Migrating from Pardot to HubSpot can present challenges, but the move allows your business to harness HubSpot’s robust marketing, automation, and reporting capabilities. This guide provides a clear, practical roadmap to drive a confident transition.
Evaluate current Pardot setup: Review your campaigns, assets (emails, landing pages, forms), automation rules, prospect lists, reports, and all platform integrations. Identify everything that needs migrating to HubSpot.
Set clear goals: Define the outcomes you expect from this migration—such as improved analytics, smarter segmentation, or streamlined processes.
Create a timeline: Plan how long each migration phase will take, including contingency for troubleshooting and user testing.
Leads/prospects export: Export your lead and contact records from Pardot in CSV or Excel format, ensuring all essential fields, tags, and segmentation criteria are included.
Custom fields export: Record and export all custom fields used for segmentation, personalization, or scoring.
Email templates, landing pages, forms: Gather all current operational templates and assets for future rebuilding.
Automation & Engagement Programs: Document and export your active Engagement Studio programs, automations, and dynamic lists for reference.
Create or review your HubSpot setup: Verify your HubSpot portal is ready—consider upgrades to Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise if needed.
Custom properties: Set up custom properties in HubSpot to accurately mirror your fields from Pardot, preserving data integrity and workflows.
Integrations: Connect third-party tools such as your CRM (e.g., Salesforce), social media platforms, webinar software, or analytics tools in advance.
Import contacts into HubSpot: Bring over all exported Pardot contacts and leads, ensuring fields and properties are mapped accurately in HubSpot.
Test the import: Start with a data sample to confirm mapping is correct before importing at full scale.
Review data quality: Check the imported data for accuracy, completeness, formatting, and possible duplicates.
Recreate email templates: Use HubSpot’s drag-and-drop editor or custom HTML to recreate Pardot-style emails, matching design and functionality.
Rebuild landing pages and forms: Leverage HubSpot’s tools to recreate landing pages and capture forms in line with your original Pardot assets.
Set up workflows and automation: Rebuild key nurture journeys, autoresponders, and automations previously managed in Pardot using HubSpot workflows.
Test automation: Validate that all triggers and processes perform as intended and that leads flow correctly through your funnel.
Reproduce reporting: Rebuild dashboards and essential reports in HubSpot, ensuring all performance metrics from Pardot are reliably tracked.
Configure goals and KPIs: Re-establish your KPIs and tracking within HubSpot’s reporting suite for continuous measurement and insights.
Lead scoring: Translate your Pardot scoring models into HubSpot to keep lead prioritisation accurate and actionable.
List segmentation: Build dynamic lists and segments within HubSpot based on behavioural, demographic, and engagement data.
CRM integration: If you use HubSpot CRM, connect it for unified data and campaign management. For external CRMs, validate integration and syncing.
Other platforms: Re-link all required tools—such as social media management, webinars, and e-commerce platforms—to HubSpot’s ecosystem.
Workflow testing: Make sure every workflow, campaign, form, and landing page functions as expected from first touch to conversion.
Review data sync: Validate that information flows between HubSpot, your CRM, and integrations seamlessly.
User acceptance testing: Engage your marketing and sales teams in UAT, ensuring the new HubSpot operations match their requirements.
HubSpot onboarding: Deliver targeted training on HubSpot features—particularly email, automation, reporting, and CRM—to ensure user proficiency.
Highlight new processes: Clarify differences between Pardot and HubSpot, and document updated operational flows for easy adoption.
Final data transfer: Perform a last data import/update if new records were added in Pardot during the migration phase.
Switch over: Move all campaigns and operational processes to HubSpot, pausing activity in Pardot and directing leads/marketing actions into HubSpot.
Monitor performance: Closely monitor post-migration activity in HubSpot, resolving anomalies or snags quickly to maintain momentum.
Optimise campaign performance: Use HubSpot’s analytics to analyse and enhance your marketing campaigns regularly.
Continuous improvement: Review and refine workflows, reports, and scoring models as your team deepens its understanding of HubSpot.
Support as you need it: If questions or issues arise, reach out to Pixel Lab’s expert HubSpot support for ongoing guidance and optimisation.