Okay, so you’ve built out your HubSpot platform a bit—you have a website, you’ve set up ads, you’re generating new contacts via HubSpot forms, but what now? How can you turn those new contacts into customers and leverage the information you’ve collected (and are continuing to collect)?
One of the most fundamental parts of leveraging your contacts in HubSpot is to create HubSpot lists for use in other tools.
What are lists in HubSpot? How can you create them? Most importantly, how can you use lists in HubSpot to achieve your business goals?
What Are HubSpot Lists?
A HubSpot list is a collection of records in HubSpot that are filtered and sorted based on set criteria. Some of the things that lists can be based on include:
- Contact Records. Lists collecting a group of contacts in your HubSpot database—this is one of the most common list types made by marketing, sales, and service teams.
- Company Records. Rather than focusing on individual contacts, lists can collect a series of company records. This can be used by marketing and sales teams in their interactions with prospects.
- Deal Records. Create a list of deals. Could be used to filter existing deal data based on which clients the deals were with or deal value to help foster analysis of data.
- Custom Object Records. You can create lists based on custom objects that you’ve created in your HubSpot portal. This can be useful for leveraging your custom objects or making bulk edits to custom object records.
Difference Between Active and Static Lists
When you create a new list, you can set it as either an “active” or a “static” list. What’s the difference between an active list and a static list in HubSpot?
- Active Lists. A HubSpot active list is a list that will continuously update on its own after creation. Records will be added to the list when they meet the list’s filter criteria and be removed when they stop meeting those criteria. This is useful for lists where you want the records in the list to update automatically without the need for further input on your part.
- Static Lists. A HubSpot static list is a list that does not update over time. Even if new records meet the list criteria, the list’s membership will not change. This is often useful for creating analyses of records during the list’s creation or for using in a workflow related to a time-bound event like an annual conference. Users can manually add or remove records in a static list.
To put it in other terms, an active list is a “fire and forget” style of list that will continuously update on its own. Meanwhile, a static list will require manual intervention to update.
Where to Find Your HubSpot Lists
You can find the HubSpot Lists tool by clicking on the “Contacts” option in your main HubSpot nav menu and clicking on “Lists” from the dropdown:
Who Can Use the HubSpot Lists Tool?
Every HubSpot product and subscription plan has access to the HubSpot Lists tool. This is because lists are a fundamental part of how we all use other HubSpot tools. Lists can be used for one-off email sends, workflow enrollment, contact status management, and more. So, to ensure that all HubSpot subscribers can effectively use the rest of the platform, lists are available to all subscribers.
However, some specific list functions might be tied to your HubSpot subscription level. For example, the ability to create random samples from a list is available on Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise, but not on Starter.
To view, modify, or create lists, individual users will need to have access granted to them in their HubSpot account. If you cannot view, edit, or create lists in your HubSpot portal, you may need to reach out to your account administrator and request access to the lists tool.
List Limits in HubSpot
The number of lists you can create will depend on your HubSpot subscription type:
- Free Tools. 10 active lists and 1,000 static lists.
- Marketing Hub Starter. 50 active lists and 1,000 static lists.
- Marketing Hub Professional. 1,200 active lists and 1,200 static lists.
- Marketing Hub Enterprise. 2,000 active lists and 2,000 static lists.
- Sales Hub Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. Identical to the Marketing Hub Subscriptions.
- Service Hub Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. Identical to the Marketing Hub Subscriptions.
- CMS Hub (All Tiers). 10 active lists and 1,000 static lists.
- Operations Hub Starter. 25 active lists and 1,000 static lists.
- Operations Hub Professional. 1,100 active lists and 1,000 static lists.
- Operations Hub Enterprise. 1,600 active lists and 1,500 static lists.
- Business Units Add-On. Increases existing active list and static list limits by 100 each, up to a maximum of 5,000 total active lists and static lists per account. This add-on also adds 100 additional workflows to your account limit and costs $1,000 per month for each add-on instance.
