As a HubSpot consultant, I’ve seen inside hundreds of portals, from chaotic startups to streamlined enterprises. The single biggest difference between companies that struggle with HubSpot and those that scale with it? Effective automation.
Many businesses use HubSpot as a simple CRM or a basic email tool, leaving its most powerful feature—automation—largely untouched. They spend hours on manual data entry, lead assignment, and follow-ups, tasks that HubSpot could be doing for them while they sleep. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s a massive drain on resources and a direct inhibitor of growth.
Your competitors are already using HubSpot automations to nurture leads, close deals, and delight customers at scale. This guide is your blueprint to catch up and surpass them. We’re not just going to talk about what HubSpot workflows are; I’m going to give you a complete, step-by-step masterclass to turn your HubSpot portal into a fully automated revenue engine.
This masterclass will cover:
•A clear breakdown of HubSpot’s automation tools (Workflows vs. Sequences vs. Bots).
•A step-by-step tutorial on building your first HubSpot automated workflow (with screenshots).
•15+ plug-and-play HubSpot automation examples for Marketing, Sales, and Service.
•Advanced strategies using webhooks and custom code.
•A bulletproof system for organizing and managing your workflows.
By the end of this guide, you will have the knowledge and the templates to implement sophisticated HubSpot automations that save you hundreds of hours and drive significant ROI.
Chapter 1: What Are HubSpot Automations? (Workflows vs. Sequences vs. Bots)
First, let’s clarify the terminology. "HubSpot Automations" refers to a suite of tools designed to automate your business processes. The three main tools are Workflows, Sequences, and Bots. Understanding when to use each is critical.
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Tool
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Best For
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Key Feature
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Use Case Example
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Workflows
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One-to-Many Automation: Automating internal processes and marketing campaigns for large groups of contacts.
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If/Then Branching Logic: Can perform complex actions based on contact properties and behavior.
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Automatically enrolling 1,000 new leads into a 5-part email nurture campaign.
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Sequences
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One-to-One Sales Automation: Automating a series of personalized emails and task reminders for a sales rep to a specific prospect.
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Personalization: Emails come directly from a sales rep’s inbox and stop automatically when the prospect replies.
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A sales rep enrolling a single, high-value prospect in a 3-email follow-up sequence.
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Bots (Chatflows)
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Real-Time Website Interaction: Automating conversations with website visitors to qualify leads, book meetings, or answer questions.
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Conversational UI: Engages visitors 24/7 through a chat interface.
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A chatbot on your pricing page that asks qualifying questions and books a demo for qualified visitors.
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Consultant’s Verdict: Workflows are the heart of HubSpot automations. They are the most versatile and powerful tool. This guide will focus primarily on mastering the HubSpot workflow builder.
Chapter 2: How to Create a HubSpot Workflow (Step-by-Step Tutorial)
Let’s build your first HubSpot automated workflow. We’ll create a simple workflow that sends a follow-up email to a contact who downloads an eBook.
Step 1: Navigate to the Workflow Builder
In your HubSpot account, go to Automations > Workflows and click Create workflow.
Step 2: Choose Your Workflow Type
Select Start from scratch and choose a Contact-based workflow. This means the workflow will center around a contact record.
Step 3: Set Up Your Enrollment Trigger
This is the event that will automatically enroll a contact into your workflow.
•In the right panel, select Form submission.
•Choose the specific form for your eBook download.
•Click Apply filter and then Save.
Now, any contact who fills out that form will be enrolled in this workflow.
Step 4: Add Your First Action
Click the + icon to add an action.
•Select Send email from the list of actions.
•Choose the follow-up email you want to send. (You should create this email beforehand).
Step 5: Add a Delay and a Second Action
You don’t want to bombard your contacts. Let’s add a delay.
•Click the + icon below the delay and add another Send email action with your second follow-up email.
Step 6: Use If/Then Branching Logic
Let’s make this smarter. We only want to send a third email if the contact didn’t click the link in the second email.
