Leveraging HubSpot Custom-Coded Workflow Actions to Streamline Your Data

For businesses leveraging HubSpot, standard workflow actions may not always meet the needs of complex data management and automation tasks. Custom-coded workflow actions, however, unlock the platform’s full potential, offering tailored solutions to challenges that go beyond the native capabilities.

Marketing leaders and operations professionals are constantly striving to optimize workflows, manipulate data, and ensure operational efficiency—this is where custom coding comes in. By implementing custom-coded workflow actions, businesses can streamline intricate processes, reduce manual intervention, and increase overall accuracy.

In this post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of HubSpot’s custom-coded workflow actions and how they can solve a variety of data challenges, ultimately helping you optimize business operations.

What Are Custom-Coded Workflow Actions?

A custom-coded workflow action allows you to create mini-applications within HubSpot workflows that are tailored to your unique business needs. Unlike the standard workflow actions—such as sending emails or updating contact properties—custom-coded actions provide the flexibility to automate a wide range of processes, including integrating with third-party systems, performing data calculations, and implementing complex business logic.

Custom-coded actions provide the flexibility to automate a wide range of processes, unlike standard workflow actions.

With Operations Hub (available for HubSpot Professional and Enterprise users), businesses can use Node.js or Python to develop these custom-coded actions. The flexibility of working with APIs within HubSpot also means you can build in-house solutions, bypassing the need for costly third-party integrations. Ultimately, custom-coded actions make it possible to automate specialized processes that HubSpot’s out-of-the-box features cannot address.

What Data Challenges Can You Solve With Custom-Coded Actions?

1. Integrating with External APIs

Consider a retail chain using an inventory management system to track stock levels. Every time a customer places an order in HubSpot, they need to check product availability in real-time. By creating a custom-coded workflow action, HubSpot can be integrated with the inventory management system’s API to automatically check stock levels before processing orders, reducing delays and errors.

2. Complex Data Manipulations or Calculations

Take the example of a consulting firm offering subscription-based pricing models. These models might involve multiple factors like user numbers, usage limits, add-ons, and tax rates, which can lead to complicated calculations. A custom-coded workflow action can automate these pricing calculations based on each customer’s specific subscription details, streamlining the process and eliminating human error.

3. Implementing Custom Business Logic

For a software company with different service level agreements (SLAs) based on account types, maintaining response time and ticket prioritization can be a complex process. A custom-coded workflow action can automate the prioritization of tickets based on these SLAs, ensuring that customers receive the appropriate level of support without manual intervention.

Real-World Applications

1. Manufacturing Workflow Automation

One of our clients, a leading manufacturer of spun metal components, needed a custom solution for managing their production process. HubSpot’s standard workflows weren’t sufficient to track the availability of manufactured parts. By developing a custom-coded workflow action, we enabled HubSpot to automatically update the status of work orders when parts were available, ensuring timely manufacturing and shipment.

2. SaaS Business Subscription Management

For a SaaS business offering tiered subscription plans, managing the flow of data between HubSpot and the payment processing system is crucial. A custom-coded workflow action could be used to automatically update contact properties based on customer subscription renewals or upgrades. For instance, if a customer upgrades to a higher-tier plan, the workflow can trigger an action that updates their subscription status, modifies their renewal date, and even syncs this data with an internal database or third-party CRM. This integration ensures accurate, up-to-date subscription information without the need for manual data entry.

3. Digital Marketing Agency Lead Scoring and Follow-Up

A digital marketing agency specializing in paid advertising campaigns might face challenges with lead scoring and follow-up automation. Using custom-coded workflow actions, the agency can create a system that automatically scores leads based on specific criteria (e.g., engagement level with ads, website visits, or inquiry forms submitted). When a lead reaches a certain threshold, the workflow can trigger actions like assigning the lead to a specific team member, sending a personalized email, or scheduling a follow-up call. This ensures timely and targeted communication, improving the agency’s lead conversion rates.

