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OutboundSync Help Center

Let's review exactly which properties that OutboundSync is creating or updating based on campaign activity.

Properties will be broken into two main categories in this article: default properties and custom properties. Within that, we will have object-specific properties for companies or contacts. 

The purpose of this article is to define the properties themselves. 

By default, Contact search is done using the contacts' email address as the unique identifier. If a contact already exists and the fields have values, OutboundSync will not overwrite them. HubSpot's existing values will be left as-is.

Here are the default contact properties that OutboundSync interacts with, including: name, email address, website, and HubSpot owner ID. 

If the webhook settings checkbox in OutboundSync has 

 enabled, then OutboundSync will create or update companies. 

By default, company search is done using the companies' domain as the unique identifier.

If a company already exists, OutboundSync will not overwrite that property. HubSpot's existing values will be left as-is.

Here are the default company properties that OutboundSync interacts with, including: domain. 

OutboundSync requires that the user who creates the webhook has permission to create custom contact properties. Without these permissions, the application cannot perform this action.

OutboundSync also has an option to create custom contact properties. These properties serve to make your campaign data easily available in HubSpot for lists, views, workflows, and more.

In general, it is highly recommended that you enable these properties as they unlock significantly more usability of your outbound data inside of HubSpot. 

Which HubSpot properties are updated

When OutboundSync syncs events to your HubSpot portal, it follows a specific logical flow. There are several factors that affect whether the data syncs, and if it does, which data syncs.

The purpose of this article is to provide a visual layout and explanation of the process.

If you want to better understand the default and custom properties in HubSpot, including a full breakdown by property label, name, and type, 

Prior to an event occurring in your Sales Engagement Platform, the following need to be in-place:

Your OutboundSync account is created and active.

A webhook receiver has been created and configured in OutboundSync.

Webhook is  enabled in your Sales Engagement Platform

With all that in-place, a webhook event occurs. Let’s walk through it.

This workflow represents how OutboundSync processes inbound webhook events from Sales Engagement Platforms, validates data, and synchronizes it with HubSpot. 

The process ensures that only relevant and properly categorized data is stored and updated while maintaining compliance with permissions, category filters, and contact property configurations.

 (e.g., Smartlead, EmailBison, Instantly).

 If no webhook is received, the system checks for misconfigurations.

 Before proceeding, OutboundSync verifies whether it has 

 Determines whether the event type is supported.

 If the event passes the event type check, it is evaluated against 

Match Found or N/A → Proceed with Stored Payloads:

 (or if filtering is not applicable), OutboundSync processes all stored payloads for the contact.

 OutboundSync checks if the contact already exists in the CRM:

 OutboundSync sets core contact information (email, website, first name, last name).

 If custom properties are enabled, OutboundSync updates relevant fields with 

, and all updates are logged in OutboundSync.

Ensures only permitted, categorized events are processed.

Implements category-based filtering to manage relevant events.

Handles CRM permissions and property/field creation dynamically.

Prevents sync failures by enforcing property limits.

Logs all activity to provide full visibility into the sync process.

How webhook payloads are processed

With OutboundSync, you can use subscription types in HubSpot to indicate contacts that will not receive further cold outreach from your team—and update them in your sales engagement platform.

Subscription types are available with the following plans:

- Marketing Hub Starter, Professional, Enterprise
- CMS Hub Professional, Enterprise
- Legacy Marketing Hub Basic

To create and manage an email subscription type, follow these steps:

 Go to your HubSpot account and click on the 

Provide a name and a brief description of how you intend to use this 

You want to select descriptive name that you are also comfortable with your prospects seeing when they go to update their own subscription preferences when hearing from your company. 

Examples of potential names you could use are 

If you have enabled data privacy settings, you can configure the subscription type to explain to subscribers how and why you will be contacting them.

 from the Purpose of Subscription dropdown menu. This purpose should align with the nature of the emails you plan to send to subscribers. For more information on common subscription types, visit the HubSpot marketing blog.

Select a method of communication from the 

 dropdown menu for how you will contact subscribers.

, they will see the purpose and method of communication first, followed by its name and description. You can preview how your subscription type will appear.

Use the different subscription types in your email communication.

In the right panel, enter the list's details:

In the left panel, set the criteria for the contacts with that specific subscription type

Once you have made your decision, you have the option to choose either all of your subscription types or select specific ones.

To illustrate, let's say we want to include in our list all contacts who have specifically subscribed to our 

. We can then utilize this list of contacts (who are most likely customers) as a block list on OutboundSync. This means that we do not want to send any emails to the contacts/customers on that list.

Syncing subscription status with a workflow

To tie it all together, if you want to take every unsubscribe event webhook from OutboundSync and use that to update your blocklist, you can do it with HubSpot workflows. 

The workflow below has a trigger event of 

. It's looking specifically for when an unsubscribe timeline event event is received from your Sales Engagement Platform via OutboundSync.  

When this event occurs, the contact will be enrolled in this workflow.

HubSpot will then add them to this new subscription type. So any unsubscribes will be added here. And on a rolling basis, they will be added to your blocklist.