•Create a branch based on Marketing email activity. Select your second email and choose the filter Contact clicked a link in email.
•Now you have two paths: Yes and No.
•Under the No path, add your third follow-up email.
•Under the Yes path, you could add an action to notify a sales rep or change their lifecycle stage to MQL.
Step 7: Test and Activate
Before you turn it on, use the Test feature in the top right to enroll a test contact and ensure the logic works as expected. Once you’re confident, click Review and publish, then Turn on.
Consultant’s Tip: Always set an Unenrollment trigger. For example, you might want to unenroll a contact from a nurture workflow as soon as they book a meeting. This prevents them from receiving irrelevant emails.
Chapter 3: 15 Essential HubSpot Automation Examples
Here are 15 plug-and-play HubSpot workflow templates you can build today, categorized by department.
Marketing Automations
1.Lead Nurturing Workflow
•Trigger: Contact fills out a top-of-funnel form (e.g., eBook download).
•Actions: Send a series of 3-5 educational emails over 2 weeks, each offering more value and ending with a call-to-action for a demo.
•Trigger: Contact property Last marketing email open date is more than 90 days ago.
•Actions: Send a 2-email sequence asking if they still want to hear from you, offering a valuable new resource. If no engagement, add them to a suppression list.
3.Event Promotion & Follow-Up
•Trigger: Contact registers for a webinar.
•Actions: Send a confirmation email, two reminder emails (one day before, one hour before), and a post-event follow-up with the recording.
4.Lead Scoring Automation
•Trigger: Contact property HubSpot Score is greater than 50.
•Actions: Change Lifecycle stage to Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Create a task for a sales rep to review the contact.
5.Content Download Follow-Up
•Trigger: Contact downloads a specific whitepaper.
•Actions: Immediately send an email with the download link. Wait 2 days, then send a related case study. Wait 3 more days, then send an email offering a consultation on that topic.
Sales Automations
1.Lead Routing & Assignment
•Trigger: Contact becomes an MQL.
•Actions: Use an if/then branch based on Country or Company Size to assign the contact to the correct sales rep using the Rotate contact owner action.
2.Automated Sales Task Creation
•Trigger: A deal is created.
•Actions: Create a task for the deal owner to Make an initial follow-up call due in 1 day.
•Trigger: A deal moves to the Demo Scheduled stage.
•Actions: Automatically send the contact a calendar invite and a pre-demo prep guide.
4.Meeting No-Show Follow-Up
•Trigger: A sales rep logs a meeting outcome as No-show.
•Actions: Automatically send an email to the contact saying, "Sorry we missed you, let’s find another time," with a link to reschedule.
•Trigger: Deal property Last activity date is more than 14 days ago.
•Actions: Send an internal notification to the deal owner and their manager to check in on the deal.
Customer Success Automations
1.New Customer Onboarding
•Trigger: Deal stage changes to Closed Won.
•Actions: Send a welcome email, create a series of tasks for the onboarding team, and enroll the customer in a 1-week onboarding email sequence.
•Trigger: Based on a custom date property Renewal Date (e.g., 90 days before renewal).
•Actions: Create a task for the account manager to begin the renewal conversation.
3.Customer Feedback Collection (NPS)
•Trigger: Contact property Became a customer date is 90 days ago.
•Actions: Send an email with a link to a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey.
4.Upsell/Cross-sell Opportunity
•Trigger: A customer visits the pricing page for a higher-tier plan.
•Actions: Send an internal notification to the account manager with the subject, [Contact Name] is looking at upgrading!
•Trigger: A customer’s Health Score (a custom property) drops below 40.
•Actions: Create a high-priority task for the Customer Success Manager to reach out immediately and send an internal Slack notification to the CS team.
Chapter 4: Advanced Automation Strategies
Ready to take it to the next level? These advanced strategies leverage integrations and custom logic.
