Marketing automation triggers and conditions

A trigger sets when an automation evaluates a record. Conditions decide whether the record qualifies and what happens next. Define both before adding messages: a well-timed trigger can still act on the wrong contact when eligibility is unclear.

Choose what starts evaluation

Use an event when a response depends on something that has just happened, such as submission of a particular form. Use a filter when a stored record state qualifies a contact. Use a schedule to check eligible records at a planned time.

HubSpot supports event- and filter-based workflow enrolment, and workflows can run at a set frequency. Availability depends on the account and subscription. Event triggers apply to occurrences after the workflow is turned on.

HubSpot also offers webhook-received and manual enrolment. Manual enrolment needs no enrolment triggers; enrolling contacts from a chatflow counts as manual. Scheduled triggers cannot be combined with event enrolment triggers.

Separate eligibility from the start

A form submission explains why a contact is evaluated; it does not prove the contact belongs in every follow-up campaign. Write conditions with explicit values: for example, “submitted the named form and has the approved interest value and is not excluded”. Decide what happens when the interest is blank or conflicts with another answer.

Specify when each condition is checked: at entry, at a branch or just before an action. This matters when a contact changes during a delay. In HubSpot, additional filters on an event trigger are assessed when the event occurs. A workflow branch evaluates the record when it reaches that branch; records must match the branch criteria before reaching it.

For an event enrolment to trigger, the record must exist before the event occurs. A visitor who completes a custom event set as an enrolment trigger but becomes a contact a minute later will not be enrolled.

Name the email scope precisely. Without a specific email defined, actions on any one-to-one or marketing email — including batch marketing emails — can satisfy the event trigger. When specific marketing emails are named, only A/B marketing and automated marketing emails can be used for event enrolment.

Build in time for conditions to resolve

If branch criteria depend on properties that may not be populated at enrolment, add a 5 minute delay at the workflow start. Add a 5 minute delay before a branch whose criteria rely on engagement in a previous action, or on a dependency such as a property update from a form submission. For analytics-based criteria such as page views, allow 80 minutes before the branch.

Give failed conditions an outcome

For each branch, decide what a match, non-match and missing value should do. HubSpot branches send enrolled objects down multiple paths based on specific conditions.

Eligibility can change after entry. Decide whether that removes the contact from the workflow or blocks a later action. HubSpot supports suppression segments for contact workflows. Where a later action has consequences, check the relevant condition close to that action.

Branch criteria must match exactly, including spelling, capitalisation, spacing and format: a record holding CA will not match a branch criterion of California. For a multi-checkbox property holding more than one value, a Value equals branch sends the record down the None met path because it is not an exact match; use an if/then branch with is any of instead.

A contact who is not enrolled but belongs to a suppression segment will not be enrolled even if they later meet the enrolment triggers. Workflow history will show they were found in a suppression segment and unenrolled, and they cannot be manually enrolled.

A contact already enrolled who joins the segment is unenrolled immediately. They will not proceed through remaining actions or receive workflow emails.

Define what may repeat

A second event may be a new request, a correction or an accidental repeat. Decide which case warrants another run and which actions may happen again.

In HubSpot, records enter the first time they meet a trigger by default. Re-enrolment requires configuration, and a record cannot re-enter the same workflow while already enrolled. Enabling re-enrolment alone does not start a second run.

Entry frequency and message frequency need separate decisions. For a message that should go out once per campaign occasion, check an appropriate completion state before the action and record the confirmed result.

Before activation, compare the configured rules with expected outcomes for an eligible contact, an excluded contact, a blank field, a contact already eligible at launch, a change during a delay and a repeat event. HubSpot's workflow test can check whether a record will enrol and simulate its path after enrolment; however, record enrolment cannot be tested using event enrolment triggers.

Activities and activity properties cannot be used for re-enrolment in any workflow type. Properties can be used for re-enrolment only when they match the workflow type: a company-based workflow re-enrols only on company properties.

The is known re-enrolment filter lets a record re-enrol when a property gains a value after having none, or when it is updated from one value to another. A contact whose lifecycle stage changes from Lead to Subscriber qualifies for Lifecycle stage is known, and re-enrols on each update provided the initial enrolment triggers are met.