Help Needed - HubSpot Portal Audit Must Haves!?

[franksteiner79]

One of the common themes that is emerging from the calls I have with potential customers is that a lot of them had HubSpot for a while, people left, new people joined, and no-one really knows what is going on their portal.

I now find myself doing portal audits and health checks which are then the starting point for further work. The approach to doing these is quite formulaic and follows a set structure, I am however wondering if I'm ticking all the boxes, asking all the right questions, or might be missing something very obvious. 

In the spirit of sharing is caring, I am planning a series of Community posts and AMAs on a number of topics relating to a health check / portal audit. My initial list of topics covers the following, and I'd love to hear what you think, what you would add, and if you might like to join in on the knowledge sharing. Topic breakdown so far:

• Topic 1: Analyse your HubSpot CRM properties (potentially with a GSheet template for people to make a copy of their properties, drop their CRM property export in and get some standard charts and reports out of it)
• Topic 2: User Permissions Review - Permissions, Permission Sets, Teams, Presets. I used a "roles" worksheet in the past, could be reviewed and resurrected
• Topic 3: Subscription Settings and Management, with a light touch on GDPR best practice
• Topic 4: Workflow Audit - What is happening When and Why?
• Topic 5: Forms Review - laying the foundations for a cohesive forms strategy.

There could potentially be 10 or 12 topics overall, some more complex, others less so, that can help educate HubSpot users on what to look out for and what questions to ask themselves.

Looking forward to everyone's input, ideas, and comments!

Thanks in advance

Frank

[pranavpandhi]

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[SHollis2814]

I like making a data health dashboard for the client that highlights some of the more glaring gaps in data governance (contacts with no owners, etc.). If the client decides to do their own cleanup or contracts us to do it, it provides a tool for them to gauge progress.

[indiracatmedia]

This is great; thank you @franksteiner79 !

I'd also add:

Duplicate records and properties

Existing Integrations (and how they are creating records)

File Manager

Workflows on, at risk, off, etc.

Email (unsubscribed, bounces, etc.).

if they have Marketing Hub, we'd check marketing contacts management.

If they have Sales or Service Hub, we'd review the playbooks.

Implementation documentation, if any.

I hope this helps 🙂

[danmoyle]

Love this idea @franksteiner79. It's so true on the story about this with clients. Even if people haven't left, if they've had HubSpot for a significant period of time, they probably need an audit and clean up. 

Your list looks good. A couple of additional things come to mind for me.

Duplicate records. While HubSpot has made it easier to find and review duplicates, an audit could include a discussion of whether duplicates should be merged or left separate for historical context, how we ensure future avoidance of dupliacates, and then a plan for merging/managing them.

File manager. Who's file manager is a mess? Just mine? Cool. Cool cool cool. A portal audit could include how to clean up unused files, ensure a folder structure, and set a naming convention procedure. 

List management. Adding structure to the list tool like folders and best naming convention practices will help keep the list tool from overwhelming even the most seasoned HubSpot user. 

Hope that helps spark some thoughts! Looking forward to seeing this discussion continue. 

[franksteiner79]

Thanks @danmoyle 

Didn't even have the file manager on my radar... 😳

[danmoyle]

@franksteiner79 compared to other tools, file manager feels like a lower priority for sure. I just know it can become quite a mess! LOL 

[franksteiner79]

Just tagging some fellow community champs like @danmoyle, @karstenkoehler, @Jnix284, @JenBergren for their input and thougts.

[JenBergren]

Thanks @franksteiner79 ! Long ago I think I may have helped edit this blog from @MarianaG in case it has any relevant and useful additions 🙂 https://www.remotish.agency/hubspot-revops-agency/blog/when-and-how-to-audit-your-hubspot-portal

[franksteiner79]

Hi @JenBergren 

Thanks for sharing, that reaffirms a lot of my thoughts and gave some new ideas, perfect! On a related note, and considering your recent endavours on Maven, how do you feel about a topic along the lines of "How to document and why?", it is often an afterthought yet somehow the root of a lot of problems. Happy to chat via PM or on LinkedIn.

Frank

[JenBergren]

Hi again Frank! I was doing my weekend reading and saw this post about tech audits from Joy Martinex that you might find useful to add to everything you're looking through!  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7033823737758048258?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3A...  

[JenBergren]

Hi @franksteiner79 ! Yes I think when doing and/or delivering an audit to a client, it is a great and relevant time to be educating them about the benefits of documentation! Especially if they will be involved in keeping whatever you deliver them, up-to-date after the audit!