Turning Year-End Challenges into HubSpot Wins

As the year comes to a close, HubSpot users can feel the pressure: things that worked well in Q1 suddenly don’t feel as effective, reporting gaps appear, and processes that were once “fine for now” start slowing teams down. But year-end doesn’t have to be a frantic scramble. It can actually be the perfect moment to turn your HubSpot frustrations, bottlenecks, and “we should really fix that” tasks into opportunities for growth.

This guide breaks down the biggest year-end challenges HubSpot users face - and more importantly - how to turn them into wins that set you up for a stronger, cleaner, more efficient 2026. Whether you’re in Marketing, Sales, Ops, or RevOps, these insights will help you get ahead, take control of your portal, and make meaningful improvements fast.

1. Challenge: Disconnected or messy data slowing everything down

Win: Use HubSpot’s Data Hub to centralise, clean, and activate high-quality data

If 2025 exposed anything, it’s that scattered, inconsistent data creates more problems than people realise - inaccurate reports, slow workflows, broken segments, misaligned lifecycle stages, and inconsistent attribution.

HubSpot’s Data Hub was built to solve exactly this. And year-end is the best time to finally turn your data chaos into clarity.

What you can do right now:

• Audit your data sources. Where does your data come from? Are integrations syncing bi-directionally or creating duplicates?

• Use Data Quality Command Center to spot inconsistent values, formatting issues, duplicate contacts/companies, and property misuse.

• Implement standardisation rules for deal stages, lifecycle stages, lead sources, and industry fields.

• Use Data Hub transformations to clean incoming data before it touches your CRM.

Why this becomes a win:
Starting the new year with clean, reliable data transforms everything - attribution, reporting, automation logic, and segmentation all become more powerful and more accurate. Your CRM becomes an asset, not a headache.

2. Challenge: Marketing emails underperforming or getting caught by new deliverability rules

Win: Leverage HubSpot’s latest email changes to boost results

Email changed dramatically this year. New deliverability rules from Apple, Google, and Microsoft forced marketers to improve list quality, engagement, and sender reputation - or risk emails hitting spam.

HubSpot has rolled out new Deliverability Health tools, AI email assistants, and stronger event-based email settings that can help you turn declining metrics into year-end wins.

Actions to take now:

• Run HubSpot’s new email health checks to identify low-engagement segments, bounces, and potential spam-triggers.

• Remove or re-engage unengaged contacts using HubSpot’s built-in tools (your sender reputation will thank you).

• Use the new editing interface to streamline creation and split-test quickly.

• Try AI-assisted email optimisation for subject lines, send-time suggestions, and highly personalised variants.

Why this becomes a win:
Cleaning and resetting your email strategy now means you start 2026 with stronger deliverability, leaner audience targeting, and campaigns that actually reach inboxes.

3. Challenge: Teams feeling disconnected or reactive instead of strategic

Win: Adopt HubSpot’s Loop Marketing Playbook to bring order, consistency, and agility

HubSpot introduced the Loop Marketing Playbook to help teams shift away from campaign-only thinking and into a continuous, connected marketing cycle.

If your team often feels like you're “always catching up,” this framework can completely change how you operate.

What this means for your year-end review:

• Map your content, campaigns, and efforts into loops rather than one-off initiatives.

• Build repeatable processes so you aren’t reinventing the wheel every month.

• Use AI and automation to support ongoing iteration.

• Improve cross-team visibility, especially between Marketing, Sales, and RevOps.

Why this becomes a win:
Instead of doing a huge year-end clean-up every December, you create continuous improvement loops that keep your portal - and your strategy - running smoothly all year.

4. Challenge: Reporting gaps and insights that don’t reflect what’s actually happening

Win: Use HubSpot’s upgraded reporting capabilities to create clarity

As businesses grow, many discover they’ve outgrown their basic dashboards. Year-end often highlights this - reports don’t align, attribution is unclear, and leadership asks for metrics you can’t easily pull.

HubSpot’s improvements to reporting and custom funnels make this the perfect time to rebuild your reporting foundation.

