The possession of an avenue where processes are automated can be refreshing and rewarding as the energy of the workforce is conserved, productivity is increased, downtime is greatly reduced, and job satisfaction is improved.
Businesses these days set aside resources and channels where marketing and sales campaigns can be done through leveraging on software that can cater to the day to day needs of the organization by creating leads and following up on these leads in-other to achieve set goals and increase the revenue of the enterprise.
Putting the right content in front of the right people at the right time, keeping track of customer’s actions and their response to them, sending out necessary information through emails, etc. have become easier through smart automation processes that have been made possible with specific software delivering such features.
This article is going to dwell on how to set automated schedules called HubSpot Workflows, a popular software service used for inbound marketing that can handle all of your sales and marketing requirements. It will cover discussions on how to create your workflow, set enrollment triggers, add workflow actions, etc. and show that setting up workflows in HubSpot is a useful way of keeping all your marketing drives on one platform for effective customer service delivery.
Table of Contents
Introduction to HubSpot
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HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing automated software product that utilizes an inbound service paradigm. It is very helpful in marketing, sales, and customer services as it provides the tools necessary to handle Customer Relationship Management, Content Management, Social Media Marketing, Lead Generation, Web Analytics, Live Chat, Search Engine Optimization, and Customer Support.
Hubspot is one of the best marketing software available in the industry today as it syncs sales and marketing processes seamlessly, therefore, acting as a one-stop-shop for your company’s sales and marketing needs. Hubspot features include Free CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub, its content is optimized for the user and it is very affordable.
HubSpot is also versatile as it has integrative features for salesforce.com, SugarCRM, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, etc. and it has third-party services such as templates and extensions.
Here are a few key HubSpot features as a CRM software tool:
- HubSpot Document Tool: This tool can be used to build a library of up-to-date sales and marketing content for your team. You can also add a link to them in your emails with this tool. You can then get instant alerts when contacts interact with your content and track the aggregate metrics on your content performance.
- Email Template Creation: An email template is a premade email that can be sent without type the same content. You can easily customize your contacts so that you don’t lose email’s personalization advantage.
- HubSpot Snippets: HubSpot helps you save time by allowing you to create snippets to save time. Snippets are small text blocks (around 500 characters) that can be inserted into chats, emails, and company records. With HubSpot snippets, you can leave notes about the prospects in the CRM, quickly respond during a live chat conversation, or pull in important details when writing an email.
Introduction to Workflows
Workflows by definition can be described as a sequence of tasks or series of activities that need to be completed sequentially or in parallel to achieve a required outcome. In most situations, the process is linear and the actions follow pre-determined rules.
HubSpot, an inbound marketing platform arranges workflows as an automated process where tasks, information, and emails are triggered based on set rules by an individual or marketing teams. It helps in following up on leads and reduces errors that might arise when sending continuous emails manually as the process now becomes automatic based on your criteria.
Using HubSpot Workflows allows your business to manage marketing initiatives as effectively as possible because you would not need to carry out actions for individual contacts rather, you can invent a method or process for catering for a group of these contacts by setting triggers thereby increasing the productivity of your business and the overall reaction time.
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Understanding HubSpot Workflows
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HubSpot Workflows can be a useful tool in the advancement of your company as they can be used to create smart workflows that help in the day-to-day running of your marketing activities. It is very helpful in enrolling leads as well as nurturing new and old prospects, for example, a workflow can automate the process of sending personalized emails with the right content to users and nurture them based on the actions they take like clicking on links, making subscriptions and so on referred to as triggers.
These workflows are set based on your end goals and what you want to achieve from them like having to use a fixed-date workflow to promote an upcoming conference or webinar as it would only send out emails when the set date reaches and this can also be configured to send the mails annually too as deemed fit.
In the next section, you will be introduced to how to create workflows on HubSpot and how to carry out other actions:
HubSpot Workflows: Workflow Creation
To create a workflow on HubSpot, do the following:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation.
- Select Workflows.
- At the top right, click Create workflow.
- Proceed to select the type of workflow you want to create. The workflow types can be created for the following objects:
- Contact-Based Workflow
- Company-Based Workflow
- Deal-Based Workflow
- Quote-Based Workflow (Sales Hub Enterprise)
- Ticket-Based Workflow (Service Hub Professional or Enterprise)
- Custom Object-Based Workflow (Enterprise only)
- Conversation-Based Workflow
- Feedback Submissions Workflow (Service Hub Professional or Enterprise)
To select the type of workflow you want to create, do this, in the left pane of the workflow page, select either start a workflow from scratch, to work with a blank workflow, or select a template to start with a default set of enrollment triggers and actions. To start from scratch, click on the start from scratch tab then select one of the workflow options listed above. If Contact-Based is selected, there are three options to continue with namely: start from scratch, center on a date, or center on a date property. To know more about Contact-Based Workflows visit here.
