If you’ve been collecting leads (good job) but not actually doing anything with them, well, this one’s for you.
Here’s the truth: most companies work hard to get people into their database—download this, register for that, join the newsletter, hand over your email to get the coupon. But once those leads land in HubSpot? They just sort of hang out. Eating chips. Scrolling TikTok. Not buying from you.
Lead nurturing fixes that.
And the good news? You don’t need a PhD in marketing ops or a 47-step funnel map to start doing this well. With just a few foundational nurture campaigns, you can warm up your leads, learn what they care about, and move the right people toward a buying conversation, all in about 30 days.
We sat down with Lisa Freitas, Digital Marketing Lead at Thalox, to break down the five essential nurture campaigns every HubSpot user should implement (plus a bonus one if you host events). These are the same frameworks marketing automation pros use every single day, and you can plug them straight into your own instance.
Let’s get into it.
What Lead Nurturing Actually Is and Why You Should Care
If you ask AI (or honestly, most marketers), you’ll get a textbook definition of lead nurturing:
A strategic automated series of personalized emails designed to guide prospects through their buyer’s journey by delivering relevant content at the right time.
Which is true, but also a little boring.
Here’s the Growth summary:
Lead nurturing is how you build relationships with the humans in your database by proactively sending them helpful, valuable stuff that moves them toward becoming a customer.
Without nurtures, you’re doing hope-based marketing.
With nurtures, you’re collecting meaningful engagement data, understanding what they care about, and orchestrating a personalized experience, not just waiting for them to “come back to the website one day.”
Lead nurturing is the difference between a lead existing and a lead progressing.
The 5 (Okay, 6) Nurture Campaigns Every Company Needs
There are dozens of nurture campaign types, but if you only set up these five, you’ll already be ahead of 90% of companies out there.
1. The Welcome Series (Your "First Impression" Nurture)
Goal: Introduce your brand + set expectations
Audience: New leads who just joined your world
A welcome nurture is the handshake moment. Someone just gave you their email. This is your chance to show them they made a great decision.
A good welcome series is 3–4 emails delivered over 2–3 weeks, covering:
- Who you are and what you do
- What value you can consistently provide
- How people typically use your product or services
- One or two light calls to action (ex: “Follow us” or “Check out this resource,” not “Buy now!!!”)
This nurture also helps you set up the behavioral foundation for their future engagement. If someone doesn’t open a single welcome email, they probably need a different strategy later (see #5).
2. Engagement-Based Nurture (Your “Warm Them Up” Sequence)
Goal: Move engaged leads toward consideration
Audience: People showing interest in your emails/content
These are your warmest, bubbliest leads. They’re opening emails, clicking links, maybe watching videos, maybe attending webinars. They know who you are. They’re nibbling.
This nurture should:
- Use middle-of-funnel topics: case studies, deep-dive resources, how-to guides
- Run for 4–5 emails over 6–7 weeks
- Elevate your brand authority without sounding like a sales pitch
- Continue collecting engagement data to help you decide who’s truly ready for sales
Pro tip: Create an internal property like “Is Being Nurtured” and mark contacts as they enter workflows so they don’t get stuck in multiple nurtures at once. (Your future self will thank you.)
3. Action-Triggered Nurture (Your "They Did Something, Follow Up!" Sequence)
Goal: Capitalize on high-intent behavior
Audience: Leads who downloaded something, registered for something, or took a meaningful action
If someone downloads a white paper, that’s a signal.
If they attend a webinar, that’s a signal.
If they click a pricing page, HUGE signal.
Don’t ignore those.
Action-triggered nurtures kick in immediately after a lead completes a high-intent action and build on that momentum with:
- Additional content related to the topic
- Soft invitations to explore more
- Opportunities to convert if they’re ready
This one is where HubSpot’s automation really shines: If someone downloads multiple resources, you can use re-enrollment plus smart email content to personalize the experience without rebuilding a dozen workflows.
4. Sales-Focused Nurture (Your “Let’s Get You to a Meeting” Sequence)
Goal: Nudge high-intent leads toward sales
Audience: Leads who have already demonstrated serious interest
These are hot leads (MQLs or even borderline SQLs) who just need a little push.
Sales nurtures are short, personal, human-feeling, usually:
- 2–3 emails
- Written like a rep sending from their inbox
- Focused on: testimonials, ROI stories, product value, and clear next steps
This nurture supports your sales team by keeping warm leads moving forward even during busy weeks.
5. Re-Engagement Nurture (Your “Wake Up, We Miss You!” Sequence)
Goal: Revive inactive leads or gracefully move them out
Audience: Contacts who have gone quiet for too long
Your database has sleepers: people who once cared but don’t anymore. That’s normal.
A re-engagement nurture:
- Helps you determine who’s still worth marketing to
- Gives inactive leads one last chance to show interest
- Helps you clean your database (which HubSpot will love you for)
This nurture should feel fresh, friendly, and curiosity-driven. You can ask directly: “Still want to hear from us?” And yes, occasionally, it will save contacts from the chopping block.
6. Event Promotion Workflow (Bonus!)
Goal: Boost registrations
Audience: Contacts who should attend an event
If you do webinars, workshops, virtual summits, or IRL events, you need a dedicated event workflow. Because if you only email once, most people will not register. They just won’t.
Your sequence should include:
- An invite
- A reminder or two
- A last-chance “starting soon!” message
- An instant unenrollment rule if they register
Use date-based delays in HubSpot so everything stays tightly aligned with the event timeline.
How to Choose the Right Content (This Is the Secret Sauce)
Even the fanciest automation doesn’t matter if you’re sending bland, irrelevant content. Before writing your nurture sequences, answer these five questions:
- What are your leads’ biggest pain points?
- How does your solution solve those problems?
- What content builds authority and credibility? (ex: case studies)
- Does each email align with their stage of the journey?
- What EXACT action do you want them to take next?
If you can’t answer these, pause and regroup. Otherwise, your nurture becomes noise.
Also: collaborate with sales and customer success. Sales knows what questions prospects ask before buying. CS knows what problems customers have after buying. Together, you get a complete picture of what your leads actually need.
You Can Build All 5 Campaigns in the Next 30 Days
Not because you’re a superhero, but because these workflows don’t need to be complicated to be effective. Start simple. Ship imperfectly. Iterate like a marketer who actually checks their metrics.
Your database is full of potential; these nurtures help you activate it.
If you want help building them, ideating content, or picking the right triggers, you know where to find us.
Ready to Build These Nurture Workflows in Your Own HubSpot?
We bundled everything you need to get started — the strategy, the scripts, and the numbers.
Inside you’ll get:
- The 30-Day Lead Nurture Blueprint
A visual guide to the 5 essential workflows every HubSpot system needs.
- The Sales Playbook
What these nurtures are and follow-up templates your reps can use as soon as leads start engaging.
- The ROI Calculator
A simple tool to estimate how much additional revenue optimized nurturing could unlock.
Whether you’re building your first nurture system or leveling up an existing one, this bundle gives you everything you need to take action in the next 30 days.
Download the Lead Nurture Bundle »
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
