A HubSpot list is a group of contacts or companies that share specific characteristics or properties. Lists can be created based on a variety of criteria, such as contact/company properties, form submissions, website activity, email engagement, and more. With HubSpot lists, you can easily segment your contacts into targeted groups for personalized marketing and sales efforts.
Indeed, this feature is the most precise when it comes to segmenting your database and proposes thousands more options than the classic filter tab in your Contact/Company page.
Lists can be static or active. A static list is a list of contacts that meet specific criteria at a given point in time, whereas an active list will automatically update as new contacts meet the specified criteria.
Once that said, HubSpot lists are one of the most powerful HubSpot features when it comes to lead management and segmentation. By knowing how to use them, you will be able to do any targeting or database segmentation, no matter how precise you want to be.
Summary:
- Types of lists in HubSpot
- Creating and Managing lists in HubSpot
- Best practices for list creation
- How to add and remove contacts/companies from lists
- Tips for list management
- List segmentation filters
- Current object
- Associated object information
- Associated CRM activities
- Marketing interactions
- HubSpot asset memberships and enrollment
- Third-party applications
- Endnotes
Types of lists in HubSpot
As mentioned above, HubSpot gives us the possibility to organize our database with two kinds of lists. Active lists and Static lists.
By nature, those two types only differ in terms of “when the list is populated”. (every time a lead matches the criterias on an active list, or only when the list is created ”static”).
However, this small difference is primordial in terms of defining the role and the purpose of a list.
Active Lists
For sure the most popular ones. As mentioned before, active lists allow you to segment your database on a real time basis with the filters you choose.
They give a good vision of the actual situation of your database and could be used to trigger nurturing workflows, populate reportings, identify the situation of a specific lifecycle stage, capture webinar registrants, isolate your qualified leads etc. For most of the uses of a list, active lists will be a right choice.
Note: On an active list, the data is generated by the filter you use, you can’t play with it by deleting a specific contact or company.
Static Lists
If Active lists seem to have it all, what could be the use for static lists? Static lists allow you to screenshot a specific segment of your database at the moment of its creation. It means that no matter what, once your list is created, the data displayed in it will not automatically get updated.
It’s particularly useful when you want to set up an email blast to have a quick view of who received that email.
It allows you, as well, to manually rearrange that list by manually adding or deleting contacts on it as you want.
Another use is when you operate big changes in your database by activating a massive operational workflow, or merging the data from another tool (SalesForce for instance), having a screenshot of a specific segment can help you identify if everything went well and will make your life easier if you need to deal with some issues.
Sooner, I said that a static list will never change and that was not exactly true. One feature of the static lists is the possibility to be populated by a Workflow. It’s useful when you want to identify leads that follow a specific path on a workflow to prepare dedicated communication or to track workflow errors.
The last benefits of static lists is to send survey emails’ batches and be created as Split lists.
Creating and Managing Lists in HubSpot
Best practices for list creation
To create a list in HubSpot, nothing more easy: go to the lists tab (under “Contacts”) and click on “Create a list” on the top right corner.
However, when creating a list, always think about the followings:
- What will be the goal of this list?
- What type of list can help me achieve this goal in the most efficient way?
- How should I name it to be able to easily identify and find it later on?
- What filter should I use to segment my database in the most clear and precise way?
How to add and remove contacts/companies from lists
As mentioned before, the two types of list do not react the same way when it comes to populating them.
To add or remove contacts/companies in an active list, you will have to modify the filters that define that list.
To add or remove contacts/companies in a static list, you can either process manually by selecting a contact in that list (to remove) or in your contact page (to add), or process automatically by using workflows.
Tips for list management
After a while, you will realize you are creating hundreds of lists per month and finding a good list in a short time can be challenging, even with using a good naming convention.
That’s where “Folders” will become pretty handy!
In the list tab, you have the possibility to create a numerous level of folders. You definitely need to use them as much as you can.
Every business has a different data management but my recommendation for that organization would be to create 3 top folders corresponding to the purposes of your lists.
- “One Shot” lists: lists that are used only one time, for a specific need or a specific day campaign for instance.
- Reporting lists: lists that are here to populate reports or give you indication on your database situation with no operational uses.
- “Operational lists” : all lists that are used to trigger workflows, regular campaigns, or any operational processes.
Then feel free to create subfolders, per market, quarter, service or any relevant criterias.
The good thing about this folder feature is that you have two views: the Folder view (to find a specific list) and the All lists view (to interact with recent lists).
List segmentation filters
Your list can interact with 6 categories of filters you can combine in one list:
Current object
This filter category is regrouping all the properties (native and custom) of the object of your list. Contact properties if you are creating a Contact based list, or Company property if you are working on a Company list. For instance, you want to see all your contacts with a known phone number.
Associated object information
This filter category will allow you to interact with all objects linked to Contacts/Companies. For instance, you want to isolate all the contacts that have an associated deal amount of at least $1000.
Associated CRM activities
A bit similar to the Associated object information, this category allows you to interact with the activities (meetings, tasks, calls, etc.) linked to your leads. For instance, you want to identify all leads that has had a call with your sales team of more than 10 minutes.
Marketing interactions
This one is regrouping all interactions with your marketing content such as emails, website, forms, ads etc. For instance, all the contacts that replied to a specific marketing email.
HubSpot asset memberships and enrollment
This category focuses on already existing lists for merging or exclusion, workflow enrollment or data imports.
Third-party applications
The last category regroups all the third party apps that propose list segmenting through their integration. For instance Livestorm (a webinar tool) gives you segmenting options based on the registration or attendance on a specific webinar.
Endnotes
If you want to organize your Data in a better way and learn how to automate your Data Management, I created a private webpage referencing all the workflows I have been presenting: the “Workflow Box”. You can access it immediately for free by clicking here.
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