The beauty of this approach is that it ensures that both your Sales Engagement Platform and HubSpot are in sync. So if you are doing prospecting from either platform, they're on the same page.

Using subscription types for outbound

With OutboundSync, you can designate any HubSpot list as a blocklist. Blocklists or exclusion lists help ensure that cold emails are not sent to existing customers, competitors, open deals, or contacts on Do Not Contact lists.

This method allows OutboundSync to identify emails associated with each contact in your selected list and exclude it from future outbound email.  This also works both at the individual contact level or at the company domain level. 

If contacts have multiple emails in HubSpot, OutboundSync will block all associated emails in their contact record by default.

If you don’t have a blocklist built yet, let's create one now. Otherwise, skip ahead.

Need inspiration? Popular examples include lists for newsletter subscribers, open deals, and active clients.

Build a new list in HubSpot by going to 

For this you can either create a list that is 

After creating a list with the desired criteria to add contacts or companies to an exclusion list, you can use it in OutboundSync for blocking.

Pulling your block list into OutboundSync

Now that you have created your list in your CRM, we need to pull that list into OutboundSync to start dynamically updating it in your Sales Engagement Platform. For this, we'll need to return to OutboundSync.

Remember that the user performing these actions needs to have sufficient permissions. If the user cannot access this data in the CRM, their credential cannot be used by OutboundSync to perform this action.

Now, go to the OutboundSync app and go to the 

Search for the block list that you created. It can be either a contact list or company list in HubSpot.

Select the API key for the Sales Engagement Platform that you want to send to the block list. If you want to block this list on multiple platforms, create multiple lists. 

OutboundSync supports two types of blocking. You can block by address or by domain with the 

Blocks each email associated with a contact in Hubspot individually and adds it to the blocklist in your Sales Engagement Platform.

 doesn’t block all emails ending in @example; only John's email is blocked.

Blocks all emails associated with a contact’s domain and adds the domain to the blocklist in Smartlead.

If a contact had multiple email addresses, every domain would be blocked.

 Leading email providers (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) won’t be blocked as they are common. 

If you want to block these domains manually in your Sales Engagement Platform, download this CSV and import it directly. This would block you from emailing personal email addresses.

If you are using a Sales Engagement Platform that has specific client IDs like Smartlead, this is the step where you will select that Client ID to match the blocklist to that client. Others use dedicated workspaces where this will not be relevant.

 (6). You will see your blocklist appear in the table.

This takes time to execute. The larger your list, the more time it can take. Refresh your browser or come back later to see OutboundSync's progress updating your blocklist. 

Updating block lists from lists

Once you have successfully connected OutboundSync to your HubSpot portal, you may want to set up lead routing inside of HubSpot. 

Access your HubSpot portal and go to Workflows. In the following example, we will route all replies. However you can also route based on other criteria, such as:

These would allow you to route leads under more specific circumstances, like across a geographic territory, industry vertical, or type of campaign to include omnichannel outreach.

We're going to create a contact-based workflow to route the newly created contacts to the right person in your HubSpot account.

Click set up triggers and select filter criteria: 

Now, we need to trigger or initiate the workflow. Go to set up the triggers and select 

Select or search for OutboundSync triggers:

 Search for OutboundSync (or scroll down to integration filters).

 Typically the most useful workflow action uses the

 option, and you could select or search for 

(this means any time a reply occurs, we will trigger this workflow).

Close editor and save enrollment trigger: 

Now that we have this trigger defined, we need to close the editor and save it so it's applied.

Consider re-enrollment: You can have contacts be re-enrolled on subsequent triggers of the workflow itself. This may be useful for subsequent replies. It would not be as useful for workflows that apply to a contact once, like assigning a contact after an email is sent and assigned.

Once you have set your initial workflow filters, the next step is to determine what happens next. See some examples below. 

One of the challenges with using a scaled approach to outbound is that you will generate more replies, including ones you may want to disregard like Out of Office emails. In HubSpot, OutboundSync solves this filtering problem with workflows.

Before we begin, sometimes there is a lag between when lead category or status is applied, and when it flows through from your Sales Engagement Platform into HubSpot. We advise using a 

" filter. To do this, go to OutboundSync to 

Add a filter to that same branch by clicking on 

"OutboundSync: Lead Category Updates properties"

 and create branches for each of the unique branches (e.g. Interested, Out of Office, Not Interested). 

Now, define any subsequent steps in the workflow. 

Use an email notification to let your reps know that a reply was received. You can use the custom contact properties to provide additional context to the rep.

You can send to Slack via a channel or a direct message. Make sure that the Slack app is installed from the HubSpot App Marketplace. Then add a new action, look for Slack, and configure the notification as you see fit.  

You could create a trailing task for a sales rep to ensure  the email was followed up on. To enable this, add an action in the workflow to create a task and assign it to the Contact Owner. 

One of the challenges with using a multi-domain, multi-account approach is ensuring that the right leads go to the right person. In HubSpot, OutboundSync solves this mapping problem with workflows.

Let's say our aim is to direct leads to the appropriate sales representatives based on the initial sending account in our Sales Engagement Platform.

