HubSpot's key objects and why they're important!

HubSpot offers a variety of objects that can be utilised to efficiently store and manage the data you gather from parents and students. But how do you determine which ones to use? Let's explore how we can leverage HubSpot's key objects for education, providing you with a streamlined and effective data management process and CRM.

What is an object?

Each object in HubSpot is a different area of the CRM that you can utilise to store your data, track activity and view associations across records. Each object in the CRM has its own unique functionality which plays a part in which ones we use and how we use them. Keep in mind that we have 'records' which sit under these objects, and each record is displayed in a very similar way. This makes learning how they work pretty easy!

Object 1: Contacts

The contact object is exactly what you'd assume, an area of the CRM where we can store individual records of those we wish to contact. We cannot contact any other CRM object, so the contact object must be comprised of records for those you wish to email or contact. For Schools, this is likely to be the parents or perhaps an agent, for Colleges and Universities, for example, this may differ as the contact may, in fact, be the students themselves. Think about who the main contact would be for the Enquiries you receive, they should sit under this object.

Object 2: Deals

Our Deal object provides us with the pipeline functionality. This is an object that we are able to view in two setups, a typical 'list' view, much like the contact object, but also a 'board' view, which clearly displays the varying stages of the journey that this object will go on. For this reason, we typically see this object used to hold our student data. This way, we can manually, or through automation, move and track their journey through the pipeline and its stages. We can then use this information to report on how many students have gone from Enquiry to Applied for example, and is key in our automated follow-up communications. The deal object may not always be the student, but could instead be where we hold course information and track course interest. Let's say your contact object is used to hold Student data, and then your deal object is used to track their course interest. We can easily associate the two together and both contact the student, and view and report on their journey.

Object 3: Companies

If you want to hold Agency, Feeder School or any Company data, this is the object for you! Using web domain as its unique identifier means that HubSpot can automatically create the record once this is provided, either via a form submission or when we import or create these manually. HubSpot can use this information to pull in key company data from across the web where this is known, making it even easier to view and manage their information. As an example, the Company record can easily be associated with both Contacts and Deals, so that we can view, at a glance, the Agent who works for this Agency, and any Students they have provided your School.

Object 4: Tickets

An object with the need for a specific use case, but still an important one to mention. Our ticket object can be used to provide support for your parents or students. With the ability to create a pipeline for the object, we can create various ticket status' to track the ticket journey. Unlike Deals, we can create new tickets from our connected shared inbox, and assign these to specific team members to ensure support tasks are complete. We can also create new tickets from form submissions, via automation, imports or manually. Some use cases could include;

Support tickets from a shared inbox that notifies team members once created
To create and track events that you attend, and to track the event's progress
We could use this object to track course interest, if we are using the deal object for student information and want an additional area for those studying multiple subjects

Keep in mind that HubSpot is designed to improve the way you work. Have a think about how you currently use the data you collect and how effective your current approach has been. Do you accurately track your students along their admissions journey? Do you follow up with new enquiries promptly and in a way that's visible to the rest of your team? Here at HubGem we specialise in implementing HubSpot for the education sector, arrange a call here with one of our fabulous team members today to get started!