HubSpot's Workflow tool intimidates most teams coming from Mailchimp or Constant Contact. Those platforms let you schedule an email; HubSpot asks you to build logic. The result: most organizations use 20% of what Workflows can do while missing automation opportunities that would reclaim hours each week.
This HubSpot email automation tutorial covers three high-impact decisions that trip up most implementations: when to use a workflow instead of a sequence, how to trigger emails based on contact behavior rather than arbitrary delays, and which technical settings prevent workflows from breaking. Master these fundamentals and teams can automate the repetitive work that's currently manual without getting lost in features they don't need.
What HubSpot email automation actually does
When referring to automation in HubSpot, the reference is to Workflows. A Workflow is a program that automates actions for contacts enrolled based on triggers. Once enrolled, that contact will be processed through the Workflow and complete all defined actions. Each contact progresses at a different pace, based on the actions they complete and the rules set for enrolling and delays between actions. Contacts exit based on the criteria set for that contact.
Workflows are for marketing at scale.
Workflows in HubSpot trigger and run automatically based off of set rules created once and applied to all contacts within specified criteria. Workflows can be created in Marketing Hub Professional and above (2026), including all plans in the Enterprise tier. On the Starter plan, users can create basic emails and have one automated action in a Workflow.
Building workflows in HubSpot
Step 1: Enrollment Trigger - The first step in a workflow is the enrollment trigger. This can be a form fill, a page view, a property change (e.g. someone becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead) or a manual list membership. Most businesses underutilize the ability to layer in more criteria on the enrollment trigger. Instead of a simple trigger, businesses could set up multiple criteria (e.g. form = "Trial Signup" and industry = "SaaS" and last email open time > 30 days).
Step 2: Delays and Branching Logic - After the first step will often include delays between subsequent actions (e.g. delay 2 days, then send email). Workflows can also include branching logic, so that someone who clicks a link in an email will receive a different series of emails (Email A) than someone who does not click the link (Email B). This is where the personalization at scale really starts to happen, as businesses automatically enroll and nurture contacts through a process without manually sorting through lists.
Configuring enrollment triggers
The very first workflow for email nurture sequences in HubSpot should be set up by following the steps below. To set up a new workflow navigate to Automation > Workflows > Create workflow. For the very first workflow it is recommended to start from scratch. This way teams can better see how a workflow is built up and not get confused by the template. In the title of the workflow fill in the name. For example, in a "Trial signup nurture - 7 days" workflow, emails for the nurture sequence will be sent to customers that signed up for a trial.
To add a workflow in HubSpot, click on the Automation tab in the left side navigation, then click on Workflows in the top navigation, and click Create workflow in the top right. There are three options: a Contact-based workflow, a Company-based workflow, or a Deal-based workflow. The most common type used for email nurture sequences is a Contact-based workflow.
When creating a workflow, teams can start with a Blank workflow. Yes, there are many templates for Email workflows (such as a Nurture campaign), but it is better to start with a blank workflow. Name the workflow something descriptive, such as "Trial signup nurture - 7 days" or "MQL welcome sequence" and not something generic such as "Email workflow 1". Six months from now, it will be hard to remember what happened in a workflow named something generic.
Set the Enrollment Triggers for the workflow. These are the instances where a contact will be added to the workflow to be processed through the steps. This can be a form submission, a change in a contact's lifecycle stage, a contact's addition to a list, or a change in a contact's properties.
- Form submission: "Demo request form" or "Newsletter signup form"
- Lifecycle stage change: contact becomes "Marketing Qualified Lead"
- List membership: Teams can upload a list of contacts to a workflow (a static list of contacts to run down a certain sequence of emails, for example). These types of lists can be used in combination with lifecycle triggers for even more targeted automation.
- Contact property: "Lead status is New" or "Trial end date is in the next 7 days"
Teams can also add more triggers to a single trigger. Most workflows use OR-based triggers (e.g. "enroll in workflow if contact submits form A OR joins list B"). But by using AND in the triggers, teams can create a more complex workflow.
Re-enrollment settings: In a workflow contacts can go through the workflow steps more than once. Typically a welcome sequence workflow is not set up to re-enroll contacts, but a monthly newsletter workflow or a workflow with a series of product tips sent on a regular basis could be set up to re-enroll contacts. By default in HubSpot a workflow is set up so that contacts are enrolled only once.
