Creating a Connected Membership, Marketing and Commercial CRM in HubSpot

Written By Steven Taylor

At a glance

Organisation: World Commerce & Contracting
Sector: Global professional membership association
Project: Membership, engagement and commercial data integration into HubSpot
Scope: Discovery, data modelling, transformation, migration, testing, daily imports, reporting and process improvement
Data included: Contacts, organisations, memberships, events, learning, certifications, engagement scores and commercial opportunities

The need

World Commerce & Contracting wanted to improve how it communicated with members, guests and prospective members.

The organisation had a significant volume of membership and engagement data within its membership CRM and other operational systems. However, much of this information was not available within HubSpot, limiting the marketing team’s ability to build accurate audiences, personalise communications and target campaigns based on an individual’s relationship and activity with WorldCC.

Marketing teams needed to understand more than a contact’s name and email address. They needed visibility of:

  • Whether the contact was a member, guest, prospect or former member

  • The organisation the contact was associated with

  • Membership type, status and renewal information

  • Events the contact had registered for or attended

  • Learning programmes they had started or completed

  • Certifications and professional development activity

  • Their overall level of engagement with WorldCC

  • The topics, products and activities in which they had shown an interest

Bringing this information into HubSpot would allow WorldCC to move away from broad, manually prepared mailing lists and create more relevant, targeted campaigns.

The organisation wanted to use the connected data to support:

  • Guest to member conversion

  • Member renewal and retention

  • Re-engagement of inactive members

  • Increased event and webinar registrations

  • Promotion of relevant learning and certification products

  • More personalised member communications

  • Identification of prospective commercial opportunities

  • Better management of organisational accounts and relationships

  • More up to date information on their members

HubSpot had also been selected to support commercial activity, including deal tracking, opportunity management and collaboration between global and regional teams.

To realise these benefits, WorldCC needed to bring data from its membership CRM into HubSpot in a structured, accurate and repeatable way.

The challenge

Membership data is more complex than standard marketing contact data.

WorldCC managed individual members, organisational members, guests, prospects, former members, event participants, learners, certification holders and commercial contacts.

A single person could have several different relationships with the organisation and could engage across several platforms. Organisations could also contain numerous contacts, membership arrangements, event participants, learners and commercial opportunities.

The project needed to:

  • Identify which membership and engagement information was relevant to marketing

  • Map data from the membership CRM into HubSpot

  • Preserve relationships between individual contacts and organisations

  • Create new HubSpot properties where suitable fields did not exist

  • Transform source data into formats HubSpot could use

  • Establish consistent membership statuses, categories and definitions

  • Support accurate marketing segmentation

  • Prevent unnecessary duplication of records

  • Create a repeatable daily import process

  • Expand HubSpot beyond contact data to include events, learning and certifications

  • Incorporate engagement scoring into marketing audiences

  • Support deal tracking and organisational account management

  • Give regional teams a shared view of contacts, activity and opportunities

The solution

Memberlytics led the data, modelling and migration elements of the HubSpot implementation.

The solution built upon the Common Data Model previously created for WorldCC.

This provided a trusted and consistent structure through which data from the membership CRM and other systems could be standardised, transformed and prepared before being imported into HubSpot.

The project was delivered across several stages.

Discovery and requirements

The first stage focused on understanding how marketing, membership, commercial and regional teams intended to use HubSpot.

The work included identifying:

  • The audiences marketing needed to reach

  • The campaigns and customer journeys the data needed to support

  • The membership information required within HubSpot

  • How members, guests, prospects and former members should be distinguished

  • Which engagement behaviours were important for targeting

  • How event, learning and certification activity should be represented

  • How contacts should be connected to their organisations

  • Which system would remain the source of truth for each data item

  • How commercial opportunities and deals would be managed

  • How account and regional ownership should be represented

  • What reporting would be required after implementation

This ensured that the migration was designed around practical marketing, membership and commercial outcomes rather than simply copying every available CRM field into HubSpot.

Data modelling and field mapping

The existing WorldCC Common Data Model created by Memberlytics was used as the foundation for the HubSpot structure.

Relevant fields were identified and mapped between the membership CRM and HubSpot. Where HubSpot did not contain a suitable standard field, new custom properties were specified and created.

The mapping process included:

  • Reviewing source fields, values and definitions

  • Selecting data needed for campaign targeting and segmentation

  • Mapping fields to existing HubSpot properties

  • Defining new custom properties

  • Standardising property names, descriptions and values

  • Mapping contacts to their associated organisations

  • Defining membership status, type and lifecycle information

  • Incorporating renewal and engagement information

  • Identifying account owners and regional responsibilities

  • Documenting transformation and import rules

  • Establishing the source of truth for each field

Close collaboration with the HubSpot implementation team was an important part of the project.

Data transformation and migration preparation

Data from the source systems could not always be loaded directly into HubSpot.

Transformation rules were created to convert source values into consistent, usable HubSpot properties.

This included:

  • Standardising membership types and statuses

  • Converting legacy values into agreed HubSpot values

  • Formatting dates and other data types

  • Managing blank, invalid and inconsistent records

  • Preparing contact to company relationships

  • Distinguishing members, guests, prospects and former members

  • Creating fields required for segmentation

  • Deriving engagement and lifecycle information

  • Assigning account and regional ownership

  • Validating identifiers used to update existing records

A detailed import mapping file was then created.

This documented the relationship between each source field and its destination in HubSpot, together with the transformations, definitions and rules required for migration.

Testing and validation

The data model and migration process were tested before production imports began.

Test files were created and imported into HubSpot to confirm that:

  • Fields were mapped correctly

  • Transformations produced the expected values

  • Contacts were connected to the correct organisations

  • Membership statuses were represented accurately

  • Existing contacts were updated rather than duplicated

  • New HubSpot properties worked correctly

  • Engagement fields could be used in active lists and workflows

  • Contacts could be segmented for marketing campaigns

  • Account and regional ownership was assigned correctly

  • Event, learning and certification records were connected to the correct contacts

The imported data was reconciled against the source systems, with errors and inconsistencies investigated before the live process was introduced.

Daily data imports

Following testing, responsibility was taken for the production data imports into HubSpot.

These imports ran daily, ensuring that marketing, membership, commercial and regional teams had access to current information without relying on manually prepared spreadsheets or one-off extracts.

The daily process included:

  • Extracting data from WorldCC’s central data environment

  • Applying the agreed transformation rules

  • Producing HubSpot compatible import files

  • Updating existing contacts and organisations

  • Importing new records

  • Maintaining contact and company relationships

  • Updating membership, engagement and ownership information

  • Validating import results and record counts

  • Investigating failed or rejected records

This created a reliable connection between WorldCC’s membership systems and HubSpot.

Expanding HubSpot beyond contact data

The initial migration focused on contacts, organisations and membership information.

The solution was then expanded to include:

  • Event registrations and attendance

  • Learning enrolments and completions

  • Certification and professional development activity

These datasets required the creation of new custom objects within HubSpot.

Each new object followed the same structured process:

  • Understanding the business and marketing requirements

  • Designing the object and its properties

  • Mapping fields from the Common Data Model

  • Defining transformation rules

  • Associating activity with the relevant contact

  • Creating import mapping documentation

  • Testing the data and relationships

  • Introducing repeatable production imports

This gave marketing teams a much richer understanding of each contact’s interests and behaviour.

Improving marketing segmentation

The connected data significantly improved the audiences that could be created within HubSpot.

Marketing lists could now be built using combinations of membership, organisational and behavioural information rather than relying on broad categories or manually maintained spreadsheets.

Audiences could be segmented by:

  • Member, guest, prospect or former-member status

  • Individual or organisational membership

  • Membership category

  • Renewal date or renewal period

  • Geographic region

  • Organisation or account

  • Event registration and attendance

  • Webinar interest and participation

  • Learning enrolment or completion

  • Certification status

  • Engagement level

  • Recent activity

  • Reduced or declining activity

  • Product or topic interest

This enabled campaigns to be more relevant to the individual receiving them.

Instead of sending the same message to a large mixed audience, WorldCC could tailor its communications according to the contact’s status, interests, activity and relationship with the organisation.


Supporting more effective email campaigns

The improved segmentation provided stronger foundations for improving email performance.

More accurate targeting reduced the need to send irrelevant communications to contacts who were unlikely to be interested in a particular campaign.

For example, marketing teams could:

  • Promote webinars to contacts who had engaged with similar topics

  • Exclude people who had already registered from further registration emails

  • Send different messages to attendees and non-attendees

  • Follow up with attendees using relevant learning or membership opportunities

  • Promote advanced learning to contacts who had completed introductory programmes

  • Target certification campaigns at eligible members

  • Send renewal communications based on membership status and engagement

  • Re-engage members whose activity had declined

  • Create specific conversion journeys for active guests

  • Tailor messaging by region, organisation or membership type

This gave WorldCC the ability to create smaller, more relevant audiences, helping campaigns achieve stronger engagement and creating better opportunities to improve email click-through and conversion rates.

Increasing webinar and event registration opportunities

Connecting event data to HubSpot created new opportunities to promote webinars and events more effectively.

Marketing teams could identify contacts who had:

  • Previously registered for related webinars

  • Attended events on a particular topic

  • Registered but not attended

  • Engaged with associated learning content

  • Demonstrated an interest in a specific subject area

  • Attended several free activities but had not yet become members

This allowed WorldCC to create more focused webinar campaigns rather than promoting every event to the same general audience.

It also supported more effective follow up activity.

For example:

  • Registrants could receive reminders before an event

  • Non-attendees could receive access to recordings or future sessions

  • Attendees could be offered related learning or certification products

  • Engaged guests could enter a membership conversion journey

  • Members could be directed towards their next relevant activity

By connecting pre-event promotion, attendance and post-event follow up, HubSpot could support the full engagement journey rather than treating each webinar as a standalone campaign.

Supporting guest conversion

One of the primary marketing objectives was to improve the conversion of guests into members.

Previously, it could be difficult to distinguish between a guest with limited interaction and one who had repeatedly attended events, completed learning or engaged with several WorldCC activities.

The combined HubSpot data made these differences more visible.

Marketing teams could identify guests who:

  • Registered for several webinars

  • Attended events regularly

  • Completed learning activities

  • Held relevant certifications

  • Engaged with multiple areas of WorldCC

  • Demonstrated sustained activity over time

These contacts could then be prioritised for targeted membership campaigns.

Campaigns could reflect the activities and topics with which the guest had already engaged, helping WorldCC communicate a more relevant membership proposition.

Applying Member Engagement Scoring

WorldCC’s Member Engagement Scoring model was incorporated into the HubSpot data structure.

The model combined behaviour across events, learning and other activities to provide a clearer view of each contact’s engagement.

Scores and engagement segments could be used within HubSpot to identify:

  • Highly engaged members

  • Consistently active members

  • Members with declining engagement

  • Unengaged members

  • Members approaching renewal

  • Members considered at risk

  • Highly engaged guests

  • Guests showing signs of conversion potential

  • Contacts interested in particular products or topics

This allowed marketing to move beyond membership status and target audiences according to what people were actually doing.

It also supported more timely interventions. For example, a member approaching renewal with declining engagement could receive a different campaign from a highly engaged member approaching the same renewal date.

Supporting renewal and retention campaigns

The combination of membership and engagement data provided a stronger foundation for renewal communications.

Marketing and membership teams could distinguish between:

  • Highly engaged members approaching renewal

  • Members whose engagement had recently declined

  • Members with little or no recent activity

  • Members engaging heavily with one particular service

  • Organisational members with varying levels of participation

This allowed renewal campaigns to be tailored according to the member’s circumstances.

Highly engaged members could be reminded of the value they had received, while less-engaged members could be directed towards relevant services, events or learning before their renewal date.

The data also allowed teams to identify potential retention risks earlier, creating opportunities to intervene before the renewal decision had already been made.

