Making sure new contacts in HubSpot don't receive automated emails from workflows

Marketing & Content Hub Email Marketing Tool
1

Hello,

What is the best practice to make sure that new contacts added to HubSpot don’t receive automated emails fired from workflows? We have the worfklows set to execute by date, but even after the date has passed, contacts still receive the mass emails.

To solive this, is it a branch of create date, or activity? Looking to see what the best practices are so we can update our workflows and not spam new prospects in HubSpot.

Thanks!
Jack

2

Hey @JSchneiderOH, thanks for reaching out! This is an interesting use case. I’m not sure what exactly you have set up or what your enrollment triggers are for workflows currently, but I can share some general advice.

You should set strict criteria that a contact needs to meet in order to enroll in the workflow. It would probably be helpful for you to create two lists:

  1. Contacts who should be eligible to enroll in workflows and received automated emails (separate lists may be needed for specific workflows)
  2. Contacts who shouldn’t be eligible to enroll in workflows or receive automated emails

You can then use list #2 as a suppression list within all of your email workflows (just like a bounced/unsubscribed/unqualified suppression list)

That of course creates the challenge of selecting the right criteria so that contacts can easily jump from the suppression list to the inclusion list when the time is right, but it’ll be easier to accomplish that hand-off through lists vs workflow enrollment triggers.

Hope that helps at least get you started! Happy to share additional thoughts if you’re able to tell us more about what you have built today or provide screenshots!

3

Thanks, all! I was able to create a list of leads with a create date of less than a day ago. I added this as a suppression list into the workflow so any new leads won’t be auto-enrolled in workflows

create date less than a day ago.PNG
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4

Hi @JSchneiderOH,

What’s the type of the list you used for this, active or static? If it’s an active list, there is a high likelihood you set up your workflow in a way that contacts will leave the active list after 1 day (as there create date is now more than 1 day ago) and enter the workflow. Effectively, you just built a delay.

If you created your list as a static list, contacts would remain in the list and not enroll in the workflow.

To add to the option that @jolle has shared:

  • Suppression lists are one popular option, just make sure that they don’t have a built in timer like yours.
  • Exclusion by source or property value can be a great option, e.g. excluding contacts from imports by preventing enrollment of contacts where “Original source drill-down 1” is IMPORT
  • Adjusting workflow criteria to be more strict, e.g. requiring a prior form submission or, for lead nurturing, setting up a property “Eligible for nurturing” which you can set via other workflows but which isn’t set by default for new contacts

Personally, after having managed a large number of HubSpot portals over the years, I’d look more closely at the last option as that gives you the most control. The first two options rely on other people knowing what they’re doing which is not always the case. Their inclusive by nature, meaning that if someone forgets about this process, contacts will be automatically enrolled. The last one is exclusive, so that if someone forgets about setting such a property, nothing will happen. The last option is safer.

Best regards!