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If you’ve ever stared at your CRM, head in hands and eyes glossed over after hours of manual data entry, and thought, “There has to be a better way …”
… it sounds like you need a crash course on HubSpot Smart Properties. And you’ve come to the right place.
Smart Properties are one of my favorite newer tools inside HubSpot. They’re like giving your CRM a research assistant. A fast one. One that doesn’t complain about combing through tax forms for three weeks.
If you’re not using them yet, you’re probably spending more time digging for information than you need to. Let me show you what I mean.
HubSpot Smart Properties allow you to automatically populate CRM fields using AI-powered data sourcing. Instead of manually researching information about a company or contact, you can configure a property to search the web and pull relevant details for you.
👉Learn more about how HubSpot is embracing AI across the platform in our overview of Loop Marketing: Introducing Loop Marketing: HubSpot’s Solution for Growth in the AI Era.
Now, if you’re not particularly tech-brained and zoned out halfway through that explanation, let’s try this differently.
Have you ever seen Ralph Breaks the Internet?
In the movie, the internet is imagined as a giant, physical world. And there’s a character named Knowsmore — basically a walking, talking search engine. You tell him what you’re looking for, and he immediately starts finding answers before you even finish the sentence.
(If you haven’t met him, here’s a quick clip so this analogy makes sense: Wreck-It Ralph 2: “Meet Knowsmore”)
A Smart Property is kind of like Knowsmore … except a little less aggressive, and a lot more advanced.
You “program” it by writing a prompt — telling it exactly what kind of information you want — and then it goes out into the internet and pulls that information back into your CRM automatically.
Instead of you having to manually comb through the vast online world, you can use your Smart Property (your little Knowsmore) to search through … :
… and then drop useful data like revenue estimates, industry classification, organizational details, and more directly into the correct field.
But here’s where it gets powerful.
Once that data lives inside your CRM, you can layer and combine it in ways that support a refined marketing strategy.
Maybe you’re running an April campaign where you only want to send an Earth Day–themed coupon to leads who:
You could create one Smart Property to analyze your records to identify abandoned carts and another to scan company websites for sustainability pledges.
The overlapping leads — the ones who meet both criteria — suddenly become very strong candidates for your Earth Day promotion.
That’s where Smart Properties shift from “cool automation trick” to strategic marketing engine.
Now, if you’re not tech-brained, have no clue who Knowsmore is, and still have no idea what I’m talking about, go take a break and watch Ralph Breaks the Internet. You’ll be saving so much time with Smart Properties that you can afford to. 😉
One of our clients provides high-end consulting and training for nonprofits focused on major donor fundraising. Their programs are designed for organizations that are ready to invest some serious dollars in strengthening their fundraising strategy.
Which means not every nonprofit is a fit.
Smaller organizations aren’t likely to allocate significant resources to outside fundraising consulting. Nonprofits need to reach a certain level of financial stability before that type of engagement becomes a realistic investment.
And our client doesn’t need to spend time and ad dollars marketing to leads that were never viable in the first place.
Nonprofits are required to make financial information public through a Form 990. That’s essentially their version of a 1040. In theory, this is great because the information exists. In practice, it means someone has to:
And then repeat that process for EVERY. SINGLE. LEAD.
That’s not marketing. That’s not even detective work. That’s just grunt work.
So instead of hiring someone to spelunk through tax documents all day, I built a Smart Property that pulls estimated revenue data into the CRM automatically.
Now, HubSpot Smart Properties are pulling this information from the internet, and we all know that anything that’s online is automatically, beyond all doubt, 100% true, right?
Exactly.
Luckily, I don’t need the number to be perfect. I don’t care whether XYZ Charity makes $1,000,000 or $1,000,001. For qualification purposes, we don’t need precision down to the dollar; we just need to know whether this is a viable prospect or a long shot.
So, I told my Knowsmore what to look for and let him do the mind-numbing work. Now, when a nonprofit enters the database, we can immediately gauge whether they’re positioned to invest in this type of consulting service.
That frees me to focus on actual MarTech strategy instead of digital archaeology.
Revenue was just one of the Smart Properties I configured for this client.
They market differently to different nonprofit sectors. A food shelf will respond to different messaging than, say, a faith-based educational institution. They have different missions. Different values. Different pain points.
The issue is, if I’d had to spend weeks visiting every single lead’s website just to figure out which sector they belong to, I probably would’ve thrown my keyboard through the wall.
Not exactly a great look for someone who works in IT.
So I created another HubSpot Smart Property and configured it to identify what sector a nonprofit operates in — human services, religion-related, education, arts, international affairs, and so on.
The results:
All without someone losing their afternoons to a jungle of open browser tabs.
Or me, the poor tech strategist, losing his mind.
That example is cool, but this isn’t just a nonprofit tool.
Smart Properties can be configured to surface almost any web-based information that helps you make better marketing and sales decisions — revenue, industry, geography, technology stack, business model.
But the real power is applying that to every contact or company in your database.
When Smart Properties are configured correctly, HubSpot can automatically enrich your entire database with new insights. Suddenly, every lead has a new layer of intelligence attached to it.
Yeah, that’s right. Your WHOLE database — whether it’s 20 prospects or 20,000.
This is where things get exciting. Now, you’re not just looking up interesting information about one prospect here or there, or only the leads from a specific campaign. You’re able to segment and communicate with entire audiences based on how they think, operate, or buy.
👉Smart Properties are just one piece of the technology puzzle — if you want to see other tools we love for improving sales efficiency and performance, check out our roundup of favorite tech solutions: Leveraging Technology To Improve Sales: Our Favorite Tools
If the information exists online and it helps you qualify or segment leads, there’s a strong chance you can configure a Smart Property to find it.
Think about your own business:
But let me repeat something important:
You still have to know what you’re doing. HubSpot gives you the engine. But someone still has to drive the car.
👉If you want context on where HubSpot is heading — and how trends like AI and CRM data strategy are shaping the future of marketing — check out our key takeaways from the 2025 HubSpot INBOUND Conference: 10 Key Takeaways From the 2025 HubSpot Inbound Conference
You can’t just flip on a Smart Property and hope magic happens — after all, his name is Knowsmore, not Knowsitall.
You need to create quality prompts for your little AI-helpers. Successful prompt elements include:
In short: clarity beats subtlety. The more specific you are about what you want and how you’ll use it, the better the output will be.
Otherwise, you’re just collecting interesting trivia about your prospects.
👉And this is just one way HubSpot is helping businesses get more value with less grunt work! Check out our breakdown of HubSpot’s recently renamed Credits tool: Meet HubSpot Credits: New Name, Same Great Tool To Boost Your Business
HubSpot Smart Properties can transform your CRM from a static database into a dynamic intelligence tool. When paired with thoughtful strategy and proper configuration, they unlock serious efficiency and sharper targeting.
And if you’re thinking, “This sounds great, but I don’t want to be the one configuring AI-driven fields,” that’s fair. That’s what we’re here for.
As a Certified HubSpot Partner, we help clients bridge the gap between tools and outcomes. For our client, that meant eliminating manual research and building a qualification model that supports a high-ticket consulting offer. For others, it might mean tightening sales handoffs or improving campaign ROI.
The tool is flexible. The strategy is what makes it powerful.
Schedule a discovery call to learn how we can help you leverage HubSpot Smart Properties and build a CRM that works as hard as you do.
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