After applying your filters, you can create a branch in your workflow to further customize the routing of leads. In the example provided, the branch filters are as follows:

If an OutboundSync email is sent and the sender's email contains the name of the representative (e.g. john@, doe@, johndoe@). 

If the first OutboundSync email sent has the "From Name" on the email matching the name of the representative. (e.g. John Doe)

Once these criteria are met, you can proceed to assign the lead to the appropriate sales representative using the "Set property value" filter within the branch.

Simply select the sales rep who should be assigned to that lead.

Once the criteria are met, the next step is to assign the lead to the appropriate sales representative using a "

Within your branch, choose the sales rep who should be assigned to that lead.

Routing replies with a workflow

OutboundSync's data integration allows you to sync contacts into HubSpot. To easily identify which contacts were created or synced through OutboundSync, you can apply specific filters within HubSpot.

In this example, we are going to apply filters in the Contacts section of HubSpot. You could save these filters to save this view for future use. 

The methods of using filters shown here can also be applied elsewhere in HubSpot, such as in lists, workflows, and reports. 

There are two ways using default HubSpot properties that cannot be edited. In either case, we will want to use 

In the filter panel, search for the property named 

Apply this filter to display all contacts that originated from OutboundSync.

"Record Source Detail 1" refers to how the contact was created in HubSpot (e.g., imported or synced from OutboundSync).

Alternatively, you can filter contacts by using the property 

Apply the filter. This will show all contacts that were created or synced via OutboundSync.

"Original Source Drill-Down 2" tracks the specific source where the contact first originated. In this case, 1738916 is the app ID of OutboundSync, identifying it as the detailed source.

Using OutboundSync’s custom contact property group

Another way you can build lists like this is using OutboundSync’s custom contact property group. 

One custom contact property that will be updated every time is 

. This specifies how OutboundSync most recently updated the contact inside of your HubSpot portal. 

This is not the recommended method. First, this requires the custom contact properties are created and are being updated by OutboundSync. Next, these properties can be manipulated manually or through workflows. However it does work and may be a good fit for your use case.

By using these filters, you can easily isolate and view all contacts or leads that were brought in through the OutboundSync integration, ensuring a streamlined process for managing your data.

Filtering and building contact lists

Before getting started, make sure you have created at least one list in HubSpot with OutboundSync as a required filter. (

Once you have created your list, navigate to it. 

A new tab will open where you can create a report based on the filters you initially used when creating the list.

Let's generate a report that focuses on the emails sent through Outbound Sync and includes the date each email was sent.

 section of your report and click on the list. Ensure that you choose to display data in this report for contacts who are part of the list you created.

 filter by dragging and dropping it from the left sidebar. This filter allows you to specify the date range for the emails sent through Outbound Sync.

In the y-axis, you can add a filter for the number of contacts by dragging and dropping the 

 filter from the left sidebar. This filter allows you to see the total number of contacts associated with the emails sent through Outbound Sync.

Apply the same X-axis and Y-axis filters to analyze your list of contacts who have replied to Outbound Sync emails.

Wait for a moment while the report refreshes, and then you can find the graph displaying the quantity of emails sent through Outbound Sync and the corresponding dates they were sent.

How to create reports using lists

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. 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.

To create a new report, first, go to the 

 section of the HubSpot menu and click 

 checked. Scroll down to check the box next to 

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 

This is one of several ways to filter HubSpot contacts synced through OutboundSync. For more, read 

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 

 and then check the box for contains all of 

OutboundSync uses this forwarded 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. 

, and add that as another filter where it 

Lastly, let's filter out all the replies. Do this by searching for 

 and adding that as a filter. Then, ensure the text has 

This step is critical to ensure that you don't count replies in your sent email activity.

Switch to the configure tab, search for 

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 

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. 

Let's say you have a certain volume you're trying to hit with your outreach. HubSpot has an additional chart type called a 

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 

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 

 and configure to your heart's content. You can set the values, ranges, colors, etc. however you like. To add bands, click the 

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.

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. 

This is an iterative process, but with these charts we can glean deep insights into our outbound process—right in HubSpot.

How to create reports on activities

Tracking contacts converted from the Lead Lifecycle stage in HubSpot is useful for understanding attribution for your outbound campaigns, particularly if you want to compare them to other acquisition channels. 

Let's walk identify Contacts that converted from the Lead Lifecycle stage in HubSpot to a more advanced Lifecycle stage.

The first report will look at OutboundSync-created contacts. The second report will look at OutboundSync-influenced contacts that were created by another source in your HubSpot portal. 

This article builds on another knowledge base article that explains 

how to filter OutboundSync contacts in HubSpot

We're going to show to build two reports in this article. Both articles have the same first two steps. Here they are. 

 as the data source for this report. The report will be based entirely on properties that are included in the Contact object record in HubSpot.

Let's start with contacts that were created by OutboundSync. We are going to consider these first touch attribution. 

First, change the Selected properties to include 

 button in the top left corner. Update the Filters so they reflect what's shown below, these include:

HubSpot