HubSpot Data Enrichment: How to Keep Your CRM Data Clean | MAN Digital

HubSpot data enrichment fills gaps in your existing records. It adds company and contact details you'd otherwise look up by hand. Think of it as auto-complete for your CRM.

Enriched data helps sales reps tailor outreach, helps marketing target the right accounts, and gives leaders accurate reports. Without it, teams waste time on manual research and make choices with incomplete info.

The difference isn't ambition—it's execution architecture.

CRM data decays at 2–3% each month. That's roughly 30% of your database going stale each year.

Set up automatic enrichment to keep records fresh. No manual effort needed.

Most teams treat enrichment as a one-time cleanup. They enrich, feel good briefly, then watch quality slide back.

This guide shows a better way. One that treats enrichment as an ongoing habit, not a checkbox.

What you'll learn:

• What data enrichment means (and what it doesn't)
• Why most enrichment efforts fail
• The Clean → Enrich → Validate → Maintain loop
• How to set up HubSpot native enrichment
• Third-party tools done right

What HubSpot Data Enrichment Really Means

CRM data enrichment adds missing info to existing records. It fills gaps in both contacts and companies with details from outside sources.

Where enrichment data comes from:

• Company databases and business registries
• Social media profiles and pages (LinkedIn, X)
• Public filings and news sources
• Private data providers

Data enrichment tools pull from these sources to fill your CRM records.

Three types of enrichment data:

• Company data: Company size, industry, revenue, employee count, HQ location
• Contact data: Job titles, levels, departments
• Tech data: Tech stack and tools in use

Enrichment can also include intent data to flag high-value prospects.

What enrichment is NOT:

• Data cleansing (removing dupes, fixing errors)
• Lead gen (finding new contacts)
• Lead scoring (ranking leads by priority)
• Data checking (verifying what's there)

Enriching dirty data just adds more fields to bad records.

Benefits of Data Enrichment

Enriched CRM data changes how sales and marketing teams work. Less guessing, more acting on real info.

For sales teams:

• Less time looking up prospects by hand
• More accurate job titles and contact info
• Better context for personal outreach

For marketing teams:

• Sharper audience groups
• More relevant campaign targeting
• Fewer wasted touches on bad data

For RevOps:

• Cleaner reports and dashboards
• Better lead routing
• Less time fixing data later

Sales and marketing teams spend time selling and marketing, not hunting for basic info.

Why Most Enrichment Efforts Fail

Most companies don't know what bad data costs them. Nearly 60% don't measure it at all.

Three failure patterns:

• Enriching before cleaning
  • Adding data to dupes spreads errors
  • Old records get more old fields
• One-time project thinking
  • Data decays all the time
  • Without upkeep, quality slides right back
• Tool-first mindset
  • Buying tools before mapping data models
  • Field conflicts and sync chaos follow

Many teams skip process design. They jump straight to tool setup. The result is predictable: broken syncs and confused data.

Poor data consistency across systems breaks enrichment results. When your existing records don't match up, enrichment tools can't do their job.

The focus shifts to "which tool" instead of "which process." That's where it goes wrong.

The Process-First Framework

Good HubSpot data enrichment follows a loop: Clean → Enrich → Validate → Maintain.

Pick the right enrichment tool and define your enrichment properties before you start.

Why the order matters:

• Cleaning first stops error spread
• Checking after finds mismatches early
• Upkeep stops decay from undoing your work

Skip any step and you're back at square one in a year.

Phase 1: Clean Your Data First

Cut the noise before you add anything new.

Three cleaning priorities:

• Remove duplicate records
  • Merge duplicate contact or company records right away
  • Flag uncertain ones for human review
  • Go to: Settings → Data Quality → Duplicate Management
  • Goal: Under 2% dupe rate before enriching
• Fix formatting issues
  • Same naming rules across all fields
  • Standard values and formats
• Delete stale records
  • Bounced emails need to go
  • So do closed companies
  • Same for contacts who left

[Screenshot: HubSpot Duplicate Management screen]

Teams rush this step. That sets enrichment up to fail from the start.