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For template, click the Template tab, then search or click the Type dropdown menu in the left pane to find the template type. You can also select preview the template to see the enrollment triggers and actions.
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- Give the workflow a name by clicking on the pencil icon.
- Finally, click on Create workflow.
HubSpot Workflows: Setting Enrollment Triggers
Enrollment Triggers are referred to as a set of rules that are used to automatically enroll records in your workflow when they meet certain criteria. These records will only enroll into your workflow automatically the first time they meet the enrollment Triggers but they can also be enrolled manually. To set up enrollment Triggers, do the following:
- In the workflow editor, click Set enrollment triggers.
- Select a filter type for your Enrollment Trigger from the right pane. Set up the trigger then click Apply filter.
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- To enable re-enrollment of records as they will only be enrolled the first time they meet the Enrollment Triggers criteria, do the following:
- In the right sidebar, click the Re-enrollment tab.
- Turn On the Re-enrollment switch.
- Select the triggers that will be used for re-enrollment.
- Add more Enrollment Triggers if needed.
- Click Save.
For more on Enrollment Triggers, visit here.
HubSpot Workflows: Adding Workflow Actions
Actions are functions that the workflow will execute for enrolled records, they include timing delays, internal and external communications, and record management. To add actions, do the following:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation then select Workflows.
- Click the name of your workflow.
- Click on the + plus icon to add a workflow action.
- Select the action to be added to your workflow and set the details of the action from the panel displayed on the right.
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You can always click on the + plus icon to add more workflow actions and after adding an action, you can clone or move it to streamline the workflow building process. For more on workflows’ actions visit here.
HubSpot Workflows: Managing your Workflow Settings
You can manage your workflow actions, determine when they should execute, set Enrollment Triggers, add Associate Campaigns, and allow Salesforce enrollment through the Workflow Settings tab. To access the tab, do the following:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation then select Workflows.
- Move your mouse pointer over the workflow and click Edit.
- In the workflow editor, click the Settings tab.
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From the General section, you can select the days of the week and times an action can execute, set pause dates to prevent an action from executing, allow enrollment from Salesforce, associate your workflow with a HubSpot campaign, decide which record is enrolled and when to use the un-enrollment and suppression button, remove enrolled contacts from other workflows, allow merger contacts to enroll, remove contacts that no longer meet the Enrollment Triggers, add a suppression list, etc. To know more about managing your workflow settings visit here.
HubSpot Workflows: Turning on your Workflow
After setting up your workflow, you will have to turn it on. To review and turn on your workflow to begin the automation process, carry out the following steps:
- In the upper right corner, click Review.
- You can choose to enroll records that meet the Enrollment Triggers after the workflow is turned on by selecting Yes, enroll existing [objects] which meet the trigger criteria as of now, or only enroll records that meet the triggers in the future by selecting No, only enroll [objects] which meet the trigger criteria after turning the workflow on.
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- Review your connections and un-enrollment settings, then click Turn on.
- In the dialog box that prompts, click Yes, turn on.
HubSpot Workflows: Turning off your Workflow
You can decide to turn off your workflow to stop the automation process by doing the following:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation then select Workflows.
- Click the name of the workflow.
- Click on the ‘Workflow is on’ toggle button found on the upper right to switch off.
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Having turned off your workflow, records that meet the Enrollment Triggers will not be enrolled in the workflow, records that are currently in the workflow will stay enrolled. Actions, delays, schedules, etc. will be skipped when the delay time arrives or scheduled time arrives, and so on. For more on turning off your workflow, visit here.
HubSpot Workflows: Deleting and Restoring Workflows
Workflows can be deleted in bulk or individually and they can also be restored within 90 days of being deleted. To delete workflows from the workflow dashboard, carry out the steps below:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation then select Workflows.
- Move the mouse pointer over the workflow to be deleted on the workflows dashboard, then click Actions.
- In the dropdown menu, select Delete.
- In the dialog box, click Delete workflow.
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To restore a previously deleted workflow, do the following:
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation then select Workflows.
- In the upper right, click Restore workflows.
- Hover over the workflow to be restored, then click Restore and the restored workflow will be added to your dashboard.
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For more on deleting and restoring workflows, visit here.
Conclusion
This write-up touched on the importance of using HubSpot Workflows. It gave a comprehensive overview of workflows in HubSpot by exposing you to how to create workflows, setting up triggers, turning on workflows, deleting and restoring previously deleted workflows, etc.
From the article, it can be discovered that one cannot do without the automation of marketing processes as this is a basic requirement for businesses to improve on their customer relationship management, set goals and objectives, and for the general well-being of the company.
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