How to timestamp any action on HubSpot?

In this article you will simply learn how to track any date of action or update of a property in order to improve the possibilities of reporting and segmentation thanks to a timestamping Workflow.

Summary :

1. Why timestamp HubSpot actions and properties?
2. Prerequisites
3. The Workflow
1. Preparations
1. Verifications
2. Creating the timestamp property
2. Create the Workflow
1. What kind of Workflow ?
2. Enrollment Triggers
3. Workflow Building
4. Publishing
4. Endnotes

Why timestamp HubSpot actions and properties?

When it comes to capturing the date of a specific action, HubSpot can be really limited. Basically, you will only be able to track the date of HubSpot's native features, such as: creation date, evolution in lifecycle, last scheduled meeting date, etc.

As you expand your database, you might want to be able to track when a specific lead property or action was updated.

For example, you would like to be able to track the effectiveness of a nurturing email campaign by tracking the number of clicks on a "call to action" (CTA) per day.

Or, the number of days between a lead's creation and the date that lead first downloaded your Ebook.

Natively in HubSpot, you cannot track this data. With this Workflow, you will be able to simply configure a timestamp property for each property in your CRM.

Note: HubSpot does not allow you to manage the time of a property, so the timestamp will only concern the date.

For this article, we will timestamp the change of the “Marketing Contact Status” property. This is useful for achieving effective rotation of marketing contacts to optimize your marketing efforts. For example, if a lead doesn't convert after two months, we can set them up as a Non Marketing Contact to nurture other leads instead.

Prerequisites

To complete this workflow you will need:

• At least one HubSpot Pro plan: Marketing/Sales/Operations/Services(necessary for the creation of Workflows).
• The property or action you want to timestamp.
• Your new timestamp property (we'll create it together).

The Workflow

Preparations

Before we jump into creating the workflow, let's do a few checks and preparations. In this case, you need to check if the action to be timestamped is present on your portal and create the timestamp property.

Verifications

In order to check if your action/property is identifiable by HubSpot, there is a simple solution: check if it can be used as a list filter. Indeed, HubSpot lists and workflows have the same filtering options.

To do this, go to Contacts -> Lists -> Create a new list (active or static, it doesn't matter), and try to filter with your property.

If not, create a property to meet this need. But be careful to select the right type of property (avoid "single-line text" because the goal is to be able to target and manipulate this data).

Best practices: It is best to choose from these properties:

If you are creating a new property, you will need to populate it with value. To do this, you can either automate it through a Workflow, or update it manually (during a prospect call for instance).

Creating the timestamp property

Create a “Date Picker” type property and name it so that you can easily identify it.

You are now ready to build your Timestamp Workflow.

Create the Workflow

What type of Workflow ?

When creating a workflow, you will be able to define its “nature” via three options:

• From scratch or from a template
• The type of workflow (based on contacts, companies, deals etc.)
• The starting conditions (empty Workflow, from a date, a date property etc.)

In the case of our Workflow, we are going to choose: From scratch, based on *The type of property you want timestamped* starting from an empty workflow.

Enrollment Triggers

The registration criteria will define the conditions of entry into the workflow. In our case, the condition is simple: Just choose the property you want to track and the value you care about.

For example, if you want to add a timestamp to a specific value of a "drop-down menu" property, choose: "Property is any of the value".

Next, ask yourself if you want the date to change each time the property is updated and matches your filter criteria? or do you just want to track down the first time it happens?

• If you want to change the date on every edit, configure the re-enrollment settings as follows. In this way, the lead will be re-enrolled each time this situation occurs.

• If not, uncheck this box. The lead will only enter the Workflow once.

Workflow Building

Now that our registration criteria are defined, all we have to do is configure our timestamp property.

Click on add step and scroll down to the option: “Set a property value”.

Choose your property and select “Step Date”

Publishing 

Now that everything is set up, click Publish. A verification window will open and you will be asked to choose between two publishing options.

This workflow is not retroactive as it is a custom timestamp method, so it is always better to choose "No, only enroll objects that meet trigger criteria after Workflow activation".

If you choose "Yes" instead, all of your existing leads that match your criteria will have their date set to Today, which will result in poor reporting results.

Endnotes

That's it, your Workflow is now operational and you will start to see this new property getting populated as the chosen property is updated in your leads.

If you want to find all the workflows created and presented by HS Simple, do not hesitate to request your free access to the workflow box. A private web page listing all the workflows requested by the community with a video explanation and a simple action plan in the form of a “to-do list”.