How To Automatically Qualify Referrals Using HubSpot

Automate your referral program with HubSpot and Referral Factory! Use your regular HubSpot workflows and pipelines to automatically qualify successful referrals, which, in turn, could trigger a reward to the person who referred them.

 

Step 1 (Optional): Create Custom Properties in HubSpot

→ Should you wish to store referral data related to your referred user, first create the relevant properties inside HubSpot. You could, for example, create properties to house information like:

• {Referrer First Name}: The name of the person who referred them
• {Referrer Email Address}: The email address of the person who referred them
• {Referral Campaign}: The name of your Referral Factory campaign (useful if you're running multiple campaigns)
• {Referral Link}: The referral link automatically generated for the new user (useful if you will enrol referred leads into your referral program)

Step 2: Configure How Data Should Be Sent in Referral Factory

→ Click Edit Campaign to enter the campaign builder. 

→ Navigate to the Integrations step in the bottom navigation bar. 

→ Scroll down until you see the option to configure settings for the Person Invited.

Step 3: Set Your Qualification Rules

→ To automatically qualify the Person Invited when they convert in HubSpot, set the rules that will trigger the automatic qualification.

You can qualify by a contact property or a deal stage. 

 

👉 OPTION 1: If you choose to qualify by a change in contact property: 

→ Select the contact property that will change from the dropdown list. For example, "Lead Status" or "Lifecycle Stage."

→  Select what the property's value should be when Referral Factory creates the contact inside HubSpot. For example, "New" or "Lead."

→ Select the property value(s) that mean the referral has been successful or converted; i.e., the value that should trigger a qualification in Referral Factory. For example, "Converted" or "Customer."

 

👉 OPTION 2: If you choose to qualify by a change in deal stage: 

Referral Factory will automatically create a deal for your new referred lead.

→ Under "Select the property that will change" choose your deal pipeline.

→  Select what the deal stage should be when Referral Factory first creates the deal inside HubSpot. For example, "Qualified to Buy."

→ Select the deal stage(s) that mean the referral has been successful or converted; i.e., the stage that should trigger a qualification in Referral Factory. For example, "Closed Won."

Step 4: Map Your Fields 

→ Map the data fields from Referral Factory to your HubSpot properties using the dropdown select options. If a recently created HubSpot property is unavailable for selection, click the refresh button.

Step 5 (Optional): Define Your Default Fields

→ You also have the option to define any default data fields for when the contact is created inside HubSpot. 

Step 6 (Optional): Attach Information About The Person Referring

→ You also have the option to attach information about the person who made the referral. Remember that you may need to create custom properties inside HubSpot to house this data.

Step 7: Choose How To Handle Duplicates

→ Choose whether Referral Factory should update existing contacts. Please note that choosing to update existing contacts could override data inside HubSpot. 

→ Click Save or Next.

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How To Test Whether Your Integration Is Working

Step 1: Sign Up As the Person Referring

→ Open your campaign link in a private window or incognito mode and sign up as the Person Referring. Please note that Referral Factory uses cookies, so if you have already visited your campaign link, you may see the incorrect step. 

→ Be sure to use an email address that does not already exist as a user in your referral campaign and, depending on your settings, does not already exist in HubSpot. We recommend using plus addressing to make sure that each email address is unique and easily searchable. For example, yourname+personreferring+date@yourdomain.com.

Step 2: Sign Up As the Person Invited

→ Next, open the referral link generated for the Person Referring and sign up as the Person Invited. 

→ Be sure to use an email address that does not already exist as a user in your referral campaign and, depending on your settings, does not already exist in HubSpot. We recommend using plus addressing to make sure that each email address is unique and easily searchable. For example, yourname+personinvited+date@yourdomain.com.

Step 3: Check For New Users In Referral Factory

→ Navigate to the Users tab and check that both the Person Referring and the Person Invited have been created in Referral Factory.

Step 4: Check For The Person Invited in HubSpot

→ Check that the contact for the Person Invited is created in HubSpot with all the data you have chosen to map across. Note that it can take up to 30 minutes for the data to pass from Referral Factory to HubSpot.

Step 5: Test Your Qualification Trigger

→ Update the contact property or deal stage of the Person Invited inside HubSpot as per the settings you configured.  

→ Return to Referral Factory to check the status of the contact you just converted in the Users tab. Note that it can take up to 30 minutes for the data to pass from HubSpot to Referral Factory.

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Troubleshooting

🤔 Problem: The referred user (person invited) has converted in HubSpot but the referral is not being qualified in Referral Factory

→ Please note that qualification can happen at a delay of up to 12 hours. Referral Factory is busy syncing thousands of data points at any given time and your qualification could be in the queue.

→ Double check that the property or deal stage specified as the qualification trigger in the integration step of your campaign builder matches your desired conversion action in HubSpot.  

→ Double check that the initial value of the property or initial deal stage specified in the integration step of your campaign builder matches the initial value of the contact or deal in HubSpot that hasn't qualified.   

→ Please note that you can only qualify referred users (the person invited). 

 

🤔 Problem: No referred users (the Person Invited) are being sent to HubSpot

→ Double check that you have mapped the HubSpot properties {First Name} and {Email}. These are required fields and must be selected for the contact to be created in HubSpot. 

→ Check whether you have mapped any unsupported property field types. Referral Factory currently does not support the following HubSpot property field types:

• Date picker
• Number
• Calculation
• Score
• File

🤔 Problem: Some but not all referred users (the Person Invited) are being sent into HubSpot

→ Verify if the user is already part of your campaign by searching from the Users tab in Referral Factory. If the user joined the campaign before the settings to send direct users were set up, a contact will not be generated in HubSpot. Essentially, the function does not work retroactively.

→ Verify if the contact already exists in HubSpot and check your settings in Referral Factory for how to handle duplicate users. 

→ Check whether any of the HubSpot properties you mapped to Referral Factory during your setup have data validation rules or character limits.

🤔 Problem: Referred users (the Person Invited) are being sent into HubSpot but one or more properties are not being updated

→ Check whether you have mapped any unsupported property field types. Referral Factory currently does not support the following HubSpot property field types:

• Date picker
• Number
• Calculation
• Score
• File

→ Check whether any of the HubSpot properties you mapped to Referral Factory during your setup have data validation rules or character limits.

🤔 Problem: Referred users (the Person Invited) are not updating in HubSpot

→ Make sure you have chosen the option to update contacts under the section "How To Handle Duplicate Users" in your HubSpot integration setup. Whatever fields you have mapped in the integration step will be updated for the contact inside HubSpot. Keep in mind that enabling this setting may result in existing HubSpot contact data being overwritten.

🤔 Problem: A custom or default HubSpot property is not showing in Referral Factory 

→ Click the yellow refresh option in the top right hand corner of your screen.

→ Check if you have selected a CRM field for any pages in the campaign builder. If you have chosen to use a CRM field, then Referral Factory will automatically map the  field to HubSpot. Should you wish to map the property differently, rather use an input field or select field and map the field manually.

→ Check whether the property has already been mapped to another field. It is not possible to map a HubSpot property to multiple Referral Factory fields. 

→ Ensure that the HubSpot property is visible, i.e. it should be set to "Show in Forms".

→ Try disconnecting your HubSpot integration and clearing your cache. After doing so, reconnect and attempt again to see if the property appears in the available options.