IF branches reconnection

[bellawu]

IF statements is a nice addition, but it is useless if the 2 branches created cannot be reconnected to continue a workflow. Otherwise it just forces us to duplicate all the common events in two branches, once the IF exception is passed...

http://ideas.hubspot.com/forums/76407-general-hubspot-ideas/suggestions/6490155-if-branches-reconnec...

[#2]

Hi Bheo,

While creating another workflow would technically allow someone to acheive similar functionality, it means managing a second workflow, and impacts how the performance of a single campaign is viewed. It will also create more issues than it solves in instances where multiple "if/then" branches need to occur in a single campaign, with follow-up items.

There's quite a history of customer activity on this idea, but no updates from the HubSpot team since the idea was marked "In Planning" in April 2018. It's definitely a highly requested feature if customers are reaching out to HubSpot Support about it. Bheo, could you help everyone on this thread out by getting us an update on the planning and development of this much-needed feature? I would love to hear what they've been able to accomplish in the last year.

[#3]

"A workaround for this would be to use the "Enroll to another workflow" action (Professional onwards) - at the end of the two branches, if you enroll them to another workflow (with manual enrollment trigger set), you will technically be able to bring them back to a single flow. "

@bheo - While that may work for some instances, here's a common use case I come across where that doesn't work.  Let's use an intro workflow at a very high level stage.  A new customer is being introduced to our product so we put them into a "Welcome" campaign. We want to send them a few emails. We want to let them know about what we do (EM1), we want them to opt in to subscribe to our newsletter(EM2), and we want to send them an email view a demo video(EM3).

In this example what we are trying to do is send everyone Email 1 (EM1), but before Email 2 we only want to send this email to people who are not yet opted in to our newsletter so we create an If/Then.  If they are not subscribed, they go to EM 2, if they are subscribed, we don't want to overwhelm them so we want that contact to bypass Email 2 and proceed directly to Email 3.  If we were to send these contacts to another program, We would have to build the Email 3 logic from the previous workflow into the new workflow or build out the same branches twice in the original workflow to get both sets of contacts to Email 3 which everyone should get.  Alternatively, if we could pass contacts between programs in a smarter fashion (ie: Move to Workflow {X}, Step {Y}) instead of just moving someone to the top of the workflow, we might be able to make even smarter integrations. However, the way it's built out currently forces us to build out either, more complex workflows than necessary or more workflows entirely making a much more tangled web as opposed to just rejoining paths.

I am sure if we need more examples of use cases for this to get it developed, we can come up with more but the functionality on the workflows is in need of an update.

[#4]

Hi Bheo, 

Without restating what the previous posters said, this proposed solution is a "workaround" not a solution. Can you please provide an update on whether or not this will be addressed? This functionality is standard in most other automation solutions including Act-On. Our enterprise clients really need this functionality and it's one of the largest downfalls to the HubSpot platform. @bheo Thanks for the attention on this idea. 

[#5]

Add my vote to this, being able to merge back together would be hugely beneficial.

Currently we are using Enroll to another workflow but this has two major issues:

1) Our workflows are becoming way to complex and challenging to manage (we have 106 active workflows)

2) We are forced to put delays into actions to give time for the child workflow to complete before the flow continues.

Thanks,
Mark

[#6]

I do marketing automation consulting, typically implementing 15-25 instances of various different marketing automation tools per year, and I have skipped Hubspot over entirely because this feature.

Furthermore, I have migrated around 15 customers off Hubspot because this feature is lacking.

My average customer is paying $13,000 per year for their instances so do the math on how much not fixing this is costing you, and I'm just one consultant.

I'd actually quite like to use Hubspot because of its ease of use for junior marketers, but I can't and won't until this feature is implemented.

[#7]

@bellawu Any news on this feature? It just says "In planning", but I see the original idea was posted ages ago...

[#8]

Hi all, this is solidly on our radar and we hope to tackle it in coming months. We're currently focusing primarily on reliability and core infrastructure work but this is one of our top priorities after that. We will keep this idea updated as anything changes. Appreciate your feedback here! 

[#9]

@bellawu 

[#10]

Awesome @bellawu 

[#11]

I love HubSpot. I often joke that I bleed orange. And I've used the vast majority of other platforms out there. But this one feature, this one thing, seriously makes me want to tear out my hair and claw at my eyeballs at least once a week. 

This is a visual representation of what we want and need:

Beyond just rejoining if/then legs, allow us the ability to:

• Create template 'Sequences' that are smaller 'sections' used inside Workflows.
• Clone or copy sequences or sections of workflows so we don't have to duplicate them step-by-step, one-by-one every time we need to use them
• Save and transfer Sequences (or even entire workflows) between portals like we can with assets inside the design manager
• Split workflow branches, run different sequences, then join them back together for a common sequence. 
• Have contacts enter a workflow at any point, not just at the start, based on meeting a certain criteria or trigger
• Use Tags as a way of segmenting contacts and triggering workflows (i.e. if the 'Attended June event' tag is added, trigger this workflow OR if a tag is removed, end a workflow)
• Create a workflow trigger that is simply 'is a new contact'
• Add a BCC or CC email address as part of the emails sent using workflow automation:

• Add more than one email address on an internal email by using contact properties that store email addresses (currently you can only add one, and if you want to add more than one, you need to type the emails in manually, which eliminates the ability to store email addresses centrally). See: 

I want to add the rep email address AND the sales manager using contact properties that store an email address. If we manually type in the email addresses and someone leaves the organization, then we have to go back through multiple workflows and manually update all of them. Using a contact property, I can just update the one property and all of my workflows will be updated.

• Add a 'Wait' element where the campaign will pause until the contact takes a specific action or you collect certain information about them
• Add a 'Split Test' component that functions similar to an if/then branch that allows you to A/B test two sequences to see which one performs better
• Add a 'Go To' action where contacts can skip past multiple steps and enter further down the workflow
• Add an 'Add note' action where it will post a pre-written note to the timeline of a contact record
• Add or remove a contact from a Facebook Custom Audience

I was part of a demo on an early beta for the if/then rejoining almost a year ago now. I haven't heard a peep about it since. I have been told by my CAM that the team designing it was diverted to something else and this has taken the backburner for now. Using HubSpot literally every single day across mutliple client platforms, I honestly cannot see one other feature that's more important to be addressed than this one. 

I HATE having to duplicate 19 steps in a workflow down another leg of an in/then branch simply because we can't join them back together after a piece of logic. And stitching them together using mutliple workflows just further complicates what should be really freaking easy. And while I'm not a programmer, I can't possibly see why this is so difficult to do. If you're using HubSpot's more advanced workflows, you're on Pro and paying $800+/month. You have countless competitors that charge $40/month that DO provide this very simple workflow step. 

There's only one thing I hate more than having to duplicate work to accomplish a single task, and that's having to go back afterwards and REDO work - i.e. the longer it takes to roll it out, the more workflows that will have to be overhauled and redesigned after it's ready 

Please.. HubSpot... PLEASE. For all the love of marketing automation in the world, PLEASE PRIORITIZE AND FAST TRACK THIS FEATURE. It is literally so frustrating that it sometimes ruins my whole day. And I'm not even exaggerating. 

P.S. I see others saying it's enough that they would move to a different platform. I won't. I love HubSpot. But GRRRRRRR this feature!!!!

CC: @bellawu