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Workflow Guide: Marketing Outreach and Re-Engagement

This guide walks you through building a HubSpot workflow that re-engages dormant contacts through WhatsApp, using Flowella to deliver personalised outreach and capture updated preferences through structured forms.

 

What This Workflow Does

Contacts who have not engaged with your business for a defined period receive a personalised WhatsApp message inviting them back. The message includes either a special offer or a preference update form that lets them tell you what they are interested in. Based on their response, the workflow updates their contact record and routes them into the appropriate nurture path. Contacts who do not respond are flagged for review or suppression.

What You Will Need

  • A Flowella account connected to your HubSpot portal
  • A WhatsApp Flow template for preference collection (e.g. interests, preferred contact frequency, product categories)
  • A HubSpot active list that identifies dormant contacts (e.g. "Last Activity Date is more than 90 days ago" and "WhatsApp Phone Number is known")
  • Optionally, a promotional offer or discount code to include in the outreach message

Step 1: Define Your Dormant Contact Criteria

Before building the workflow, create an active list in HubSpot that captures contacts you want to re-engage. Suggested criteria:

  • Last activity date is more than 90 days ago (adjust for your business cycle)
  • WhatsApp phone number is known
  • Marketing contact status is "Marketing Contact"
  • Has not been enrolled in this workflow in the last 90 days (to prevent repeated outreach)

You can also add exclusions such as contacts currently in active deals, contacts who have opted out, or contacts below a certain lead score.

Step 2: Create Your Preference Form

Create a HubSpot form that captures updated preferences. Suggested fields:

  • What are you most interested in? — multi-select: your product or service categories
  • How often would you like to hear from us? — dropdown: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Only for special offers
  • Anything you'd like us to know? — single-line text (optional)

In the Flowella app, connect this form and generate a WhatsApp Flow template. Frame the wording positively: "We'd love to stay in touch in a way that works for you."

Step 3: Create the Workflow

In HubSpot, go to Automations > Workflows and create a new Contact-based workflow.

Set the Trigger

Use List membership as the trigger and select your dormant contacts list.

Alternatively, you can use a Contact property trigger based on the last activity date if you prefer not to maintain a separate list.

Enrolment Settings

Consider your sending volume carefully. If you have a large dormant list, add a Delay at the start with a random time spread (e.g. delay between 0 and 72 hours) to stagger message delivery. This avoids sending thousands of WhatsApp messages simultaneously, which can trigger rate limits and affect deliverability.

Step 4: Send the Re-Engagement Message

You have two approaches depending on your strategy:

Approach A: Lead with a Preference Form

Add a Send WhatsApp Template action (Flowella) with your preference collection Flow template.

Configure:

Field Value
Contact Phone Number WhatsApp phone number property
Template Name Your preference update Flow template
Template Variable 1 First Name
Template Variable 2 Company name or a personalised detail (e.g. last product purchased)

This approach works well when you want to rebuild your understanding of the contact's interests before sending them further communications.

Approach B: Lead with an Offer

Add a Send WhatsApp Template action with a promotional message template that includes a call to action (e.g. "Claim your 20% discount" or "See what's new").

Follow this with a second Send WhatsApp Template action containing the preference form, triggered only if the contact engages with the first message.

Step 5: Wait for the Response

Add a Delay until event occurs action:

  • Event: Flowella: WhatsApp Forms Integration: Form Completed
  • Maximum wait time: 7 days

For re-engagement, a longer wait time is appropriate since dormant contacts may not check messages immediately.

Step 6: Branch on the Response

Add a Branch action: Whether or not the event criteria were met.

Path A: Form Completed (Re-Engaged)

The contact responded. This is a strong re-engagement signal.

  1. Set contact properties — update their preferences from the form submission (interests, contact frequency, etc.)

  2. Set contact property — update "Last Re-Engagement Date" to today's date.

  3. Set contact property — update a "Re-Engagement Status" property to "Re-Engaged".

  4. Send WhatsApp Message — a personalised thank-you: "Thanks, ! We'll make sure you only hear about the things that matter to you."

  5. Branch on preferences — based on the contact frequency they selected:

    • Weekly: enrol in your weekly nurture workflow
    • Monthly: enrol in your monthly digest workflow
    • Quarterly: enrol in your quarterly update workflow
    • Special offers only: add to your offers list

  6. Update lifecycle stage (optional) — if the contact had been downgraded, move them back to an appropriate stage.

Path B: Form Not Completed

The contact did not respond within 7 days. Check whether the message was at least read.

  1. If/then branch — use a contact property or Flowella event data to check if the message was read:

    If read but not completed:

    • Send one follow-up WhatsApp message: "Hi , we sent over a quick form to update your preferences. It only takes 30 seconds. If you'd rather not hear from us, just reply 'stop' and we'll respect that."
    • Delay 7 days
    • If still no response: set "Re-Engagement Status" to "Unresponsive" and consider suppressing from future WhatsApp outreach

    If not read:

    • Set "Re-Engagement Status" to "Unreachable"
    • Consider whether the WhatsApp number is still valid
    • Optionally try a different channel (email follow-up)

Step 7: Handle Opt-Out Replies

It is important to respect contacts who do not want further communication. Create a separate workflow triggered by Flowella: Text Reply where the message contains keywords like "stop", "unsubscribe", "opt out", or "remove".

In that workflow:

  1. Set the contact's marketing status to "Non-Marketing Contact" or update a WhatsApp opt-out property
  2. Send a confirmation: "No problem, . We've removed you from our WhatsApp messages. You can always reach out if you change your mind."
  3. End

Workflow Diagram

Trigger: List membership (dormant contacts)
    │
    ▼
Optional: Random delay (stagger sending)
    │
    ▼
Send WhatsApp Template (Preference Form or Offer)
    │
    ▼
Delay until: Form Completed (max 7 days)
    │
    ├── Form completed ──────────────────────┐
    │                                         │
    │   Update preferences                    │
    │   Set re-engagement status              │
    │   Send thank-you message                │
    │   Branch on frequency preference        │
    │   ├── Weekly → weekly nurture           │
    │   ├── Monthly → monthly digest          │
    │   ├── Quarterly → quarterly updates     │
    │   └── Offers only → offers list         │
    │                                         │
    └── Form not completed ──────────────────┐
                                              │
        Branch: message read?                 │
        ├── Read → send follow-up             │
        │   Delay 7 days                      │
        │   └── No response → "Unresponsive"  │
        └── Not read → "Unreachable"          │

Tips for This Workflow

Respect messaging regulations. WhatsApp has strict rules about marketing messages. Ensure contacts have opted in to receive WhatsApp communications before enrolling them in this workflow. Use HubSpot's marketing contact status and any WhatsApp-specific opt-in properties to filter appropriately.

Stagger your sending. If you are re-engaging a large list, spread the messages over several days. This protects your WhatsApp Business API quality rating and ensures more consistent delivery.

Personalise beyond the first name. If you have data on the contact's last purchase, last visit, or previous interests, include this in the outreach message. "We noticed it's been a while since your last visit to our Soho restaurant" is far more compelling than a generic "We miss you".

Track re-engagement rates. Use the "Re-Engagement Status" property to build a dashboard showing how many contacts were re-engaged, how many were unresponsive, and how many opted out. This data is invaluable for refining your approach.

Do not over-pursue unresponsive contacts. Two attempts (the initial message and one follow-up) is sufficient. Repeated messaging to unresponsive contacts damages your WhatsApp quality rating and risks the contact reporting your number as spam.