How to Use Your HubSpot Custom Objects with Your External CRM or ERP

HubSpot’s recent announcement of the custom objects features has left the integration teams at Lynton and SyncSmart feeling excited. No longer do we have to create complicated workarounds to get our valuable clients’ external systems effectively communicating with HubSpot. Instead, we have a real way to mirror the architecture of someone’s CRM or ERP to HubSpot.

Here’s a breakdown of what that all means.

What Are Custom Objects and the Custom Objects Feature?

First, it’s important to recap the custom objects feature if you’re learning about it for the first time or simply need a refresher. You can use the feature if you have either the enterprise tier of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, or Service. Custom objects feature extends HubSpot’s capabilities by allowing businesses to define objects other than HubSpot’s standard ones. With it, you can store any data directly in HubSpot. For example, if you’re an animal hospital, you could define a custom object such as “pet.” That data can then be associated with one another, accessed by all your CRM users, and used in marketing campaigns and reporting. If you work in a niche industry, like radio or media entertainment, you can use them to build entities unique to your business.

How To Set Up A Custom Object?

To set up your custom object, you’ll first need to make sure you have Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, or Service Hub Enterprise. Then, you’ll need a developer to define it using the HubSpot API. If you’re comfortable using the HubSpot API, that’s great! Once you know the object’s name (singular and plural), associations, and display properties, you’ll use an API call to define all that information

You can also use SyncSmart’s Custom Objects HQ if you don’t have the development resources needed to use the objects API.

How Do Custom Objects Work with an External Platform?

Once you’ve defined your custom objects in HubSpot, you’ll need to work with an integration partner such as Lynton to get that object and its data to sync to your CRM or ERP. A HubSpot CRM or ERP integration maps the data between the two systems in real-time, so no information is lost or corrupted. Before custom objects, there was no clear way to translate data that a custom object may contain. 

It’s also worth noting there are no native HubSpot integrations that can sync custom object data between HubSpot and another system. You’ll have to work on a custom project for an accurate 1:1 transfer of information.

What Are Some Examples of Custom Objects That Could Be Integrated?

The beauty of the custom objects feature is, you can truly store whatever kind of data you need. You can define objects like:

• Applications – relevant to many business verticals, like educational bodies, apartment property management companies, and more
• Locations – again, pertinent to all kinds of business ventures, such as cable providers, gyms, vets, power companies, and more
• Subscriptions – another example that can be used across industries, like technology companies, name-brand, and boutique fitness centers, or streaming services

Read more: 6 Use Cases for Custom Objects in HubSpot 

Why Would You Sync Your Custom Objects into Your External Systems?

There are numerous reasons why HubSpot users who also utilize another system would want to work with an integration partner. For example, if you have many unique objects or entities, you’ll finally have a smooth transfer of data (as noted). You can also:

• Name the custom object what you want, pull in as many fields as you want, and make as many associations as you want – and ALL of that will sync over with an integration
• Have more data to provide to your marketing and sales teams
• Create contextual marketing and sales lead nurturing campaigns through better segmentation and filtering opportunities
• Customize your business efforts to reflect your niche industry
• Tap into more substantial reporting to optimize and grow your company over time

The bottom line, though? If you define your custom objects in HubSpot, then integrate your systems, your CRM or ERP will match your HubSpot – without the need to build a workaround.  

How Do You Get Started?

Either download custom objects HQ or define your objects using the API, then reach out to our team to go over a custom integration.