HubSpot’s January 2024 releases include email compliance, inbound lead routing and more

Kicking off 2024 with a bang, HubSpot’s January updates are all about enhancing your team’s capabilities in lead management, content strategy, and data analysis. HubSpot introduced a suite of features across all hubs and tiers, helping your team streamline workflows, enrich engagement and provide deeper insights into your operations.

With enhancements across LinkedIn strategy tools, lead routing and complex team management, these updates are designed to elevate your marketing, sales and service efforts. 

From making your emails more compliant with the latest regulations to improving financial management with the new currencies API, these updates will help your business stay ahead of the curve.

Here are the January 2024 updates managers should take note of:

• Fast and easy compliance for new email requirements.
• Expanded insights and data management capabilities with limit increases.
• More robust lead management with leads object updates.
• Easily route inbound leads with conditional form confirmation pages.
• Step up your LinkedIn strategy with documents and polls.
• Better invoicing flexibility with manual payment recording.
• Stronger currency management with new currencies API.
• More customizable controls for managing double opt-in.
• Seamless prospecting with Dynamics 365 and NetSuite integration updates.

Fast and easy compliance with new email requirements

What’s new: Starting Feb. 1, 2024, email giants like Google have enacted stricter requirements for email senders, including new rules for email authentication, spam reports and unsubscribe options. HubSpot is updating email headers to include a one-click unsubscribe feature and enhancing SPF/DMARC authentication, ensuring compliance with these new email rules.

How it helps you

HubSpot’s automatic update to email headers for one-click unsubscribe requires no action from you, simplifying compliance efforts. While you might notice a slight uptick in unsubscribe rates, these changes ultimately benefit your brand’s reputation and email engagement. 

Additionally, the “SPF & DMARC for All” update allows customers to directly copy DMARC and SPF records from HubSpot to their DNS and monitor the connection status within HubSpot itself. This proactive approach prepares you for the upcoming requirements by Google and Yahoo, ensuring that your emails remain in the inbox and not the spam folder.

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Marketing Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Starter, Professional, Enterprise

Expanded insights and data management capabilities with limit increases

What’s new: HubSpot significantly increased the limits for custom objects and properties, including a major update for Professional-tier users with increased calculated property limits. 

• Professional-tier customers can now create up to 25 calculated properties, up from five. 
• Enterprise-tier custom object record limits increased by 500,000.
• There are new add-on products available for purchase to further increase limits for calculated properties, custom objects and custom properties. 

How it helps you

The increase in calculated property limits for Professional-tier customers allows managers to derive more nuanced insights and reporting from the CRM, facilitating complex calculations directly within record properties. For instance, teams can now easily calculate commissions, measure time between specific events, and assess deal profitability without external tools. Learn more about calculated properties.

For Enterprise-tier portals, the increase in custom object limits and the introduction of the Custom Object Add-on mean your system can scale with your business, allowing for the definition of more custom objects and storage of additional records. The new Custom Properties Add-on, available for Professional and Enterprise editions, further enhances your ability to track and report on key data by increasing the number of custom properties you can create.

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: All Hubs
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Professional, Enterprise

More robust lead management with leads object updates

What’s new: HubSpot introduces a suite of updates to its lead management capabilities, including a distinct lead owner property, improved visibility for leads, and bulk actions within the prospecting workspace.

How it helps you

This update helps larger or more sophisticated sales teams by addressing and resolving many of the previous limitations that may have deterred you from using the newly introduced “lead” object in HubSpot’s Prospecting Workspace. By distinguishing lead ownership from associated contact or company ownership, sales processes can now mirror the complex dynamics of your team’s operations more accurately.

Sales managers and team leaders gain enhanced oversight with the ability to view all leads and execute bulk actions — streamlining lead assignments and ensuring efficient lead handling. This leap in functionality eradicates obstacles to adopting HubSpot Leads, making it a must-use tool for teams aiming to optimize their prospecting efforts. 

Status: Public Beta
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Sales Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Professional, Enterprise

Easily route inbound leads with conditional form confirmation pages

What’s new: HubSpot introduced conditional redirection after form submissions, enabling users to route visitors to specific meeting scheduling pages, HubSpot pages or external URLs based on form responses.

How it helps you

This feature helps manage inbound leads more efficiently. By setting up conditional rules based on form responses, you can ensure that leads are automatically directed to the appropriate page or meeting scheduler, significantly reducing the number of unqualified leads that book meetings. This capability allows for a more personalized follow-up, improving the lead qualification process and potentially eliminating the need for third-party tools by leveraging HubSpot forms your team already has access to.

