How to avoid a mess with properties creation?

[hs-user]

Hello Team,

We are using Hubspot across our European businesses and despite we only gave access to a couple of people for properties creation, our properties list is becoming a mess.

Therefore I wonder if there is like a tutorial or white paper that would cover the best practices for that matter. As an example, our businesses often ask for one-shot usage property: like for a survey, a prize promotion etc. Unfortunately I don't really have alternative to suggest for them so I tend to give the green light for properties creation. Is there any other tool we should use for that purpose?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Have a nice day!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @hs-user,

I don't think those one-time-usage properties should be concerning – as long as they're named correctly, have a clear description and are sorted into groups for easy review. (Unfortunately that's often not the case and probably also the problem you're facing.)

The goal here should be that each property is named in a way that it's intuitive when it should be used and when not. Clear naming is key , e.g. you could append "(France only)" to a name or "(Do not use, legacy property)" after a campaign is over if you want to avoid confusion.

If you want to take inventory / clean up, you can download all of your properties in the property settings (top right of the screen).

A good way to clean up would be sharing this export file with all HubSpot users and ask them to review which properties are still needed (by filtering by the creator of the property) and which ones can be deleted.

Lastly, a data quality training could be useful – creating awareness for good data quality, how properties can cause chaos and eventually obstruct the view and stand in the way learnings.

Best regards!

[ConnorSlivensky · Accepted solution]

I'd agree with the export and review method for clean up. But I have a slightly different idea than @karstenkoehler on going forward.

 I might suggest instead of one-off properties is more specific checkbox properties. Say one for offers and one for properties. Then as you come out with new ones you can just add the options and all that data is concentrated in a couple of properties going forward. Just look at what the major uses are and try to create big bucket properties and like Karsten said MAKE SURE PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO USE THEM! Sorry but that's honestly the biggest thing: garbage in, garbage out.

Good luck.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @hs-user,

I don't think those one-time-usage properties should be concerning – as long as they're named correctly, have a clear description and are sorted into groups for easy review. (Unfortunately that's often not the case and probably also the problem you're facing.)

The goal here should be that each property is named in a way that it's intuitive when it should be used and when not. Clear naming is key , e.g. you could append "(France only)" to a name or "(Do not use, legacy property)" after a campaign is over if you want to avoid confusion.

If you want to take inventory / clean up, you can download all of your properties in the property settings (top right of the screen).

A good way to clean up would be sharing this export file with all HubSpot users and ask them to review which properties are still needed (by filtering by the creator of the property) and which ones can be deleted.

Lastly, a data quality training could be useful – creating awareness for good data quality, how properties can cause chaos and eventually obstruct the view and stand in the way learnings.

Best regards!