How to Set Up Business Units in HubSpot: A Step-by-Step Guide

As businesses grow and expand, managing multiple brands, regions, or divisions under a single HubSpot account can become complex. This is where Business Units come in. HubSpot’s Business Unit feature allows companies to keep marketing, reporting, and brand assets distinct while still maintaining a shared CRM database.

If you’re considering setting up Business Units in HubSpot, this guide will walk you through the process, best practices, and key considerations to ensure a seamless transition.

What Are Business Units in HubSpot?

Business Units in HubSpot allow organizations to separate marketing assets (emails, landing pages, forms, and reports) for different brands or divisions while still sharing contact and company records in a unified CRM. This is ideal for:

• Companies with multiple product lines or distinct brands.
• Businesses operating in different geographic regions that need localized marketing.
• Organizations that want separate reporting and branding for different divisions.

Step 1: Enable Business Units in HubSpot

Business Units are available as an add-on to HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Enterprise. To enable it:

1. Navigate to Settings (⚙️) > Account Setup in HubSpot.
2. Click on Business Units and select Create a Business Unit (if you have the add-on).
3. Name your Business Unit (e.g., “European Division” or “Brand B”).
4. Assign branding elements like logos, brand colors, and email footers.

✅ Pro Tip: Establish a clear and concise naming convention for your Business Units to prevent confusion while ensuring they fit within HubSpot’s navigation bar (e.g., "NA Division" vs. "EU Division" instead of lengthy labels)

Step 2: Assign Marketing Assets to the Correct Business Unit

Once your Business Units are set up, it’s important to understand how marketing assets are assigned and managed.

Once a Business Unit is created, existing assets (such as Campaigns, Emails, Landing Pages, and Forms) will remain with the original Business Unit. 

To create and manage assets for a different Business Unit, you need to navigate to the correct Business Unit portal using the right-hand dropdown menu (see example for "Inbound" as a Business Unit).

When switching to a new Business Unit, you’ll notice a clean slate for:

• Campaigns
• Emails
• Landing Pages
• Forms

However, Social Media accounts are not segmented specifically by Business Unit portals; instead, you will see all connected social accounts regardless of the Business Unit.

That said, you can segment social media account access, but it needs to be done a bit differently! The best way to minimize errors and prevent cross-posting is to use permission settings to control which team members have access to specific accounts.

For detailed steps on how to manage social media permissions in HubSpot, refer to this guide.

✅ Pro Tip: Unlike what is currently stated in the Knowledge Base videos, there is no need to go back and reassign campaigns—they will stay associated with their original Business Unit automatically.

Step 3: Managing Contacts, Companies, and Deals Across Business Units

Unlike marketing assets, Business Units do not separate CRM data. Contacts, companies, and deals remain in a shared CRM, which means they need to be properly labeled and filtered to avoid confusion.

1. Assigning Contacts to the Correct Business Unit

• Use custom properties like “Business Unit” to segment contacts in the CRM.
• Create saved filters for each Business Unit to ensure better data management.
• To ensure previous contacts are properly categorized, build a workflow to retroactively assign them to the original Business Unit as needed.

2. Differentiating Deals & Pipelines

To maintain clarity and organization across Business Units, it’s essential to structure Deals and Pipelines effectively. Here’s how:

1. Use Permission Settings – Limit visibility based on team access by configuring permissions either at the user level or by restricting Deal visibility per pipeline. This ensures teams only see the relevant data for their Business Unit.

2. Use Conditional Logic for Deal Creation – Since the "Create Deal" form is shared across all Business Units, use conditional logic to display relevant fields based on the selected Business Unit. Learn more about Conditional Logic in HubSpot.

3. Rename Pipelines for Clarity – Standardize pipeline names using a prefix to distinguish between Business Units:

   • Business Unit A: [Pipeline Name]
   • Business Unit B: [Pipeline Name]

✅ Pro Tip: Implement a review process to ensure deal assignments and pipeline access remain accurate as teams grow or processes evolve.

Step 4: Setting Up Reporting for Business Units

A key benefit of Business Units is the ability to generate separate reports while maintaining a unified CRM.

• Navigate to Reports > Dashboards and create a new dashboard per Business Unit.
• Use filters like Business Unit, Deal Pipeline, or Region to ensure accurate data segmentation.
• Compare metrics across Business Units while keeping team-specific insights separate.

✅ Pro Tip: If leadership wants a high-level overview of all Business Units, create a master dashboard that pulls aggregated data from all divisions.

Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them

1. Confusion Between Business Units and CRM Data

   • Business Units separate marketing assets, not contacts. Use custom properties to differentiate records.
     
     

2. User Permissions & Access Control

   • Ensure that teams only see relevant dashboards, assets, and reports based on their Business Unit.
     
     

3. Duplicate Contact & Company Records

   • Establish a merging process to prevent duplicate records if multiple Business Units interact with the same customer.

Final Thoughts

Setting up Business Units in HubSpot can streamline operations, improve reporting, and ensure clear branding across divisions. However, it requires a well-planned strategy to manage data, assign assets, and ensure users understand the setup.

Need help configuring Business Units in HubSpot? Let’s connect! Whether you’re setting it up for the first time or refining your structure, I’d be happy to guide you through the process.

This blog post provides an informative, step-by-step guide to setting up Business Units while addressing common challenges. Let me know if you’d like any modifications! 🚀