Focusing on routing qualified leads effectively, this update not only saves time but also optimizes the lead management process, making sure that the right leads get the attention they need, quickly and efficiently.

Status: Public Beta
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Sales Hub, Service Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Enterprise

Step up your LinkedIn strategy with documents and polls

What’s new: HubSpot enhances LinkedIn content capabilities by allowing the publishing and analysis of both LinkedIn Documents (PDFs) and Polls directly within its platform.

How it helps you

With the ability to share detailed documents such as case studies, reports or sales materials, you can deliver more informative and engaging content to your audience. Coupling this with the interactive nature of polls, your team can directly engage with your audience, soliciting feedback, conducting market research, and fostering a two-way conversation.

These features are designed to not only increase audience engagement, but also provide deeper insights into audience preferences and behaviors, enhancing the effectiveness of your organic social strategy. Whether you’re looking to educate, engage or understand your audience, these tools offer versatile solutions to achieve your marketing goals. 

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Marketing Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Professional, Enterprise

Better invoicing flexibility with manual payment recording

What’s new: HubSpot now enables users to manually record payments for invoices, offering a more flexible approach to managing invoices and payments. 

How it helps you

This update gives managers increased control and flexibility in managing invoicing within HubSpot. Instead of simply marking an invoice as paid, you can now record how the payment was made and who made it, providing a complete picture of your financial transactions. This is particularly beneficial for businesses that handle payments outside of HubSpot Payments, such as checks or wire transfers, allowing for comprehensive billing and payment management directly from HubSpot.

For managers, this means no more piecing together invoice and payment reports to understand revenue streams. The ability to record payments manually ensures accurate financial reporting and simplifies the reconciliation process, making it easier to track and manage your company’s cash flow and revenue. Learn more about managing invoices.

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Commerce Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: All Tiers

Stronger currency management with new Currencies API

What’s new: HubSpot’s Currencies API enables automated updates of exchange rates, helping you keep them accurate and in sync with other systems and eliminating the need for manual updates. 

How it helps you

For managers overseeing global sales and marketing operations, maintaining accurate and current exchange rates in HubSpot is essential for effective reporting and financial analysis. The Currencies API allows for seamless integration with external exchange rate sources, ensuring that your HubSpot account reflects real-time financial data. This automation not only saves time but also enhances accuracy and consistency across your financial systems.

If you prefer to keep HubSpot exchange rates up to date without using the API, you also have the option to integrate with one of two currently-available apps in the HubSpot App Marketplace: Currency-R8 and DoCurrencies. Learn more about the Currencies API and integration options.

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Sales Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Starter, Professional, Enterprise

More customizable controls for managing double opt-in

What’s new: HubSpot now allows the option to enable or disable double opt-in not just for pages, but also for individual forms, accompanied by clearer action descriptions.

How it helps you

This update introduces greater flexibility in managing how you capture and confirm consent from your contacts. You can now apply double opt-in selectively, per form, which is particularly beneficial for businesses operating across different regions with varying consent laws.

For instance, if double opt-in is mandatory in some countries you operate in, you can tailor your approach accordingly, ensuring compliance without affecting the user experience where stricter regulations do not apply. This nuanced control helps maintain legal compliance while optimizing for conversion rates in less regulated markets.

Status: Public Beta, full release expected February 2024
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: Marketing Hub
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: Professional, Enterprise

Seamless prospecting with Dynamics 365 and NetSuite integration updates

What’s new: HubSpot now enables direct enrollment in sequences and booking of meetings from within Microsoft Dynamics 365 and NetSuite, simplifying sales outreach activities.

How it helps you

This update is a significant efficiency booster for sales teams utilizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 or NetSuite alongside HubSpot. Imagine the convenience of engaging with prospects or customers through HubSpot’s powerful sales sequences or scheduling meetings without ever leaving your Dynamics or NetSuite interface. This seamless integration eliminates the need to switch between systems, streamlining your sales process and saving valuable time.

For managers, this means your teams can focus more on selling and less on administrative tasks, enhancing productivity and ensuring a smoother workflow. Whether you’re reaching out to new leads or managing ongoing customer relationships, these integrations provide a more cohesive and efficient approach to sales outreach.

Status: Live
Applicable HubSpot Hubs: All Hubs
Applicable HubSpot Tiers: All Tiers