On a past thread, we discussed some of the ways that workflows can trigger your team internally. You can use them to automate data clean up or to trigger notifications to your sales team.
Now, let’s discuss ways you can use workflows to engage your leads and customers.
For example, one of my all-time favorite ways to use workflows is to re-engage leads that have abandoned their shopping cart.
The concept here is simple: When someone adds an item to their online shopping cart but leaves your site without completing the purchase, you can trigger an email workflow that reminds them of their forgotten purchase and motivates them to Live the transaction by offering a special discount code or some other incentive to buy.
That’s my favorite use workflows! How are you currently using yours? Sound off in the comments below.
Educational series. An instructional series adds value to the lead by providing pertinent knowledge or resources based on their need or interests. The series may consist of blog articles, e-books, webinars, or other materials that inform the lead on a specific subject and establish your business as an authority in your field.
I work in B2B software marketing and one very common workflow is for demo form fills. I usuallly add a step to check in a week after the initial demo conversion with an email to make sure the prospect has had one or has one scheduled, and if they have had the demo, whether they have any other questions. This can help re-engage prospects who may be very busy and haven't had a chance to move forward with the demo.
One thing I am currently using would be sending a SMS, when they subscribe to our website with their phone number. We would message them with updates and or reminders.
Lead nurturing workflows are a series of automated emails sent to prospects to move them through the sales funnel. Examples of workflows include welcome series, educational series, re-engagement series, abandoned cart series, upsell/cross-sell series, and win-back series. Each workflow is tailored to the specific needs and interests of the target audience to improve conversion rates and build long-term relationships.
Workflows can be a powerful tool to engage our leads and customers by delivering personalized, targeted messages and actions based on their behavior and preferences. Here are some ways we can use workflows to engage your audience:
Welcome series: Create a welcome series for new subscribers or customers that introduces them to our brand, products, and services. This can include a series of emails or messages that provide helpful information and encourage them to take action.
Lead nurturing: Use workflows to nurture leads by providing them with relevant and useful content based on their interests and behavior. This can include automated emails, personalized recommendations, and targeted messaging based on their activity on our website or other channels.
Abandoned cart recovery: Use workflows to recover lost sales by sending targeted messages to customers who have abandoned their carts. This can include reminders, personalized offers, and other incentives to encourage them to complete their purchase.
I believe for our business it will be the welcome and post-training follow-ups. Also, a workflow that works between our Discovery Call - Proposal - Contracted Agreent stages.
I know the demand team at my last position had a couple of different workflows to nurture leads depending on what type of asset they engaged in - If they requested a demo it was considered a "high value" lead and they would get an email campaign using customer proof points to try to address their concerns and provide evidence as to why to buy. If they engaged in a lower value activity, like an event or webinar, they had a different workflow, which shared info about our product and benefits as well as social proof.
On the customer side of the house, I used email workflows to send segmented email campaigns dependign on what type of subscription the customer had, or what features they had access to.
Unfortunately, workflows is not a feature I have access to, but I can see the value and wish it was. If I did (and I can set this up in other ways) I would like to create a workflow for sales. I'm really not comfortable in that area, so I think a workflow would nudge me forward. For example, in regard to my free audit offer, my workflow might push the request to my tasks list to do the audit, then an email to deliver and offer a consultation, then it would push a playbook to the file so that I remembered to use that (another feature I don't have). Next, I would add a follow-up email with a downloadable ebook. Then all this would be tested and modified as I get more comfortable with sales and the steps I should include. And of course, I do think much of this is a workflow that can naturally happen within the Hubspot platform, but I'm still learning, so I'm not sure yet.
I believe for our business it will be the welcome and post-training follow-ups. Also, a workflow that works between our Discovery Call - Proposal - Contracted Agreent stages.
I consult marketing leaders on marketing automation and design lifecycle workflows routinely. Some of the transactional workflows essential for any ecommerce platform are the welcome series, subscriber upgrade/upsell, customer survey, cancellation, and winback workflows
I haven't used worflows yet but I remember few days ago, I was checking for an online course and I was seeing their landing page just before the payment option, then I left the website and went to Instagram, where an Ad in the story of the guy's course made a video specifying He saw I checked for the course and leave without paying it. As disruptive as I felt it, I found it interesting the interaction since he described exactly as it happened (I checked and left) and this triggered me 😆
We could use company-based workflows to nuture leads in the communities we serve and have reached out to in the past but we want to follow up with again.
I'd like the automated work flows that lead customers to more knowledge and understanding to how we can remind them of our promos and discounts for the next purchase. Automation can also have a real time response to create the feeling of instant assistance and concern form the company I purchase from.
My favorite way to re-engage those interested in our product but weren't able to purchase at the original time of meeting them is to offer a holiday special by using specific workflows based upon where they were in the lifecycle stage.
Nurturing new leads. Not everyone is ready to purchase right away but if we can help in their journey from discovery to evaluation, we can help provide them the information they need as well as point out a company's attributes.