When you're running outbound campaigns, you want to keep track of the total number of emails that you've sent and the conversion rate of those campaigns down the funnel.
In order to do this in HubSpot, we need to create an cross-object report that reports across contacts and activities.
In this article, we will show you how to build two reports and then review a dashboard that ties it all together. Take this guide and adapt it to build the exact report that you have in mind.
This is a long article, so let's start with a preview of where you will end up if you make it to the end.
Here's a sneak peek:
Create a new report
To create a new report, first, go to the Reporting section of the HubSpot menu and click Reports.
Then click the New Report button in the top corner:
Now, click the Custom Report Builder button.
Next, click Choose my own data sources:
Leave Contacts checked. Scroll down to check the box next to Activities, then click Next:
Setting report filters
First, we want to find any activity that's associated with OutboundSync. We're going to go to the Filter tab in your report and use Record source 1—specifically when it is equal to OutboundSync.
This is one of several ways to filter HubSpot contacts synced through OutboundSync. For more, read this knowledge base article:
https://knowledgebase.outboundsync.com/filtering-hubspot-contacts-synced-through-outboundsync
Next, we want to make sure we're only counting the email activities.
OutboundSync can also create tasks for users in your HubSpot portal, depending on your settings. Tasks are also a type of activity—and they can affect your data.
To be safe, we're going to filter for emails in this article. If you are sure you have not created tasks in the past and are not now, you could skip this step.
Under the data sources search bar, look for activity type, select Activity type and then check the box for contains all of Forwarded email.
OutboundSync uses this email type because it is the option that makes the most sense with HubSpot API. The email was forwarded to HubSpot through an API call, but the email itself was not forwarded to the user.
For our last filter step, let's add a time-based criteria so we can track the pace of our sending. In this case, we're going to select emails sent this month.
To do this, go to the Activities object, select Activity date, and add that as another filter where it is "This month".
Lastly, let's filter out all the replies. Do this by searching for text and adding that as a filter. Then, ensure the text has Never contained exactly and enter SENT MESSAGE: — just like that with a colon (:) on the end and no spaces.
This step is critical to ensure that you don't count replies in your sent email activity.
Configuring your report (bar chart)
Switch to the configure tab, search for Activity date, and drag/drop that in the X-axis:
Next, take search for the count of activities and drop that into the Y-axis:
Now, because of our sample data, this isn't a very interesting report! Let's change the time interval to weekly. Click the pencil icon next to Activity date - Monthly, and let's try changing that to Weekly.
Now this is more interesting! Try it yourself and make this look however helps you with managing your outbound process and seeing your overall sending volume.
Bonus: Creating a gauge chart
Let's say you have a certain volume you're trying to hit with your outreach. HubSpot has an additional chart type called a gauge chart that works great here.
We can build on everything we've done so far, and with some small modifications make an entirely new chart type.
To start, go to your reports and find the report we just created. Then, clone it.
Now that we've cloned our report, let's change the report type. Click the gauge icon to change the chart type to a gauge chart.
It should look like the image below. Now, it's a little plain looking, but don't worry. We will get to that in a moment.
Now it's time for the final step of making a nice gauge chart. Click Chart settings and configure to your heart's content. You can set the values, ranges, colors, etc. however you like. To add bands, click the + Add band button.
We have set low values here based on our test data. Coordinate with your internal team or agency to determine the appropriate bands for your chart.
Review your dashboard
If you did not add your reports to a dashboard yet, do so now. This is going to be the best way to visualize your data and share it with stakeholders on your team.
Now, let's head to our dashboard and see our two new reports next to each other. We've stacked them horizontally next to each other.
These two reports tell us two different things.
First, the gauge chart show us what our sending volume is for the month—relative to a target we're trying to hit. This is a great quick reference. Especially as we consider our sending capacity, data budget, and sales performance.
Next, the bar chart shows us the breakdown by week. The weekly breakdown gives a sense of momentum, sending distribution, and lets us know if we need to increase sending to hit our goal. These are insights about our outbound process.
What would you do differently?
Let us know!