Understanding HubSpot Custom Objects and Custom Properties

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are essential for businesses to track customer interactions and manage customer data.

However, as companies grow and their operations become more complex, CRM systems' standard fields and functionalities may not suffice. This is where custom objects and properties come into play, offering a way to tailor the CRM to a business's unique needs.

Care must be taken when planning how to successfully manage your data to onboard your HubSpot CRM. Properties and objects will be critical to your long-term success.

What are Custom Objects?

Custom objects are data structures you can create within your CRM to represent entities specific to your business operations. These objects, such as contacts and companies, can store unique information that doesn't fit into standard CRM categories.

For example, if you run a school, college or university, you might create a custom object for "Courses" to track information about the classes you offer. This custom object could include properties such as course name, instructor, number of students, and course duration.

What are Custom Properties?

Conversely, custom properties are fields you can add to standard or custom objects to record specific information. These properties can be tailored to capture data relevant to your business, such as customer preferences, product serial numbers, or membership levels.

Why Use Custom Objects and Properties?

1. Enhanced Data Organisation: Custom objects and properties allow you to organise your data to align with your business processes. This organisation makes tracking, managing, and analysing customer information easier, leading to more informed decision-making.
   
   
2. Improved Customer Understanding: Capturing detailed and relevant data can help you better understand your customers. This understanding can help you segment your customers more effectively, tailor your communications, and offer bespoke experiences.
   
   
3. Streamlined Operations: Custom objects can represent complex relationships and transactions, such as subscriptions, warranties, or course enrolments. This representation can streamline operations by automating workflows and reducing manual data entry.
   
   
4. Better Marketing and Sales Alignment: With custom data, marketing teams can create targeted campaigns that resonate with specific customer segments. Sales teams can use this data to prepare for customer interactions, ensuring they have all the relevant information at their fingertips.
   
   
5. Increased CRM Adoption: When a CRM system reflects a business's workflow and data needs, users are more likely to adopt and use the system effectively. Custom properties and objects can enhance user engagement with the CRM by making it more relevant to their daily tasks.

Impact on Marketing and Sales

Custom objects and properties have a direct impact on marketing and sales efforts:

• Targeted Marketing Campaigns: Marketers can use custom data to create campaigns that address different customer segments' specific needs and interests. This targeting can lead to higher engagement rates and better conversion rates.
  
  
• Customised Sales Interactions: Sales representatives can use detailed customer profiles to personalise their sales pitches and recommendations. This can increase the chances of closing deals and foster long-term customer relationships.
  
  
• Data-Driven Insights: With custom data, businesses can generate reports and analytics that provide insights into customer behaviour, sales trends, and marketing effectiveness. These insights can inform strategy and help optimise marketing and sales activities.
  
  
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Using custom properties and objects ultimately improves customer experience. By understanding customers' unique needs and preferences, businesses can deliver more value and build stronger relationships.

Summary

Custom objects and properties are potent features that transform a CRM from a simple contact management tool into a comprehensive platform supporting complex business operations.

By enabling better data organisation, improved customer understanding, streamlined operations, and alignment between marketing and sales, custom objects and properties can significantly enhance the effectiveness of CRM systems.

As businesses continue to evolve, the ability to customise CRM data will become increasingly important in staying competitive and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

How can custom objects be integrated with other CRM features?

Custom objects can be integrated with other CRM features to create a more comprehensive and tailored system that aligns with specific business processes. Here's how custom objects can be integrated with various CRM features based on the provided sources:

Automation and Workflow

• Trigger-based automation: Custom objects can initiate automated workflows when specific actions or updates occur within these objects. For example, a change in a custom field can trigger a follow-up action or notification.
  
  
• Integration with CRM workflows: Custom objects can be seamlessly integrated into existing CRM workflows, allowing for unified and automated data management systems. This integration can streamline operations and reduce manual tasks.

Reporting and Analytics

• Custom metrics: Businesses can define and track custom metrics within custom objects to measure specific KPIs. This allows for more targeted reporting and better insight into business performance.
  
