CRMs are a funny thing. You love them sometimes, you hate them most times, and your sales process would be nothing without them.
But if you’re not connecting your CRM and cold outreach tools, you’re probably in the “hate them” category more often than not.
To end the needless run around between LinkedIn, Hubspot and lemlist once and for all (and combine them all to create a lemazing sales process), we’ve got some tricks for you.
Oh and before we get started, just make sure you already have your Hubspot integration setup in lemlist. No worries—it takes less than 5 minutes.
Funny story, a couple years ago I was using Hubspot for marketing and sales actions. And tbh, it was kind of a shit show.
We added all leads into Hubspot that were subscribed to our newsletter or downloaded some of our free content, but we were also adding Hubspot lists from other sources (like databases)—all in the hopes of eventually adding them to an outbound sequence and closing the deal.
Pretty normal stuff. But we were wasting tooonnns of time because we didn’t connect lemlist and Hubspot to synch all the leads.
I was uploading lists of leads into Hubspot, then importing those lists into lemlist (let’s not mention the mess that happened with importing active Hubspot lists), then after a lead would respond I would manually add a note to their contact. 😅
It was a freaking mess and I was wasting hours every week trying to find the correct info and updating everything between the lead lists to how leads were responding to LinkedIn and lemlist campaigns.
But, there’s an easy way to fix this so all your leads and info is synched between the tools…and you even have a couple options, check it out 👇
Okay so let’s go back to the scenario where I was getting my leads from Marketing (like a Marketing Qualified Lead) and needed to send my outbound campaigns to those leads.
How would I synch them from Hubspot to lemlist?
Well, in some cases your leads are already in Hubspot from Marketing, but if not you can easily import them.
Either way, you’ll need to make sure these leads are in a “list” before trying to synch with lemlist:
And to save you some time I would name the list based on how Marketing got those leads, so you know what kind of outbound campaign you want to send them. For example: Newsletter subscribers non client, Cold email ebook download, Personalization at scale webinar, etc.
Then when you create a new campaign in lemlist you’ll select this option:
Then select the list that you want to import your leads from and voilà, you’ve got your leads in lemlist from Hubspot. Btw, this works for active lists too. They’ll be automatically updated in lemlist. 😎
And once you start firing your campaign you’ll be able to see all the communication from lemlist as a note under their contact in Hubspot—but we’ll get to that soon.
Anyways, one important thing to note here is that if you want to use LinkedIn steps in lemlist after importing leads from Hubspot, you need to have their LinkedIn URL saved in Hubspot before you import to lemlist.
And to do that you have a few options, listed from most to least time consuming:
BUT there is one more option if you want to connect LinkedIn, lemlist, and Hubspot—synch your leads from lemlist to Hubspot.
Okay so now let's address the other side of sales, outbound. When you’re the one finding leads and sending campaigns to them.
But how do you do this if you need to get all their info into your CRM, but also send them cold outreach and make some social media touches?
Example time—let's say I’m a sales rep or manager of a software that organizes and schedules social media posts. In this case, my main target would be social media managers since I know they would be the best users of my product.
So, here’s what the workflow would look like:
First up I would create a campaign specifically for social media managers, adding some personalization and creating a relevant message based on solving pains I know they are facing.
I would add some LinkedIn (or other social media) steps, at least one email that can provide additional info and context, a couple reminder steps, and then a closing email.
Then you need to connect Hubspot and lemlist so the leads added to the campaign are also added to Hubspot, all while enriching your lead’s data. This sounds complicated but it’s actually really easy, I promise.
Go to campaign settings and link Hubspot, select “[Create contacts and companies in Hubspot if they do not exist]”, and choose how you want your deals added to Hubspot (we’ll dive into this in a couple minutes).
Next, scroll down to scanners and add LinkedIn and Dropcontact enrichment, so we can scrape all your lead’s info from LinkedIn and verify everything with Dropcontact.
One step done, now you gotta actually find leads…
Emphasis on the “solid” part. This way you know you’re reaching out to leads that want to respond and you don’t end up wasting Hubspot credits importing bad leads.
