HubSpot workflows are automation tools that help you manage marketing, sales, and service tasks without needing manual input. They ensure that the right action or communication happens at the right time based on pre-defined rules. You can think of them as digital assistants working behind the scenes to ensure the right message or action happens at the right time.
Workflows are available in HubSpot’s Professional and Enterprise tiers and are built to automate actions across the CRM, including email sends, lead scoring, internal notifications, and more.
HubSpot workflows help save a lot of time. Instead of sending the same email over and over or reminding your team to follow up with leads, you can automate these steps while avoiding mistakes at the same time. Moreover, they are great for scaling. As your business grows, it is hard to handle hundreds of tasks manually. With HubSpot workflows, your processes can grow with you without adding a ton of new work.
In this guide, you’ll learn what HubSpot workflows can do, how to build them from scratch, and how to customize them for your marketing, sales, or service team.
A HubSpot workflow is an automation tool that helps you automate a series of actions triggered by specific conditions or events. Instead of manually sending emails, assigning leads, updating properties, or creating tasks, workflows let HubSpot handle these based on your logic. You can choose the starting point (called a trigger), and then decide what should happen next, like sending a message or updating a deal.
With HubSpot workflows, you can save time. If you had to personally follow up with every customer or remind your team about tasks, you would be overwhelmed. HubSpot workflows take care of those repetitive actions so you can focus on the bigger picture. From welcoming new customers to alerting your team about changes, automation makes the process smooth and consistent.
In marketing, workflows help you stay connected with potential customers.
When it comes to sales, HubSpot workflows make sure that no opportunity slips through the cracks.
In customer service, they ensure that your support system stays on top of open tickets and customer needs.
Setting up a HubSpot workflow is easier than it sounds. HubSpot has a user-friendly interface that guides you step-by-step through the process.
Log in to your HubSpot account and go to the top menu. In the main navigation bar, go to “Automation” and select “Workflows.” This will take you to the workflow dashboard, where you can view all your current workflows or start a new one. This dashboard is where you can manage, edit, and monitor all your automation workflows.
Click on the “Create workflow” button. HubSpot will then ask you to choose what kind of workflow you want to build. If you are just starting, choose “Start from scratch” and pick the type of workflow. Usually, “Contact-based” is best for email automation and lead nurturing. Furthermore, you can choose from templates if you want to speed things up.
Next, you need to make a decision on what should kick off the workflow. These are called enrollment triggers. For example, a trigger could be when someone fills out a contact form, downloads a guide, or reaches a certain stage in your sales pipeline. You can also set conditions to make sure that only the right contact enters the workflow.
Now it is time to tell HubSpot what to do after the trigger happens. These are your workflow actions. You can add steps like sending an email, creating a task, updating a property, or adding delays between actions. HubSpot lets you build simple or complex sequences depending on what you need.
Before activating your workflow, review everything to make sure that it is set up correctly. HubSpot gives you the option to test it using a sample contact. This helps you catch mistakes before they go live. Once you are satisfied, click “Review and Publish,” then hit “Turn On.” Your workflow is now active and running on autopilot.
If you are comfortable with the basics of HubSpot workflow, you can now take things to the next level by using advanced features.
Delays are simple but powerful, as they allow you to space out your workflow actions. For example, instead of sending three emails at once, you can add a delay of days between each one, in order to make your messages feel more natural and less spammy.
With Goals, you can track workflow success. You can set a goal like “contact becomes a customer” or “fills out a second form.” Once the goal is met, the contact can automatically exit the workflow, so you are not continuing to send them messages they no longer need.
Branches, often called if/ then branches, let you split a workflow into different paths based on a contact’s behavior. For instance, if someone clicks a link in your email, they go down one path. If they do not, they go down another path.
You can use CRM data to personalize the experience. You can pull in details like the contact’s first name, company name, location, or industry to make your emails feel more personal and relevant.
Additionally, you can also trigger actions based on CRM properties, like sending different emails to leads in different stages of your sales funnel. The more data you use, the more tailored your workflows can become.
Over time, your CRM can get messy, and your contacts may enter information in all caps. With workflow actions, you can automatically clean and format this data. An example of this is that you can change “JOHN DOE” to “John Doe” or make sure phone numbers follow a standard format.
You can choose when contacts are allowed to enter or re-enter a workflow and control how frequently contacts receive communications. Moreover, you can also turn on internal notifications, which send alerts to your team when certain actions happen, like when a lead reaches a specific state or a task is overdue.
In order to really understand how powerful HubSpot workflows can be, it helps to see real-life examples.
