An automated sequence of actions triggered by a defined event or condition — for example, automatically sending a welcome email when someone fills out a form, or updating a contact's lifecycle stage after a specific action.
Why it matters
Workflows are what actually execute marketing automation at scale — without them, every action (sending a follow-up, updating a record, notifying a salesperson) would have to be done manually, one contact at a time, which doesn't scale past a small number of leads.
In a sentence
"We built a workflow that automatically enrolls a contact in the onboarding email series the moment they create an account."
Related terms
- Antonyms: Manual process (an action performed by a person each time, rather than triggered automatically).
- Often confused with: Sequence (a workflow typically operates on contacts broadly and can include branching logic, delays, and actions across many different systems; a sequence more specifically refers to a defined series of sales-oriented touches — often emails and tasks — enrolled and managed at the individual rep level, commonly used in outbound sales rather than broad marketing automation).
- Synonyms: Automation, automated workflow.