topic Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission? in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

DHinduja — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:15:10 GMT

Hello Friends,

Hello, I'm Dheeraj Hinduja from Sudan. I'm setting up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a key form submission.What are the recommended best practices for the initial workflow setup? Specifically, what is the ideal enrollment trigger, how long should the initial delay be, and what is the community's advice on the first few emails/internal actions for a successful nurturing sequence? Any helpful guides are welcome!"

Regards,
Dheeraj Hinduja (Sudan)

Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

karstenkoehler — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:17:56 GMT

Hi @DHinduja,

Let me start with this documentation: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/create-automated-emails-to-use-in-workflows

Generally, for any workflow that delivers content based on a request by a contact, I would not add any delays. Enroll based on form submission, then immediately send automated email.

A few additional things to consider:

If you have the transactional email add-on, follow-up emails can typically sent as transactional if they don't contain marketing content: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/send-transactional-emails
You might want to exclude competitors from enrollment, based on email domain.

Best regards

Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

TomM2 — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:19:52 GMT

Hey @DHinduja there's no correct way to set this up, this is all dependent on your needs and what you're aiming to do. If you're trying to figure out the enrolment available to you there's a great guide on the HubSpot knowledgebase here.

If it's just for a standard marketing email to go out after a form submission you can simply use the form submission as a trigger and use the action to send your marketing email.

The initial delay really depends on your audience, you should figure out how regular they would be expecting emails and the lenght of your nurturing cycle and use this. This could be anything from days, to weeks and even months for particularly long nurturing cycles.

You can also use branches in your workflows if you wish. You may want to branch on the actions taken within your last email and send different emails based on this, for example if they have opened the last email but not clicked, send a specific email, if they didn't open the last email you may want to send a different one etc.

There's really no right thing, it's all about your business and your audience, find out what would best engage your audience and build the automation around that.

Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

inboxhannah — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:27:21 GMT

Hey @DHinduja - great question! 👋

If you’re setting up a workflow from a form submission, the ideal enrollment trigger would be exactly that - form submission. I’ve attached an example below for reference.

Before you jump into the workflow setup, it’s worth double-checking a few basics:

Form settings – make sure the right internal team members are notified.
Marketing contacts – confirm you have these enabled so emails can send.
GDPR & subscriptions – ensure the form is tied to the right subscription type and you’ve reviewed your consent options.

The delay depends entirely on the form’s purpose:

For a content download or instant value offer, send the first email right away.
For a nurture or follow-up sequence, you might wait 1–2 days to feel more natural.

When planning your workflow, think about the ultimate goal - do you want a meeting booked, a demo requested, or another action? Build your branches and suppressions accordingly so contacts who do complete that goal are removed or routed elsewhere.

For internal notifications, HubSpot gives you flexibility - you can:

Trigger an internal email
Create a follow-up task
Or even send a Slack notification to your team

I’ve also attached a basic example setup below to help visualise it.

Hope that helps you get started smoothly!

Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

DHinduja — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:31:08 GMT

Thank You mates will check and get back to you.

Re: How do I correctly set up a marketing automation workflow to follow up on a form submission?

George-Murray — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:27:11 GMT

hi @DHinduja

Some graet responses above.
I would only add that testing is the only way you will truly answer your question around "how long should the initial delay be".

in the workflow I would suggest adding a branch before the send and setting different delay periods.
By then sending clones of your emails/tasks whatever your outreach you would be able to then compare the engagement of the emails. This way you could help identify the "best" delay for yourselves.

Be aware however this may change for different segments so further future testing may also be required.