Finally - Goal Criteria - The end goal of the workflow and how teams will know they have achieved it. Common examples are a series of emails sent to a contact until they have converted into a customer.
Building email sequences and timing
To create a HubSpot sequence, there are 3 core elements that need to be in place. The actions in the sequence (individual emails), the timing between these actions (delays) and the conditional logic to create branches off of individual messages. Below is an example of a simple nurture sequence that would work well for most businesses. Message 1 would go out immediately. Message 2 would go out after 2 days. Message 3 would go out after 5 days. Message 4 would go out 7 days after a contact has entered into the sequence.
In the sequence canvas, click the + icon under the trigger to add an action to the sequence. Select "Send email" from the options in the menu that appears. If the email hasn't been written yet, click "Create new email" in the pop-up window. This directs to the drag and drop email composer where teams can add a subject line, a preview text, body copy and a CTA in the email. Save the email and select it from saved emails in the pop-up window.
Add a delay. Click the + icon under the trigger in the workflow editor and select Delay from the list of actions. Set the length of time to wait before sending the second message. This can be set as a fixed amount of time (e.g. 2 days, 72 hours, 5 days) or until a specific day and time (e.g. next Tuesday at 9 AM). This allows the delay to be set for a long time, but for it to expire on the same day for all contacts enrolled in the workflow.
Teams will then repeat this process for each subsequent message in the sequence, adding a new step (plus icon under the previous step) and choosing Delay. In the properties for the delay step, teams will be able to set the amount of time to wait before sending the next message (using fixed variables such as 72 hours and 5 days, or setting a specific day and time in the future). On Professional and Enterprise (2026), teams are able to also set up sequences to send to specific contacts on specific days, regardless of how long ago they were added to the sequence.
To add a conditional branch, click the + and select "If/then branch" to add a split in the workflow based on the conditions specified based on what people actually do. For example, if a contact clicks a link in message 1 (action 1), then send message 2A (action 2A), i.e. a case study. Otherwise, send message 2B (action 2B), i.e. an educational blog post. The conditional logic in a workflow matters a lot, especially after message 2 where in a typical nurture workflow the engagement usually starts to drop off.
Testing and activating workflows
Before flipping the switch, test thoroughly.
It is recommended to test the automated emails prior to activating the workflow. Teams can test by sending the emails to a few contacts using test email addresses or a coworker's email address. Test the automation by going through the workflow step by step and add a test contact to test the automated personalization.
Also, test out the personalization tokens to ensure they are populating with the correct information. This can be tested by inserting a subject line with {{contact.firstname}} to ensure that the contact's first name is being substituted in for the token, as opposed to just the token itself being inserted. Remember that the syntax of the personalization tokens is case sensitive, so if the contact property has been saved out with lowercase letters (i.e. contact.firstname), then the exact same case must be used in the workflow or the token will not populate correctly.
Also, make sure to fix any errors in the workflow before activation. HubSpot will tell you where the error is when viewing the workflow in the workflow editor. Often this type of error is caused by a deleted draft email that is still referenced in the workflow. Alternatively, errors can be caused by the trigger conditions of when contacts are enrolled into the workflow.
After confirming that the automated email messages will work as expected, click the "Review" button for the automated email workflow. Here are a couple examples of things that would be flagged as errors within a workflow, such as: a "draft" email was deleted from an email message within a workflow; a trigger within a workflow has overlapping enrollment conditions which will cause the workflow to become a "non-startable" workflow.
Activating a workflow means that all of the contacts who meet the criteria of the trigger(s) will start to enter the workflow automatically. On the workflow's dashboard teams can then see the number of contacts currently Enrolled as well as other important metrics for the workflow such as open rate, click rate, and goal completion rate. This data will help teams to understand how the workflow is performing. For example, if the open rate for the first 50 contacts that go through the workflow is very low then it is worth looking at changing the subject line of the first message. Also, if the click rate for the contacts who go through to subsequent messages starts to fall off then teams might consider where they have placed the CTA in the messages and/or simplifying the copy in general in order to improve results.
After activating a workflow, all of the unsent messages in the workflow can be edited. However, once a message is sent, the Goal for that message cannot be edited. In order to edit the structure of a workflow (i.e. add/remove steps, add/remove branches, change timing of delays, etc.), the workflow must first be paused. Workflows that are currently active cannot be edited because contacts are currently moving through the steps in the workflow.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
The same problems occur over and over again with new HubSpot teams - they end up with contacts who hate them or with workflows that just stop working.