  
• Advanced reporting dashboards: By integrating custom object data into CRM reporting dashboards, businesses can gain a holistic overview of their operations and make data-driven decisions.

CRM Records and Data Management

• Integration with CRM records: Custom objects, such as contacts or companies, can be associated with standard CRM records to provide a comprehensive view of customer interactions and data.
  
  
• Real-time data synchronisation: Automation can be used to keep CRM records and custom object data in sync, ensuring that insights are accurate and up-to-date.

Marketing and Sales

• Personalised marketing campaigns: Marketers can use data from custom objects to create targeted messaging and offers, leading to more tailored customer experiences.
  
  
• Sales process enhancement: Sales teams can leverage custom object data to understand customer needs better and tailor their sales strategies accordingly.

Customer Experience

• Personalised customer interactions: Access to detailed data from custom objects allows businesses to deliver highly personalised experiences, increasing customer engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction.

Integration with Other Tools

• Third-party integrations: APIs and integrations allow custom objects to connect with external systems and platforms, allowing for a seamless flow of data into the CRM.

Limitations and Considerations

• Technical expertise: Integrating custom objects with other systems may require additional development work and technical knowledge.
  
  
• Data management: Storage capacity for custom objects may be limited, so it's essential to manage data efficiently.

Practical Steps for Integration

• Identify integration points: Determine how custom objects interact with other CRM features and data points.
  
  
• Map fields and set up syncing: Ensure data flows accurately between custom objects and the CRM system by mapping fields and setting up regular syncing schedules.

Thoughts

Integrating custom objects with other CRM features can significantly enhance data management, streamline processes, and provide comprehensive insights.

This integration facilitates seamless coordination between teams, enabling targeted marketing strategies and personalised customer interactions. It also empowers businesses to leverage tailored records management for a more efficient growth strategy while optimising marketing and sales activities.

Examples of custom objects that can be used in a CRM

Custom objects in a CRM can represent various unique entities or business processes specific to an organisation's needs. Here are some examples of custom objects that can be used in a CRM, as mentioned in the provided sources:

• Properties for the Real Estate Industry: Custom objects can be created to track properties, including address, number of bedrooms, and postcode. This allows real estate agencies to efficiently manage listings, inquiries, and sales.
  
  
• Products and Services: For businesses that sell courses, consultancy, legal services, or other products, custom objects can be created to store data around these offerings. This helps track interest and sales around products and associate them with contacts.
  
  
• Internal Processes: Custom objects can manage and automate internal business processes, such as onboarding, sales commissions, or contract management. This can streamline operations and provide better visibility into these processes.
  
  
• Integrations: Custom objects can integrate with external systems and platforms, allowing a seamless data flow into the CRM. This is particularly useful for businesses relying on other software or service data.
  
  
• Vehicles in a Car Dealership: Car dealerships can use custom objects to maintain a database of vehicles in inventory or sold and to track sales inquiries related to each car.
  
  
• Pets at a Vet Clinic: Veterinary clinics can create custom objects to track the pets they board, associate each pet with its owner, and manage activities related to each pet.
  
  
• Points-of-Contact in Healthcare or Education: Custom objects can be used to manage contacts in sectors like healthcare or education, where there may be multiple points of contact or complex relationships to track.
  
  
• Homes of a Home Builder: Home builders can use custom objects to track the homes they are constructing or selling, including details like construction stages, customisation options, and buyer information.
  
  
• Customer Feedback: Businesses can set up custom objects to store and manage customer feedback, which can be associated with contact records to track changes in customer perception over time.
  
  
• Menu Items for Vendors: A company operating within a sports arena can create custom objects for each vendor and menu item sold, providing detailed visibility into the marketplace.

These examples illustrate the versatility of custom objects in adapting a CRM to the specific needs of a business, enabling more effective data management and process automation.

If you need help onboarding your HubSpot CRM, our team can deliver a working CRM with inbuilt reporting covering 144 KPIs in under 72 hours and custom requirements in under a fortnight.