Overlooked Hubspot Automations That Can Save SMBs Hours

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often struggle with time and resource constraints. When every minute counts, finding ways to streamline tasks and improve efficiency can make all the difference. HubSpot, with its powerful automation features, is a lifesaver for small business owners and marketers, allowing you to automate repetitive tasks and free up time to focus on growth.

While many are familiar with HubSpot’s basic marketing automations, there are some lesser-known features that can provide even more value, saving your business hours of manual work every week. In this blog, we’ll highlight five overlooked HubSpot automations that SMBs can use to get the most out of their time and resources.

1. Lead Assignment Automation: Speed Up Your Response Time

For SMBs with growing sales teams, manually assigning leads can be a time-consuming process, often leading to delayed responses. HubSpot’s lead assignment automation ensures that every new lead is automatically routed to the appropriate sales representative based on criteria such as geographic location, business size, or interest.

Why this matters:

• Faster lead follow-up increases the likelihood of conversion. According to studies, businesses that respond to leads within five minutes are nine times more likely to convert them.
• With automated lead assignment, you eliminate the guesswork and ensure that leads are assigned based on your predefined rules.

How to implement:

• In HubSpot, go to the "Workflows" tool and create a workflow that triggers when a new lead is added. Set criteria for how leads should be assigned (e.g., round-robin, location-based) and automatically send new leads to the appropriate team members.
  
  

2. Automated Follow-Up Emails: Don’t Let Leads Slip Through the Cracks

Not all leads will be ready to convert right away, but that doesn’t mean they should be forgotten. Automating follow-up emails ensures that your business stays top of mind for leads that haven’t made a decision yet. HubSpot allows you to create personalised follow-up sequences based on lead activity, like visiting a particular web page or downloading content.

Why this matters:

• Research shows that nearly 80% of leads require at least five follow-up touches before they are ready to buy. Automating follow-up emails helps you stay consistent without relying on manual effort.
• It ensures no lead falls through the cracks, giving your business more opportunities to convert over time.

How to implement:

• Use HubSpot’s email automation feature to build a sequence of follow-up emails. You can trigger these emails based on specific actions such as a form submission, a download, or a lack of activity over a set period.
  
  

3. Task Automation for Sales Teams: Keep Your Reps on Track

Salespeople often get bogged down by admin tasks, taking them away from selling. HubSpot’s task automation allows you to assign tasks automatically based on lead behaviour or stages in the sales pipeline. For example, when a lead opens an email or views a specific product page, a task can be created for the assigned sales rep to follow up.

Why this matters:

• It ensures that no leads are neglected during their buyer’s journey. Automating tasks like follow-up calls or product demos keeps your sales process running smoothly.
• Your sales reps spend less time managing their to-do lists and more time focusing on activities that directly lead to sales.

How to implement:

• Set up task automation in HubSpot’s "Workflows" tool by defining key trigger actions (e.g., email open, lead score change) and assigning the appropriate task to your sales team members.
  
  

4. Internal Notifications and Alerts: Keep Your Team Informed

Many businesses focus their automation efforts on customer-facing tasks, but internal notifications can save a lot of time and improve responsiveness. With HubSpot’s internal alert automation, you can send real-time notifications to your sales or marketing teams when specific events occur, such as a lead visiting your pricing page or requesting a demo.

Why this matters:

• It allows your team to take immediate action based on a lead’s behaviour, potentially catching a customer at the peak of their interest.
• Automating notifications ensures that your team is always in the loop, without having to manually check for updates or changes in lead status.

How to implement:

• In HubSpot, create a workflow that triggers internal notifications when key actions occur. For example, if a lead moves to a certain stage in the funnel, you can send an email or SMS alert to the appropriate team members.
  
  

5. Customer Feedback Surveys: Automate Insights Collection

Collecting customer feedback is essential for any SMB looking to improve its products or services, but manually sending out surveys and tracking responses can be time-consuming. HubSpot allows you to automate the process of sending customer satisfaction (CSAT) or Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys after a purchase or service interaction, ensuring you receive timely and actionable feedback.

Why this matters:

• Automated surveys can help you quickly identify areas of improvement, keeping your customers happy and your business on track.
• You’ll collect more consistent feedback without adding extra tasks to your team’s workload.

How to implement:

• Use HubSpot’s "Customer Feedback" tools to create surveys that are automatically sent after a purchase, interaction, or service ticket completion. You can set conditions for when and to whom surveys are sent, ensuring you gather relevant insights at the right time.
  
  

Leverage Automation to Drive Efficiency

Time is one of the most valuable resources for SMBs, and HubSpot’s automation tools can help you reclaim hours previously spent on manual tasks. By automating lead assignments, follow-ups, internal notifications, and customer feedback, you can streamline operations, boost your sales process, and improve customer relationships—all while staying within budget.

These often-overlooked automation features are powerful tools that will help your business grow more efficiently, leaving your team with more time to focus on strategic efforts and customer interactions.

Are you ready to save time and improve your business processes? Start exploring HubSpot’s automation tools today and watch your productivity soar.