Migrating to HubSpot? 6 Expert Tips for a Flawless Marketing Automation Transition
Migrating from one marketing automation platform to another, especially to a robust system like HubSpot, can feel like a massive undertaking. Between migrating years of historical data, preserving campaign integrity, and minimizing downtime, the process can become a bottleneck instead of a business enabler if handled incorrectly.
For B2B marketing leaders, this transition presents both risk and opportunity. Done right, a migration can streamline operations, improve data accuracy, and unlock greater campaign performance. Done wrong, it can result in data loss, broken integrations, and lost productivity.
Whether you’re moving from Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, or another platform to HubSpot, here are six tips to ensure a smooth and successful migration:
1. Audit Before You Act
Start with a comprehensive audit of your current system. Understand what data, assets, and workflows are actively used, what’s outdated, and what can be archived. This step ensures you’re not carrying over unnecessary baggage and helps prioritize what truly drives value in your marketing operations.
Pro Tip: Use this opportunity to clean up your data. Migrations are a natural reset point to improve segmentation, eliminate duplicates, and refine targeting strategies.
2. Map Your Data Strategically
Not all platforms treat data the same way. Fields, objects, and relationships can behave differently in HubSpot. Spend time mapping your data architecture—standard and custom fields, contact and company records, lifecycle stages—so nothing is lost or misaligned in the transition.
Expert Insight: DemandLab’s team has deep knowledge of multiple CRM and MAP ecosystems, helping ensure your HubSpot instance reflects your business logic and marketing objectives from day one.
3. Rebuild, Don’t Just Replicate
While it may seem easy to lift and shift your existing campaigns and workflows, this is a golden opportunity to improve them. HubSpot’s unique capabilities, like its drag-and-drop workflow builder, native reporting, and smart content features, can be leveraged to create more innovative, leaner programs.
Recommendation: Rebuild high-impact workflows from scratch to ensure they are optimized for HubSpot’s strengths, rather than constrained by legacy platform limitations.
4. Test in Staging, Not Production
Before going live, validate your migration in a sandbox or staging environment. Test form submissions, email sends, workflow triggers, and data syncing thoroughly. This minimizes surprises and lets you fix issues before they impact real contacts.
Checklist: Validate integrations, lead scoring models, contact segmentation, and reporting dashboards before launch.
5. Align with Sales and Operations Early
A marketing automation migration impacts more than just the marketing team. Sales, RevOps, and Customer Success teams often rely on shared data and workflows. Involving these stakeholders early ensures smoother adoption and avoids disruptions in the lead lifecycle.
Collaboration Tip: Create a cross-functional task force to review shared processes, SLAs, and reporting needs.
6. Lean on Experienced Partners
You don’t have to do it alone. Migrating systems is a high-stakes project that often happens alongside day-to-day responsibilities. Working with an experienced agency like DemandLab ensures the process is faster, smoother, and more strategic.
With our Migration Sprint, you’ll get:
- A proven, repeatable migration playbook
- Deep technical expertise across platforms
- Platform-specific best practices for HubSpot
- Post-migration support to fine-tune performance
We’ll accelerate your move, ensure your new environment is clean, organized, and future-proof, and help your team get up and running faster, without compromising business continuity.
It’s Time to Evolve
A marketing automation migration is more than a tech project—it’s a pivotal moment to evolve your marketing operations. By planning carefully, involving key stakeholders, and leveraging the right expertise, you’ll transform a complex migration into a growth opportunity.
Ready to make your move to HubSpot seamless and strategic?
Contact DemandLab to learn how our Migration Sprint can set you up for long-term success.