Making the most out of your HubSpot platform means knowing when and how to leverage all of the tools that HubSpot has to offer. Sequences are one of the most well-known tools for sales and marketing teams in the Sales Hub—but how can you make the most effective use of sequences in HubSpot?
To help you get the most out of this tool, we should go over what HubSpot sequences are, why they’re important, and some examples of different types of sequences you should set up for your sales and marketing teams as soon as you can.
Are you ready? Let’s go!
What Are HubSpot Sequences?
Sequences are a set of automated communications (typically emails, but HubSpot allows for other message types) that are sent to contacts from an email address that a HubSpot user has connected to their HubSpot inbox. Sequence emails always come from this connected email address.
The user typically creates one or more templated messages for a given sequence, manually edits the messages to make them as personalized to the recipient as possible, and sets up reminder tasks for themselves as needed.
Why Are HubSpot Sequences Important for Sales and Marketing?
The big reason to use sequences in HubSpot is that they can be an invaluable tool for keeping your sales, service, and marketing teams on top of communications with high-value prospects and customers. In a sequence, a sales rep can make quick tweaks to a set of message templates that have the majority of the same content, but with details that make them more relevant and impactful to the recipient.
Task reminders created as part of a sequence can remind your team members to reach out to hot prospects directly via the phone or other communication channels to keep them engaged and increase the likelihood of turning a prospect into a paying customer.
While the customization of templated messages is a somewhat manual process, it still helps to save time versus writing the entire message from scratch for every communication.
Sequences vs Workflows in HubSpot
Why not just use workflows to do everything in HubSpot? Sequences and workflows are often conflated with one another since both tools allow users to send automated messages. However, they often serve different purposes.
Sequences are typically used for sales team communications with prospects and frequently involve manual email sends. The more manual nature of this allows for more extensive customization of communications—which is one reason why many organizations reserve sequences for prospects who are near the end of the sales funnel. This way, sales reps aren’t wasting time on leads who aren’t likely to convert.
Meanwhile, workflows are better at automating a variety of processes—including customer communication and lead nurturing. The challenge for a business is that there are limits to how many workflows you can have set up at the same time. For most HubSpot Hub subscriptions, users get up to 300 workflows on a Professional subscription and up to 1,000 workflows on an Enterprise account. Using sequences instead of workflows helps users conserve their workflow limit for tasks that benefit more from full automation.
However, it’s possible to integrate the two tools by using a workflow trigger to enroll contacts into a sales email sequence. Once the contact meets the enrollment criteria, they’re automatically added to the workflow and signed up for the sequence as part of it. Then, the workflow can trigger additional follow-up actions for after the sequence is complete.
HubSpot Sequence Examples
So, what are some of the different sequences that you should create in HubSpot? Here are a few examples to get you started
Example 1: The Warm Welcome
This is a sequence used to engage and nurture new leads with a custom-crafted series of welcome messages that leave a lasting impression. Basically, you’re saying “hi” to a new lead or customer.
This sequence can be as short or as long as you want it to be, but should help you establish credibility and trust with the recipient. You can do this by providing some social proof from other customers, sharing resources created by your organization, or showcasing successful projects.
For example, you could make a welcome sequence that reads:
“Hi [Contact Name],
Thanks for your interest in [Topic related to recent form fill or website activity]. I wanted to send you a quick email with some additional resources you might find interesting:
[Bullet point list of links to related resources]
If you have any questions about [Topic], please reach out to me at [Contact Info]. I look forward to hearing from you soon!”
Ultimately, you want to keep your business top of mind for the recipient and get them to take the next step in your sales funnel. For a new lead who signed up for a whitepaper/eBook download, this might be signing up for a demo or consultation.
Example 2: The Reengagement Sequence
Another common use of sequence emails is to rekindle relationships with prospects that have gone cold and reignite their interest in your brand.
With this kind of sequence, it’s important to first identify “dormant” leads who you can reach out to that might become customers with a little more effort. Then, you need to create compelling messaging that entices the dormant lead to start engaging with your brand again.
The challenge here is that there are many reasons why a lead might go dormant—which may make certain types of messaging more or less effective on them.
For example, say that a lead is simply too busy to follow up with your brand because of some seasonal spike in their workload. For these leads, a simple “remember us?” type of message might be enough to get them to reengage with your brand. Such a sequence might have messaging like:
“Hi [Contact Name],
It’s been a while since we last heard from you. I wanted to check in to see how you’re doing and if you’re still interested in [Last campaign the contact engaged with].
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at [Contact Info] for answers. I look forward to hearing from you again soon.”
However, say that a lead lost interest because of a specific objection to your product or service (such as cost compared to a competitor). Here, your reengagement sequence would need to address the added value that your solution brings to justify its cost.
