Introduction

HubSpot's contact associations allow marketers and sales teams to seamlessly manage and understand the relationships between different contacts and other CRM records such as deals, companies, tickets, and custom objects. By leveraging contact associations correctly, you can enhance data accuracy, streamline workflows, and drive better business outcomes. This article outlines best practices for creating, using, and working with contact associations in HubSpot, along with practical examples.

1. Creating Contact Associations

Best Practices:

a. Define Clear Association Types:

• Ensure you have a clear understanding of the types of associations that will be most beneficial for your business processes. Common association types include Referrer, Decision Maker, Influencer, or Billing Contact.
• Example: For a B2B company, define associations such as "Primary Decision Maker" for the main contact in charge and "Billing Contact" for the person handling invoices.

b. Use Descriptive Labels:

• Create association labels that are descriptive and easy to understand. This helps ensure that all users can quickly recognize the nature of the relationship.
• Example: Use labels like "Mentor-Mentee" or "Parent-Child Company" for hierarchical relationships.

c. Keep it Scalable:

• Plan for scalability by considering future needs. HubSpot allows up to 50 labels per object pair, so think about potential associations you might need as your business grows.

Steps to Create:

1. Navigate to your HubSpot account settings.
2. In the left sidebar menu, click on "Objects" and select "Contacts."
3. Click on the "Associations" tab.
4. Click "Create association label" and fill in the details such as label name and objects being associated.
5. Click "Save" to finalize.

2. Using Contact Associations

Best Practices: