HubSpot offers a unique suite of tools that allow you to segment your contacts and communicate effectively with prospects and clients. With so many tools available to achieve this goal, it can sometimes be a bit confusing to figure out which is best for the job. One of the most common questions that HubSpot users have is whether to use filter views or lists to achieve certain tasks.
Throughout this blog, we'll get into the most common and effective use cases for each of these tools.
What are HubSpot Lists?
Lists are a collection of contacts or companies that meet some set criteria. Generally speaking, lists are valuable because they allow you to segment your contacts better and send out marketing communications to a specific audience that you've determined will find value in your offering. The way that each list functions depends on the criteria you set, as well as the type of list that it is. Regardless of the list type or criteria, the primary use of lists is to send marketing emails to its members.
Static Lists: These are lists that don't change without intentional actions. Though this list can be populated automatically based on set criteria such as region or lead status, members of the list will not fall off if they no longer meet those original criteria. By default, static lists show a group that meets the set criteria at the time that the list was created. To add or remove contacts from a static list, you can do so manually or use workflow automation to put contacts on or pull contacts off.
Active Lists: These lists keep track of contacts that meet certain set criteria based on property values or other characteristics. The main difference between these and static lists is that active list membership will change automatically over time as some contacts become ineligible and others become eligible. Due to this functionality, list membership is set by the logic you've applied to its enrollment filters alone, and therefore, it cannot be changed directly.
Suppression Lists: These specialized lists identify contacts you want to exclude from specific marketing communications. Suppression lists can be used alongside your target lists when sending emails to ensure certain segments don't receive particular communications.
What Are Filter Views in HubSpot?
Filter views allow you to create a dashboard of contacts, companies, deals, or tickets showing how many records under each meet certain criteria you set. The criteria can reflect properties, list membership, activities, or other characteristics. You can also set filter views that are specific to you, your team, or your whole organization.
Filter views support advanced filtering options including and/or logic, negative filters (does not contain/is not equal to), and date-based relative filters (such as "in the last X days").
When to Use HubSpot Lists vs. HubSpot Filter Views
In your HubSpot portal, you have a limited number of both lists and filter views, so it's important to be intentional about when to use each. Though each of these features can sometimes serve the same purpose, they also have distinct functionality.
Sending Emails: Any time you send an email, you should use a list of some kind, as you cannot choose to send to a filter view. On top of sending an email to a list, you can use a list to exclude certain contacts from receiving emails.
Validating Data: A filter view can serve you well when validating that specific contacts or companies have correct data. Simply input a filter view with relevant criteria and verify that all expected records are accounted for. Similarly, it's easy to edit an individual's property values from the filter view interface.
Automation Triggers: Lists (particularly active lists) can serve as enrollment triggers for workflows, while filter views cannot directly trigger automation.
Reporting: Filter views are ideal for quick visual assessments of your database, especially when paired with HubSpot's data visualization tools. They're excellent for identifying trends across properties without creating permanent segments.
Temporary Analysis: If you need to quickly analyze a segment of your database without creating a permanent list, filter views are ideal as they don't count against your list limits.
Bulk Actions: Both lists and filter views allow you to perform bulk actions, but filter views offer more flexibility for one-time operations since they don't require creating a permanent segment.
Contact Management Across Objects: Advanced filter views allow you to filter contacts based on related company, deal, or ticket properties, making them powerful for cross-object analysis.
Get Help With HubSpot Lists and Filter Views
In general, whenever you're trying to see a specific segment of your contacts to follow up individually or validate data, you'll want to proceed with filter views. Any time you'd like to communicate with a specific group of individuals, you'll want to utilize the list functionality in your portal.
Remember that filter views can be saved and shared with your team, making them valuable collaborative tools for consistent database management across your organization.
Have any additional questions after reading this blog? Reach out to our team of certified HubSpot consultants and trainers. They can answer anything and get you on the road to master lists and filter views.
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