So, you might need to create several versions of the reengagement sequence based on different reasons for leads going cold. The more targeted you can make these sequences, the more effective they’ll be at drawing leads back into your sales funnel—improving the conversion rates you see from your reengagement sequences.
Example 3: The Upsell Sequence
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a critically-important performance metric for any sales team. The more money each customer spends with the brand, the more valuable they’ll be. Also, as a commonly-cited old saying goes: “It costs more to create a new customer than keep an old one.”
Being able to upsell existing customers—that audience that has already bought into your brand at least once—can be a great way to drive up CLV and increase revenue for your business. Sending sequences to existing customers that highlight the benefits of upgrading their service, buying the latest releases, or ordering more of what they’ve already purchased can all help you boost sales from your current customer base.
The challenge here is identifying which customers are ripe for upselling and what to sell to them. Here, tracking which products/services a customer has already purchased can be invaluable.
For example, say that your company sold computer gaming accessories. A customer buys a headset from your company. After they purchase that headset, you might send them sequence emails offering other gaming peripherals like custom keyboards, gaming mice, widescreen monitors, etc. These products would all be related to the customer’s previously-established interest in gaming.
Such an email sequence might look like this:
“Hey [Contact Name],
Enjoying your [Recently Purchased Item Name]? Take your gaming to the next level with [Related Peripheral/Accessory]! With the [Related Peripheral], you can [Item benefit description], and it works seamlessly with your [Recently Purchased Item Name].
Check out our shop to order now or contact us at [Contact Info] if you have any questions.”
Alternatively, say that your company offered a subscription service with different subscription tiers. You might send subscribers on a lower subscription tier sequences with special offers to try out the higher-tier version of their subscription. Or, you might send messages highlighting all of the features they’re missing out on and how it could help them achieve some goal.
Your upsell sequences should be as unique as your company’s services and customers. Here, having specific information about your customers, such as their primary interests and goals, can help you craft more targeted messaging that directly addresses their concerns to increase conversions.
Example 4: Event Promotion
Does your business attend or host major industry events? Odds are that you’ll want as many of your potential customers and business partners to see you at that event as you possibly can. This is where an event promotion sequence can be invaluable.
In this sequence, you would create a series of pre-event teaser emails to highlight the event and explain:
- Who will be there
- What the event is
- When the event will be held
- Where the reader can find you at the event
- Why the reader should attend it
- How to get to (or into) the event
The idea is to increase event attendance and get those who are going to the event to come see your company’s booth/presentation to help you meet your goals for the event—such as gaining hot new leads, turning marketing qualified leads (MQLs) into sales-qualified leads (SQLs), or simply raising awareness about a new product/service.
For example, you might create a promo email that goes something like this:
“Hi [Contact Name],
Are you excited for [Event Name] being held at [Venue Name] in [City/State Name] on [Date/Time]? Join us at [Booth #] for insights into [Topic] and some hands-on time with [Product] as part of a free, event-exclusive demo!
We’ll be joined by [Guest Name] for discussions about [Topic], so be sure to stop by [Booth # and location description] for a chat!”
This is an extremely streamlined outline, but should give you an idea of the key points to communicate. You might expand on this by talking about the event, the venue, or other presentations that your audience would be interested in seeing.
Example 5: Post-Event Follow Up
You’ve hosted or attended an awesome event and generated a lot of excitement from those attending. Now what? The next step is to follow up with everyone who you met at the event to nurture them along your sales funnel and collect feedback to improve your future events!
A good event follow-up email helps you build interest in your brand among attendees whom you’ve met for the first time and reinforces the relationship you have with existing contacts who attended the event.
A simple post-event follow-up sequence might include an email that reads something like:
“Hello [Contact Name],
Thanks for meeting with me at [Event Name]. I wanted to follow up with you about our discussion on [Topic] in more detail. Here are a few things I thought you might like to know:
[Bullet list of responses based on notes from a discussion at the event].
Reach out to me at [Contact Info] so we can talk more about [Topic].”
One reason to make this a sequence instead of an automated workflow is to give yourself the chance to heavily customize the email message based on specific conversation notes from during the event. So, it can help to, while you’re at the event, to take notes about discussions with event attendees so you can have that curated list of discussion topics to follow up on.
Get Started with HubSpot Sequences!
Need help mastering the art of using sequences in HubSpot? Reach out to the experts for advice! Bluleadz has years of experience in managing all HubSpot Hubs and tools—and we’re here to help organizations of all sizes get the most from their HubSpot subscription.
Douglas Phillips
Former military brat, graduated from Leilehua High School in Wahiawa, Hawaii in 2001. After earning my Bachelor's in English/Professional Writing, took on a job as a writer here at Bluleadz.