Migrating your HubSpot account can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right approach and a solid plan, you can turn what seems like a complex task into a smooth and manageable process. Whether you're consolidating multiple accounts or setting up a new one, understanding the steps involved, from defining your goals to finalizing the setup, can make all the difference. This guide will walk you through the essentials of migrating between HubSpot accounts, helping you ensure a successful transition that meets your business needs.
Effective planning is crucial for a successful HubSpot to HubSpot migration. 80% of the migration’s success depends on detailed planning, while only 20% is attributed to the actual implementation.
The initial step in planning a HubSpot to HubSpot migration is understanding your business goals. Common objectives include:
Account Consolidation or Separation: Streamline or compartmentalize data and assets by merging or separating accounts to improve scalability and organization.
Data and Asset Restructuring: Restructure properties, pipelines, workflows, and data fields to fit the company’s new structure.
Remove Unnecessary Integrations and Add New Ones: Businesses may migrate accounts to remove unused or outdated integrations and adopt newer, more efficient tools that better suit their current needs.
Once goals are established, the next step is analyzing and comparing the current system with the new one. Focus on:
Data Structure and Properties Analysis: Review all default and custom properties in the existing system.
Database Size and Complexity: Evaluate data size based on source accounts, such as the total number of contacts, deals, and companies.
Marketing and Sales Assets Analysis: Determine if workflows and automation need recreation or can be migrated directly. Compare form submission data and ensure proper mapping of form fields and follow-up emails.
Plan the migration process and how it will integrate with the new system. For instance, if migrating a unit to a parent company account, determine how the new processes will fit within the existing ones.
In architecture planning, the primary focus is to thoroughly analyze the complexity of the structure and data within the source account, ensuring it aligns with business objectives while carefully considering all associated challenges and intricacies. These steps involve planning:
Custom objects and properties
Deal Pipelines, Deal stages, and dependencies
Associations between objects
Gain a deep understanding of the data complexity in the source account, including how to migrate it seamlessly while preserving data integrity and quality. Assess the types of assets being used. Document and develop a detailed migration plan for:
Data: All data is stored in the source account.
Forms: Including fields and structure.
Custom Properties: Complexity and details of stored information.
Assets: Landing pages, email templates, chatflows, and chatbots.
During KPI planning, assess the key metrics currently being tracked for that specific unit or source account, and determine how they will be managed in the new account. Review how reporting dashboards are set up, including the properties used in the reports. Identify who monitors these dashboards tracking the KPIs, and explore potential modifications. By addressing these questions, you can effectively plan the transition and ensure a smooth KPI management process.
Audit all existing integrated apps and API connections to understand their complexity and usage. To effectively plan this step, follow these simple steps:
List Integrations: Document all third-party applications integrated with HubSpot.
Review Custom API Calls: Assess custom scripts and webhooks used for syncing data.
Map Data Flow: Understand how data flows between HubSpot and these tools.
In most cases, users from the source account will continue using the new system and are already familiar with HubSpot features. The key is to plan how to train them on updates or changes in the new account structure.
Next, determine how many phases the deployment will require, as deploying everything at once can lead to errors and complications. Phased deployment helps minimize risks and ensures a smoother transition.
When you have understood and planned everything, it is time to start the migration process.
Start with the technical setup, which includes configuring default settings, inviting users, creating teams, and setting appropriate permission levels. This process can be divided into the following key steps:
New Account Setup: Configure the new HubSpot account.
Business Unit Add-On: If migrating to a parent company account, get the HubSpot business unit add-on and set it up for the new brand.
Next, create all the required custom properties, deal pipelines and their stages with dependencies, and develop associations between different objects. If you need to create a custom object to manage previous Hubspot account data into a new one, do it at this stage.
Map the entire business process thoroughly. This is crucial, especially when migrating a unit to the main company account, to ensure data remains properly segregated. By maintaining an error-free process, you can ensure a smooth transition and seamless operations. An easy way to map and refine the process can be:
Current Processes: Document active processes.
Mapping Tools: Use tools like Figma, Miro, or Lucid for detailed process mapping.
Feedback and Modifications: Engage with stakeholders to discuss the process, gather their feedback, and make any necessary amendments.
Setup all required features into your targetted account. The feature may include:
Lists: Create and segment contact lists according to active accounts.
Leads: Establish lead management processes replica of the previous account.
