8 HubSpot Sequences Best Practices

Nailing your song on karaoke night. Cooking the most delicious roast to ever hit your guests’ tastebuds. Coming first in your local pub quiz. 

Be honest: being the best at something feels good. And the same goes for your professional life, too. 

Take your HubSpot sequences, for example. Done well, they allow you to send consistent, personalized outreach at scale without compromising efficiency – which will lead to better engagement and conversion rates. Err, yes please. 

If you want to send the best HubSpot outreach sequences of your life, you better get reading! We’re going to cover the 8 best practices you need to follow to get results: 

1. Start with Clear Goals
2. Craft Personalized and Engaging Content
3. Plan an Effective Cadence
4. Test and Optimize Your Sequences
5. Leverage Multi-Channel Outreach
6. Automate Without Losing the Personal Touch
7. Know When to End the Sequence
8. Maximize Efficiency with HubSpot Integrations

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll be well on your way to getting a HubSpot outreach sequence gold star. Without further ado: 

1. Start with Clear Goals

What’s the point of sending outreach? Ok, engagement and conversion rates, sure – but for which customers? What stage of the funnel are they at? 

There’s simply no way to get the best results without figuring out what the best results look like to you. Let’s work this out together. 

Define Your Objectives 

First up, identify whether your sequence is for prospecting, nurturing leads, or closing deals. 

This will help you choose the right KPIs. If you’re prospecting, for example, you’re likely to want response rates. If you’re nurturing leads, meeting bookings might be more appropriate. 

Understand Your Audience 

Next up: who are you sending this outreach to? You’ve got the obvious stuff like industry – how you address an exec in old-school insurance will be different from how you address a crypto founder, for example – and also buyer persona. 

These days, a deal will have 6-10 decision-makers in the purchase process – and it’s your job to impress them all. That means speaking to the different pain points and the concerns of the CFO and the CTO – or making sure that the manager looks good at their job while their boss understands the ROI of your product. You get the picture.

This is where personalization comes in. Speaking of…

2. Craft Personalized and Engaging Content

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: people like to feel special. Generic, obviously copy-pasted messages are not going to win you friends (or in this case, deals). 

Use Personalization Tokens 

This should be a given: at the very least, you want to use HubSpot’s personalization tokens to refer to specific names, job titles, and company details. 

Personalized emails get a 29% higher open rate compared to non-personalized emails, so don’t skimp on this bit. 

Keep Emails Concise and Value-Driven

Now you’ve decided who you’re writing for, you’ll be able to write an email that shows how your product solves their unique problems. 

That said, now is not the time to start waxing lyrical about every last benefit your product has. Keep your email as concise as can be: somewhere between 50-125 words is best. 

Include white space too. Not to go all LinkedIn bro on you, but you want to make sure your emails are quick to digest and scan. Heavy blocks of text are not going to do this. 

Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) 

By the time your prospect has finished reading, they should know exactly what to do next: whether that’s book a meeting, reply to the email, read the content you sent, or something else entirely. 

Stick to one CTA per email – otherwise you won’t get the results you need.

Here’s a CTA 👇

3. Plan an Effective Cadence

It’s important to stick to a strict cadence when you’re building your HubSpot outreach sequences. These should be carefully built and tested in order to get the best results for your business – go off-script, and you’ll start seeing some off-script results (and no, we don’t mean that in a good way). 

Balance Persistence with Respect 

There’s a careful line to toe when sending outreach sequences. The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your prospects – but you also need to stay top-of-mind. 

The exact number of times you get in touch and how you spread these out will depend on your unique business, but a good rule of thumb is 8-12 steps over 10-15 days.

Diversify Outreach Methods 

Everyone has a preferred way of keeping in touch. You might love WhatsApp, whereas your friend might only be contactable through meme. 

To make sure you’re reaching prospects where they’re at, we’d recommend a mixture of channels: automated emails, manual tasks like phone calls, and LinkedIn touches like connection requests or direct messages, for example. 

A multi-channel approach also stops your prospects from seeing 10 emails from you in a row: you’ll come across as far more natural. 

4. Test and Optimize Your Sequences

In an ideal world, things would stay the same: the same old sequences would work perfectly on your prospects, and you could continue sending them out until the end of time. 

In the real world, things change: market conditions, the economy, even internal things like your product and positioning…we could go on.  

To make sure you’re always presenting yourself in the best possible light (that, crucially, appeals to prospects) you need to adopt a continuous learning approach. Let’s jump into what that means in practice. 

A/B Test Different Elements

Experiment with subject lines, email copy, and CTAs to find out what resonates with your audience. 

As a reminder, test out one thing at a time to keep your results clear. 

Monitor Metrics 

Keep an eye on open rates, click-through rates, and response rates in HubSpot. Soon you’ll start to see patterns emerging: what’s working? What’s not? Use these insights to refine underperforming steps.

5. Leverage Multi-Channel Outreach

You already know that one channel isn’t enough: but what makes a truly good multi-channel outreach sequence? 

