Using HubSpot sequences to activate contacts

Written by Simon Harvey | Mar 16, 2021 8:15:00 AM

A handy guide to the basics of HubSpot sequences

From making marketing operations easier to creating opportunities for greater audience growth, the potential for marketing automation in digital marketing is a playground for optimisation. However, marketing automation tools are not just for marketers, they also support the needs of sales teams, taking over mundane prospecting tasks and giving them more time to focus on closing.

That said, many businesses are unsure of what HubSpot Sales Sequences are, how to use them, or how they fit into their general marketing strategy. Read on to discover how HubSpot Sequences can be used to optimise your virtual selling process with ease.

What is a sales sequence?

In simple terms, an email sequence is a series of messages that your sales teams send to targeted individuals or prospective customers. This is usually to nurture customers, educate them about your industry knowledge, or guide them through the sales process.

However, emails are not the only touchpoints for these sequences - activities can also be scheduled through tasks, or social media using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or through other means of communication like phone calls. Sequences use personalised, scheduled messages that deliver a thread of communications. Being sent only to individuals, they tend to be more contextual than workflows and are more explicitly tailored to the needs and challenges of that person.

Why should you enrol contacts into sequences?

By enrolling contacts into sequences you achieve three key objectives:

You create a checkpoint to ensure the individual is genuinely qualified to become a customer and that they respond positively to the content you share with them.
You ensure the right people receive the consistent value-based messages at the right time by using personalised email templates that are on-message.
You automate an otherwise time-consuming and manual process, allowing your sales team to focus on closing business and not hunting down leads.

This article will focus on teaching you how to use HubSpot sequences, specifically through email. Read on further to learn more about advancing your ongoing digital marketing strategy.

How to enrol contacts into a HubSpot sequence

You can either enrol individual contacts from records or select up to 50 contacts to register in bulk. To increase your rate of replies, make sure that you personalise each email, send times, and delays between sequence steps.

A few things before we start:

To enrol contacts in sequences, you need to make sure you have an assigned Sales Hub, Service Hub Professional, or Enterprise paid seat. It is also important to note that there is a limit to the number of sequence emails a user can send each day.

Enrolling individual contacts into a sequence:

Go to your HubSpot account and navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
Select a contact to enrol and click the email icon in the left panel.
In the pop-up box, select Sequences.
In the dialogue box, hover over the sequence and click select.
Click the start dropdown menu at the top of the enrol sequence dropdown box, and select the step at which you want the contact to start the sequence.
Click the time zone menu to select a time zone for the sequences to function off.

Once you have completed these steps, enrol your contact by clicking ‘start sequence’ in the bottom left.

Enrolling multiple contacts into a sequence:

You would use this method when you want to get into contact with multiple people after a conference or a trade show, reconnect with contacts which have been inactive for a certain period of time, or send targeted messages to a segmented list of prospective customers.

Go to your HubSpot account and navigate to Contacts > Contacts
Select the checkboxes next to all the contacts you want to enrol
If you want to select all contacts, click ‘all contacts’ in the left panel
Click ‘enrol in sequence’ at the top of the table
Click the time zone menu to select a time zone, all sequences will function according to the selected time zone.
To personalise emails when enrolling multiple contacts, you will need to select each contact - one at a time - and customise as you go.

Once you are ready to enrol your contacts, you are able to register them individually or all at once. For individual enrollment, you need to click ‘enrol [contact name]’, and click enrol in the dialogue box. To enrol all contacts at once, click ‘enrol [all] of [total number] contacts’ in the bottom right. Once you have done this, click ‘enrol [total number] contacts’ in the dialogue box.

Last thoughts for enrolling contacts in sequences:

There are a few options you can use to make your emails more personalised. For example, if you want to insert a link, document, or video, all you need to do is use the rich-text toolbar at the bottom of the email template. If you would like to customise the number of days or weeks that will pass before the next task is created, you can do it in one simple step: click the dropdown menu on the task step and select create task immediately. To continue a sequence, even if the task is incomplete, simply select the “continue without completing task” checkbox.

A problem you may run into is if your HubSpot user account has more than one email linked to it. In this case, click the ‘From’ dropdown menu and select the email address you want to send emails from.

After enrolling your contacts, you are able to check up on how they are engaging with your sequence. You can find this in your sequence summary page, which also illustrates the status of contact in the sequence, the date the contact was enrolled, the user who enrolled the contact, and other additional information. You can also analyse the performance of your sequence over time to make sure you are seeing a successful engagement number and booked meetings.

An ongoing process

Marketing automation is all about upkeep. Once you have implemented automation into your strategy, it’s not good enough just to let it be. Making sure that you regularly update your automated processes and keep up with the changing demand of your audience will ensure that your success is not fleeting.

Enrolling contacts into a HubSpot sequence is a helpful way of making sure that your strategy is always up to date, while also giving you more options for engagement and connections with your customers. As such, this method is undoubtedly a necessary element of a thriving marketing programme.

If you would like to boost your own digital marketing strategy, or just need a few pointers on getting the most out of HubSpot, contact Demodia. Demodia is a digital marketing consultancy that specialises in marketing automation, digital engagement and inbound marketing. We take a hands-on approach to support our clients and inform them on what works for them, their industry and their business.

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