The 202 of HubSpot Custom Objects

If you are a HubSpot user, you might’ve heard about – Custom Objects. HubSpot launched these back in 2020 and users loved them.

Custom Objects can be a game-changer for businesses that have complicated processes. HubSpot’s Custom Objects make it easy for businesses to organize complex CRM data.

In this crisp read, you’ll learn about a basic understanding of Custom Objects in HubSpot, their benefits, their implementation, and how they can ease your business operations. Let’s get started!

Understanding HubSpot Custom Objects

Previously, HubSpot had Standard Objects which provided good coverage to organize data and records in case of a small business. As a company grows, it acquires a large amount of data and records. Standard Objects had limited categories to manage complex data and records. HubSpot took care of these limitations and launched ‘Custom Objects’.

Custom Objects give you more options for customization and flexibility so that you can align your CRM data to your business. You can give them a unique name and assign custom properties & associations with other objects.

Let’s make it simpler with an example. For instance, you have a business tracking the manufacturing and delivery of goods and services. Rather than using a different platform to generate, process, and manage orders and shipments, you can now create Custom Objects in HubSpot that integrate with your existing HubSpot workflow. Custom Objects could also be used by sales representatives and manufacturers to manage product inventory or track the onboarding of new customers.

You can use your Custom Objects in reporting, as personalization tokens, and trigger workflow enrollments based on their property values once they’ve been created.

Finally, you can use Custom Objects to meet the unique needs of your business. They also help you dive deep into data modeling and bring potential changes to your business.

How Do Custom Objects Differ From Standard Objects?

In HubSpot, an Object is a label given to the repository of data that you’re keeping track of.

HubSpot has four Standard Objects built into the system:

• Contacts
• Companies
• Deals
• Tickets

Each Object record has characteristics that you may utilize for reporting or for creating workflows. However, they might not cover all your unique business needs when it comes to organizing and reporting data.

Custom Objects offer way more options for customization and flexibility than standard objects. You can have several properties added to them so that you can improve your attribution and segmentation efforts. Also, you can use them to create new workflows, custom single-object and cross-object reports, and leverage Custom Object data for your personalization efforts.

With Standard Objects, you can’t add multiple organizations to one contact, but with custom objects, you surely can!

How HubSpot Custom Objects Benefit Users

When your business grows and your CRM data gets complicated, Custom Objects can be your ally to manage your data effectively.

Once you define your Custom Objects, you can:

• Increase adaptability with your CRM
• Structure data as per your unique needs
• Substitute non-traditional data storage methods
• Generate a checklist with the values you’ve entered
• Personalize email campaigns for sales and marketing
• Create reports that highlight trends in your data

Use-Cases of Custom Objects Across Industries

Enterprise customers can use HubSpot Custom Objects to simplify how to define and track different products and services according to their needs. Also, Custom Objects have one-to-many relationships with standard or additional custom objects. They can be created easily via an application programming interface (API).

With Custom Objects, you open multiple possibilities to do more with your data, such as automating workflows, enabling smooth integrations, simplifying internal process management, and enabling data modeling.

Custom Objects have made a strong impact on several industries across the globe, which are:

• Healthcare: In the healthcare field, while working for a larger company, some employees may work for different branches of the same healthcare company. Considering that they may require object data that isn’t available in Standard Objects, Custom Objects can prove to be an asset. A Custom Object can make sure that the contact is linked to multiple companies in the right way, with the right ‘Contact’, ‘Deal’, ‘Parent/Child Associations’, and ‘Property Name’.
• Mortgage: Approval of loan processes is complicated since it is a multi-layered process. A mortgage company’s CRM may involve multiple contacts with duplicates, each of them is assigned to a different loan officer. Additionally, the loan object will contain information about the loan and the borrower that the entire company may require. With Custom Objects, loan email alerts can be sent to the right team member at the right time to keep the process in the right direction.
• Software: A software company may have dozens of different products, apps, or integrations that can be purchased or subscribed to by the contacts. When we talk about products, apps, and integrations, some people have only one or two, while others have none or all of them. All of this relevant data can be stored in Custom Objects and can be easily accessed by different teams. Also, Custom Objects can be used to store data that changes over time.

How to Implement HubSpot Custom Objects

Now that we’ve covered the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of HubSpot Custom Objects, let’s touch base with the ‘how’. The first step to creating an object is to first define an object schema. The schema contains the object name, properties, and relationships to other CRM objects. Once you have defined the Custom Objects using an API by following the steps in HubSpot’s documentation, you can create new Custom Objects manually, import them, and create Custom Object Records with workflows.

How to Create Custom Objects Manually

To manually create Custom Objects in your HubSpot account –

• • Navigate to your ‘Contacts’, ‘Companies’, ‘Deals’, or ‘Tickets’ index page.
  • Click the ‘Index page’s name’ in the upper left corner. From the drop-down menu, choose your Custom Objects. This will take you to the index page for your Custom Objects.

• • Click on ‘Create’ (Custom Objects) in the upper right corner.

• In the right panel, enter the values for your new record’s properties, then click ‘Create’.

And you’re done! It’s that easy!

How to Import Custom Objects

After you’ve created your import file, you can begin importing your custom object records:

• In your HubSpot account, go to the index page for your ‘Contacts’, ‘Companies’, ‘Deals’, or ‘Tickets’.
• In the upper right corner, select ‘Import’.
• After selecting a file from your system, select ‘Next’.
• Click ‘Next’ after selecting ‘One file’.
• Depending on your file, choose one or more objects, then, click ‘Next’.
• Choose a ‘Custom Object type’. Select the other object types included in your import file if you have selected ‘Multiple’ objects. Click ‘Next’.

How to Create Custom Object Records With Workflows

Once you have defined your Custom Object, you can create records using workflows:

• • Navigate to ‘Automation’ and then go to ‘Workflows’ in your HubSpot account.
  • Create a new workflow or click on ‘Name of a workflow’.
  • Click the ‘+’ to add a workflow action in the workflow editor.
  • Select ‘Create record’ in the right panel.

• Click the ‘Type of record to create’ in the dropdown menu, then select your ‘Custom Object’.
• Next, set up the rest of the property details for your custom object records and custom object record associations.
• Finally, click ‘Save’.

Now that you have understood the nitty-gritty of creating HubSpot Custom Objects, start leveraging them for advanced reporting of your marketing/sales processes and providing key information to management for data-driven decisions.

HubSpot has always been a potent CRM for both large and small businesses, and with Custom Objects, they have taken it up a notch. Custom Objects open the door to exceptional versatility in building and scaling with HubSpot.