Phase 2: Native vs Third-Party Tools

HubSpot's own enrichment and outside tools serve different needs. Pick based on your use case.

Use HubSpot native when:

• You have work emails (Gmail accounts won't match)
• You need 40+ standard fields filled in
• You don't want to manage extra tools

Use a third-party data enrichment tool when:

• You need intent signals or verified phone numbers
• HubSpot coverage doesn't fit your market
• You want bulk enrichment to update many existing records at once

Three native enrichment modes:

Go to: Settings → Data Settings → Data Enrichment

Setting Up Native HubSpot Data Enrichment

Native enrichment works best when set up with care.

Key things to know:

• Contacts need work email addresses
  • Personal emails (Gmail, Yahoo) won't match
  • Use company domains for best results
• Companies need a domain to look up
• Empty fields fill in—no overwrites by default

Setup choices:

• Scope: Contacts, Companies, or both
• Trigger: Auto, manual, or on a schedule
• Field locks: Fields that must stay as-is

[Screenshot: Data Enrichment settings panel]

Breeze fills 40+ enrichment properties: company size, revenue, industry, social links, and job level.

Important: Breeze Intelligence Data Source Warning

HubSpot's native enrichment is powered by Clearbit data. HubSpot acquired Clearbit in December 2023 and rebranded it as Breeze Intelligence in September 2024.

This matters because Clearbit's data quality varies by region:

• Strong US coverage: Clearbit built its database primarily around American companies. US data tends to be accurate and comprehensive.
• Weaker European data: For EU companies, Clearbit can return inaccurate industry classifications, wrong employee counts, and outdated company information.
• Mixed results for other regions: APAC and emerging markets can be hit or miss.

What this means for your CRM:

If you're targeting European markets, Breeze Intelligence may add incorrect industry codes, wrong revenue ranges, or outdated company details. These errors then flow into your lead routing, scoring, and reporting.

Before enabling automatic enrichment:

• Test on a small batch of EU records first
• Compare enriched values against known-correct data
• Consider third-party tools with stronger EMEA coverage (like Cognism) for European data

Don't assume native enrichment works the same everywhere. Validate before you trust.

Third-Party Tool Setup

Outside tools add power and risk. Bad setups cause more trouble than they fix.

The key rule: Match by Object ID.

Don't match by email or domain alone. Object IDs prevent dupes and hit the right records.

Safety settings to use:

• Skip blank values
  • Stop empty fields from overwriting your data
  • Keep good data in place
• Source tracking
  • Track which tool enriched which fields
  • Use a custom field for the source name
• Sync limits
  • Cap how often data syncs
  • Stop sync loop problems

Third-party enrichment tools cut research time. Your sales team can focus on selling instead.

Tools like LinkedIn Sales Nav add fresh data and keep contact info current.

Run a small test batch first. Check the matching logic before going all-in.

Third-Party Data Enrichment Tools Comparison 

Picking the right enrichment provider depends on your market, budget, and tech stack. Here's how the major players stack up:

Key selection criteria:

• US-focused teams: Breeze Intelligence, ZoomInfo, or Apollo offer strong coverage
• European markets: Cognism is the clear leader for EMEA data quality and GDPR compliance
• Startup/VC targeting: Crunchbase has the best funding and investment data
• Custom workflows: Clay offers unmatched flexibility with waterfall enrichment across 75+ providers
• Budget-conscious SMBs: Apollo or Lusha deliver solid value at lower price points
• Enterprise needs: ZoomInfo provides the most comprehensive feature set for large teams

Waterfall enrichment approach:

Many teams now use Clay or similar tools to run "waterfall" enrichment. Instead of relying on one provider, they query multiple sources in sequence until they get a match. This approach:

• Maximizes coverage (85–95%+ on email/phone, depending on market and data quality)
• Controls costs by using cheaper providers first
• Reduces single-provider dependency

If you're enriching thousands of records monthly, waterfall beats single-source every time.

