Are you tired of manually linking your records together like a spreadsheet detective? Well, you’re in luck because HubSpot Associations are here to rescue you from the chaos of disconnected data!

Think of them like a digital social network—without the awkward “do we know each other?” moments.

But what exactly are associations, and how can they make your life easier? Let’s dive in.

 

What Are Associations?

In the simplest terms, associations in HubSpot are the relationships that link different records together within your account. Imagine you’re working with a company record. You’ve got a contact working for that company, and that contact has a deal in the pipeline.
 
All of these records need to be connected to provide a clear picture of the relationship between them. Associations do just that—they tie everything together.
Rather than manually tracking who works where, which deal belongs to which person, or which marketing emails they’ve opened, associations link records automatically to provide a full, seamless view of your customer relationships.
 
They help you keep things organised, without the need to dig through endless spreadsheets.

The Magic of Association Labels

But wait, there’s more!
 
HubSpot’s Association Labels take associations to the next level. Instead of just knowing that a contact, company, and deal are related, you can define how they are related. These labels act as custom tags you can apply to your associations to make things clearer and more specific.
 
For example, maybe you want to associate a contact to a deal with a label that says “Primary Contact.” Or perhaps you want to create a label that says “Account Manager” for your company records.
 
These labels give you the ability to fine-tune your associations and make sure that everyone knows exactly what’s going on. Labels are your best friend when you need to understand how records are linked and keep things running smoothly.

Why Associations Matter in HubSpot

Now that we know what associations and labels are, let’s talk about why they’re such a big deal in HubSpot. They offer a heap of benefits, such as:
  1. Clarity: Associations eliminate confusion about what’s linked to what. You’ll always know which contact belongs to which company and what deal they’re associated with.
  2. Efficiency: No more manually searching for relationships between records. HubSpot does the heavy lifting for you, saving you time and effort.
  3. Better Insights: With everything properly connected, you can dive deeper into your data to get more accurate insights about your customers and sales pipeline.

The Recent Association Updates You Should Know About

You might be thinking, “This all sounds great, but has HubSpot done anything recently to make associations even better?”
 
The short answer: yes! HubSpot has been rolling out some awesome updates to associations, and they’re worth your attention.
  1. Custom Associations for Tickets: Now you can link tickets to more objects, not just contacts and companies. This gives you a more complete view of your customer’s journey, helping you track customer service cases alongside sales and marketing efforts. It’s a whole new level of integration.
  2. More Flexible Association Labels: HubSpot has made it easier to customise association labels, making them more flexible for your needs. You can now create labels that are more specific and relevant to your business, giving you better control over how your records are connected.
  3. Improved Record Associations: HubSpot has introduced a more user-friendly interface to manage associations. Whether you’re dealing with contacts, companies, deals, or tickets, you can now associate records more quickly and efficiently than before. It’s all about saving you time and hassle.
These updates bring even more power to associations, giving you more control over how your data is connected and managed.