Where to start:

• Review what leadership actually wants to see in 2026.

• Audit your existing dashboards - what’s outdated, duplicated, or unused?

• Use newer custom funnel tools to track the true customer journey.

• Rebuild dashboards around outcomes, not activities.

The win:
With accurate, insightful dashboards, your team goes into the new year with clearer goals and far better alignment.

5. Challenge: Workflows and automation getting messy (or risky) over time

Win: Simplify and streamline using modern Ops Hub capabilities

Year-end is the ideal time to tame workflow sprawl.

Signs you need an automation refresh:

• Too many workflows doing similar things

• Outdated logic based on old stages or properties

• No naming conventions

• Workflows accidentally overwriting data

Turn this into a win by:

• Reviewing enrollment triggers

• Consolidating duplicated logic

• Cleaning up unused properties

• Using Ops Hub’s new data actions to avoid overwriting critical values

• Adding workflow documentation inside HubSpot for future clarity

Why this becomes a win:
A clean automation setup means fewer errors, faster troubleshooting, and fewer “why did that happen?!” moments.

6. Challenge: Sales tools are underused or disconnected from marketing

Win: Use updated Sales & Prospecting features for stronger alignment

A common year-end complaint: Sales teams aren’t using key HubSpot tools, or data doesn’t flow cleanly between marketing and sales.

HubSpot’s improved Prospecting Workspace, lead management tools, and automation enhancements make this a great moment to align the two teams.

Consider reviewing:

• Lead handoff process

• MQL → SQL definitions

• Sales task automation

• Use of sequences and follow-up

• CRM customisation to match how sales actually works

The win:
Sales teams get better visibility, follow-up improves, and Marketing knows their leads aren’t disappearing into the abyss.

7. Challenge: No one has time to make these improvements - until it’s too late

Win: Start small, prioritise the highest-impact fixes, and use support when needed

The biggest challenge most HubSpot users face isn’t knowledge - it’s bandwidth.

If you want to start the new year strong, prioritise the fixes that create the biggest impact fast:

• Clean your data

• Improve email health

• Review key workflows

• Align your reporting

• Adopt the Loop Playbook

Then, tackle the deeper improvements using a structured plan rather than a reactive panic.

How Profoundly Can Help

Profoundly connects you with a vetted HubSpot expert who can jump in and help with whatever’s blocking your progress - data clean-ups, workflow audits, reporting rebuilds, email performance, or full portal optimisation.

Whether you need one-off support or a full revamp, Profoundly helps you get it done properly and without the year-end stress.

👉 Post your project and get matched with a vetted expert

About Profoundly

Profoundly helps HubSpot users solve problems faster by connecting them with vetted HubSpot specialists. Whether you need support with strategy, marketing ops, RevOps, automation, CMS, CRM, or reporting, Profoundly gives you access to the right expertise exactly when you need it.

Trusted by thousands of HubSpot users, Profoundly is built to help you get work done - quickly, reliably, and with confidence.

About the Author

Emma Cooper is Marketing Manager at Profoundly. With more than 10 years in digital marketing and 5 years specializing in HubSpot, Emma brings deep expertise in implementation, troubleshooting, and optimization within agency environments. Her work focuses on helping clients unlock the full potential of HubSpot through practical strategy, clean architecture, and data-driven performance.

FAQs

What’s the best place to start with year-end HubSpot clean-ups?

Start with your data quality and email health - these can have the biggest impact on performance and are the foundation for all other improvements.

How do I know if my workflows need attention?

If you don’t know what all your workflows do, if they’re overwriting data, or if there’s duplication, it’s time for a review.

Is the Loop Marketing Playbook worth adopting?

Yes - it’s one of HubSpot’s strongest strategic frameworks in recent years and helps teams stay aligned and consistent.

Do I need technical experience to use Data Hub?

Not necessarily. Many features are intuitive, and you can layer in complexity as needed.

What if I don’t have time to make these changes?

Profoundly can match you with an expert who will handle everything for you - from quick fixes to full-scale optimisation.