We’ve all been there—it’s not pretty.
And bonus points, you’re creating relationships based on qualifiers so they have a higher chance of converting and staying.
So for my social media software example I want to find social media managers. But I don’t want to just go to a regular LinkedIn search and type “social media manager”.
If I do that these are the kind of results I’d end up with:
Instead, I’ll do an advanced LinkedIn search so I can find a more narrow group of leads. Ones that I think are most affected by what my solution solves for, this way I know I can send them a message that resonates and they have a higher chance of making a purchase.
So for my social media management platform I would look for social media managers working for tech companies, with the company having less than 30 employees.
Why? A couple reasons:
3. Add leads to lemlist.
You’ve got your campaign all ready to roll, but it’s kinda vital that you add your leads.
If you’re using LinkedIn or Sales Nav you can just fire up the lemlist extension and import lead lists or individual leads directly to your campaign while scraping all their info. Otherwise, you’ll do a file upload or take leads from another campaign (re-targeting).
Check out the next step to see how I would do this for my social media example…
4. Add personalization.
For the best results and to scale your personalization, we recommend using 1 personalized sentence (icebreaker for lemlist users) for each lead.
And you can combine this with steps 2 and 3 so you find your leads, add personalization, and add them directly to your lemlist campaign.
In the case of my example, I used the icebreaker as the first message I sent. So to fill this in for the social media managers, I would click on their LinkedIn profile in the search results and launch the lemlist extension. That way I can scrape all their info, and add a personalized icebreaker.
For the sake of this example, I’m gonna use Roxana, Inès, and Sage.
Now all I need to do is click “create” and it adds the lead to my campaign, just like magic.
And say you want to use other sites like G2, Crunchbase, or another data source instead of LinkedIn, no worries! Fill the icebreaker in under the “leads” tab of your campaign.
5. Start sending campaigns 😎
Review all your leads, making sure the icebreakers are looking pretty, and you’re ready to roll.
In my example, lemlist will automatically add Roxana, Inès, and Sage as contacts in Hubspot.
But wait, what happens after that? How can I track the messages in Hubspot? Will other reps see it? That’s what the next section is for…
You’ve got good leads, sent your campaign, but how do you manage these leads in your CRM and see what messages they’ve gotten?
The answer is just to run the campaign using the settings above, and check the Notes section of your Contact’s info.
So if I sent the campaign above to Inès, Roxana and Sage I would go to their contact in Hubspot and I can see which campaigns they were in, what messages got and any responses.
Basically any action in lemlist is automatically sent as a note in the Hubspot lead. And yes, this does include LinkedIn messages.
And if you want to track the messages you send using LinkedIn after the lead responds, there’s a cool Hubspot hack to synch your LinkedIn convos.
You might be thinking “but isn’t the point of Hubspot for Sales to manage deals and pipeline, not just to manage contacts??” and you’re absolutely right.
That’s where connecting lemlist with your deals will come in handy. Just ask Jonathan…
If a lead clicks on a link
Let’s start by answering Johnathan’s question.
Say I am sending the campaign I sent to Rox, Inès, and Sage with the third step being an email, and I share a link to book a meeting with me.
I want to create a deal as soon as they click on the link, because that’s a heavy interest sign.
I’ll go to my campaign settings and do the following:
And there you have it. If Inès or Rox clicks on the link, it’ll automatically show up in Hubspot as a deal. Then when the deal is opened I can look at the contact to see what campaign they were a part of and what messages they received.
Pretty cool right? I’ve got one more example for you…
If a lead responds to a LinkedIn message or Email
Now lets say you don’t want to include links in your message or push for a meeting just yet (a good strategy, btw) you might want to use another trigger to open a deal in Hubspot.
You can create a deal based on a lead responding…and the process is super similar to the one above.
Again, go to your campaign settings and:
So now, using my example, if Rox, Inès, or Sage responds to a message it will create a deal in Hubspot.
