How to Connect Wave to HubSpot: Digital Business Card CRM Integration (2026)

George El-Hage 🔗 LinkedIn

Founder, Wave Connect | CRM integrations deployed for 10,000+ teams since 2020

I've built and tested every CRM integration Wave offers - HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. This guide walks through the exact HubSpot setup process I use with our team customers.

A digital business card HubSpot integration lets you automatically push every contact you collect with Wave directly into your CRM - no manual data entry, no lost leads, no excuses. If your sales team is using Wave Connect for teams and HubSpot for pipeline management, connecting the two takes less than five minutes.

In this guide, I'll walk you through the complete setup: what you need beforehand, the step-by-step connection process, what data actually syncs, and how to build HubSpot workflows that automatically follow up with new contacts. I've personally set this up for hundreds of teams, so this is based on real deployment experience.

Why Connect Your Digital Business Card to HubSpot?

Connecting your digital business card to HubSpot eliminates the gap between meeting someone and getting them into your sales pipeline. Without CRM integration, contacts sit in your Wave dashboard until someone manually exports and imports them. With it, every new contact lands in HubSpot automatically - tagged, timestamped, and ready for follow-up.

Here's what I've seen happen without this integration: a sales rep meets 40 people at a conference, collects contacts through their Wave card, and then... nothing. They get back to the office, things pile up, and half those contacts never make it into HubSpot. Sound familiar?

With the integration turned on, every single contact syncs in real time. Your reps don't have to think about it. They tap a card, share a QR code, or text their Wave link - and the contact is already in HubSpot by the time they move to the next conversation.

The benefits boil down to three things:

• Zero manual data entry - contacts flow automatically, no CSV exports needed
• Faster follow-up - you can trigger HubSpot workflows the moment a new contact syncs
• Better data hygiene - no typos from manual entry, no duplicate records from re-keying

What You'll Need Before Getting Started

You need an active Wave Connect account and a HubSpot account (any tier, including Free CRM) to set up this integration. The connection works through OAuth - meaning you'll authorize Wave to push contacts to HubSpot through a secure login flow. No API keys or developer setup required.

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A Wave Connect account - sign up free here if you don't have one
• A HubSpot account - any tier works (Free CRM, Starter, Professional, or Enterprise)
• Admin access to HubSpot - you'll need permission to authorize third-party app connections
• A few contacts in Wave (optional but helpful for testing the sync after setup)

That's it. The whole process is point-and-click. If you can log into both accounts, you can set this up. I've walked people through it over the phone in under three minutes.

Step-by-Step: Connecting Wave Connect to HubSpot

The entire connection takes 5 steps and under 5 minutes - no coding, no API tokens, no IT department required. Here's the exact process I walk every team through.

From this point on, every new contact you collect through your Wave card syncs directly into your HubSpot Contacts tab. No extra steps.

What Data Syncs Between Wave and HubSpot?

Wave syncs the full contact record into HubSpot - name, email, phone number, company name, job title, and any notes attached to the contact. Each contact appears as a new record in your HubSpot Contacts tab with all fields mapped automatically.

Here's the breakdown of what transfers:

The sync is one-directional: Wave pushes data to HubSpot. If you update a contact inside HubSpot (add them to a deal, change their lifecycle stage), that won't write back to Wave. This keeps things clean - Wave handles collection, HubSpot handles pipeline management.

One thing I really like: if someone scans your card and fills in their details, those fields sync exactly as entered. No reformatting, no truncation. The data arrives in HubSpot clean and ready to use.

Automating Your Lead Follow-Up with HubSpot Workflows

The real power of this integration isn't just syncing contacts - it's what you can automate after they land in HubSpot. Once a Wave contact hits your CRM, you can trigger workflows that send follow-up emails, assign reps, create deals, and update lifecycle stages automatically.

Here are three workflows I set up for almost every team:

1. Instant Follow-Up Email

Create a HubSpot workflow triggered when a new contact is created from Wave. Send a personalized email within 5 minutes of meeting them. Something simple like: "Great connecting at [event] - here's the info we discussed." This alone puts you ahead of 90% of people who wait days to follow up.

2. Lead Assignment by Territory

If your team is spread across regions, build a workflow that routes contacts to the right rep based on company location or area code. Your field reps collect contacts, and HubSpot automatically assigns them to the rep who owns that territory.

3. Event-Based Deal Creation

For trade show teams, set up a workflow that creates a new deal in your pipeline every time a Wave contact syncs during event dates. Tag the deal with the event name so you can measure ROI per event. Want to go deeper on event lead capture? Check out our guide on how to capture leads at a trade show.

If you're already using HubSpot sequences for outreach, this integration makes them even more powerful. Instead of manually adding contacts to sequences, the workflow does it for you. Your reps focus on conversations, not data entry. For more on post-event follow-up strategies, see our guide to following up after networking events.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Most issues with the Wave-HubSpot integration come down to three things: permissions, duplicate contacts, or browser popups. Here's how to fix each one quickly.

HubSpot Authorization Fails

If the HubSpot login popup doesn't appear or closes immediately, check your browser's popup blocker. The OAuth flow opens in a new window - if popups are blocked, it won't work. Temporarily allow popups for app.wavecnct.com and try again.

Contacts Not Appearing in HubSpot

First, give it a minute. Sync is near-instant but can occasionally take up to 60 seconds. If contacts still aren't showing up after a few minutes, go back to Settings > CRM Integrations and verify the connection is still active. If it shows "Disconnected," reconnect using the same steps above.

Duplicate Contacts

HubSpot uses email as the unique identifier. If a synced contact already exists in HubSpot with the same email, the system won't create a duplicate - it will update the existing record. If you're seeing duplicates, it's likely because the same person used different email addresses. HubSpot's built-in duplicate management tools can help you merge those.

Integration Disconnected

HubSpot OAuth tokens can expire if your HubSpot account permissions change or if you revoke third-party app access. If the integration drops, just reconnect - it takes 30 seconds. Your existing synced contacts in HubSpot aren't affected.

If you're running into something not covered here, reach out to our support team. We're pretty fast.

Wave Connect also integrates with other major CRMs if HubSpot isn't your only platform. We've got a Salesforce integration guide and a Zoho CRM setup guide that follow the same process. And if you're evaluating which CRM works best with digital business cards overall, our CRM integration comparison covers all the major platforms.