Import contacts, with existing HubSpot details as the master
I have many contacts already in my HubSpot database, but also have lots of contacts in a legacy CRM system. I want to export from the legacy system and import into HubSpot, but as the import is coming from an old system I want any data already in HubSpot to be considered the master (so not overwritten by the import).
Perhaps on each field in the import you could say whether it should overwrite existing data in HubSpot.
This would allow me to easily migrate all my contacts from my legacy CRM without worrying about old data overwriting my more up to date HubSpot data.
I would also like to be able to import contacts, but choose that any that already exist in HubSpot be excluded from the import.
We are building a third-party tool to do exactly this. We’d be happy to talk through your particular import details and have you try out our tool to make sure it meets your needs - please feel free to direct message me if you’re interested!
We are building a third-party tool to do exactly this. It will check for existing contacts you have, and allow you to choose if you want to update specific fields on those records or just ignore and simply import only new contacts. If you’re interested in trying this out, feel free to direct message me and I’d be happy to walk through your specific needs to make sure it’s a good fit!
Hi @kevin, I've actually merged your previous idea ("Import contacts, ignoring any already in HubSpot") because the two are intrinsically related, and if a solution for one of these were to be implemented, it would likely also address the other. Combining these two ideas will increase the chance of other users finding and upvoting the same one, which will increase its visibility. Please let me know if you have any questions!
This has my vote too! The ability to skip existing contacts during import would have saved many headaches and hours spent working with your support team.
This is a great idea. I'm just trying to combine data bases into a single Hubspot CRM, and I've already installed my most current data. (It's a shame I didn't do oldest to newest - that would have been a good tip.) @ashley_milne: is your tool ready to test? I'd be happy to give it a go if so, as I'm not too far along in my configuration of Hubspot.
@PWK Yes, our tool is up and running if you'd like to give it a go. Feel free to email direct so we can walk you through how to set it up with your specific requirements: help@import2.com
While still requiring a manual task pre-import, this should only take about 10/15mins. I personally would export all of my current database, strip the email field out and use that to highlight all my existing HubSpot contacts in the old CRM file via the following formula:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,D : D,1,0)),"No","Yes")
(edit: remove spacing on D : D, the community portal is converting the formula into emoji's!)
With A2 being the email address of a contact in the CRM file, and D : D being the column with all the email addresses already in HubSpot. Copy paste this formula for the entire row of CRM emails, be careful to leave your computer to work through this if the list is particularly large as clicking anything etc can affect excel as it processes and give incorrect results - always worth spot checking a few results to make sure it has worked correctly.
With the email address being HubSpot's key contact identifier, you can then filter on the 'Yes' results and delete them all (use Find & Select, go to **bleep**..., visible cells only) - leaving you with a file of the net new records only for import.
Be wary of data quality if the file is particularly old as you will get a lot of bounces, may be worth running through an email verification tool first if large portions of the data have been untouched in 3-6+ months.
This is a significant need for us, as a higher education institution, as we regularly receive inquiry cards from students on site visits/college fairs. Due to our relatively small team, it may take us months to transcribe the thousands of inquiry cards we receive. During which time, that same student may have inquired through the website with more current information.
We do not want the more recent data from the website to be overwritten by this weeks or months-old content. Excluding existing contacts on import will save our team from more manual data filtering.
@JoeDavies The process you describe sounds very familiar to me, we do that using VLookup function in Excel. But these steps are so cumbersome since our database changes everyday and I have to upload lists also almost everyday. So currently, I'm doing this process almost daily (exporting the whole list, comparing it with my new list and then uploading an updated list), which doesn't seem very productive. Is there really no other solution for this lack of feature in HS? Thanks
Other platforms like Pardot have a tickbox for each field on import for 'overwrite existing data' which HubSpot is currently lacking on. I feel for you on this one as it sounds like you've got a particularly difficult use case with it, and hopefully it's one that HubSpot are on the case with implementing. Now that they're using their own CRM internally I can see a lot of these seemingly minor inconveniences being ironed out quickly as they find them troublesome themselves. I know there's been a ton of updates in the wake of the switch over from Salesforce.
And, while platforms like Pardot do have their benefits, they are far outweighed by their negatives and while it's a big inconvenience for you, it should be on the roadmap and you are in the right place!
Is there a working solution to this request already? I have downloaded 1,000 contacts from Hubspot as it is a lot easier and faster to fill missing info in Excel. If I now upload this file, does it create duplicates or does it fill the actually empty fields in Hubspot with the new entries? The ID numbers are untouched, so Hubspot should be able to identify each line.
100% would love this to be implemented. There are times where I want certain fields to be overwritten, and others to not be. Being able to choose on a property-by-property basis would be helpful.
Hi all! I'm Jeff, from the HubSpot CRM product team. We just released a new beta for import we're calling "Skip if known" (exact name of feature TBD by smarter people). This new option makes it possible to prevent overwrites from your imports if the property value on a specific record is already set.
For example, if the name property on a Contact record is set as "Jeff Vincent", and the name column in the import with the corresponding email is "Jerf Bincent", checking this box means the HubSpot value won't be overwritten.
For customers updating the data in their CRM through imports AND the UI, we hope this update helps you maintain more control over your data!
To get access while in beta, ask your HubSpot contact to add the "Skip if known" beta to your portal. We'll be going live to all soon.
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