Hubspot

Developing Custom Integrations In Hubspot

Hubspot offers great functionality to support custom integration with outside systems.  Read on to learn how Hubspot Custom Actions can allow you to reach outside of any standard limitations on the platform.

 

What's an API?

API’s stands for “Application Programming Interface”.  Basically, it’s a way for system to talk to each other (aka “integration”).  This allows you to leverage the work done by others.  For example, instead of keeping a list of tax rates, you could connect to an API that always provides up-to-date responses.

 

But building your own API layer can be tough.  In a typical cloud offering to connect your CRM system to any type of custom integration, you would need to:

  1. Create a microservice layer.
  2. Find a host (AWS Lambda, Azure functions, or other popular cloud hosted services).
  3. Manage the security and whitelist for network traffic between your CRM system and the service.
  4. Include a restAPI wrapper to facilitate the communication between the two systems.

The Easy Way: Hubspot Custom Actions

While there are tools that make standing up a custom API architecture easier to manage, there is still overhead, setup and maintenance. 

Welcome to Platform-as-a-Service: Hubspot offers custom code workflows, which can allow you to expand the core functionality to integrate with your favorite outside services. The possibilities are endless when you can create your own solutions directly in your Hubspot environment.

Imagine you’re an Ice cream distributor looking for an additional boost to your monthly sales. You could create a custom workflow to query the weather in a customer’s region.  Then, on the hottest day of the month, add the customer to the “It’s Hot! Cool Off with This Digital Coupon” email list.

Another great example is the direct mail use case. We’ve built workflows that use direct mail APIs to:

  • Validate your customers address is deliverable
  • Send direct mail content via physical mail (including marketing swag!)

All of this uses the data you’ve already collected in your Hubspot ecosystem, and publicly-available APIs.

If you are interested in learning more about creating custom workflow integration in HubSpot, contact us today to setup a free consultation!