Using Lists (Active vs. Static)

Key Benefits of Lists:

• Segmentation: Group contacts by shared traits (e.g., city, job title, last engagement date).
• Targeted Communication: Send marketing emails to a precise audience.
• Workflow Enrollment: Trigger automated workflows for a subset of contacts who meet specific conditions.
• Reporting: Analyze performance or user activity by specific segments.

Types of Lists

Active Lists

Definition: An active list updates in real-time (or near real-time). As soon as a contact meets the filter conditions, they join the list automatically; if they no longer meet those conditions, they leave the list.

Example Use Case: You want a list of “All clients in California who opened my email in the last 7 days.” Each day, HubSpot checks those criteria for all contacts and updates the list membership accordingly.

Advantages:

• Always up-to-date without manual intervention.
• Great for continuous email campaigns or drip nurturing.

Things to Note:

• Complex active lists can sometimes take longer to process if you have a large contact database and multiple advanced filters.
• If your subscription includes marketing automation, you’ll likely rely heavily on active lists for workflows.

Static Lists

Definition: A static list is a snapshot of contacts who met criteria at the time the list was created or manually updated. Once the list is formed, new contacts don’t automatically join, even if they fit the same criteria later, unless you manually add them.

Example Use Cases:

• You import a spreadsheet of 100 conference attendees to create a list for a one-time email blast.
• You want a historical snapshot of leads who attended last month’s webinar—no need for automatic updates.

Advantages:

• Perfect for one-off uses, like a specific email send or event follow-up.
• The composition of the list remains locked (unless you add or remove members manually), making it easy to reference exactly who was in that audience at a certain time.

Things to Note: For ongoing segmentation, a static list can quickly become outdated. An active list is usually more powerful unless you specifically need a fixed snapshot.

Building Lists: Key Criteria and Filters

When creating a list in HubSpot (Contacts → Lists → Create List), you’ll choose active or static, then define the filters that determine membership (for active) or initial membership (for static).

Common Filter Categories:

1. Contact Properties:
   • Examples: Job Title, Lifecycle Stage, Last Activity Date, City, Subgroup (custom property).
   • You can filter based on “is,” “contains,” “starts with,” etc., depending on the property’s type.
2. Company Properties:
   • If your contacts are associated with companies, you can filter by industry, company name, domain, etc.
   • Great for B2B segmentation.
3. Deal Properties:
   • Filter contacts by the deals they’re associated with (e.g., deal stage, deal amount, close date).
   • Useful if you want a list of contacts who have an “active deal” in your pipeline.
4. Activities (Engagements):
   • Email opens, link clicks, form submissions, website page views, calls, meetings, tasks, etc.
   • In marketing emails, you can filter by “contact opened email X” or “contact clicked link in email Y.”
   • In forms, you can filter by “contact filled out form Z.”
5. List Membership (only for Active Lists):
   • You can include or exclude people based on whether they’re in another list.
   • Handy for combining or negating membership in multiple lists.
6. Marketing Email Interactions:
   • For example, “received email,” “didn’t open email,” “clicked link in email.”
   • Perfect for building re-engagement or follow-up segments.
7. Custom Event Data (if integrated / higher tiers):
   • If your site or product sends custom events to HubSpot, you can filter by those events.

Filter Logic (AND vs. OR):

• Within a single filter group, you can set multiple conditions and choose if they all must be met (AND) or if meeting any one is sufficient (OR).
• You can also create multiple filter groups that can be combined with AND or OR logic, allowing for very nuanced queries.

Advanced List Features

Combined Criteria

You can create complex logic like: “Contacts who attended my workshop (Form Submission = Workshop Registration) AND are located in North America (Contact Property = Country is US or Canada) AND are not already clients (Lifecycle Stage ≠ Customer).”

Suppression Lists

• When sending marketing emails, you can exclude certain lists from the recipient selection.
• This is often used for unsubscribes (though HubSpot manages unsubscribes automatically, a separate list can be used for additional exclusions), internal folks, or people in “On Hold” statuses in a consulting outreach system.

