We were approached by a media, marketing and event management and production company that operates multiple radio stations and had scattered data across several platforms. They wanted to understand more about their audiences and consolidate their listener data. 

The were using a multi-layered tech stack to manage their contacts:

• MailChimp for email communications
• Audience.io for contests and giveaways
• TextRequest for SMS messaging
• Forms for newsletter signups that lived in the website backend
• Their radio station websites, hosted on WordPress, for broadcast information, upcoming events, contests, general contact info and more. 

Each platform serves a specific niche requirement for the company and all are important, but they don’t easily share information between them. As a result, they were faced with a challenge on how to identify those contacts who are highly engaged across all channels and how to accurately segment their contacts based on their specific interests or demographics. 

Consolidating Contacts in HubSpot

When we first discussed using HubSpot to consolidate the CRM data, the initial concern was that it was adding another tool to the already bloated tech stack. 

“Our listeners are an active and engaged audience. We needed more information on what they’re engaging with, how frequently they engage with us, and we want to be able to collect that in a way that’s easy to report on so we can show visitor engagement to our stakeholders and sponsors.”

Our initial assessments were that we could completely replace MailChimp while bringing in other platform data that was not yet integrated with their other tools. 

Before turning on any migrations or importing data, we needed to assess what data was coming from where so we could identify what needed to be moved and in what order. 

Native MailChimp <> HubSpot Sync

MailChimp was our obvious first platform for the following reasons:

• Native integration makes it easy to implement
• Email based data ensures clean contact creation
• Data recency and validity - we already know which emails have bounced and which ones have been recently active
• Clear opt-out lists available

To get the most data, we opted into a 14 day trial of HubSpot Operations Hub which allowed us to map activities like opens, clicks, and unsubscribes, which aren't part of the default sync.

HubSpot Forms & Tracking Code

Next we added the HubSpot tracking code to the website and converted their forms to HubSpot forms to ensure that new contacts were immediately added to HubSpot. Adding tracking code early meant we could connect CRM records to website cookies to better identify our contact’s website visit behavior. 

Audience.io Contact Migration

Audience.io is an excellent contest management platform that tracks individual entries, multiple entries and bonus entries for other actions taken. The Audience.io data includes information the contact submits as well as information from other sign-in partners like Facebook or Google.

Contact updates from Audience to HubSpot can be pushed when there is a new contest entry or a profile update, but contacts cannot otherwise be pushed or synced. Furthermore, no historical data is pushed. As we wanted all current contacts and their historical entry information, our migration approach was to do a manual import. 

Challenges with Duplicate and Invalid Data

People commonly use multiple email addresses to enter contests and we found that there were a LOT of potentially duplicate contacts. With the help of HubSpot’s duplicate contact tools we were able to easily find and review these duplicates. When merging duplicates we’re able to keep both email addresses on one contact record so all contact activity can be rolled into one record. 

Audience to HubSpot Contest Information Challenges

A significant challenge we faced in the Audience<>HubSpot sync is that new contest entries will overwrite past entries making historical tracking difficult in HubSpot. 

To solve for this, we analyzed the data that Audience is sending and customized our HubSpot workflow to accommodate it. We saw that Audience easily pushed the contest name as a text field so we created a property called ‘Last Audience Event Name’ to catch new submissions.

To capture that data in another property that wouldn’t get overwritten we also created a multiple checkbox property to track all submissions for that contact. Bridging the gap between these is a workflow that checks for updates to the Text field and then appends the checkbox property accordingly. 

Text Request Activity

Our last tool to integrate was Text Request. Most of the contacts in Text Request did not have associated email and we knew that the biggest challenge was going to be finding and updating duplicate records. Thankfully, Audience.io contest entries do include the phone number and that data was already imported into HubSpot and we were able to use phone numbers to match contacts from Text Request to existing HubSpot contacts. 

The unexpected benefit of this data consolidation was that the HubSpot contact data pushed back to Text Request, enriching and expanding our SMS contact data. 

Limitations with Text Request <> HubSpot Integration

Text Request won’t create new contacts in HubSpot but it will update existing contact records with text activity. This allows us to know how much of our total database is actively engaging in text messaging with our brand. 

The Results & Impact of a Consolidated CRM

Seeing audience data from multiple channels consolidated in one CRM allows this broadcasting group to get a much clearer view of their most active contacts. Using Lead Scoring that increases based on channel activity, we’ve been able to quantify engagement and see who their brand evangelists are. 

Having this data to report on audience engagement across all channels has enhanced their campaign reporting for community partners and advertisers. Showing their combined data let’s this broadcasting company provide reach and engagement metrics, along with other key reporting data, that builds trust and value in their advertiser relationships. 

Showing new contacts vs engaged existing contacts can showcase reach and brand impact.