The Importance of Planning Your Migration

Understanding Your Current CRM and Data

Before migrating to HubSpot, assessing your current CRM system and identifying the data that needs to be migrated is essential. Not sure where to begin? 

Here are some steps to follow:

Dig into your current CRM system:

• Review your tech stack to see which platforms are doing double duty/could be eliminated.
• Identify data objects in your CRM (e.g., contacts, leads, opportunities).
• Determine associated data to these objects (e.g., documents/quotes associated with opportunities).
• Decide which objects will be migrated, considering the relevance and usefulness of each object in your new CRM.
• Identify the earliest “create” date of the objects you will migrate, as this can impact the complexity of the migration and the amount of historical data to be transferred.

Identify the data that needs to be migrated:

• Determine what data you currently use in your CRM, considering daily operations and long-term strategic planning.
• Identify the data you must report in HubSpot, including any custom reports, unique data points, or custom objects/fields necessary to your organization.
• Establish the original “create” date of the data you want to bring over, as this can impact the migration process and the completeness of your historical data in HubSpot.
• Check to see if any of the records you’re migrating or importing already exist in HubSpot or if they are all net new. 
• Determine if any of your data records need to relate to one another (Jane Doe and her company, for example.) 

Identify and prepare any other assets for migration or recreation: 

• Recreate or import static and dynamic lists from your previous system to HubSpot to maintain audience segmentation.
• Redesign or recreate any existing email templates, ensuring they meet HubSpot’s design and formatting requirements if they differ from your former system.
• Take a look at your forms and form strategy and rebuild any in HubSpot, ensuring that all required fields are included and correctly mapped to the corresponding HubSpot properties.
• Examine and migrate or recreate any of your landing pages, CTAs, workflows, automation, and other content assets that you want in your new HubSpot portal. This is a good opportunity to check on what’s working and what’s not and only move over what’s truly serving your growth. 

Prepare your data for migration:

• Check for valid and active email addresses — if your source system shows hard bounce records, review if you truly want that data to exist in the new system. If you don’t have this data, consider using kickbox.com or zoominfo.com to identify invalid emails.
• Review unengaged, unsubscribed contacts and companies — review if you want these to exist in the new system.
• Review for bad data such as placeholder values and duplicates.
• Review dropdown properties with extra values.
• Clean up your current data, removing duplicates, outdated information, and irrelevant records.
• Standardize your data formats, ensuring consistency across fields and records.
• Map your data fields from your current CRM to HubSpot, identifying any custom fields that need to be created or adjusted in the new system.
• Create a comprehensive data migration plan outlining the steps and timeline for the migration process. This should include tasks such as data mapping, custom field creation, and setting up integrations with other software tools. 

Evaluating HubSpot as Your New CRM

Before committing to HubSpot as your new CRM, it's important to evaluate the platform and its capabilities thoroughly. HubSpot is often considered one of the top CRM solutions available, offering many features and integrations. In fact, according to a report by G2, HubSpot CRM ranks first in customer satisfaction, ease of use, and ease of setup among mid-market CRM products. TrustRadius also shows that HubSpot ranks highly in customer support, ease of use, and value for money. 

Read More: HubSpot vs. Marketo: How to Choose the Best Software for Your Company

If that’s not enough evidence, here are some key points to consider:

An overview of HubSpot's CRM capabilities:

• Comprehensive marketing, sales, and customer service features
• Marketing and sales automation tools, including email marketing, lead scoring, SEO, lead nurturing, and deal tracking
• Robust reporting and analytics capabilities
• Extensive integration options with third-party applications
• User-friendly interface and intuitive design
• HubSpot Academy and community forums for training and support

Comparison to other CRMs on the market:

• As mentioned earlier, HubSpot ranks highly across a score of user metrics, but it’s not enough to simply take our word. It's essential to compare HubSpot's features and pricing with other CRM platforms to make an informed decision.

Read More: Considering Migrating From Pardot to HubSpot?

Determining if HubSpot is the right choice for your business:

• Evaluate your specific needs, goals, budget, and available resources.
• Assess the compatibility of HubSpot with your existing technology stack and business processes.
• Consult with a HubSpot partner or conduct a free trial of the platform (if available) to gauge its suitability for your organization.

However, if you’re looking for a simple answer now, we can help. HubSpot is generally a good fit for organizations looking for an all-in-one solution for marketing, sales, and customer service, as well as those prioritizing user-friendliness and ease of use. Additionally, businesses prioritizing inbound marketing and content creation may find HubSpot's marketing automation features particularly useful. Still, organizations should also consider the above-mentioned factors before signing the dotted line.

Still looking for more? Reach out to discuss HubSpot with one of our representatives.

Creating a Migration Plan

Once you've decided to move forward with HubSpot, it's time to create a detailed migration plan! A plan will definitely help your migration run smoother. 

Here are some essential steps to include in your plan:

Communicate your "why" to your team:

• Gather feedback from internal stakeholder interviews and make the findings accessible.
• Ask teams to document and identify gaps in specific processes they run.
• Tackle market research to understand gaps in your offerings and how you support clients.