Combining Active & Static

• Sometimes you’ll start with a large Active list for your base filters (e.g., “All B2B leads in the West Coast”). Then you might convert that list to Static if you want to keep a snapshot for a one-time campaign.
• Alternatively, you can create an Active list that references membership in one or more Static

Exporting Lists

• Any list—active or static—can be exported to a CSV file for offline analysis or integrations with other platforms.
• Exports include contact properties you select, making it easy to hand off data to partners, or do in-depth analysis in Excel/Google Sheets.

Lists in Action: Common Consulting Scenarios

Periodic Outreach

• Example: “Active Clients I haven’t contacted in the last 60 days.”
• Filter: Lifecycle Stage = “Customer” AND Last Contacted more than 60 days ago.
• Result: Perfect for a re-engagement or check-in campaign.

Conference Attendees

• You can upload a CSV of people you met at a conference into a Static List.
• Then easily send them a follow-up email, or enroll them in a “Nurture Pipeline” workflow.

Lead Qualification

• If you have custom properties like “Potential Budget” or “Project Timeline,” you can build an Active List of hot leads (Budget > $X, Timeline < 3 Months).
• Use that list to drive outreach or assign tasks automatically.

Project Feedback

• If you send surveys after completing a consulting project, create a list of those who responded vs. those who haven’t (based on form submission criteria).
• Send reminder emails only to people who haven’t filled out the feedback survey.

Client Subgroups

• If you’re using a custom “Subgroup” property (e.g., “Former Clients,” “Personal Friends,” etc.), you can create an Active List for each subgroup.
• Whenever you change a contact’s Subgroup property, HubSpot automatically updates the relevant list membership.

Using Lists with Other HubSpot Tools

Workflows

• Enroll contacts in a workflow if they’re on a particular list.
• For instance, if you have an “Active List” called “Warm Leads,” you can trigger a workflow that sends them a drip sequence or assigns a follow-up task.

Marketing Emails

• You can send email campaigns to your lists directly.
• Segment your recipients to ensure the right message gets to the right audience.

Ads Audiences

• If you integrate Facebook or Google Ads with HubSpot, you can sync an Active List to create a custom audience, then run remarketing or lookalike campaigns.

Reporting & Dashboards

• Monitor how large or small a particular segment is over time.
• Create reports showing changes in list size, average lead score, or email engagement.

Sales Sequences (Sales Hub Professional+)

• Similar to marketing emails, but for more one-to-one or personalized cadences.
• You can enroll a curated list of contacts in a sequence for outreach.

Best Practices & Tips

Name Lists Clearly

• Use descriptive names with dates or reference codes if needed. For example, “2025-02 West Coast Leads” or “Active Clients: No Contact > 60 Days.”
• Good naming conventions help keep your Lists folder organized—especially important as your consulting practice grows.

Limit Static Lists

• Overusing static lists can lead to data fragmentation (lots of small, one-off lists).
• Rely on active lists for most recurring segmentation. Create static lists only when you truly need a snapshot in time or a manual grouping.

Keep an Eye on Complexity

• Very detailed active lists (with many filter groups) can slow down your portal’s performance.
• If a list is taking too long to process, consider simplifying the logic or breaking it into multiple lists that feed one final list.

Combine with Custom Properties

• Use custom properties like “Subgroup,” “Stage in Consulting Cycle,” or “Project Type” to refine your lists.
• This keeps your data structured, making your lists more accurate.

Review and Clean Up

• Periodically check older lists and delete or archive what you no longer need.
• This prevents confusion and clutter in your lists dashboard.

Be Mindful of Privacy & GDPR

• If you have contacts from various regions, ensure you have their consent to be on marketing lists.
• HubSpot’s email tool automatically excludes unsubscribed contacts, but it’s good to confirm compliance with relevant privacy laws.