Diverse LinkedIn Actions

Sending the occasional like or ‘Great insights!!!’ comment isn’t going to cut it here. Instead, you want to include steps for: 

• Connection requests 
• Meaningful content engagement (that’s a thought-out comment or group interaction where you offer your thoughts or expertise)
•  Direct messages introducing yourself and explaining what problems you solve 

Combining Calls and Emails 

Schedule calls and voicemail drops alongside email touches to increase your chances of engaging with your prospect. Remember: when these are spaced out properly, it won’t feel intrusive in the slightest.

6. Automate Without Losing the Personal Touch

Automation is a wonderful thing: it’s really the only way to prospect at scale alongside all your other responsibilities. But that doesn’t mean you should automate every last thing – far from it. 

The key is knowing where to automate and where to get personal. Let’s take a look. 

Balance Automation with Manual Efforts 

Repetitive tasks like follow-ups can be automated. Anything that requires an extra degree of personalization like a phone call (duh) or an email response should be done by you. Simple. 

Segment your Audience 

Here’s where automation shines: you can use it to send emails with different messaging to different segments of your audience. That’s relevant messaging for each group, without you having to manually send hundreds or even thousands of emails. Clever. 

Each sequence should be tailored to specific audience segments to make sure your messaging is relevant for each group. 

7. Know When to End the Sequence

Ever had a conversation that just awkwardly…dies? Yep, us too. 

Your exit strategy is your chance to make a final impression. Sure, you may not have got the results you were after – but that doesn’t mean you’re never going to. 

Only 5% of buyers are in market at any time. Leave a good impression and you’ll make sure that when your prospect is ready, they know who to come to. 

Have a Clear Exit Strategy 

Decide when to stop outreach: whether that’s after a set number of steps or no response. 

What you don’t want to do is get in touch with no end in sight – that’s a shortcut to becoming annoying. And nobody wants that. 

Some light breakup language can work well here. Make sure to include a final CTA so your prospect knows what to do if they do decide to get in touch. 

Transition to Nurture Campaigns 

If you’re getting absolutely nothing from your recipients, move them over to a long-term nurture campaign. Who knows: they might pop up again in a couple of months or a year.  

8. Maximize Efficiency with HubSpot Integrations

HubSpot outreach sequences are a pretty amazing tool – if you don’t agree, go back to the start of this blog post. Here’s how to get the very best out of HubSpot: 

Use Tools Like Surfe 

Woah, how did we get in here?! 

Surfe’s HubSpot integration allows you to connect your LinkedIn and HubSpot accounts. This is a game-changer for your prospecting process: you can find new leads and their contact details, add what you’ve found to HubSpot, and pop them into the right outreach sequence in just a couple of clicks. Even better, you won’t have to leave LinkedIn at all to do so. 

By saving the time you’d usually spend switching between tools and transferring data around, you’ll be able to keep up the pace you need to reach out at scale. 

Take Advantage of HubSpot Features 

You’re already using automation in your outreach sequences – make sure you don’t forget HubSpot’s other brilliant features. 

Its in-depth reporting and analytics allow you to see what’s working and what’s not at a glance: use these to scale and improve your sequences as part of your testing and learning process. 

Let’s Wrap It Up!

Someone get the sticker book out! 

Follow these 8 Hubspot sequences best practices, and you’ll experience outreach that 1) isn’t totally painful or time-consuming to run and 2) gets you the results you need. 

We think that deserves 8 gold stars, not just one – pat yourself on the back for a job well done.   

FAQs About HubSpot Sequence Best Practices 

What Are HubSpot Sequences Best Practices For Engagement?

HubSpot sequences work best when they’re personalized and respectful. Start by setting goals for your outreach – know whether you’re prospecting, nurturing, or closing deals. Use personalization tokens to make emails feel unique and keep them concise, value-driven, and easy to scan. Stick to a well-thought-out cadence of 8-12 steps over 10-15 days and balance persistence with respect. Diversify your outreach with multi-channel methods like LinkedIn and phone calls, and always include a single, clear call-to-action. Testing and optimizing your sequences regularly will make sure you stay relevant and improve results over time.

How Do I Create Personalized HubSpot Sequences?

To personalize HubSpot sequences, start by segmenting your audience into groups based on industry, job role, or funnel stage. Use personalization tokens for names, job titles, and company details. Next, tailor your email content to address the specific challenges and goals of each recipient – speak to what matters to them, whether it’s ROI, team efficiency, or decision-making processes. A combination of automation for repetitive tasks and manual effort for more personal touches will get you the results you need at scale. 

How Often Should I Reach Out In A HubSpot Sequence?

A good HubSpot sequence toes the line between staying persistent and respecting your prospect’s time (not to mention space). Aim for 8-12 touchpoints over 10-15 days, spaced out to avoid overwhelming your recipient. Use a mix of outreach methods like automated emails, LinkedIn interactions, and phone calls, to keep your approach natural. If you’re not seeing results, consider refining your sequence based on metrics like open rates and response rates to find what your prospects will respond to. 

When Should I End A HubSpot Sequence?

End a HubSpot sequence when it’s clear the recipient isn’t engaging – this might be after a set number of steps or no response over time. To leave a positive impression, use light breakup language, such as a final email that invites them to reconnect when ready. Include a call-to-action to make it easy for them to reach out later. If there’s no response, transition them to a long-term nurture campaign to stay on their radar. Only 5% of buyers are in market at any time: thoughtful exit strategy keeps future opportunities open rather than totally closing the door.