How to Create a HubSpot List
If you have the “Write permissions for lists,” you can create new lists in your HubSpot tool—up to the limit determined by your HubSpot subscription. Here’s the basic process for creating a new list in HubSpot:
- Go to the Lists tool in HubSpot
- Click on “Create List” in the upper right of the window
- Select the object type to base the list on (Contact, Company, Deal, or one of your Custom Objects)
- Enter the list’s details in the right panel:
- List name
- Description of the list
- List type (Active or Static)
- Custom properties
- Click “Next” when ready
- Set the criteria for filtering the records you want to display in your list—these options can be found in the left panel
- Select “Add Filter”
- Scroll down the list of filter categories or enter a term in the search bar to find the filter category you want to apply
- Within the category, choose the property or activity you wish to filter by
- Select an option for the property or activity and set criteria based on the field type—the types are dropdown select, checkbox, text, numerical, and date
- To set criteria for dropdown select and checkbox fields, simply click the checkboxes that apply
- For text, click the “Add options” field and start typing to enter a text value
- For numerical criteria, click the “Add values” field and type to enter the number value
- For date criteria, click on the calendar field and select a date from the calendar
- Repeat the previous step for each filter criteria you want to add by:
- Clicking on “Add filter” in the same filter group and repeating the same steps as above
- Note: Filters in the same group will default to use “AND” logic
- When finished, click on the “X” mark at the top right of the editor
- To add another filter group, click on the “+ Add filter group” option
- Between each Filter group, choose whether to apply AND logic or OR logic
- To delete a filter criteria from a group, click on the “delete” icon (trash can symbol)
- To delete a filter group, click on the “Actions” option in the top right of the group and click “delete” from the dropdown
- Click “Save list” in the upper right to save your list—you can make edits later, if necessary
Here’s a quick video showing the process:
Difference Between AND vs OR Logic in List Filters
When adding additional filter groups, you’ll need to choose whether to apply AND logic vs OR logic to the new filter group. So, what’s the difference?
- AND Logic. To display in the list, the record will need to meet the filters for BOTH sets of filter criteria.
- OR Logic. The record will display in the list if it meets EITHER set of criteria.
AND logic tends to make the list smaller as items in the list will need to meet more filters to be added. Meanwhile, OR logic tends to result in more records being added to the list as it means that a record will be added if it meets either set of criteria.
About Associated Object Filters
In addition to filter criteria, you can set filters based on associated objects.
To add an associated object filter:
- When choosing a criteria to filter on, choose an associated object filter under the “Associated Object” heading
- Select any associated [object]
- If creating a contact-based list, select “Primary [object]” to filter based on that object
- In the “With label” section, select a label to filter based on only associations that use that label—This is only available on Professional or Enterprise HubSpot accounts
It’s very similar to how every other filter type works.
Customizing HubSpot List Columns
So, you’ve created a list, but now you want to be able to sort that list based on a specific use case that you have in mind. What should you do? One thing you will want to do is to customize the columns that appear in your list so you can sort it more easily!
To customize the columns that appear in a list:
- Click on the name of the list from your Lists tool menu
- Click the “Actions” dropdown menu in the upper right of the screen
- Select “Edit columns”
- Search or browse through the properties in the menu that appears and check the boxes for the properties you wish to add
- To remove a property column, click the “X” icon next to that property in the “Selected Columns” area of the screen
- You can remove all columns by clicking on “Remove all columns” next to the Save/Cancel buttons in the bottom left of the menu
- Click on “Save” to save your changes
- Note: you can make the new column selections global for all of your lists of the currently-selected type by clicking on the “Apply to all my [list type] lists” above the “Save” button
Here’s a short video showing the process:
Creating a Random Sample from a HubSpot List
If you have a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise subscription, you can create a random sample from your lists. This might be useful if you want to take a look at a random selection of records that conform to certain filter criteria without having to look at too many at once.