•Webhook Automation: Use webhooks to send data from HubSpot to other applications. For example, when a deal is Closed Won, send a webhook to your accounting software to automatically generate an invoice.
•Custom Code Actions: With an Operations Hub Enterprise subscription, you can write custom JavaScript or Python code within your workflows to perform complex calculations or data manipulations that aren’t possible with native actions.
•Integration with Third-Party Tools: Use HubSpot’s app marketplace to connect tools like Slack or Asana. Create a workflow that sends a notification to a specific Slack channel when a high-value lead fills out a form.
•Complex Branching: Create workflows with multiple layers of if/then branches. For example, segment leads by country, then by company size, then by industry, all within a single workflow, to deliver hyper-personalized content.
Chapter 5: Workflow Organization & Best Practices
As you build more HubSpot automated workflows, your portal can get messy. A disciplined organization system is essential.
•Naming Convention: Use a strict naming convention like [Department] - [Purpose] - [Details]. For example: SALES - Lead Routing - US West or MKTG - Nurture - eBook Downloaders.
•Folder Structure: Create folders for each department (Marketing, Sales, Service) and sub-folders for specific functions (Nurturing, Internal Notifications, Onboarding).
•Documentation: Use the Description box in every workflow to explain what it does, who built it, and when it was last updated.
•Regular Audits: Once a quarter, review all your workflows. Turn off and archive any that are no longer in use.
Chapter 6: Common Mistakes & Troubleshooting
Even experienced users run into issues. Here are some common problems and how to fix them.
•Mistake: Your workflow isn’t triggering.
•Solution: Check your enrollment triggers. Are they too specific? Is there a typo in the criteria? Use the Test feature to see why a specific contact isn’t enrolling.
•Mistake: A contact is stuck in a workflow.
•Solution: Check your delays and branch logic. Make sure every branch has an end point. Review the workflow history for a specific contact to see where they got stuck.
•Mistake: Sending too many emails.
•Solution: Use delays wisely. Set unenrollment triggers so contacts exit the workflow when they take the desired action (e.g., book a meeting).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What are HubSpot automations?
HubSpot automations are a suite of tools, primarily Workflows, that allow you to automate marketing, sales, and service tasks. This includes sending emails, updating CRM data, creating tasks, and more, based on a contact's behavior or properties.
Q: How do HubSpot workflows work?
HubSpot workflows operate on a system of enrollment triggers and actions. A trigger (e.g., a form submission) enrolls a contact, and the workflow then executes a series of automated actions (e.g., sending emails, creating tasks) based on the rules you set.
Q: What's the difference between HubSpot workflows and sequences?
Workflows are for one-to-many automation (e.g., marketing campaigns) and have complex branching logic. Sequences are for one-to-one sales automation, sending a series of personalized emails from a sales rep's inbox that stop when the prospect replies.
Q: How much do HubSpot automations cost?
Basic automation is available on the Professional plans for Marketing, Sales, and Service Hubs. More advanced features, like custom code actions and predictive analytics, require an Enterprise-level subscription.
Q: What are the best HubSpot automation examples?
The best examples include lead nurturing, lead routing, new customer onboarding, re-engagement campaigns, and internal task creation. These automations save the most time and have the highest impact on revenue.
Conclusion: Your Automation Journey Starts Now
We’ve covered everything from the basic building blocks of HubSpot automations to advanced, revenue-driving strategies. You now have the knowledge, the templates, and the step-by-step instructions to transform your business processes.
Don’t try to build all 15 workflows overnight. Start with one. Pick the biggest manual time-suck in your current process—whether it’s lead assignment or new customer follow-up—and build a workflow to automate it. The time you save can then be reinvested into building the next one.
Automation is a journey, not a destination. But with this guide, you have a map to get started.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or want to accelerate your results, we’re here to help. At Pixcell, we specialize in designing and implementing sophisticated HubSpot automation strategies for businesses like yours. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation, and let’s build your automated revenue engine together.