Here are 6 mistakes made by new HubSpot teams and how to avoid them in workflows.
1. No unenrollment criteria
Contacts get stuck in workflow loops or re-enroll in workflows when the opposite is intended.
Unless there is a specific unenrollment criterion set for a workflow (e.g. "Remove from workflow if contact no longer meets enrollment criteria" at the workflow level), contacts can get stuck in a workflow forever. To avoid this, teams can add a goal to a step in the workflow (e.g. the "Submit" button for a demo form in a 14 day long nurture workflow), that removes the contact from the workflow once they convert to another lifecycle stage (e.g. Customer - because they purchased a product).
2. Sending to customers who already bought
This one is pretty obvious but happens often enough to be considered a mistake that is embarrassing to admit. Leads that have converted 3 weeks ago are still being sent messages about scheduling a demo.
When in a nurture workflow, sending to customers who have already purchased is pretty embarrassing (i.e. "Are you ready to purchase a demo?" to someone who has purchased a full license 3 weeks ago). An if/then branch at the start of all nurture workflows to check the contact's lifecycle stage and end the workflow if they are a Customer can prevent this.
3. Too many messages too fast
When messages are sent out within 2 days of each other for a sequence of 5 messages it can look like spam and often is.
Leads need time to digest information and therefore nurture sequences should have a minimum of 7-14 days between messages. Since HubSpot has a very easy drag-and-drop interface to add more messages to a workflow, it's easy to go overboard and send out spam messages to leads.
4. Blank personalization tokens
{{contact.firstname}} is rendered as blank space if the contact does not have a value for this field (i.e. it is left blank during data import). To prevent blank space, it is advised to enter a default value (e.g. {{contact.firstname}} =
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional to use automation?
Sequences are created in Sales Hub and are for one-to-one automated follow-up by a sales rep. However, automated nurture sequences in marketing are created in Workflows and are found in Marketing Hub Professional and in Enterprise (2026) (Starter Plan allows for basic one-to-one messages and a basic workflow, but no nurture automated sequences).
What's the difference between HubSpot workflows and sequences?
Marketing workflows are one-to-many (one workflow sent to many contacts) and triggered off of a contact's properties and behaviors. The sequences in Sales Hub are one-to-one (one sales rep sending one sequence of messages to one contact at a time) and are set up by the sales rep for the contacts that they have enrolled in a sequence. The biggest difference between sequences and workflows is that sequences appear to be one-to-one personal communications to contacts and nurture workflows are mass marketing communications. Sequences are for sales reps managing one to many conversations with their contacts individually.
How do I stop contacts from receiving workflow messages after they convert?
By adding an unenrollment trigger (e.g. a lifecycle stage change or form submission) to a workflow, teams can specify when contacts who have converted should no longer receive messages from the workflow. Note that HubSpot does not automatically unenroll contacts in workflows when they become customers.
Can I edit messages in an active HubSpot workflow?
If a message is 'sent' (i.e. it has been dispatched to a contact), teams won't be able to edit the content of that message. However, if the contact is 'in the queue' awaiting a delayed send, teams will be able to edit the message as long as it hasn't actually been sent. Once a message is sent to a contact in a workflow, it is locked and cannot be edited. When teams add a new step to a workflow, all future enrollments in the workflow will receive the updated message.
How long should I wait between automated messages in a nurture sequence?
For B2B companies, the typical range for marketing automation and lead nurturing is 3-7 days between messages (e.g. 1-2 days for event promotion or for offers with time-sensitive nature, 10-14 days for complex Enterprise sales or very educational-based content). How teams measure the success of a series of emails in a workflow is by the open and click-through rate of the second email in the series.
What happens if a contact meets multiple workflow enrollment triggers at once?
HubSpot will automatically enroll contacts in all applicable workflows, even if the contact meets the criteria for multiple workflows. In order to prevent contacts from being added to a single workflow, or to all workflows, teams need to create a suppression list that contains the names of the contacts that should not be added to any workflows. In addition to creating a suppression list, teams also need to make sure that there are mutual unenrollment triggers set up between all of the workflows that are planned for nurture campaigns.
Configuring HubSpot workflows correctly requires both technical expertise and strategic insight. Gable Innovation helps technology companies assess, select, implement, and optimize marketing automation platforms including HubSpot. If you'd like to discuss how workflow automation could fit into your broader marketing technology strategy, reach out for a discovery call.
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