Meeting Scheduling Tools: Set up a meeting scheduling tool, and create meeting different meeting links as were used.
Goals: Set up goals to measure and track your team’s performance.
Forecasting: Configure forecasting features to predict future sales and business outcomes.
Other Features: Include any additional features essential to your business processes.
Next, install and set all the required apps that were integrated into the previous account and develop the mechanism for managing their data.
If any of the apps were integrated with APIs, create a private app and set up their APIs. Make sure that your APIs are configured properly and its working accurately.
Now it's time to create all required landing pages, email templates, chat flows, and CTAs. All the assets must be replicated into a new HubSpot account. Make sure that all the brandings and everything are aligned properly.
Once all configurations are complete, initiate pilot testing by implementing the new HubSpot setup in a controlled, small-scale environment before a full rollout. During this phase, focus on the following:
Identify Issues: Detect any technical problems, bugs, or inefficiencies in the new HubSpot configuration.
Gather Feedback: Collect feedback from users involved in the pilot phase to understand their experience and any issues they encounter.
Refine and Fix: Address all identified errors, bugs, and areas for improvement based on feedback.
Repeat Testing: Continue to refine and test the system until it operates smoothly and without errors.
The data migration process involves the following techniques and steps.
Certain portal migration apps offer the ability to migrate processes from one HubSpot account to another. These tools can transfer objects, properties, records, workflows, forms, and, at the enterprise plan, even custom objects and business units.
However, these tools tend to be quite expensive. For example, the Portal Migration Suite starts at a minimum of $400 per month, with enterprise-level plans being even more costly.
Follow these key steps for exporting data during a HubSpot-to-HubSpot migration:
Create a Backup: Back up all data before making any changes to ensure nothing is lost during the migration process.
Export Data: Export data in CSV format for compatibility and ease of import into the new HubSpot instance.
Verify Accuracy: Ensure the number of records in the original HubSpot account matches the data in the exported CSV files to confirm completeness.
Limit Access: Restrict access to the exported data, granting it only to those who need it to maintain security and confidentiality.
After exporting data from your current HubSpot instance, conduct a thorough audit to address common issues such as:
Missing Fields: Check for any fields that were not included in the export.
Duplications: Identify and manage duplicate records that may need merging or removal.
Outdated Information: Update any outdated or incorrect data.
Inaccuracies: Correct any inaccuracies found in the data.
Steps for Refining and Validating Data:
Data Refinement: Clean and organize the data to ensure it meets the requirements of your new HubSpot instance.
Validation: Verify that the data is accurate and aligns with the needs of your new HubSpot setup.
Create Associations: Use tools like VLOOKUP in spreadsheets to link related data objects, such as connecting deals with contacts using a unique identifier like email.
This process ensures that your data is clean, accurate, and ready for a successful migration to the new HubSpot instance.
After cleaning your data, ensure that all necessary custom properties are created in the new HubSpot account. Then, import the data and map the required fields to the corresponding properties. As HubSpot allows you to import data for multiple objects simultaneously, rather than limiting you to one object at a time. You can choose to import multiple objects together or handle them separately based on your preference.
Here is the brief and step by step process of onboarding your team to a new HubSpot system.
During this step, invite the users to a new HubSpot account via their email and allow them the required permissions. Then create teams and add them to specific teams according to their departments.
Here is an important thing to keep in mind each user must have a limit of permission, to specific features that are being used by him/her during their working hours or JDs.
Create comprehensive training documentation for the team, including a detailed overview of the new process and information on the features used in the new HubSpot system, complete with screenshots. This document should be robust enough to serve as a reference for new employees joining the company in the future.
Regularly update the training documentation to reflect any changes or updates to HubSpot’s SOPs or processes.
For the deployment of the entire migration process into the new HubSpot, follow these steps:
Activate Processes: Implement and activate all processes for the entire data set, ensuring that everything is fully operational for your business.
Collect Feedback: Regularly gather feedback from team members after deployment to ensure that the system meets their needs and expectations.
Address Issues: Promptly resolve any errors or bugs that arise to prevent major disruptions and maintain smooth operations.
Migrating to a new HubSpot account doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. By planning carefully, executing each step methodically, and providing ongoing support, you can make the process smooth and effective. Remember, the key is to stay organized, keep communication clear, and continuously monitor and adjust as needed. With these steps in place, you’ll be well on your way to making the most of your new HubSpot setup and achieving your CRM goals with confidence.