But just to remind you, you need to have “[Create contacts and companies in Hubspot if they do not exists]” selected, otherwise the deal won’t be added.
Then it’ll not only show the deal, but all their information when you click on the contact (such as what link they clicked on, what they responded, which messages they received, etc.)
The only problem with this tactic is that if a lead responds that they aren’t interested, it’ll still create a deal…that’s why my recommendation is to do this instead 👇
If a lead is interested
This one isn’t exactly automatic, but it’s your best bet for only creating deals in Hubspot for leads that you know are 100% interested.
And you won’t need to create a task in lemlist, just go to the CRM section of your campaign settings and check “[Create deals when lead is marked as interested]”.
Then as soon as you define a lead as interested (based on how they respond to you, for instance) lemlist will add the deal to Hubspot. You can even combine this with the clicks on a link option for the best results :)
So now you have all your deals from lemlist to Hubspot and vice versa, with Hubspot adding deals based on certain actions, good stuff.
But how much easier would it make your life if you could immediately tell that the lead was contacted through outbound campaigns?
While there isn’t a way to add a certain “tag” to the deal (because this doesn’t exist in Hubspot) I do have a workaround for you—creating a new deal stage.
This way you can send all the deals created with lemlist to this stage and you can easily detect which leads responded to your outbound, were interested based on their response, or clicked on the calendar link in your email.
If I had set this up for the campaign I sent Sage, it would look like this 👇
And it’s a breeze to do:
Then you’ll just need to do a couple things in lemlist.
And there you have it! You’ll start seeing your outbound deals in your pipeline.
Imagine something with me…you’ve done all the steps above and have a workflow that lets you synch everything between Hubspot and lemlist.
But there’s one thing missing so the sales team knows exactly how to approach the leads to close the deal—knowing how qualified these leads are.
For example, Roxana, Sage and Inès are all managing social media. But in reality Roxana is the traditional social media manager that manages our company pages, Sage is managing the lemlist family community, and Inès is managing our YouTube account. So I would segment them into separate buckets and send a campaign that is more relevant for them.
And the same goes for you, you’re probably running different outbound campaigns for different types of leads.
I mean are you going to go in with the same touch for someone that perfectly fits your offer versus a lead that randomly downloaded a piece of content? Probably not.
In this case we recommend creating a deal stage for each type of lead, this way you know exactly how qualified they are before your team goes in with follow-up touches.
To give you an idea of some stages you could create:
And in Hubspot you can even tie these with their chances of conversion, aka deal probability:
Then just select the deal stage in lemlist based on your campaign, and now you’ve got a super organized pipeline so you and the rest of your team know exactly how to approach these leads.
Should I send cold emails with Hubspot?
No! It’s a common misconception that you can use an email marketing tool to run cold outreach emails.
Don’t worry if you’ve been a victim to this, the terminology even has me confused at times.
If you’re doubting when to use a CRM like Hubspot vs when to use an outreach tool like lemlist, check this out:
CRM - this is for email marketing or outreach to prospects you’ve already contacted.
For example, Hubspot's sales emails are a good option if you have already contacted your leads (aka not cold outreach). You can also send marketing emails with CRMs to people that have opted in to receive them, like a newsletter.
Outreach tool - your go-to for cold sales outreach. For example, if you find leads using LinkedIn, G2, Capterra, Crunchbase, etc. and you want to send them personalized outreach campaigns.
And if this doesn’t quite sell you, there’s one more convincing argument—using Hubspot for cold emails is not permitted in their terms of service and can get you banned 😬
So for this reason the best rule to stick to is: if you’ve never emailed this lead before, use an outreach tool.
How do I connect LinkedIn and Hubspot?
There are a few options:
3. Use the lemlist x Hubspot integration to enrich your contacts with data from LinkedIn, send messages and connection requests, and then follow these actions and lead responses in Hubspot. (see the sections above)
Do you need to use BCC?
Nope! The replies will be added in the contact notes. You only need to add BCC if you want the emails to show up in your Hubspot inbox, but be careful because you’ll have duplicate notes in the contact’s activity.
