{"id":194928,"date":"2025-04-20T15:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/marketing\/the-right-way-to-manage-duplicate-contacts-in-hubspot-expert-tips\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T15:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:45:17","slug":"the-right-way-to-manage-duplicate-contacts-in-hubspot-expert-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=194928","title":{"rendered":"The Right Way to Manage Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot (Expert Tips)"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Managing duplicate contacts in HubSpot<\/strong> (and duplicate companies)<\/strong> can be a headache: it clutters your CRM, leading to confusion or tying up your resources on redundant work. While you can\u2019t avoid duplicates entirely (if only), you can mitigate this. However, if they keep showing up, something\u2019s off\u2014either in your HubSpot setup or how your team is entering data.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Whether you’re dealing with a single duplicate HubSpot contact or trying to clean up a lot of duplicate records all at once, understanding how to prevent and fix these issues will keep your database accurate and your team more efficient.<\/span><\/p>\n

So you have a bunch of duplicate contacts and\/or duplicate companies in your HubSpot instance. What should you do? Today we\u2019re going to answer everything you might want to know about managing duplicate records in HubSpot.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does HubSpot handle duplicate contacts?<\/span><\/h2>\n

HubSpot has a few practices in place to handle duplicate contacts. HubSpot will typically reach out about twice a month to let you know you\u2019ve got duplicate contacts that someone will need to go in and merge. <\/span><\/p>\n

Example<\/span><\/strong>: If you try to create two contacts named “Ted Mosby” with the same email, HubSpot will let you know this record already exists, and prompt you to go to their contact page.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ted<\/span><\/p>\n

Example 2<\/span><\/strong>: Similarly, if you add \u201cMike Wazowski\u201d without<\/em> an email, then later add him again with<\/em> an email\u2014HubSpot will flag this for review.<\/span><\/p>\n

Example 3<\/span><\/strong>: If \u201cLuna Lovegood\u201d appears twice in your CRM with the same email but slightly different spellings (e.g., “Luna” vs. “Lunna”), HubSpot will also prompt you to merge them.<\/span><\/p>\n

To minimize the amount of duplicates you have, HubSpot relies on email addresses and user tokens, which is why you should always add an email address to a new contact. If you add a new contact without an email, HubSpot won\u2019t catch a duplicate.<\/span><\/p>\n

To mitigate issues, you cannot create multiple contacts with the same email, no matter what. HubSpot won\u2019t let you create this manually.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do I find duplicate contacts in HubSpot?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"how<\/span><\/p>\n

If your CRM is cluttered, use HubSpot\u2019s built-in tools to clean it up. To check for duplicate contacts<\/strong>, go to Contacts > Actions > Manage duplicates<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you suspect duplicates but HubSpot hasn\u2019t flagged them, manually searching a name may show two records with the same company but different emails, helping you merge them.<\/span><\/p>\n

To find duplicate companies<\/strong> in HubSpot, follow the same steps under the Companies tab.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you merge duplicates in HubSpot? Individual method<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whether you want to merge duplicate contacts<\/strong> or merge duplicate companies<\/strong> in HubSpot, the process is similar. Let\u2019s say you found a duplicate record that HubSpot didn\u2019t flag yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

To merge individual records:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"merge<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Navigate to the primary<\/strong> contact or company, and click Actions > Merge<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. In the popup, search the name of any duplicates (it might be a misspelled name or different phone number for instance). These will be added into the primary contact\/company<\/em>, i.e. the page you\u2019re on.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Click Merge to combine them!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    HubSpot Quick Guide to Merging Contacts and Companies<\/a><\/p>\n

    But how to merge your HubSpot contacts\/companies in bulk<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

    If you\u2019re on Operations Hub (Professional & Enterprise), you can manage duplicates more easily with bulk merging<\/strong> in the <\/span>duplicate management tool<\/a><\/a>,<\/strong> and automatic duplicate merging<\/strong> based on specific properties with custom coded workflow actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For Professional<\/em> and Enterprise<\/em> users, HubSpot offers a duplicate management tool<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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    1. Navigate to Contacts or Companies<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Click Actions > Manage duplicates (the same process as finding them)<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. The table shows you side-by-side duplicates. Review the potential duplicate pairs identified by HubSpot’s AI, which compares properties like name, email, and phone number.<\/span>
      \"customize<\/li>\n
    4. Merge or reject duplicates as needed using the buttons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Remember, if you want to combine duplicate companies in HubSpot, it\u2019s the same process as merging duplicate contacts!<\/span><\/p>\n

      Heads up<\/span><\/strong>: once you merge records, you cannot unmerge them, so make sure you\u2019re selecting the right ones!<\/span><\/p>\n

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      \n \"\u00a0Improve
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      Automatically deduplicate contacts in HubSpot: Is that possible?<\/span><\/h2>\n

      \u200bHubSpot doesn’t yet offer fully automated deduplication within its native features, but there are workarounds. You can also check out the best practices below to minimize how often you need to deduplicate contacts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      To automatically deduplicate contacts, HubSpot’s Operations Hub allows for custom coding solutions to manage duplicates, such as scheduling deduplication. This is a bit more advanced \u2013 you can set up a workflow that triggers on record creation, uses a unique identifier (like email), and runs a custom code action to detect and merge duplicates.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"workflow<\/p>\n

      The first method requires coding and API knowledge, so you might consider integrating third-party tools like <\/span>Insycle<\/a><\/a> or <\/span>Koalify<\/a>, which can identify and merge duplicates based on custom rules and schedules. <\/span>\u00a0\"koalify<\/span><\/p>\n

      Wait \u2013 one of my contacts said they\u2019re getting the same email twice. Is that a duplicate? <\/span><\/h2>\n

      Short answer is no. HubSpot automatically deduplicates contacts based on email addresses to prevent sending duplicate emails. However, if contacts receive the same email twice<\/strong>, this means you should review your workflows and list segmentations to ensure they’re not triggering multiple sends to the same recipient. \u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

      For instance, if a lead is in both a welcome sequence<\/strong> and a product update campaign<\/strong>, they might get the same message from both. Similarly, If “Mark Scout” is tagged as both a prospect<\/strong> and a customer<\/strong>, and you send a mass email to both lists, he\u2019ll receive two copies.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Alternatively, sometimes contacts use variations of their email, such as through email aliases (like those offered by Apple or Proton Pass), or add extensions to it (e.g. jimothy+test@email.com will send emails to jimothy@email.com despite being different addresses.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      How to avoid duplicates and manage duplicates going forward (so you\u2019re not constantly merging records)<\/span><\/h2>\n

      While you can do a one time fix, database health (and your sanity) needs a system. You should have a system for regularly reviewing and merging duplicate records, using HubSpot\u2019s duplicate management tool.<\/span><\/p>\n

      6 suggestions to keep duplicates at bay:<\/h3>\n