Event creation automation and workflows

[jamieflow]

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to figure out the best way to manage an event process and am keen to get some guidance as I’ve been going around in circles with the available options.

I have a client that hosts regular events that follow the same template and process:

1. They create an event on Eventbrite
   
   
2. The event information fields are always the same, but the specifics vary
   
   
3. They want to send a sequence of emails every time that’s based on the same templates (other than one email that needs to contain unique information to that event and won’t be known until a few days before the event, when the email needs to be sent)

It would be ideal to automate as much of this as possible. A few initial questions that I have are:

1. Is it possible to create a new workflow automatically within HubSpot, along with all emails (using personalisation fields to merge the event data into it), when a new event is created in Eventbrite? (I know Zapier can pull a “New Event” action)
   
   
2. Because some contacts might sign up for multiple events at any one time, what’s the best way to manage the data collection side, i.e. syncing event data such as “Event Name”, and “Venue”? If a contact is halfway through a workflow that pulls this contact-level event data into merge tags but then signs up for a second event, the event data would be overwritten and communications would become mixed up

Is there a way to automate this process better so that when a contact registers for an event they’re added to a workflow and all of the data from that event registration is saved somewhere and referenced for all items within the workflow relating to that event, even if the contact then signs up to another event or multiple events?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jamie

[YiannisPètevis]

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[Aakar]

I have not used Eventbrite with HubSpot, so I can't say. But if there's an issue, there'd be a workaround.

[KimM · Accepted solution]

Hi @jamieflow , 

My concern with this approach is that your Hubspot CRM could get quite out of hand quite regularly if you are creating a number of new properties for every event. I believe there is a limit to the number of custom properties you can add as well, though not sure exactly what this is. Hubspot have introduced 'marketing events' recently, which can integrate with eventbrite. However, I haven't used this myself and from a quick play around it isn't as feature rich as what you may need here.

If you wanted to full automate this process (triggered from an event being published in eventbrite) I would suggest potentially using custom objects for this. You could create an 'Event' custom object each time a new event is created in eventbrite, and also 'registration' objects that are associated to the event which would store the information from the registration form. It would also mean you can use a custom object workflow to trigger based on the registration object properties.

If it was set up in this way, you could have just the one workflow that would handle all of your event comms, rather than creating new workflows for each event. Additionally you can report more effectively on data across multiple events and keep your contact records in check at the same time.

However, I believe that the custom objects are an Marketing hub enterprise product. What kind of hubspot subscription do you have?

Alternatively if you prefer the idea you initially proposed and aren't concerned about creating lots of contact properties you can create workflows via api, I haven't done this myself but this is the documentation: https://legacydocs.hubspot.com/docs/methods/workflows/v3/create_workflow.

So it'd look something like this:

1. You'd have a zap thats triggered on a new event created in eventbrite which would:
   1. create all the properties with a specific naming convention like {{eventname}} - {{propertyname}} using the properties api: https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/api/crm/properties
   2. Create the workflow using the above documentation and publish it.
2. Then you'd have a separate zap that triggers on a new registration from any event in the account:
   1. Create the contact and map the relevant properties using the contact api: https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/api/crm/contacts. Would need to be via the api so you can customise the property name dependant on the event that the registration relates too. Keep in mind you must use the internal name for this, so should format this accordingly.
   2. Enrol the contact in the workflow using the workflows api.

There is a fair bit of coding required in this, but nothing too difficult in my opinion, depends on your confidence in this department. Sadly the hubspot workflow out of the box features just don't allow for the kind of functionality you are looking for here. Once you delve into the world of the hubspot api, there's so much more you can do.

Let me know which approach you decide to take and if there's any further guidance needed.

[jamieflow]

Thank you @KimM that's incredibly helpful.

I think for now, I'll avoid the API option as it's potentially going to introduce more issues. At least until we know exactly what the process needs to be having tried and tested it the harder, more manual way.

[KimM]

Not a problem at all @jamieflow . Totally appreciate it can seem like a daunting task using the APIs. Sorry I couldn't be of more help!

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @jamieflow,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community! 

I have a curiousity question 🙂

Are you looking to see if it's possible to set up these automations only with Zapier or are you also considering other integrations, such as HubSpot's Eventbrite Integration? 

I wanted to ask this because it can help to have a bit of additional context on which integrations your client is considering so we can kick off a brainstorm here with the community.

Thank you!

Best,

Kristen

[jamieflow]

Hey Kristen,

The Eventbrite integration is already set up.

My current understanding is that the integration doesn't sync additional fields from custom forms into HubSpot.

The event forms dictate who the attendee is and, therefore, what they need to receive in the way of emails and information.

Thanks,
Jamie

[kvlschaefer]

Hey @jamieflow,

Thank you for the additional context!

You are correct about our integration not having the ability to sync custom fields at this time. 

I wanted to invite our subject matter experts to see if they have any advice regarding the Zapier integration and automations.

Hi @HubDoPete, @KimM, @Aakar - Do you have any advice for @jamieflow? 

Thank you! 

Best,

Kristen