Alright y’all, there you have it. Using these tactics you’ll be able to create the Hubspot x LinkedIn x lemlist workflow of your dreams. And never have to import and export lead lists, update contacts and add notes manually again.
But if you have any more questions, just shoot me a message.
And if you’re looking for more help on creating killer cold outreach campaigns, check out our top 15 sales email templates.
G2 Rating | Price | Best for | Standout feature | Con | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.9 star star star star star | $30/mo $75/mo $2,999/mo | Large, distributed sales teams | AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs | Lack of tracking system | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Sales operations and finance teams | Powerful configurability | Limited training resources and complex to navigate | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Mid-market and enterprise businesses | Comprehensive incentive management | Potentially high cost and steep learning curve | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $15/user/mo $40/user/mo Enterprise: custom price | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Collaborative teams | Connected planning | Complexity and steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with complex sales structures | Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy | Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts | Simplicity and ease of use | Lack of features like redirection | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $30/user/mo $35/user/mo Custom: upon request | Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software | Ease of use and adoption | Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs | |
4.8 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights | A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility | Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow | |
4.9 star star star star star | $30/user/mo $50/user/mo | Smaller sales teams | Powerful automation | Lesser user base and average user interface | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with scalable needs | Automated Commission Calculations | Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app |
PRM Tool | Rating | Feature | Pro | Con | Mobile App | Integrations | Free Plan | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.65 star star star star star-half | Org-wide alignment | User-friendly layout and database | Suboptimal as a personal CRM | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-check | Team: $20/month Business: $45/month | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Social Media Integration | Easy contact data collection | No marketing/sales features | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-xmark 7-day trial | $12/month | |
4.75 star star star star star-half | Block Functions | High customization capability | Not a dedicated CRM | square-check | Limited | square-check | Plus: €7.50/month Business: €14/month | |
N/A | Open-source | Open-source flexibility | Requires extensive manual input | square-xmark | Limited | square-check Self-hosted | $9/month or $90/year | |
3.1 star star star | Simple iOS app | Ideal for non-tech-savvy users | iPhone only | square-check iOS only | Limited | square-xmark 1-month trial | $1.49/month or $14.99/month | |
3.6 star star star star-half | Smart Contact Management | Feature-rich and flexible | Reported bugs | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 7-day trial | Premium: $13.99/month Teams: $17.99/month | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Customizable Interface | Customizable for teamwork | Pricey for personal use | square-check | Rich | square-xmark | Standard: $24/member Premium: $39/member | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Integrated Calling | Integrated Calling | Too sales-oriented & pricey | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | Startup: $59/user/month Professional: $329/user/month | |
4.8 star star star star star | Business Card Scanning | Business Card Scanning | Mobile only | square-check | Limited | square-check | $9.99/month | |
4.45 star star star star star-half | 160+ app integrations | Comprehensive integrations | No free app version | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | $29.90/month or $24.90/month (billed annually) |
Capterra Rating | Free Trial | Free Plan | Starting Price (excluding the free plan) | Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan) | Best for | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-check | €15/month/seat billed annually | €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat | Versatility and free plan | |
4.2 star star star star | square-check 30-day | square-xmark But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations | €25/user/month | €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI) | Best overall operational CRM | |
4.3 star star star star star-half | square-xmark | square-check Limited to 3 users | Comprehensive incentive management | €52/user/month billed annually | Small-medium businesses and automation | |
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-xmark | €14/seat/month billed annually | €99/seat/month billed annually | Sales teams and ease of use | |
4.1 star star star star | square-xmark | square-check Limited 10 users | $9.99/user/month billed annually | $64.99/user/month billed annually | Free plan for very small teams up to 10 |
CRM goal | Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months. | ||||
SMART Breakdown | 1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation). | 2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking. | 3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements. | 4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives. | 5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date. |
Actions | Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation. | Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior. | Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads. | Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up. | Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization. |
Outcomes | Increased sales and revenue | Improved marketing automation ROI | Marketing and sales alignment | Data-driven marketing optimization |