How to save leads from LinkedIn to HubSpot

Nothing breaks my prospecting flow more than having to open a separate tab and enter data into a CRM. 

LinkedIn is the best prospecting database on the planet, coupled with one of the best messaging platforms available to sales reps. If only it were built directly into HubSpot. If you’re prospecting heavily on LinkedIn, there’s no way around it. You need to make sure every invitation, DM, and InMail is copied into HubSpot; otherwise, your manager will never see it.

Is there an easier way? In this guide, I’ll share the best way to sync leads from LinkedIn to HubSpot so that all of your prospects and touches make their way into your CRM.

HubSpot’s native tools for syncing leads to LinkedIn

First off, there are a few “native” ways to do this with HubSpot’s supported integrations with LinkedIn. The three options are:

• HubSpot’s LinkedIn integration
• HubSpot’s Sales Navigator integration
• LinkedIn lead forms

Let’s walk through each one, including the pros and cons.

HubSpot LinkedIn CRM Sync

HubSpot’s LinkedIn CRM sync is a two-way integration with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Ads. For salespeople, this allows you to sync contacts, accounts, and opportunities as well as connection requests and InMails.

There’s just one small problem: it requires Sales Navigator Advanced Plus and does not work with other Sales Navigator tiers or with regular LinkedIn. 

Even if you do have Sales Navigator Advanced Plus, the integration has 2.7 stars and plenty of negative reviews mentioning that data is often dropped between LinkedIn and HubSpot, which defeats the point of the integration.

Pros of LinkedIn CRM Sync

• It’s the official integration between LinkedIn and HubSpot, so you know it’s decently supported.

Cons of LinkedIn CRM Sync

• It only works with Sales Navigator Advanced Plus.
• It’s poorly reviewed and buggy, often forcing reps to manually enter data.

HubSpot’s LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration

Somewhat confusingly, HubSpot offers a separate LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration that does some of the same things as the CRM sync integration. 

Like the CRM sync integration, the HubSpot Sales Navigator integration allows you to sync connection requests and InMails, but does not sync any other data. Like the CRM sync integration, this also requires an Advanced Plus Sales Navigator subscription and is rated poorly at just 2 stars.

Pros of the HubSpot Sales Navigator Integration

• It’s the official integration between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and HubSpot, so you know it’s decently supported.

Cons of the HubSpot Sales Navigator Integration

• It only works with Sales Navigator Advanced Plus.
• It only syncs connection requests and InMails. 
• It has worse reviews than the CRM sync integration.

LinkedIn lead forms

The last way to save leads from LinkedIn to HubSpot is with lead forms on LinkedIn. These are forms you can use on LinkedIn to collect leads and sync the form submissions back to HubSpot.

And unlike the other LinkedIn integrations, these work pretty well! Of course, the obvious issue here is that this is great for inbound, but useless for outbound. When you’re actively prospecting leads outside your CRM to place them in your cold funnel, a lead gen form is of little use.

Pros of lead forms

• Like the others, it’s one of the officially supported integrations.

Cons of lead forms

• It works great for marketing teams, but not for sales. The lead gen form integration is not a solution for prospecting.

The HubSpot integrations with LinkedIn may be “official,” but they leave a lot to be desired for sales reps looking to sync their prospecting activities back to HubSpot. Fortunately, there are third-party tools you can use, which we’ll cover next.

The best way to sync leads from LinkedIn to HubSpot for sales teams

Today’s sales reps practically need to be everywhere all at once. 

That means actively prospecting on LinkedIn, DMing, emailing, cold calling, while finding a way to stay organized and cut through the noise. 

You need tools that take work off your plate, not slow you down or get in the way. If you want the best third-party integration to sync all your prospecting activity (leads, DMs, InMails, and invitations) to HubSpot, regardless of your HubSpot tier or LinkedIn subscription, we recommend Hublead. 

Hublead is a product we built to sync LinkedIn and HubSpot data, search for leads, and enrich leads directly in LinkedIn. That’s a lot more time spent finding, connecting with, and messaging prospects, and a lot less time spent managing your CRM.

Just follow these steps to cut hours from your week:

1. Add Hublead to Chrome
2. Import leads from LinkedIn
3. Import leads from Sales Navigator

Add Hublead to Chrome

Head to the Chrome Store to install Hublead. You can try Hublead for free to see how it works for your prospecting flow before signing up for a paid plan (which starts at just $32/month).

Import leads from LinkedIn

With Hublead installed and connected to your portal, head to any profile on LinkedIn that you want to save in your CRM. If the contact hasn't been synced to HubSpot, you’ll see a CTA in the new Hublead section of their profile to create a new contact:

Click that, and Hublead will automatically create a contact in your HubSpot portal and link it to their LinkedIn profile.

And if you need an email address or phone number for your prospect (which you should, because you’ll want to reach out to them across channels), Hublead can find that, too. Just click the “Enrich” button for accurate contact information.

Import leads from Sales Navigator

It’s just as easy with Sales Navigator. 

Head to any lead’s profile in Sales Navigator, and you’ll see the same prompts to create new contacts and sync them to your portal. Hublead will either connect their LinkedIn profile to an existing contact or create a new one for you.

You can also enrich leads in Sales Navigator, allowing you to filter and save new prospects in seconds and immediately begin reaching out to them across channels.

How to search for leads and save them in bulk

This is all well and good if you’re prospecting and saving leads individually, but what about in bulk?

Many sales teams use lead gen tools like Apollo and Clay to filter for leads and import them into HubSpot. But like the LinkedIn integrations, these integrations have mixed reviews.

Hublead can help you here, too. We’ve added lead search to Hublead in the web app, allowing you to filter by your ICP, including role, location, industry, and more, enrich your list of contacts, and save them directly into HubSpot.

In seconds, you could have hundreds of prospects in your pipeline, giving you even more time to focus on outreach and moving them further down your funnel.

Sync your leads today, try Hublead for free

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful prospecting tools for sales reps today, but if your hard work on LinkedIn doesn’t show up in HubSpot, then it might as well have never happened.

You can’t spare valuable prospecting minutes to stop and copy and paste data into your CRM, though, and that’s where Hublead can help. 

We built Hublead to sync every touchpoint from LinkedIn back to HubSpot, making it simpler than ever. Every invitation, DM, or InMail you send is synced back to each HubSpot contact record, giving you and your team visibility into every touchpoint on LinkedIn. 

Try Hublead for free and see how much time you can save.