To create a random sample from a HubSpot list:
- Go to Lists
- Click on the name of the list you want to create a random sample from
- Click on the “Actions” dropdown
- Click on “Random Sample” from the list of options
- Enter the list name and the number of contacts (or a percentage of contacts) desired in your random sample
- Note: whichever value you don’t enter will auto-populate based on the other value. For example, if you’re creating a random sample from a list of 100 people and enter “10” in the “# of contacts” field, the “% of contacts” field will automatically adjust to say “10%”
- Click on the “Create list” button
- If successful, you will see a pop-up with a link to the new list
Here’s a quick video showing the process:
In the video, you’ll see that the new sample list created was empty—this is normal. It may take a minute or two for the new list to populate. If the list doesn’t populate after ten minutes, check the filter criteria. If it doesn't populate after an hour, contact your HubSpot system administrator to report the issue.
How to Export HubSpot Lists
For many HubSpot users, HubSpot isn’t the only CRM or marketing tool that they use. In this case, they may need to access their HubSpot contact lists outside of the HubSpot platform. To do this, you’ll need to export your list.
To do this, you’ll need to:
- Go to your lists tool
- Hover your mouse over the list you want to export
- Click on the “More” dropdown menu that appears
- Click “Export” from the dropdown menu
- Choose the properties you want to export by clicking on the checkboxes next to each
- You can blanket export all properties by clicking on “Select all properties”
- You can remove properties from the export by clicking on the “X” icon next to the property name in the “Selected Columns” portion of the menu
- Click “Next” and a new dialog box will appear
- Select a file format using the dropdown menu
- Click on “Export” to have an email with your exported list sent to your inbox
- Open the email when it arrives and click on “Download” to download the exported list
From there, you’ll need to follow the import procedure for whichever tool you want to export the list to.
Here’s a quick video showing the export process:
How to Organize Your HubSpot Lists
If you’ve been making a lot of lists for different purposes, then you might need to find a way to organize them to make it easier to find the list you need at a moment’s notice.
One quick way to sort your lists is to sort them by the columns in the main list view. You can click on any of the columns to quickly reorganize them by things like:
- List name
- Number of contacts in the list
- List type (active or static)
- Object type
- Time since last update
- Who made the list
- The folder the list is in
Simply click on the arrows in the top of the column you want to sort by.
You can also organize lists into folders. Here’s how to make a folder:
- Click on the “Folders” tab
- Click on the “Create folder” button
- Enter a name for your folder
- Click “Create” to create the folder
To add a list to a folder:
- Go to the main list view
- Mouse over the list you want to add to a folder
- Click the “More” dropdown
- Click on “Move to folder” and a dialog box will appear
- Click on the folder you want to add the list to
- Click “Move” to finalize
Here’s a quick video showing how to make the folder and move a list to it:
Some HubSpot Lists Tool FAQs
Here are a few quick answers to common questions about the HubSpot Lists tool:
How Many Lists Can I Have in HubSpot?
There is a limit to how many lists you can have in HubSpot. There are separate limits for active and static lists that change depending on your subscription type.
Generally speaking, most subscriptions will provide more static lists than active lists (one exception being the Operations Hub subscription, which has more active lists than static ones).
Can I Add More Lists If I Reach the Limit?
Yes. You can purchase a separate add-on to increase your list creation limit if you max out your list count. The “Business Units Add-On” adds 100 active and 100 static lists per purchase. The current price of the add-on is $1,000/month.
However, there is an absolute limit of 5,000 active and 5,000 static lists per account at this time.
Why Is My List Empty?
There are a few potential reasons why a newly created list might be (or appear to be) empty:
- The list may not have finished rendering yet. Usually, the list will say that it holds a certain number of records but look empty if this is the case. Give it a minute or two to finish and the list should populate.
