Hubspot integration FAQ

General Sync issues

It says that my API key isn't valid

We have seen some cases of long-time Hubspot customers having older API keys that don't work when added to new integration. If this is the case the integration should notify you.

To resolve this, please contact Hubspot support. If you are unsure of if this is what's happening or if there is something else going on, let us know and we'll help figure this out together.

Contact Sync issues

In some ways, Hubspot and Membrain are very different. Where Hubspot primarily focuses on the contact as an individual, Membrain's B2B platform primarily looks at the company.

This affects mandatory fields for contacts. In Hubspot, an email address is the only field required when creating a contact, whereas Membrain requires the contact name as well as the company name that the contact is linked to before it can be created.

Due to these differences, you may find that not all contacts will sync successfully between the platforms the first time around. We have outlined some examples where you may not see the results you expect after you've synced contacts. To deal with these, try the suggestions below:

The integration is set up, but I don't get any (or just some) contacts over from Hubspot to Membrain

Membrain and Hubspot are like apples and oranges. Both are tasty but different from each other. While a contact email address is a required field in Hubspot, the company field is required in Membrain.

A common thing we have seen is that when adding a list of 500 contacts in Hubspot to Membrain, not all of them are synced over. The reason is usually that some of these are missing the company information that Membrain needs.

To resolve this in the future, make sure to add a company field as a required field to any forms that help drive sales-ready leads.

Resolving this historically is a bit more tedious but can be done in a relatively straightforward matter of creating smart lists in Hubspot that list all the contacts that are in lists that are synced over to Membrain but are lacking the company information. Doing the research on these contacts and manually adding the company information makes them ready for the Hubspot-Membrain sync and they should be brought over.

Handling Deleted Contacts

The Hubspot integration does not sync deletion in either direction. If you want a contact to be gone on both sides, you would have to delete it manually on both sides.

In the case a contact is deleted in Membrain but still connected to a contact in HubSpot, the integration won't create any new contact for that in Membrain and the deleted contact won't be updated in any way, either. It will be logged in the integration log with a message "Person already exists in Membrain but is Deleted: email."

I get swamped by hundreds of prospects!

Hubspot is a great tool to help drive leads, but it's important to distinguish between when something is ready for sales, and when it's somebody who's is not quite there yet.

If a lead is ready for sales to follow up with, make sure to add "create prospect" to the action performed by the Hubspot-Membrain integration.

If it's a contact who may become a lead in the future, and you want the salespeople to be aware of them (in case - for instance - they call in and sales need to be able to find out who they are) make sure to select "add label" which syncs the company and contact information, and tags them with whatever label is relevant (attended Webinar X, downloaded Whitepaper Y, etc) but doesn't make them a prioritized prospect for sales to follow up with.

How do I find the contacts in Hubspot that haven't been synced over?

  1. Create a new smart list, name it "Ineligible for Membrain" or something similar.
  2. Add "list membership" criteria for all the smart lists you want to sync with Membrain, so you get all the contacts there.
  3. Add the contact property of "not having" (or being empty) a company name.
  4. Save.

Now you have a list that you can reference at any time. This list will display all contacts the integration is not able to bring over to Membrain

How can I give my contacts a push so I'm sure they all make it?

The easiest way is to create a blank smart list in Hubspot. AFTER that list has been created, set up the parameters in Hubspot. That way, all the contacts have been updated after the integration started, looking at the list.

How do I find the contacts in Membrain that haven't been synced over to Hubspot?

Contacts without an email address in Membrain will not be synced over to Hubspot. To generate the lists of contacts lacking an email address, follow the below instructions:

  1. Go to the Company list from the CRM area of Membrain.
  2. Click on Filter and create a new filter.
  3. Name the filter, select labels in the list, and then add the Company labels you are syncing over to Hubspot from Membrain. Save
  4. Go to the Contacts list from the CRM area of Membrain and follow the same instructions as above, but add the Contact (rather than the Company) labels you are syncing over to Hubspot from Membrain. Save
  5. You can add the email addresses that you do have for select contacts from the list view - once added, the contacts will be synced at the next update.
  6. Now you have two lists that you can reference at any time. These lists will display all contacts the integration is not able to bring over to Hubspot.

After I sent an email in Hubspot I got way too many new prospects?

If you delete prospects or move them into other processes the Hubspot integration doesn't know that they once have been in that process. They need to be disqualified to not come back all the time. Protip: create a disqualification reason for dupes/junk leads etc.

View Sync Statistics

To get all the statistics on the integration and what is currently included in the sync - both the Hubspot lists and Membrain labels - select Admin in the main menu, click on the integrations tab and then click on Status for all details and graphs.

Setup

Go back to basics and learn how to set up the sync, by reading this article Hubspot Integration.