5 HubSpot Automation Features That Can Help Close the Adoption Gap

At Real Inbound, we’ve seen how HubSpot can revolutionise the way companies operate, but we’ve also seen the challenges businesses face in adopting the platform to its full potential. One of the biggest hurdles is the HubSpot Adoption Gap—the space between simply having the tools and using them to their fullest.

The truth is, many businesses underutilise some of HubSpot’s most powerful features, especially when it comes to automation. Automation in HubSpot isn’t just a time-saver—it’s a game-changer that can dramatically streamline processes, reduce human error, and increase the overall adoption of the platform.

In this article, we’ll dive into five underutilised automation features in HubSpot that you might not be using, and we’ll show you how they can help close the HubSpot Adoption Gap.

1. Workflows - Automating Your Customer Journey

HubSpot Workflows are one of the most powerful automation tools, but we’ve noticed many companies either underuse them or use them only for simple tasks like email follow-ups. What you may not realise is that workflows can do so much more.

With workflows, you can:

• Automate lead nurturing: Set up workflows that trigger personalised emails based on where a prospect is in the buyer’s journey. For example, if a lead downloads a whitepaper, they could automatically receive follow-up emails offering more value or guiding them towards booking a demo.
• Trigger internal notifications: You can use workflows to notify your team automatically when leads hit certain engagement thresholds, ensuring that sales or customer service teams can take immediate action.
• Automate task assignments: Automatically assign tasks to team members based on actions your contacts take. For instance, if a prospect opens multiple emails, a task could be created for a salesperson to follow up personally.

By leveraging HubSpot Workflows to handle complex customer journeys, you’ll free up your team to focus on high-value tasks and increase the platform's adoption across all departments. When workflows automate routine processes, the HubSpot Adoption Gap narrows as your team sees the practical, everyday value of the platform.

2. Lead Scoring - Automating Prioritisation of Prospects

Another underutilised feature of HubSpot is lead scoring. This feature allows you to assign scores to your leads based on their engagement with your content, demographics, or any other custom criteria you set. While many businesses are aware of this feature, they often fail to fully implement it as part of their lead prioritisation process.

Here’s how lead scoring helps:

• Focus on hot leads: By automatically assigning scores to leads based on their behaviour, such as website visits, email opens, or social media interactions, your sales team can focus their efforts on the most engaged prospects.
• Improve lead quality: By refining your lead scoring system, you ensure that sales are only handed the highest quality leads, reducing the likelihood of chasing uninterested prospects.
• Customise follow-up actions: Use lead scoring to trigger specific actions, such as adding a lead to a nurturing workflow or assigning them to a particular sales rep when they reach a specific score threshold.

When you automate lead prioritisation using lead scoring, you reduce the manual work of sorting through prospects, allowing your team to focus on what matters most. This fosters quicker adoption as the sales team experiences real-time benefits from the automation, closing the HubSpot Adoption Gap.

3. Sequences - Automating Personalised Follow-Ups

HubSpot Sequences are another powerful automation tool that we see being underused, particularly by sales teams. Sequences allow you to automate personalised follow-up emails while still maintaining the human touch. This feature can be used to nurture relationships without requiring constant manual input from your team.

Here’s how to get the most out of Sequences:

• Automate outreach: Instead of manually sending follow-up emails after a call or meeting, you can set up sequences that automatically send personalised follow-up messages. If no reply is received, the next email in the sequence goes out, keeping the conversation going.
• Save time on repetitive tasks: Sales teams often send the same types of follow-up emails. Sequences automate this process, ensuring consistent outreach while freeing up time for more strategic interactions.
• Monitor engagement: HubSpot Sequences provide insights into which contacts are engaging with your emails, enabling your sales team to adjust their approach in real-time.

By automating follow-ups through Sequences, you’ll increase efficiency and ensure that no lead falls through the cracks. When sales teams experience the value of automated, yet personalised outreach, the adoption of HubSpot becomes easier, helping close the adoption gap.

4. Automated Reporting - Real-Time Insights Without Manual Effort

Reporting is crucial for understanding how your marketing and sales efforts are performing. However, manually pulling data together can be time-consuming, and many businesses struggle to stay on top of this task. That’s where automated reporting in HubSpot comes in.

With automated reports, you can:

• Schedule regular reports: Automatically send key performance reports to stakeholders on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For example, you could set up automated reports for lead generation, email campaign performance, or sales pipeline activity.
• Customise dashboards: Create custom dashboards that automatically update with the most recent data, allowing teams to get a real-time view of performance without needing to pull manual reports.
• Monitor KPIs easily: With automated reporting, you can ensure that critical metrics are always visible to the right people. You can even set up notifications for when specific KPIs hit certain thresholds.

By automating reporting, you not only save time but also ensure that everyone in your organisation has easy access to the insights they need. This increases the adoption of HubSpot because the data is always at their fingertips, closing the gap and promoting a culture of data-driven decision-making.

5. Ticketing Automation - Streamlining Customer Service

Customer service often gets left behind when it comes to automation, but HubSpot’s ticketing system is a game-changer for service teams. With ticketing automation, you can streamline your customer support processes, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.

Here’s how ticketing automation can benefit your business:

• Automatically assign tickets: Based on specific criteria, such as the type of inquiry or customer location, tickets can automatically be assigned to the right support agent.
• Trigger follow-up actions: If a ticket remains unresolved for a certain period, automated workflows can escalate it to a higher priority or notify management.
• Send automated responses: Set up automated email responses to let customers know their ticket has been received and provide an estimated resolution time.

When customer service teams start using automation to manage tickets, they see immediate improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction. This increased reliance on HubSpot’s automation features not only benefits the service team but also helps close the HubSpot Adoption Gap across the entire organisation.

How Automation Closes the HubSpot Adoption Gap

Automation is one of the most powerful ways to close the HubSpot Adoption Gap. By automating routine tasks, teams can focus on higher-value activities, reducing the learning curve and increasing engagement with the platform. When employees see how automation simplifies their daily work, they’re more likely to adopt HubSpot enthusiastically.

At Real Inbound, we’ve seen this first-hand. When automation is fully embraced, the gap between simply having HubSpot and fully using it starts to disappear. The tools aren’t just “nice to have”—they become integral to your business processes.

Ready to Close the HubSpot Adoption Gap?

If you’re ready to unlock the full potential of HubSpot’s automation features and close the adoption gap in your organisation, we’re here to help. Our HubSpot Adoption Gap Framework email series will guide you through the steps to automate your processes, streamline operations, and increase adoption across all departments.

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