Supporting commercial teams

The connected data model also improved how commercial teams managed opportunities and organisational accounts.

By combining membership, organisational and engagement information with HubSpot’s deal-management capabilities, teams could:

  • Create and manage commercial opportunities

  • Track deals through agreed pipeline stages

  • Record values, next steps and expected close dates

  • Identify key contacts and decision-makers

  • Review engagement before approaching an organisation

  • Identify organisations with strong engagement but limited commercial relationships

  • Recognise cross-sell and account-development opportunities

  • Maintain a shared history of account activity

  • Improve forecasting and pipeline reporting

  • Prioritise leads using membership and engagement information

Commercial teams gained a more complete understanding of the organisation behind each opportunity rather than relying only on individual contacts or isolated deal records. This was used to incorporate forecasting into a Profit & Loss dashboard built by Memberlytics.

Improving account relationships

HubSpot provided a shared view of the relationship between WorldCC and each organisation.

Teams could review:

  • Key contacts

  • Membership arrangements

  • Event participation

  • Learning activity

  • Certification activity

  • Engagement levels

  • Marketing interactions

  • Current opportunities

  • Previous conversations and activity

This helped account owners enter conversations with better information and identify where relationships could be strengthened.

It also reduced the reliance on knowledge held by individual employees, allowing important account context to be shared across teams.

Enabling regional collaboration

The HubSpot structure helped WorldCC’s regional teams work more effectively together.

Contacts, organisations, account ownership, engagement and opportunities could be viewed within a shared platform rather than being maintained in separate regional spreadsheets or individual records.

Regional teams could:

  • See organisations and contacts active within their region

  • Understand previous activity and relationship history

  • Coordinate communications and account activity

  • Reduce duplicated or conflicting outreach

  • Share information with marketing, membership and commercial teams

  • Assign clearer ownership and responsibility

  • Identify regional engagement and commercial opportunities

  • Use consistent data and reporting across the organisation

This supported a more coordinated approach to global member and customer relationships.

The results

The project established a connected membership, marketing and commercial capability within HubSpot.

Key outcomes included:

  • A reliable daily flow of membership and engagement data into HubSpot

  • A structured HubSpot model built upon WorldCC’s Common Data Model

  • Clearer identification of members, guests, prospects and former members

  • More accurate and detailed marketing audiences

  • Reduced reliance on manually created mailing lists

  • More personalised and relevant member communications

  • Better targeting of webinars, events, learning and certification campaigns

  • Improved opportunities to increase email engagement and click-through rates

  • More effective pre-event promotion and post-event follow-up

  • Better identification of active guests with membership conversion potential

  • Stronger support for member renewal and retention campaigns

  • Engagement scoring available directly within marketing segmentation

  • Earlier identification of disengaged and potentially at-risk members

  • Event, learning and certification activity available alongside contact data

  • A shared environment for managing deals and commercial opportunities

  • Improved organisational account management

  • Greater visibility of prospective leads and account-development opportunities

  • Better collaboration between marketing, membership, commercial and regional teams

  • Reduced duplication of outreach and account activity

  • Improved consistency in data ownership, definitions and reporting

The wider impact

The project transformed HubSpot from a standalone email and marketing database into a platform connected to WorldCC’s wider membership and engagement ecosystem.

Marketing teams gained the ability to create more accurate audiences, send more relevant communications and build campaigns around actual member and guest behaviour.

Webinars and events could be promoted to contacts with a demonstrated interest, while registrations and attendance could be used to drive relevant follow-up journeys.

Guest conversion campaigns could focus on people who had already demonstrated meaningful engagement. Renewal and retention activity could reflect both membership status and changes in behaviour.

Commercial teams could track deals and develop organisational relationships using richer account information, while regional teams could coordinate activity through a shared view of contacts, engagement and opportunities.

The project was therefore not simply a data migration. It created the foundations for better marketing performance, improved guest conversion, increased event participation, stronger member retention and more coordinated commercial and regional working.

Steven Taylor