How to Keep Your HubSpot Data Clean (and Why It Matters)

If your HubSpot feels messy, it’s not HubSpot’s fault. It’s the data.

Bad data breaks reports, automations, and trust. It makes your team question the numbers and slows every decision.

The good news: fixing it isn’t hard. You just need a system.

Here’s how we helped one SaaS company clean 39,000 messy contacts down to 13,000 verified ones, and how you can do it too.

1. Messy Data Costs You More Than You Think

A messy HubSpot doesn’t just look bad. It wastes time and money.

Here’s what we usually find in broken CRMs:

• Duplicates like “Acme Inc.” and “Acme, Inc.”
• States listed as “CA,” “California,” “Calif.”
• Contacts with no email or placeholder data
• Deals not linked to companies
• Imports full of blanks, typos, and mismatched fields

Each of these kills your reports and automations.

Clean data isn’t about perfection. It’s about making decisions you can trust.

2. Know Why You’re Cleaning

Before cleaning, decide what “clean” means for your business.

Ask yourself:

• Do I want better reports?
• Faster handoffs between marketing and sales?
• Fewer automation errors?

For one SaaS client, our goal was simple:

Make HubSpot accurate, organized, and ready to automate, without losing a single lead.

Your “why” shapes your cleanup plan.

3. Gather Everything in One Place

Don’t clean data in pieces. Bring it all together first.

We exported nearly 39,000 contact rows: duplicates, blanks, inconsistencies. Once it was all in one sheet, the patterns became obvious.

Centralizing gave us clarity. And clarity turns chaos into progress.

4. Clean the Format Before the Mess

Most people start deleting. That’s a mistake.

Start by standardizing first.

Here’s our step-by-step checklist:

Emails

• Lowercase everything
• Remove spaces
• Check for the “@”
• Run them through MillionVerifier to flag bad addresses

Phone Numbers

• Must have at least 10 digits
• Format them like this: +16132220322 (no dashes, spaces, or brackets)

Addresses

• Validate through Google Maps API
• Convert State and Country into dropdown fields
• Fix capitalization

Names

• Convert to title case — “Jane Doe,” not “jane doe”

Once the data is consistent, merging duplicates becomes safe and easy.

5. Fix the Setup, Not Just the Symptoms

A missing email isn’t the real problem. It’s a broken process.

Example: HubSpot’s State/Region field allows free text. That means dozens of versions of the same thing — “CA,” “California,” “Calif.”

The fix: switch it to a dropdown.

Now everyone uses the same values, and reports stay accurate.

Other simple fixes:

• Make phone or email required for new contacts
• Use import templates with validation rules
• Keep property formats consistent across systems

Good data starts with good structure.

6. Merge Smart, Not Fast

This step reduced our client’s data from 38,889 to 13,064 trusted records.

We grouped by email, phone, name, and company. Then:

• Kept the first valid company, address, and website
• Merged notes, tags, and activity logs
• Deleted blanks or invalids
• Reviewed anything unusual by hand

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s trust.

When your team trusts the CRM, they use it.

7. Use Tools, Not Elbow Grease

You don’t need to spend weekends in spreadsheets.

Here are the tools that do the heavy lifting:

Let the tools do the cleaning so you can focus on growing.

8. Automate the Ongoing Cleanup

The smartest companies don’t keep cleaning. They prevent messes.

Use HubSpot workflows or Operations Hub automations to:

• Flag missing key fields
• Auto-format phone numbers
• Fix name capitalization
• Send alerts if a state doesn’t match the dropdown list

As my tech lead Chris says,

“Clean once, then let automation handle it from there.”

9. Make Data Hygiene Routine

Think of CRM hygiene like brushing your teeth. Skip it, and things rot.

Do this:

• Monthly: Remove duplicates and invalid emails
• Quarterly: Review dropdowns, workflows, and associations
• Before imports: Always clean the file first
• Annually: Archive inactive records

Clean data compounds over time.

10. The ProfitPad Data Hygiene System

Here’s our repeatable process for every SaaS client:

Standardize – unify formats across all systems

Enforce – add validation and required fields

Deduplicate – merge cleanly and preserve key data

Maintain – schedule audits and automations

It’s simple, scalable, and works every time.

11. Real Example: EquipmentShare

One of our clients, EquipmentShare (a Series E construction SaaS), had a CRM on life support.

In 4 weeks, we:

• Cleaned 60K+ records
• Rebuilt key automations
• Set up real-time deduplication

The result: reps trusted the data again, reports became accurate, and leadership could finally forecast with confidence.

12. Clean Data Drives Growth

When your data is clean, everything speeds up:

• Sales moves faster
• Reports stay accurate
• Marketing knows what’s working
• Investors trust your numbers

Clean data isn’t optional. It’s what makes HubSpot work.

13. Start with a Free Audit

If your HubSpot feels messy, we’ll show you what’s wrong and how to fix it.

We run a free HubSpot Data Audit every month for SaaS founders who want clarity.

We’ll find hidden issues, clean them up, and show you how to keep it that way.