HubSpot Database Cleanup — Hunter.io & Deduplication

Overview

Aviary's HubSpot database contains a large number of contacts with missing or incomplete data, degrading the effectiveness of ABM and nurture campaigns. A multi-step cleanup process was initiated to enrich, deduplicate, and prune the contact database.

This work is a prerequisite for reliable email volume in both the ^[1] and the planned ^[2].

Cleanup Process

The cleanup runs in three sequential steps:

Email Enrichment via Hunter.io
All contacts lacking an email address are exported and run against Hunter.io to attempt email discovery. Any addresses found are written back to the contact record.
Duplicate Merging
When Hunter.io finds an email address that already exists on another contact record, a duplicate is created. These duplicates are identified and merged automatically as part of the same job run.
Archiving Incomplete Contacts
Contacts with neither a company association nor an email address after enrichment are archived. These records have no actionable marketing value and add noise to segmentation and reporting.

Scale & Status

As of the 2026-03-24 sync:

Approximately 20,000+ contacts in HubSpot lacked email addresses and were queued for processing.
A batch of 2,000–4,000 contacts was processed in the most recent run.
The job runs slowly due to volume; it was noted as stalled and needs to be restarted.

Action Items

[ ] Restart the Hunter.io enrichment + merge/archive job (@Mark Hope)

Context & Motivation

Poor data quality was directly limiting campaign reach. Without valid email addresses, contacts cannot enter ABM or nurture sequences. Archiving dead records also reduces list noise and improves lifecycle stage reporting accuracy.

Cleanup progress will directly increase the number of contacts eligible for the ABM campaign and the cold nurture drip, which is expected to significantly raise email send volume in the near term.

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