How to build a lead audit trail in HubSpot


Want to optimise your lead conversion process? If your team is looking to improve lead management and make data-driven decisions, building a lead audit trail in HubSpot is an essential step. 

By tracking and documenting every interaction and update made to a lead’s record in your HubSpot CRM, you can capture the entire journey of your leads to maximise your conversion process and transform your wider marketing efforts. 


What exactly is a lead audit trail?

A lead audit trail provides a detailed record of a lead’s journey - from their first interaction with your brand, all the way through to conversion. 

It allows you to track and document emails, phone calls, contact forms and more and gives your team a complete view of a lead’s history with your brand.

The benefits to this are invaluable, and as the saying goes, ‘knowledge is power’. 

The information and data gathered from a lead audit trail helps you to improve the lead nurturing process, craft tailored follow-ups and improve communications between sales and marketing teams.

It will also help to ensure you don’t waste precious time and resources on redundant leads, while making sure no lead is left overlooked.

A well-built and well-managed lead audit trail ultimately leads to more conversions and happier customers - key goals in any business! 


Why is a lead audit trail important?

Generate more qualified leads

A lead audit trail is a treasure trove of data, and the key to generating more qualified leads.

It allows you to identify which of your touchpoints are the most effective in driving conversions, and which need improving.

From there, you can discover what kind of content resonates most with your target audience and tailor your strategy using data-driven decisions to optimise your marketing efforts and lead nurturing process going forward. 


Make data-informed decisions

Data is king. An audit trail makes it easier to forecast, create accurate performance reports and allocate resources more effectively by analysing patterns, behaviours and engagement levels. 

The results of this are far-reaching, allowing you to optimise everything from UX design to content and email campaigns to how your team interacts with leads on the phone.  


Build team accountability

A lead audit trail is also an effective way to build accountability within your team. By tracking every interaction and update, you can easily ensure that follow-ups aren’t missed and that leads are followed up quickly to avoid any missed opportunities. 

It gives everyone across multiple teams an overview of the leads process, and can help to keep actions consistent and ensure everyone is aligned with business goals.


How to build your lead audit trail

Integrate your communication channels into Hubspot

Once your communication channels are integrated, HubSpot will automatically start logging each action from your leads. Key channels to add into the CRM include:


Email

Go to Settings > Email > Connect Personal Email (for individual inboxes) or Connect Team Email (for shared inboxes).

HubSpot supports Gmail, Office 365 and other IMAP/SMTP-based email services. From here, you can track open and click rates and manage customer conversations. 

Phone

Go to Settings > Calling > Calling Provider to integrate VoIP providers or use HubSpot’s built-in calling feature.

HubSpot will keep calls logged in a contact’s profile for easy follow-up and a comprehensive lead trail.

Live chat

Go to Conversations > Chatflows, to create a new live chat flow for your website.

Control live chat from HubSpot by customising chat widgets and setting your team availability. From here, you can capture leads from chats and engage potential leads in real time.

Social media

Go to Marketing > Social > Settings, then link accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can use HubSpot for monitoring and logging social engagement, and even use it to schedule posts as an added benefit.

Forms and CMS 

HubSpot offers built-in forms to record leads on your However, if you are using HubSpot CMS or another platform, you can integrate your website to track visits, interactions and form submissions. 

Ads

Go to Marketing > Ads > Connect Account to link platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

Integrating your ads campaigns is a great way to track ROI and identify how many leads are generated from your ads. 

Customer service tools

HubSpot also allows you to integrate customer service tools like Zendesk into their app marketplace, allowing your team to support lead tickets. 



Set up lead tracking workflows

HubSpot’s workflow automation allows you to create sequences that automatically update lead records based on specific triggers, such as form submissions, email opens, or website visits to ensure that no lead interactions are missed. Here’s a quick overview on how to set up your workflows:

Define your lead stages 

HubSpot provides default Lifecycle Stages that help track your leads, for example, ‘Opportunity’, ‘Customer’, ‘Marketing Qualified Lead’ (MQL) and ‘Sales Qualified Lead’ (SQL). You can also define your own custom lead stages, such as ‘New lead’ or ‘Qualified lead’, depending on how specific you’d like your lead tracking to be. Don’t forget to monitor and review your lead stages - they may need to change if there are bottlenecks and you need to move the leads forward. 


Create a workflow

To set up a workflow in HubSpot, go to Automation > Workflows in your dashboard, and click Create Workflow. Choose the type, for example, contact-based or deal-based), then set enrolment triggers like form submissions or lead score changes. You can then define actions such as sending emails, updating properties, or assigning leads to specific team members. 

Add any delays or "If/Then" branches for conditional actions, then review and test the workflow. Once everything looks good, your workflow is ready to activate and will start automating your lead management. 


Our top tips for effective lead management

Train your team

While HubSpot automates much of the process, there may be offline interactions, such as meetings or phone calls, that need to be manually added to a lead’s record. Consistent data entry is absolutely vital in ensuring that your lead audit trail is both complete and accurate. 

Make the most of version control

HubSpot’s version control and property history features allow you to view changes to contact properties, lead statuses, landing pages and more over time. 

By utilising these features, you can track who made an update, and when, so your team can remain accountable and consistent. 


Contact Ascensor today to discuss either a new or existing HubSpot solution, and make the most out of this feature-rich platform for your business.





 






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