While LinkedIn Sales Navigator is strengthening its position in sales and account management ranks, HubSpot is positioning itself as a front-runner for B2B CRM Market for SMEs. Integration of these tools can create a strategic advantage and the article will thoroughly discuss this integration covering these aspects: HubSpot: A CRM, Sales, Marketing, and Service platform used by more than 100K teams across the world. HubSpot tools range from lead generation, lead nurturing and management, lead funnel management and closing, customer support, website development, and sales and marketing automation. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: A paid subscription within LinkedIn (professional social network) being used by most salespersons and sales leaders to generate, nurture, and engage leads and prospects. Teams of different sizes and geographics can have different use cases. Some use LinkedIn recommend options of InMails while some rely on network building and outreach. Here are the common use cases of the Integration between HubSpot and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. After doing the integration, LinkedIn Insights can be viewed at the contact or company level by the sales team which can help them in having a better picture of their prospect and they can make well-informed decisions. The following types of insights are commonly provided:HubSpot LinkedIn Integration for Sales: An Introduction
Why does HubSpot and LinkedIn Sales Navigator need Integration?
View Insights
Image Source: HubSpot
InMails
InMail is LinkedIn recommended and safest option to connect with unknown prospects and try to engage with them. Many companies used to leverage InMails for their outreach, lead generation, or account-based marketing strategy. With HubSpot and Sales Navigator Integration, we can:
- Send InMails directly from HubSpot
- See conversation history related to InMails in popup
- InMails related tasks can be created using HubSpot sequences too
- InMails tasks can be managed over Mobile App easily which will redirect to the specific InMail option.
Image Source: HubSpot
List Building in Sales Navigator
Teams working in Sales Navigator by LinkedIn for lead generation and nurturing used to create several lists based on lifecycle stage or other criteria so they can easily segment them in LinkedIn and target them accordingly. Lists can be leads, MQLs, SQLs, San Fransisco FinTech Startups, etc.
We can build lists in Sales Navigator by using the button "Save in Sales navigator".
Image Source: HubSpot
Contacts Sync
Syncing of contacts from one system to other is an ideal case but data-sync from LinkedIn to HubSpot is mostly researched or requested as people want their researched prospects from Linkedin to be converted into the lead in HubSpot automatically so they can do the multi-touch outreach and engagement with those leads.
Image Source: LinkedHub
Data Enrichment
The probability of conversion of a lead increases significantly when sales agents have enriched data including email, phone number, and other social data points. Some integrations are available in the market to help in enriching the leads data and consequently making it easier for the sales teams to do effective outreach.
Image Source: LinkedHub
Messages Sync
One of the most useful features teams are looking for is the syncing of LinkedIn messages as timeline activity with HubSpot. Many companies do lead generation via LinkedIn especially using third-party teams and they want the conversations from LinkedIn into HubSpot to take the lead forward without looking into LinkedIn again.
Image Source: Dux-Soup
Native HS-LI Integration (Why, Why Not, How, etc.)
Features and Limitations
HubSpot direct integration is quite good when you are using integration for insights and InMails but if you are doing prospecting and communication via LinkedIn Sales Navigator, native integration will have many limitations. The following table explains the feature and limitations of the native integrations.
| Insights (Contacts and Companies) | |
| InMails | |
| List Building | |
| Contact Sync | |
| Data Enrichment | |
| Messages Sync |
Native integration only works if you have a team plan in Sales Navigator and sales professional in HubSpot and that's why we added several third-party options below.
How to Setup Direct HubSpot and LinkedIn Integration
1. Go to App Marketplace
2. Search "Sales Navigator" and choose "LinkedIn Sales Navigator" in the search result. Please note that "LinkedIn" and "LinkedIn Ads" are different integrations and are not needed here.
3. Click on the "Install App" button on the top-right side and connect to LinkedIn. The app will be installed.
Third-Party Options for HubSpot Integration with LinkedIn
We have plenty of options for third-party integrations. A few common ones are provided below:
LinkedHub: It's one of the best integration for getting leads data into HubSpot from LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides a chrome extension and with a click, you can get lead data. LinkedIn can also help in syncing conversations. Pricing starts at $30 per month
Dux-Soup: A leading LinkedIn prospecting and outreach automation tool is also providing Integrations with HubSpot so it can populate contact data into HubSpot and also sync the conversations as timeline events creating a sweet-selling spot for their integration.
Leadfuze: Leadfuze isn't providing integration between HubSpot and LinkedIn but it can be an effective tool in the overall integration experience. You can use Leadfuze to enrich data into HubSpot by getting the data points like email and phone numbers using social profiles. Unfortunately, it can't be connected directly but Zapier or other similar options can do the job for us.
Hubris: A chrome extension that can empower LinkedIn Sales Navigator usage for HubSpot users by importing all data to HubSpot, syncing conversations from LinkedIn to HubSpot, and showing HubSpot data and records into LinkedIn so team whole who is in discussion and who is already a client.
Phantombustor: Phantombustor is providing recipes for the integration of various systems and for HubSpot and LinkedIn, it's providing an enrichment option that you can use by connecting HubSpot with Phantombustor.
Leadjet: One of the best integration for LinkedIn and HubSpot because of its features and availability on the HubSpot marketplace. Leadjet can sync the data, enrich data, and can also sync conversations from LinkedIn to HubSpot. Additionally, it can also sync various datapoint from Hubspot to LinkedIn.
The table compares the companies and baseline features. Please note some companies are also providing some additional features which can be checked on the individual websites.
| Tool Name | Contact Sync | Data Enrichment | Messages Sync |
| LinkedHub | |||
| Dux-Soup | |||
| Leadfuze | |||
| Hubris | |||
| Phantombustor | |||
| LeadJet |
Conclusion
Native/Direction integration and Third-party integrations are not an alternative to each other because of their different features as evident from the comparison below. Provided table will give a snapshot of two options.
Direct/ Native Integration | Third-party Integration |
Provide insights about contacts and companies | Can provide some information but don't cover the extent HubSpot do |
InMails sending and task automation | Not available :( |
List Building tools are available | List building can also be managed in third-party tools |
No Sync or import is provided in direct integration for leads | Plenty of options available to sync leads with HubSpot |
HubSpot don't enrich contact or company data related to this integration | Many enrichment options are available |
Messages are not synced | Messages can be synced from LinkedIn to HubSpot |
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Team plan is only compatible and HubSpot Sales Professional is required for a few options | Can be managed with a free or Individual LinkedIn sales navigator plan |
Don't need additional costs apart from the licenses from HubSpot and LinkedIn | Additional costs are associated based on the tool and plan you purchase |
It's an official integration and doesn't have profile safety issues. | Not all options are endorsed by LinkedIn and can cause safety issues with LinkedIn profiles. |