Establish a clear timeline for the migration:

• Factor in the expiration date of your current CRM contract to avoid unnecessary costs.
• Work with team members and stakeholders to determine how quickly the company wants the migration to go — weighing anything that could bog down the timeline. 
• Consider resource availability, ensuring you have the personnel to execute the migration and support during the transition. 

Identify key considerations for the migration plan:

• Determine whether an automated or manual migration is more appropriate for your needs. A manual migration will involve you importing your data yourself. An automatic migration will involve a cloud-based application or API to move data independently. 
• Consider any unique data migration requirements or challenges, such as transferring large volumes of historical data or migrating complex custom fields.
• Plan for any necessary system integrations or customizations that need to be implemented in HubSpot.

Read More: Planning Your Move to HubSpot

Implementing the Migration

To execute the migration plan, follow these best practices:

1. Build a migration status document that shows the status of your data, including what has been completed, what is still left to be done, and what data is missing. Be sure to do this for every object and object ID you are moving. You can add notes such as, “file cleanup needed, invalid email address formats” or “did not set as marketing contacts, attempted to find existing contacts.” Be sure to document any detail that can help!

2. Prepare and implement your import. 

• Add HubSpot users who need to be made contact, company, deal, or ticket owners after import.
• Create missing custom properties on your objects, including dropdown and multi-select properties based on your source data.
• Customize default properties as needed, including lifecycle stage and lead status options.
• Create custom properties to hold data for properties that HubSpot identifies as read-only in the system (Opt-out status for contacts is a common one).
• Create association labels and business units as needed.
• Create deal and ticket pipelines with all appropriate stages and statuses.
• Create any additional currencies you may need.

NOTE: For single object imports, it will be important to review the latest documentation on required properties per object. The import wizard will also give you this feedback. Also, be aware that if you are following a single object import approach, you’ll likely want to associate these objects with each other. Keep in mind there are settings to allow for automatic contact and company associations using the company email domain.

3. Test the migration to ensure data accuracy.

• Conduct thorough quality assurance checks on the migrated data, verifying that all records have been accurately transferred and that any custom fields or integrations function correctly.
• Address any issues or discrepancies discovered during the testing process, making necessary adjustments to the data or migration plan as needed.

4. Identify and address potential challenges during the migration process:

• Be prepared for possible delays, technical issues, or unexpected complications that may arise during the migration.
• Establish a contingency plan and allocate additional resources as needed to ensure a smooth transition.

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Training Your Team on the New CRM

You wouldn’t let a 15-year-old without a learner’s permit behind the wheel without some training and guidance. The same goes for your internal teams when it comes to making the switch to HubSpot. Preparing your team is absolutely crucial for adoption and long-term success. 

Consider the following:

1. Develop a comprehensive training and onboarding program:

• Provide employees access to HubSpot's extensive training resources, including documentation, webinars, and certification courses.
• Conduct in-house training sessions, workshops, or demos to familiarize your team with the platform's features and functionality.
• Encourage ongoing learning and development, offering opportunities for team members to deepen their understanding of the platform and become HubSpot experts. 

2. Establish a strong support network:

• Identify a dedicated internal HubSpot power user who can serve as the go-to resource for questions and assistance during the transition.
• Encourage open communication and feedback from your team to identify and address any challenges or concerns during the migration process.

3. Emphasize the importance of change management and adoption:

• Secure executive-level sponsorship to champion the migration and reinforce the importance of adopting the new CRM.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, highlighting the benefits and value of using HubSpot to drive business growth and success.

Using HubSpot for Long-Term Success

To maximize the benefits of your HubSpot implementation, keep the following best practices in mind:

Consider the following:

1. Leverage critical features for business growth:

• Take advantage of HubSpot's robust marketing, sales, and customer service tools to streamline your processes and drive better results. For example, you can utilize Hubspot's content optimization tools, like webpages with dynamic content, to create targeted and engaging content that drives organic traffic and generates leads or close more deals with sales enablement tools. 
• Continuously explore new features and updates to the platform, ensuring your organization stays ahead of the curve and capitalizes on the latest enhancements. Be sure to stay on top of any new courses in the HubSpot Academy. 
• Foster efficient team collaboration with centralized contact and task management, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

2. Measure the success of your HubSpot implementation:

• Regularly review reporting and analytics data from HubSpot to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
• Monitor user engagement and adoption, addressing any roadblocks or challenges that may arise.
• Gather feedback from your team to identify areas where the platform delivers value and uncover opportunities for further optimization.
• Make any adjustments as needed, including optimizing workflows, customizing reports, and fine-tuning automation processes.

Final Thoughts

Migrating to HubSpot CRM is a significant undertaking — there’s no way around it! But with careful planning and execution, it can yield substantial benefits for your organization. Following the steps outlined in this guide, you can ensure a successful migration process and position your business for long-term success with HubSpot. 

The key takeaways include the following:

• Understanding your current CRM and data.
• Evaluating HubSpot as your new CRM.
• Creating a comprehensive migration plan.
• Implementing the migration.
• Training your team on the new CRM.
• Leveraging HubSpot for long-term success.