Use automation with emails

You can use simple workflows to empower your team to focus on creating marketing emails by automating follow-up tasks like adding contacts to a list after they clicked a link in an email. 

Simple workflow behavior

Simple workflows are created directly in the email editor, which allows you to configure automated actions after an enrollment trigger is met, which is an event or condition associated with your email. The following enrollment triggers are available for simple workflows in marketing emails:

• Email bounced when sent to contact
• Contact clicked a link in email
• Contact marked email as spam
• Contact opened email
• Contact received email
• Contact replied to email
• Contact was sent email
• Contact unsubscribed from email

After a contact is enrolled in a simple workflow, the actions you configure will be triggered. For example, you can configure a workflow to automatically add a contact to a specific list if they open or click one of your marketing emails.

Simple workflow limits

The number of simple workflows you can create per email, the number of actions they contain, and the type of actions you can add depend on your subscription:

• If you have a Marketing Hub Starter account, you can add up to 10 actions in a simple workflow, and one simple workflow per enrollment trigger. The following actions are available:
  
  • Delay: delay for a set amount of time or until a day or time.
  • Communication: send internal email notification or another marketing email.
  • Task management: create a new task.
  • List management: add to or remove from a static list.
  • Ads management: add to or remove from an ads audience.

• If you have a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise account, you can add unlimited actions to your simple workflow.

Create a simple workflow in the email editor

To set up automation for your email:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.
• In the top right, click Create email.
• In the dialog box, select Regular.
• In the email editor, click the Automation tab.
• Under the Choose what happens after your email is sent, select the type of workflow you want to create:
  
  • To automatically add contacts who clicked a link in your email to a list, you can start with a preconfigured workflow template that you can customize further. Under Add contacts to a list, click Create this workflow.
  • To create your own workflow from a blank template, click Create new workflow. In the right slide-in panel, select a workflow trigger. Learn more about how workflow triggers work.

• To add other workflow actions, click the plus icon +.
• To edit or delete a workflow, click the Actions dropdown menu
  • To change the workflow's name, select Edit Name. In the dialog box, enter a new name, then click Save.
  • To delete the workflow, select Delete, then click Delete workflow in the dialog box.
• You can create additional workflows to trigger from another email engagement event by clicking Add a new workflow. In the right panel, select a new workflow trigger, then click Save.
• To turn on a workflow:
  • Next to the workflow's name, click to toggle the switch on.
  • In the dialog box, click Save and publish.
  • After publishing your simple workflow, any changes made to the workflow will automatically apply to currently enrolled contacts.

If you have a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise account, users in your account with View access to workflows can review the simple workflow in the Created in other tools tab on the workflows index page.