, but they may be helpful:

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Archive-Contacts/idi-p/11734

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Lists-Lead-Scoring-Workflows/Any-best-practices-out-there-to-clean-...

https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/how-to-clean-up-your-hubspot-account

Good idea. Keep sharing!

[blarson_forrest]

I agree with a feature to archive inactive contacts and would also like to be able to archive companies. After researching, sometimes a company is simply not a good fit for our products at all.

I save their information in a spreadsheet for future reference, but inside HubSpot would be better. Thank you!

[cknezevic]

Yes. 100% yes. This feature is heavily needed. Every time we need to clean out our database it is an excruciating process because we have so much history and information in our contact records that are connected to companies and deals and we do not want to lose that historical data.

With the ability to archive, we can begin to keep important information that is attached to, for example, a now ex-employee, to the respective deal or company so we still have that data to look back on as we progress relationships with our contacts. Currently, if I want to clean up my database of an ex-employee, we lose that valuable information for the sake of a "clean" database of emailable contacts. It would be very valuable to keep that ex-employee as an archived contact so that the information is there, but they do not appear in our actual database that we nuture and pay for.

Even an active/inactive switch could be good. Or a way to export all data from a contact we would like to delete into an archive company information section, where we could delete the contact record, but all of their historical data is stored within the company or deal they were associated with.

Thank you and I really hope this comes to fruition soon.

[PeterC · Accepted solution]

I knew I'd read about this recently - and there is a tool to flag your contacts so they don't count when you get your next HubSpot renewal.  It's not quite an archive because they're all still in your account - so you could argue it's better than an archive.  See https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-contacts/anz

According to the article, you can have up to 1 million contacts 'for free' - and only pay for those you market to.

And on further reading... https://knowledge.hubspot.com/contacts/set-contacts-as-marketing the small print says "Please note: this functionality is currently available on a limited basis for test users in the ANZ region."  So either the document is out of date - or anyone who needs this functionality needs to move to New Zealand 😉

[PeterC]

Marketing contacts:  It looks like it's live for everyone now: https://www.hubspot.com/new

[blarson_forrest]

Wonderful!

I love this software!

Bonnie