Best Practices for Data Enrichment

Build enrichment into your daily habits. These practices keep existing records accurate.

Six practices that work:

• Automate where you can
  • Set up automatic enrichment to run on its own
  • Cuts stale data without extra work
• Pick your key fields
  • Decide which enrichment properties matter most (job title, company size, industry)
  • Keep these the same across all existing records
• Check records weekly
  • Spot-check recently enriched records
  • Catch errors before they spread
• Focus on high-value records
  • Start with active accounts and recent leads
  • Don't waste credits on dead records
• Use more than one data source
  • Single sources miss things
  • Cross-check to get better results
• Protect good data
  • Only update blank or old fields
  • Lock fields with known-good values

Enriching Company Records

Company data enrichment needs extra care. It's the base for account-based work. Without accurate company data, everything downstream breaks.

For complete CRM data, enrich both contacts and companies. Get this right and the rest works better.

Key company fields to enrich:

• Industry and sub-industry
• Company size and employee count
• Annual revenue range
• HQ location and other offices
• Tech stack (if you have it)

These company details drive lead routing, account scoring, and region rules. Get them wrong and things break downstream.

Data sources for company enrichment:

• Public LinkedIn company pages
• Business registries and filings
• Industry databases
• Third-party data providers

Match companies by domain, not name. Company names have too many variations.

Checking and Keeping Data Quality Up

Enrichment isn't done when fields fill. You need ongoing checks to catch drift.

How to check quality:

• Spot-check 5–10% of existing records by hand
• Flag wrong industry or company size
• Use the "Scan for enrichment gaps" tool

Upkeep schedule:

• Weekly: Review enrichment rates
• Monthly: Run quality reports
• Quarterly: Check if data is correct
• Yearly: Full review and re-clean with bulk enrichment

Go to: Reports → Tools → Data Quality Overview

Data decay never stops. Your quality work shouldn't either.

Mistakes That Break Enrichment

Five mistakes to avoid:

• Using personal emails
  • Native needs work domains
  • Gmail won't match
• Running many tools with no dedup
  • Each tool makes records
  • Dupes pile up fast
• Skipping the clean phase
  • Dirty data stays dirty
  • Extra fields add noise
• No field protection
  • Tools overwrite good data
  • Blanks replace real info
• No source tracking
  • Conflicts have no paper trail
  • Trust breaks down between tools

Real-Time Enrichment and Intent Data

Two trends are changing how sales and marketing teams use data enrichment.

Real-time enrichment lets sales reps enrich records on the spot. No waiting for batch jobs. When a new lead comes in, you get company details and job titles right away. This helps your team act fast.

Intent data shows which accounts are actively looking. By tracking research signals, you can spot prospects before they reach out. Tools like LinkedIn Sales Nav and ZoomInfo bring these signals into your HubSpot data.

Both trends point the same way: faster access to better data.

How to Measure Success

Track both data quality and business impact together.

Quality measures:

• How many key fields are filled (%)
• How correct spot-checks are
• Dupe rates over time

RevOps impact measures:

• Time to first contact with new leads
• Lead routing rates
• Hours saved on manual research

Go to: Reports → Tools → Data Quality Overview

These numbers show if enrichment works for your team.

Conclusion

HubSpot data enrichment works when you treat it as ongoing work. Not as a one-time project.

Key points:

• Clean first, enrich second
  • Dirty data gets worse with more fields
• Process before tools
  • Map your data model first
• Native for standard needs
  • Use third-party for special cases
• Watch regional data quality
  • Breeze Intelligence (Clearbit) is stronger in US than EU
  • Consider Cognism or other providers for European markets
• Match by Object ID
  • Never rely on email alone
• Keep up the work
  • Data decays 2–3% monthly

Enrichment doesn't fix bad data. It makes good data better.

Build the process first. Then let enrichment do its job.