How to Delete Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot Platform?

Published On

August 11th, 2023

Reading Time

7 Minutes Reading

You are here to learn how to delete duplicate contacts in HubSpot accounts. As we know that HubSpot is a cloud-based software developer and marketer for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. It offers customer relationship management (CRM) tools to help companies grow their business and have a solid customer base. If you handle your company’s HubSpot account as the marketing manager, you will face a problem – duplicate contacts. If you are finding solutions to merge duplicate contacts in HubSpot CRM platform, read this blog!

Quick Steps to Delete Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot

First, log in to your HubSpot CRM platform.

After that, export HubSpot contacts to CSV.

Download and install 4n6 Software on your pc.

Run the tool to delete duplicate HubSpot contacts.

Last, import processed contacts back into HubSpot.

Reasons For Contact Duplication in HubSpot

We will discuss some reasons for contact duplication in HubSpot at the following points:

People fill out the forms on HubSpot’s website using different email addresses for the same name.
Re-entering the contact details of a particular person is another reason for the duplication of HubSpot contacts. It may happen when two or more sales or marketing team members work with the same person but enter different details.
A contact record with various name variations also amounts to duplication in HubSpot customer relationship management program.

In the end, contact duplication in HubSpot will lead to critical image damage to your company and loss of potential and current customers. Hence, deduplicating contacts becomes a priority to delete duplicate contacts in HubSpot to safeguard your company’s reputation.

Manual Solution to Remove Duplicate Contacts from HubSpot

The only perfect solution to manually delete duplicate contacts in HubSpot account is to merge them. HubSpot has recently introduced an AI-powered deduplication tool that helps you merge (not remove) duplicate HubSpot contacts in your account.

How to Merge Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot?

Log into your HubSpot account and select Contacts from the Contacts dropdown menu.
Click the Actions menu on the upper right side and select Manage Duplicates.
The list of duplicate contacts gets opened in front of you. This tool also tells you the date of the upcoming duplicate contact review.
Click Select Properties to review to apply filters to find exact matches of contact duplication. (This option appears only when there are actual duplicates in the list)
Click Review to compare duplicacy in a pair of contacts.
Select a default record and click Merge.

Limitations & Points to Remember

Here are some points to remember while merging two HubSpot duplicate contacts:

This feature is available only for Operations Hub Professional or Enterprise subscriptions.

You can merge only two HubSpot contacts at once.

Once you merge two duplicate contacts, you can’t unmerge them.

The secondary contact’s email address gets added as the merged contact’s secondary one.

Analytics properties get re-synced, and you see combined page view data for both contacts.

The contact merging steps described above work perfectly only when your account has a limited number of duplicated contacts. Hence, an automated tool becomes the perfect choice to delete duplicate contacts in HubSpot.

Professional Solution to Delete Duplicate Contacts from HubSpot

We will discuss the automated solution in three phases – we will first export the contacts list, then use the automated tool to remove the duplicated HubSpot contacts and reupload the new and deduplicated contacts list back to the HubSpot account.

Phase 1: Export HubSpot Contacts

The first phase is to export all contacts, including duplicated ones, in an Excel file. You can import and export your HubSpot data in CSV, XLS, and XLSX formats. Here are the steps to export your HubSpot account contacts:

Go to the Contacts menu and click on Contacts.
Select the tick box on the top, and the first hundred contacts get selected.
Click Select all X Contacts (X represents your account contacts).
Go to the Table Actions dropdown menu and select Export View.
Select CSV as the file export format and check the Include all email addresses box.
Click Export, and you will receive an email with the file download link as soon as HubSpot completes the export process.
Click the download link received through email, and the CSV file gets downloaded to your computer.

Phase 2: Use an Automated Tool

The next phase involves using an automated tool to remove duplicate contacts from HubSpot exported file. This tool eliminates the hard work of the manual method and removes duplicate contacts without any original data loss. This tool is the 4n6 CSV Duplicate Remover Tool.

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Some of its features are:

The software has multiple columns for duplication comparison: Name, Given Name, Location, Email address, etc.
Easy-to-access graphical user interface.
You can have a detailed preview of HubSpot CSV files before deduplication.

How to Delete Duplicate Contacts in HubSpot Exported CSV?

Install and run the tool on your Windows computer.
Go to the Open menu and click Choose Files or Choose Folders to add the HubSpot CSV file.
The HubSpot file gets added to the left panel. Double-click it to view your HubSpot contacts.
Select the checkboxes under Remove duplicate contacts based on to set criteria for the deduplication process.
Click the Actions dropdown menu and select Remove Duplicate Records.
Select the deduplication criteria in HubSpot CSV Options and click the Browse button to choose a preferred location for the deduplicated file.
Click Save and begin the deduplication HubSpot contacts process.
Click Open Folder to access the deduplicated HubSpot contacts file.

Phase 3: Import Deduplicated Contact File to HubSpot

The last phase involves importing the deduplicated contacts file back to HubSpot account. The following steps describe the import process:

Go to the Contacts menu and click on Contacts.
Click the Import button next to the Actions dropdown menu on the upper-right side.
Select Start an Import and click on File from Computer.
Click Next and select One File under How many files are you importing.
Select the Next button and click One Object. Click Next once again and select Contacts as the import choice.
Click Choose a File, select the deduplicated contacts file, and click Next.
Confirm the mapping and map the remaining properties.
Click Next, name your CSV file, and select the legal basis for processing data (if you have selected GDPR compliance).
Click Finish Import to start importing your account’s deduplicated contacts. You will receive an email once contacts get imported.

Conclusion

This blog discussed the reasons and solutions to delete duplicate contacts in HubSpot CRM. The only way to manually deduplicate contacts in your HubSpot account is to merge the duplicated contacts since deleting them is time-consuming. Therefore, the three-phased professional solution becomes the perfect way to remove duplicate contacts from HubSpot platform.