Welcome to HubShots Episode 217: HubSpot Lists, HubSpot Site Search, How to work with invalid contacts
This episode we discuss:
- Sign up for HubShots Weekly Insights
- Setting up HubSpot Site Search
- How to work with Invalid contacts
- A primer on using HubSpot lists (Active versus Static)
- A gotcha with the HubSpot Consent to Communicate checkbox
- Using Quora Ads
- Case study on the power of social proof
- A bunch of recommended reading and resources
Listen to the episode here: https://soundcloud.com/hubshots/217-hubspot-lists-hubspot-site-search-how-to-work-with-invalid-contacts
HubShots, the podcast for marketing managers and sales professionals who use HubSpot, hosted by Ian Jacob from Search & Be Found and Craig Bailey from XEN Systems.
Recorded: Thursday 27 August 2020 | Published: Friday 04 September 2020
We are finally giving the HubShots site some love.
In typical ‘cobbler’s children’ style we’ve neglected the HubShots site. This week we finally:
- fixed a bunch of broken staging links
- got rid of the crappy search and replaced it with HubSpot native search
- added a proper sign up page
- Improved our Consulting page to allow you to book in with either of us
Our weekly notification email (ie what you are currently reading) is now the full, comprehensive show notes.
Please sign up (if you haven’t already) and tell a friend. Even if they don’t listen to the show, they can still get tons of value from the show notes.
Simply reply to any weekly email and it will go straight to Craig.
Shot 2: HubSpot Marketing Feature of the Week
Adding HubSpot Search to your Site
We’ve just added HubSpot site search to the HubShots site. It is very simple to do, and involves:
- Creating a search results template (in Design Tools)
- Setting that Template in Settings > Pages > System Pages
- Adding a Search input Module to your site eg we’ve added it to the site Footer
As usual the HubSpot documentation has this all explained very clearly:
- HubSpot Site Search FAQ (<<= Start here)
- Set up a Search Results page
Reasons to use the HubSpot Site Search
Previously we had a cobbled together Google Custom Search function on the site. It was clunky and only gave (obviously) the results that were in Google. For a brand new episode, not yet indexed by Google, nothing would show up. Plus the results aren’t comprehensive – Google search results won’t find specific words way down in show notes.
But the HubSpot Site Search does. Search for anything and it will find it on the site. It’s fantastic.
Here’s give it a go on the HubShots site using this search for the word ‘cigarette’:
https://www.hubshots.com/search?term=cigarette
It will give the results for the two episodes where we discussed how Facebook was addictive like cigarettes.
Downside: doesn’t seem to support search operators eg word1 AND word2
We’ve reached out to HubSpot Support and they are investigating further for us.
Here’s how it looks on HubShots:
Shot 3: HubSpot Sales Feature of the Week
How to work with invalid contacts
This started with a list we validated for a client using NeverBounce. (We discussed Neverbounce in previous episodes)
- Go to Contact and use the Search In Google Link
- Then check if the contact has a LinkedIn profile and check their company and contact details.
- Remove the company association if they have moved.
- Update their email if you can from LinkedIn using Lusha.
- Update their LinkedIn Bio in HubSpot. Add the LinkedIn Bio to the contact like this
- Send a task to the contact owner to re-connect/message over LinkedIn to get the conversation started or engage with a call to update details,
Shot 4: HubSpot Optimisation of the Week
Keeping your lists in order
If you are new to HubSpot you may be confused by what the two types of HubSpot lists are:
- Active lists (previously called Smart lists)
- Static list – a list of contacts that doesn’t change (e.g., event attendees, staff lists for an internal newsletter, or lists from a trade show).
Important understanding: consider lists as a filter across your full database of contacts. Lists are simply a way of filtering the view your contacts.
We predominantly use Active lists, and only have a handful of static lists.
Shot 5: HubSpot Extra of the Week
Shoutout to HubSpot Support. Again!
We’ve both had excellent Support interactions this week. Always good to see that HubSpot Support continues its high standard.
Shot 6: HubSpot Gotcha of the Week
Consent to Communicate Checkbox Gotcha
Using the consent to communicate checkbox and choosing the right subscription type! Below is an example of 2 types. When we started we did not check the subscription type and when we came to create a list with people who had opted in it did not work!