- The filter criteria have excluded all records. Check your filter criteria and edit them to see if records start showing up.
- Records have been bulk deleted from the list. This might happen with static lists.
- Records have been bulk deleted from your HubSpot database.
I Changed a Property for a Record and It Should Now Meet a List’s Filter Criteria, but It Isn’t Showing Up. Why Is That?
If the list is an active list that will continuously enroll new records, it may take a while for the change to be reflected in the list.
For a static list, the record will not be added unless you manually add it to the list.
How Can I Delete a List?
You can delete a list by:
- Hovering over the list name in your main lists view
- Clicking the “More” button
- Selecting “Delete” from the dropdown
- Clicking the “Delete” button in the dialog box to confirm
Can I Restore a Deleted List?
Yes. If you delete a list, you can restore it within 90 days. To restore a recently-deleted list:
- Click on the “Recently deleted” tab in your main list view
- Hover over the list you want to restore
- Click “Restore” when it appears
Here’s a quick video showing how to delete and restore a list:
Why Is My List Taking Forever to Process?
Most lists process in just a couple of minutes, but extremely complicated lists with a lot of records may take longer.
Can a List Filter Have Multiple Values?
Yes. Some list filter criteria can have multiple values. For example, if the filter is something like “is equal to any of” or “is none of” you may be able to choose multiple values in a single filter criterion.
For example, say you’re tracking multiple English dialects in your contact records and are using that to assign contacts to specific sales or service reps. You have a rep who primarily works with customers in North America, so you might make a list to assign leads to them if they speak U.S. English or Canadian English.
So, you might create a filter that says “Preferred Language is any of”:
- English
- English – Canada
- English – United States
How Many Filters Can a List Have?
250 filters per list.
Common Use Cases for HubSpot Lists
So, how can your teams use lists in HubSpot? Here are a few sample use cases for your sales, marketing, and service teams:
How Sales Can Use HubSpot Lists
Lists can be an incredibly useful tool for sales teams. For example, you could create an active list for a sales rep to use as part of a workflow that assigns contacts to a sales rep based on various filter criteria.
In the FAQs section, there was an example of assigning contacts to reps based on the contact’s preferred language. You could create similar filtered lists for contacts based on their industry, state/region, and virtually any other contact record property that might be relevant to your sales reps.
Then, you can plug the list into a workflow that assigns members of the list to the relevant sales rep.
How Marketing Can Use HubSpot Lists
The uses of HubSpot lists for marketing teams are virtually limitless. Some ways marketers can use the lists tool include:
- For emails sent prior to an event. Static lists are a popular choice for one-off email campaigns.
- Bulk updating contact statuses. For example, a marketer might make a static list for emails containing a specific company’s email domain such as “@businessname.com” and use the list to associate each record with that company.
- Mass changing marketing statuses. As an alternative to using a workflow to automatically update a contact’s marketing status, you could create a list to mass change marketing statuses while giving your team a chance to review each contact in the list before making the change.
These are just a few examples of ways you could use lists for your marketing team.
How Service Teams Can Use HubSpot Lists
One way that a service team member (or team leader) might use a list is to create a list based on ticket statuses.
For example, you could create a list of all contacts assigned to a specific team member with a ticket status of “open” to see how many unresolved tickets are assigned to that team member. From there, you could see how much work would be required to resolve all open tickets and assign extra staff to them as needed.
Have a favorite use for a list? Share it in the comments below!
Need Help Organizing and Managing Your HubSpot Lists?
There are a lot of things that you can do with HubSpot lists—this article really only covers the surface of this tool!
Do you need help organizing, managing, or creating lists that help you achieve your sales, marketing, and service goals? Our team has extensive experience helping customers master HubSpot tools and leveraging them for their business operations. We can get your feedback about what you want to do and help you identify how to do that in the HubSpot platform.
Reach out to the experts at Bluleadz to get started!
HubSpot Lists Resources