Migrate from Cision to HubSpot

Cision journalist and influencer contacts map directly to HubSpot contacts. First name, last name, title, phone, and any email address transfer as standard HubSpot contact properties. Cision contact IDs are preserved as a custom Source_System_ID__c field for audit traceability and delta-run de-duplication logic.

Many Cision journalist contacts lack email addresses — Cision's model verifies outlet affiliation rather than requiring direct contact email. These records migrate to HubSpot contacts but are flagged with a custom No_Email_in_Source__c boolean property. Your team should enrich emails manually or suppress these contacts from automated sequences before activating HubSpot marketing seats.

Cision media outlets (publications, broadcast networks, digital platforms) map to HubSpot companies. Outlet name, website, and type (print, broadcast, online) become Company name, domain, and Industry or a custom outlet_type property. Multiple Cision contacts affiliated with the same outlet link to this single HubSpot company record.

Cision supports N:N relationships between contacts and outlets — one journalist can cover multiple beats and outlets simultaneously. HubSpot contacts have a single primary CompanyId plus optional Company Contact Relationships. We map the Cision contact's primary outlet to the HubSpot primary CompanyId and surface secondary outlet affiliations as Company Contact Relationship records with custom role labels (e.g., 'Contributing Writer', 'Bureau Chief').

Cision classifies contacts by media tier (Tier 1 National, Trade Publication, Regional, Blogger, Influencer). HubSpot has no native media-tier field. We create a Media_Tier__c custom pick-list property on HubSpot contacts and map Cision's tier values directly, preserving the classification taxonomy your PR team uses for priority outreach.

Cision's beat assignments (technology, healthcare, finance, politics) track what each journalist covers. HubSpot's standard contact properties include a 'jobtitle' field but no native beat classification. We create a Beat__c custom multi-select property on contacts and map Cision's beat values, enabling HubSpot workflows to trigger outreach sequences based on beat alignment with press release topics.

Cision assigns a unique internal ID to each contact record. We store this as Source_System_ID__c on the HubSpot contact for traceability. During delta-pickup runs, this field is used to de-duplicate records that may have been modified in Cision during the migration window.

Cision tracks how many times an outlet has been mentioned or covered in monitored media. This metric has no HubSpot native equivalent. We store the last recorded coverage count as Coverage_Volume__c on the HubSpot company record as a reference field, though Cision's ongoing monitoring must be handled by a dedicated media monitoring tool post-migration.

Cision records outlet reach metrics (circulation, monthly unique visitors, social following) as part of its media database. These become Reach_Metric__c and Reach_Type__c custom properties on the HubSpot company record, giving your PR team outlet-priority context within the CRM for media list segmentation.

Cision tracks the last outreach activity date per contact (last pitch sent, last response). HubSpot's standard activity timestamps are tied to HubSpotlogged calls and emails. We create Last_Cision_Outreach__c as a custom datetime field and populate it from Cision's last-outreach timestamp, enabling you to prioritize re-engagement sequences based on historical outreach cadence.

Cision outreach campaigns (named press release distributions with associated contact lists) have no direct HubSpot equivalent. Campaign records can be preserved as HubSpot campaigns with associated contact lists, but Cision's campaign analytics (open rates from PR Newswire distribution) are platform-specific and must be archived or rebuilt as custom properties or external references.

Cision's monitoring alerts and individual coverage mentions (each article clip with outlet, date, tone) are real-time monitoring constructs. HubSpot has no native media monitoring or coverage-tracking object. We can store summary data (total mentions in last 30 days, average tone) as custom properties on the company, but the granular mention-by-mention history must be archived from Cision or managed in a dedicated monitoring tool post-migration.

Cision stores journalist social handles (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) as contact properties. These map to HubSpot's custom social-media properties (twitterhandle, linkedinbio) or custom text fields. HubSpot does not natively scrape or verify social profiles — these are informational fields for your team's outreach reference.

Cision allows custom tags on contacts (e.g., 'IPO coverage', 'climate desk', 'former White House press'). HubSpot contacts have no native tag field at the contact level (lists handle segmentation instead). We create a Cision_Tags__c text property and concatenate Cision's tag values, preserving the labeling taxonomy for reference and manual list-building in HubSpot.