In this article, I will try to highlight some basic, but often neglected or misused features of HubSpot Forms, that can improve the way you work with data in your CRM. If you are like most marketers or HubSpot admin's you can probably replace several unnecessary workflows from your setup by implementing some of these core features, and utilizing the forms effectively.
You could say that a workflow (HubSpot's main automation tool) is a HubSpot administrator's best friend. But from what I've seen, leaning too hard into workflows can easily become your worst nightmare. Hundreds of workflows overlapping and interfering with each other to create a chaos in your company and contacts data that you won't ever be able to untangle.
That is why simplifying automations and data gathering is very important as your organization grows, and maintaining fewer but more efficient automations will help more than you probably think.
Update lifecycle stage and marketing contact status of a contact
The most common form submission workflows I see is to to update a contact's lifecycle stage status, but you can actually do this directly in the "Options" tab when you are editing your form. If you are using company properties, you can also update the lifecycle stage of the company without any additional actions after the form submission.
Another additional advantage of setting this stage from a form is that your workflow won't get flagged with an issue when the action fails. As you know, lifecycle stages should only ever advance and never be updated backwards, so if you try to do this in a workflow it will be flagged as an issue.
An issue I often see that people forget to automate is setting the marketing contact status. You notice that a lot of contacts don't get your emails before uncovering that you never updated them to a "Marketing contact". Make sure you toggle this in the options as well, and you won't have this problem.
Set properties with hidden fields
Using hidden fields effectively is a great way to make sure you update relevant data about your contact without having to actually ask them for the information in the form.
This is a great way to handle "implied information", but also internal properties that your visitors should not have to deal with.
Let me give you an example of implied information that you can set directly in a form without having to use a workflow: You are hosting an event for companies who are delivering construction services in Oslo, Norway, and all participants will be followed up a new leads. Based on that you already know the contact's industry, country, city, when they will attend, and their lead status.
You can set all this information based on the form submission, without any of the fields being visible to your contact. Simply set a default value on a form field, and toggle the "Make this field hidden" option.
For your most complex conversions you will probably still need to use workflows to complete the next steps, but handling the core data right away can provide better consistency, and remove clutter from your automation. The following workflow may even be re-usable for several campaigns to i.e. assign contacts owners, now that the details have already been handled.
Do you have other tips & tricks, or questions about how to use automation effectively? Don't be afraid to reach out!
