Mastering HubSpot Workflows
Automating tasks in HubSpot helps you save time, stay organized, and deliver consistent experiences to your contacts, companies, deals, and tickets. This guide walks you step by step through creating, configuring, testing, and turning on workflows so you can streamline marketing, sales, and service processes.
What Is a HubSpot Workflow?
A workflow is an automated series of actions that runs when records meet conditions you define. You can use workflows to:
- Send automated emails
- Update properties on records
- Create tasks for your team
- Rotate leads and deals
- Manage ticket statuses
Workflows in HubSpot can be created from scratch, using templates, or triggered directly from other tools like forms and quotes.
Types of HubSpot Workflows You Can Create
When you create a workflow, you start by choosing its type. This defines which records can enroll and what settings are available.
Contact-based HubSpot workflows
Use contact-based workflows to automate around individual people, such as leads, subscribers, and customers. Common uses include:
- Nurturing leads with email sequences
- Updating lifecycle stage based on engagement
- Notifying sales when a contact takes a key action
Company-based workflows
Company-based workflows automate at the account level. They are ideal when multiple contacts belong to the same company and you want shared processes, such as:
- Updating company lifecycle stage
- Assigning account owners
- Maintaining company-based segments
Deal-based workflows
Deal-based workflows focus on your pipeline. Typical examples include:
- Advancing deals through stages based on activity
- Assigning follow-up tasks for sales reps
- Sending internal alerts when deal amounts change
Ticket-based workflows
Ticket-based workflows help service teams manage support and success processes, such as:
- Routing tickets by priority or topic
- Updating ticket status automatically
- Notifying teams when tickets are overdue
Quote-based workflows
Quote-based workflows trigger off quote events, for example:
- Sending follow-up emails when a quote is viewed
- Notifying reps when a quote is signed
Conversation-based workflows
Conversation-based workflows are created from the inbox to automate responses and routing. These are configured from within the conversations tool and may require specific subscription levels.
How to Create a HubSpot Workflow from Scratch
Follow these steps to build a new workflow manually using the workflow editor.
Step 1: Navigate to the workflows tool
- In your HubSpot account, go to Automation > Workflows.
- Click Create workflow.
Step 2: Choose a workflow type
- Select the From scratch tab.
- Choose the appropriate workflow type, such as contact-based, company-based, deal-based, ticket-based, quote-based, or conversation-based, depending on your goal.
- Click Next to open the workflow editor.
Step 3: Set enrollment triggers
Enrollment triggers determine which records enter your workflow. In the editor:
- Click Set up triggers (or Enrollment triggers).
- Add conditions based on properties, activities, list memberships, form submissions, or other criteria available in your HubSpot subscription.
- Choose whether existing records that meet these conditions should be enrolled when you turn the workflow on.
Carefully defining enrollment logic ensures the right records move through your automation.
Step 4: Add workflow actions
Next, build the steps your workflow will perform.
- Click the plus icon (+) in the canvas to add an action.
- Select from available actions, such as:
- Send email (for contact-based workflows)
- Set property value
- Create task
- Rotate owner
- Delay for a set time or until a date
- Branch using if/then logic
- Configure each action’s settings, including which properties to update, email content to send, or users to notify.
- Repeat this process to build the entire automation flow.
Step 5: Configure workflow settings
Use settings to control enrollment behavior and execution limits.
- Enrollment and re-enrollment: Decide if records can enroll once or multiple times.
- Suppression lists: Exclude segments that should not enter the workflow.
- Execution times: For some HubSpot tiers, you can restrict actions to certain days or hours.
- Internal notifications: Set who should receive alerts triggered by the workflow.
Using HubSpot Workflow Templates
Templates speed up creation by providing pre-built enrollment criteria and actions tailored to common goals.
- In the workflows dashboard, click Create workflow.
- Select the Templates tab.
- Browse or search for a template that matches your process, such as lead nurturing or deal follow-up.
- Click a template to preview its structure.
- Choose Use template to create a new workflow based on it.
After selecting a template, customize enrollment triggers, actions, and settings to fit the specifics of your HubSpot account and business rules.
Creating Workflows from Other HubSpot Tools
In many cases, you can start a workflow directly from another feature instead of the main workflows dashboard.
- Forms: Create a workflow from a specific form to follow up with new submissions.
- Lists: Build a workflow based on membership in a smart list.
- Tickets: Start automations from the ticket pipeline to manage support processes.
- Quotes: Trigger workflows from events related to quotes.
These context-based options prefill key criteria and actions, helping you launch targeted automation faster.
Testing and Reviewing Your HubSpot Workflow
Before you activate automation, you should always test to confirm that actions run as expected.
Review the workflow logic
- Check enrollment triggers for accuracy and completeness.
- Verify if/then branches point to the correct paths.
- Confirm delays, date-based actions, and suppression settings.
Use workflow testing tools
From the editor, you can:
- Use built-in tools to simulate how a record moves through the workflow.
- Manually enroll a test record, such as an internal contact or dummy deal.
- Monitor the workflow history for that record to confirm actions and timing.
Turning Your HubSpot Workflow On
When configuration and testing are complete, you are ready to go live.
- In the workflow editor, click Review and publish (or the equivalent publish option available in your interface).
- Confirm enrollment settings, including whether to enroll existing records that already meet the trigger conditions.
- Click Turn on or Publish.
Your workflow will now automatically enroll and process records that match the configured criteria in HubSpot.
Managing Existing HubSpot Workflows
After activation, you can track performance and make adjustments.
- Monitor metrics: View enrollments, email performance, and completion rates to understand effectiveness.
- Edit actions: Update emails, delays, and branches directly from the editor.
- Turn off or clone: Pause workflows when no longer needed, or clone them to build similar automations.
Regular review ensures your workflows remain aligned with updated processes and goals.
Additional Resources for HubSpot Users
For detailed reference on every action and option available, review the official HubSpot knowledge base article on creating workflows at this page. To get strategic help designing your automation architecture across marketing, sales, and service, you can also consult partners such as Consultevo for implementation and optimization services.
Need Help With Hubspot?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Hubspot , work with ConsultEvo, a team who has a decade of Hubspot experience.
“`
