Audiences and Contact Roles in HubSpot
Status: Working reference
Last reviewed: June 17th, 2026
Audience: ILF internal teams creating forms, importing contacts, reviewing CRM data, or using audience segmentation in HubSpot
PurposeWorking note: This article reflects the current working understanding of ILF audience categories and Contact Role values in HubSpot. It may be updated as HubSpot implementation decisions, audience mapping, form standards, and segmentation rules are finalized.
This article explains how ILF uses audience categories and the Contact Role property in HubSpot.
Contact Role helps ILF understand who is in the CRM, who we are trying to reach, and how contacts may relate to ILF’s campaigns, events, programs, technical ecosystem, policy work, partnerships, and communications.
What “audience” means in HubSpot
In HubSpot, an audience is a group of people ILF wants to reach, understand, engage, or support.
Audiences may include:
- People already in the CRM
- People ILF wants to capture through forms, events, campaigns, and outreach
- People who may move through different lifecycle stages over time
- People who may belong to different tracks, such as technical, policy, grants, community, or ecosystem engagement
Audience information helps ILF segment contacts, personalize follow-up, support marketing automation, and understand campaign reach.
What Contact Role means
Contact Role is a HubSpot property used to describe a person’s role, professional function, or relationship to ILF’s work.
Use Contact Role to answer:
Who is this person in relation to ILF’s ecosystem, campaigns, or CRM strategy?
This property helps ILF organize contacts beyond basic contact information like name and email.
When to use Contact Role
Use Contact Role when ILF is collecting or updating contact information and needs to understand what kind of audience the person belongs to.
This may apply to:
- HubSpot forms
- Event registration forms
- Campaign landing pages
- Newsletter or interest forms
- Contact imports
- Event lead capture
- CRM updates
- Workflow or segmentation setup
Current Contact Role values
The Contact Role values listed below reflect the current options available in HubSpot.
Use this table as a working guide when selecting or interpreting Contact Role values.
These working definitions are based on the current HubSpot Contact Role options and ILF’s audience/funnel mapping materials. They are intended to help staff choose the closest available role when creating forms, importing contacts, or reviewing CRM data.
| Contact Role | Working definition | Use when the contact is likely connected to… |
|---|---|---|
| Software Developer / Engineer | A technical builder who writes code, builds applications, contributes to technical projects, or experiments with Interledger-related tools. | Developer campaigns, GitHub activity, APIs, SDKs, hackathons, technical documentation, open-source participation |
| Product Manager | A person responsible for product strategy, product planning, user needs, feature development, or product adoption. | Product-led exploration, platform use cases, wallet or payment product evaluation, implementation planning |
| Technical Architect / CTO | A senior technical decision-maker responsible for system design, technical strategy, integrations, or infrastructure decisions. | Technical assessments, integration feasibility, architecture discussions, implementation decisions |
| Compliance / Regulatory Affairs | A person focused on compliance, regulatory risk, legal obligations, policy requirements, or organizational adherence to financial rules. | Compliance review, regulatory readiness, payments/fintech operations, institutional adoption |
| Policy Analyst / Policymaker | A person involved in public policy, regulation, standards, government affairs, or policy research. | Policy and advocacy work, regulatory engagement, policy briefings, standards discussions |
| Business Development / Partnerships | A person responsible for partnerships, growth opportunities, ecosystem relationships, institutional engagement, or strategic collaboration. | Partner outreach, ecosystem development, pilot interest, collaboration opportunities |
| Founder / Executive | A senior organizational leader, founder, executive, or decision-maker with authority over strategy, partnerships, funding, or adoption. | Executive engagement, strategic partnerships, CEO dinners, high-level consultations, institutional decisions |
| Payments / Fintech Operations | A person working directly in payments, fintech operations, money movement, remittance, wallet operations, or financial services delivery. | Open Payments, Rafiki, cross-border payment use cases, fintech adoption, operational implementation |
| NGO / Development Organisation | A person representing a nonprofit, NGO, civil society group, development organization, or mission-driven institution. | Financial inclusion work, development sector partnerships, grants, impact programs, advocacy |
| Journalist / Media | A person working in journalism, media, publishing, communications, or public storytelling. | Press outreach, media engagement, coverage, interviews, public awareness |
How Contact Role supports forms
When ILF collects contact information through a form, Contact Role can help identify what type of person is entering the CRM.
Forms may ask people to self-identify their role or may map a form response to a Contact Role value.
Use Contact Role on forms when the information will help with:
- Audience segmentation
- Campaign follow-up
- Workflow enrollment
- Event follow-up
- Reporting
- Understanding who ILF is reaching
How Contact Role supports segmentation
Contact Role can be used to group contacts into meaningful segments for communication, reporting, and automation.
For example, Contact Role may help identify contacts who are likely part of the following audiences:
- Developer
- Policy and advocacy
- Payments and fintech
- Media
- NGO or development sector
- Partnership or executive
Contact Role vs. interest track
Contact Role describes who the person is.
Interest track describes what the person is interested in.
For example:
- A contact may have the Contact Role Software Developer / Engineer and be interested in Build The Tech.
- A contact may have the Contact Role Policy Analyst / Policymaker and be interested in Policy and Advocacy.
- A contact may have the Contact Role Founder / Executive and be interested in partnerships, grants, or another relevant pathway depending on the form or campaign.
Both pieces of information can be useful. Contact Role helps ILF understand the person’s relationship to the ecosystem, while interest track helps ILF understand what kind of follow-up or content may be relevant.
Open questionsThe following items may need confirmation:
- Whether all current Contact Role values are final
- Whether any Contact Role values should be merged, renamed, or removed
- Whether Contact Role should be required on all forms or only selected forms
- Whether Contact Role should be self-selected by contacts or assigned internally
- How Contact Role should map to lifecycle stages, workflows, and campaign reporting
- Whether audience categories referenced in planning materials but not currently listed as Contact Role values should be added later