In the Marketing Hub, workflows are mostly used for lead nurturing and email marketing. For example, when someone fills out a form to download a free guide, a workflow can automatically send a thank-you email, wait two days, and then follow up with related blog content.
You can also set up a welcome series for new subscribers, which might include three emails sent over a week.
Workflows help sales reps stay organized and responsive. A popular Sales Hub workflow example is lead rotation. When a new contact is marked as a qualified lead, HubSpot automatically assigns it to a sales representative based on availability.
Another common use is task creation, like when a contact reaches a certain deal stage, the workflow can create a follow-up task for the sales rep and send them a notification.
With the Service Hub, workflows can be used to improve the support experience. For instance, when a customer submits a ticket, a workflow can assign it to the right support rep, send a confirmation email to the customer, and set an internal priority.
Furthermore, you can automate follow-ups. If a ticket has not been resolved within a certain time frame, the workflow can send reminders to the support team or escalate the issue to a manager.
Cross-Hub workflows combine tools from multiple Hubs to create a seamless customer journey. For example, after a lead becomes a customer (Sales Hub), a workflow can trigger a welcome email series (Marketing Hub) and assign an onboarding task to a customer success rep (Service Hub).
Workflows are designed to streamline your processes, but errors can still occur, especially in logic setup, enrollment criteria, or email configuration.
Why it happens: This usually happens because the trigger is not set correctly or the contact does not meet the conditions.
Solution: Double-check your enrollment criteria.
Why it happens: If the email was not published, or the contact did not have an email address on file.
Solution: HubSpot usually shows an error message in the workflow editor to help you pinpoint what went wrong.
You can pause or turn off a workflow anytime. In order to do this, just go to the workflow dashboard, click on the workflow, and toggle it off. This stops any new contacts from enrolling, but existing contacts who are already in the workflow may continue unless you manually remove them.
If you are making big changes or want to take a break from automation during a campaign, you can pause the workflow.
If a contact, company, or deal that was enrolled in a workflow gets deleted, HubSpot automatically removes them from the workflow too. Any actions that were supposed to happen after deletion will not go through.
HubSpot has some built-in limits that depend on your subscription plan. For example, you might have a cap on the number of workflows you can create or how many branches you can add to a workflow.
If you hit a limit, HubSpot will notify you. In order to avoid this, you can plan your workflows carefully and then review your plan’s usage details from the settings page.
Sometimes actions are skipped because they do not meet the required condition, such as an email action may be skipped if the contact has unsubscribed from emails, or a delay might be set for a time when no sending is allowed (like weekends).
Other times, delays may happen because of time zone settings or contact behavior. For this, you should always check the workflow history to see exactly why something did not go through.
You can edit active workflows in HubSpot, but be careful. Some changes, like altering the trigger or removing steps, can affect contacts already in the workflow.
If you are making minor edits, like changing an email subject or adjusting a delay, you are usually safe. For major changes, you can consider cloning the workflow and then turning off the original after testing.
To get the most out of HubSpot workflows, it’s not just about setting them up; you have to set them up the right way.
It is tempting to pack your workflow with tons of steps and conditions, but simpler is often better. A clean workflow is easier to troubleshoot, faster to edit, and less likely to break.
Before you start a workflow, make sure you know who it is for. For this, you can make use of audience segmentation to group contacts by behavior, stage in the buyer’s journey, or past interactions. This makes your messaging more relevant and helps you avoid sending the same content to everyone.
HubSpot allows you to run test contacts through your workflow so you can see exactly what actions will take place. This helps you catch things like broken email links or incorrect conditions.
Once your workflow is live, the job is not over. Use HubSpot’s analytics to track how it is performing. Look at open rates, click-through rates, contact drop-off points, and conversion stats. This data can show you what is working and what needs improvement.
For instance, if a workflow updates a property that is also set as a trigger, the contact could re-enroll over and over again. This can clog your system and confuse your audience.
For the HubSpot workflows to be successful, you have to track key metrics like completion rate and conversion rate to see how well your workflows are performing. You can use A/B testing to compare different versions of emails or actions. Based on the data, you can then iterate and improve your workflows regularly to boost engagement and overall results.
HubSpot workflows are like invisible helpers that automate tasks and follow-ups so that your business can run smoothly. They help in saving a lot of time and reduce manual effort, which in turn helps provide a better customer experience.
From simple email sequences to internal notifications, HubSpot workflows can support nearly every part of your operation. With the right setup and regular reviews, these automations can become one of the most valuable tools for your business.