A clean, well-organised HubSpot database is essential, especially when you’re planning to integrate with a data enrichment tool like ZoomInfo. Syncing with an external data source when your existing records are messy can exacerbate those issues and further muddy your data. Use this step-by-step checklist to tidy up your HubSpot contacts before connecting to ZoomInfo.
One-Time Data Cleanse:
Purge Invalid Contacts – Comb through and permanently delete any obviously fake entries, test contacts, gibberish, or placeholder data. Maintaining fake records defeats the purpose of a marketing database and can distort your analytics.
Deduplicate Records – Leverage HubSpot’s deduplication functionality to locate and merge any duplicate contact or company records. Determine rules for which field values take precedence. Duplicates commonly occur from import errors, form double-entries, or contacts creating multiple accounts. Merging them ensures more accurate reporting.
Ditch Bounced/Unsubscribed Contacts – Rid yourself of any contacts who have previously bounced or unsubscribed from your email communications to keep your database focused on active prospects. Continuing to market to these contacts is wasteful and could impact deliverability.
Remove Perpetually Unengaged Contacts – Define criteria for what constitutes an “unengaged” contact and expunge any that haven’t interacted in an exceptionally long period. Typical criteria could be no email opens or website visits in 12+ months. Deprioritising these contacts allows you to concentrate on active leads.
Streamline Custom Fields – Trim down your custom contact properties by deleting any fields that are no longer necessary or used. Auditing which properties provide value reduces bloat and makes data entry more efficient.
Ongoing Maintenance:
Designate a Data Officer – Appoint someone to own regularly auditing and cleansing data quality issues. Document processes for how this will be executed. Having an owner ensures accountability instead of letting data decay.
Establish a Data Hygiene Cadence – Schedule recurring sessions to systematically tidy up data on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Consistent grooming prevents little issues from snowballing into major problems.
Enforce Data Standards
- Implement formatting rules and data validation controls to maintain consistency in how data is entered.
- Properly categorise contacts into their lifecycle stage to enable intelligent marketing automation and segmentation.
- Optimise HubSpot forms and properties to prevent future contamination from sloppy data capture.
- Archive outdated lists, segments, and static fields that are no longer relevant.
- Remove deprecated files, templates, snippets, etc. to declutter your HubSpot assets.
Leverage the ZoomInfo Connection (after auditing required property mappings):
- Configure filters and field mappings so you control how data flows in from ZoomInfo.
- Customise which records should sync based on location, industry, company size, etc.
- Schedule automated data syncs on a cadence to keep appending fresh ZoomInfo data.
The cleaner your starting data, the more effectively ZoomInfo can enhance your marketing database. Commit to maintaining pristine data hygiene for optimal results from tools like ZoomInfo. Messy data impedes marketing performance, skews analytics, and undermines sales efforts. With diligent data cleansing, you’ll see increased prospect engagement, better conversions, and higher quality pipeline.
Last Updated on by GaryPine