4. Event Management Automation

Another scenario involves managing attendee registrations for large-scale events. Using a custom-coded workflow action, HubSpot can automatically track attendee form completions. For example, if a client is hosting a conference, the workflow can compare the number of registrants with the expected number of attendees and automatically trigger actions when the two match, reducing manual follow-up efforts.

Creating a Simple Custom-Coded Workflow Action: A Step-by-Step Guide

To help you get started with custom-coded workflow actions, let’s walk through a simple example: creating a workflow action that sends an email notification when a deal is closed.

Prerequisites

• A HubSpot account with Operations Hub Professional or Enterprise.
• Basic understanding of Node.js or Python.
• A code editor (e.g., Visual Studio Code) or use HubSpot’s in-app code editor.

Step 1: Create a New Workflow Action

1. Navigate to Automation > Workflows.
2. Create a new workflow or edit an existing one.
3. Add a Custom Code action to your workflow.

Step 2: Write the Code

In this step, you’ll write the code using Node.js or Python. The code will typically involve:

• Fetching deal information: Retrieve the necessary details about the deal, such as the deal stage, contact information, and custom properties.
• Conditional logic: Determine if the deal has been closed and meets specific criteria.
• Email creation and sending: Construct the email content, including the recipient, subject, and body, and send it using HubSpot’s email API.
• Error handling: Implement error handling to catch and log any exceptions that may occur during the process.

Step 3: Configure the Code Action

1. Input parameters: Define dealId as an input parameter in the workflow’s settings.
2. Secrets: Store your HubSpot API key securely using context.secrets. Set this up via the HubSpot CLI or the custom-coded actions interface in HubSpot.
3. Error handling: Implement robust error-handling mechanisms to log exceptions and ensure your workflow continues running smoothly.

Step 4: Test the Workflow Action

1. Manual testing: Trigger the workflow with a test deal to verify that it logs the notification (or performs your intended action).
2. Debugging: Use the workflow logs in HubSpot to identify and troubleshoot any issues.

Pro Tip: After setting up custom-coded workflows, consider using HubSpot CRM dashboards from Databox to easily track key metrics and KPIs, allowing you to analyze your performance and identify areas for improvement with just a few clicks.

Additional Tips on Creating Custom-Coded Workflow Actions

• Modularize your code: Break complex actions into smaller, reusable functions for better maintainability.
• Leverage HubSpot’s API documentation: Refer to the official API documentation for details on endpoints and parameters.
• Optimize performance: Use asynchronous operations effectively and minimize API calls for improved efficiency.
• Security best practices: Always secure sensitive data, like API keys, using context.secrets and avoid hardcoding them.
• Error handling and logging: Use structured error handling and logging to diagnose issues easily.

By following these steps and incorporating best practices, you can create powerful custom-coded workflow actions to automate complex processes and streamline your business operations.

Integrating HubSpot Custom-Coded Workflow Actions with Databox

The power of custom-coded workflow actions doesn’t stop at HubSpot. By integrating these workflows with Databox, marketing, sales and service leaders can gain deeper insights into the performance of their automated processes. Data from custom workflows—whether it involves third-party system integrations, complex calculations, or specialized business logic—can be pushed into Databox, providing real-time visualization and monitoring.

For example, if you’re using a custom-coded workflow to manage your inventory or track ticket resolution times, integrating with Databox allows you to pull that data into a dashboard for easy analysis. You’ll be able to spot trends, inefficiencies, or opportunities for improvement, ensuring that your operations are always running at peak performance.

Conclusion

HubSpot’s custom-coded workflow actions provide a powerful solution for businesses facing complex data and process challenges. Whether you need to integrate with external systems, perform intricate calculations, or automate industry-specific workflows, these custom actions can unlock new efficiencies and capabilities.

By combining the flexibility of custom workflows with the real-time insights provided by Databox, businesses can ensure that their operations remain streamlined and scalable. If you’re ready to take your HubSpot automations to the next level, custom-coded actions are the key to transforming your workflows.