First-time marketing guide

Marketing Quick Start

Launch campaigns, build workflows, and track performance. This page is built for the first campaign cycle: draft one live message, build one simple workflow, and make sure your team can read the results instead of just sending into the dark.

Jump to core workflows Open donors guide

Start here Core workflows Keep momentum FAQ

What this guide gets you

One campaign that is drafted and moving toward a real send.

One workflow that proves automation can support the team instead of adding complexity.

One analytics habit so the next campaign is guided by data instead of guesswork.

Before you open Marketing

A clear audience or segment you want to reach first.
A single campaign goal such as awareness, follow-up, or event turnout.
A basic message or offer so the first send can be practical instead of over-designed.

Start here

Use this order for your first marketing session.

The goal is not to automate everything immediately. The goal is to send one thoughtful message, prove the workflow, and learn from the results.

Open the marketing workspace

Go to Marketing in the top nav.

Draft your first live campaign

Click New Email Campaign to draft your first message.

Use workflows for the next touch

Use Workflows to automate follow-ups.

Step 4

Use Marketing → Forms when you need a public sign-up, program interest, waitlist, or intake form.

Good day-one win

End your first session with one real campaign draft, one audience selected, and one follow-up path your team can automate or schedule next.

Core workflows

These are the campaign motions that matter once marketing work starts moving.

Each workflow here is about keeping communications practical: send clearly, automate intentionally, and review what happened before you repeat it.

Send

Send an email campaign

Start here when you need one message out the door and want the sending path to feel controlled instead of improvised.

Outcome: Leave with a campaign that is drafted, targeted, and ready for send or schedule.

1
Go to Marketing → Email.
2
Click New Campaign and choose a template.
3
Add your audience and schedule the send.

Automation

Build a workflow

Use this after the first campaign exists so recurring follow-up does not depend on someone remembering every next step manually.

Outcome: Leave with automation that supports the team without overcomplicating the process.

1
Go to Marketing → Workflows.
2
Click Create Workflow.
3
Choose a trigger, then add follow-up steps.
4
Activate the workflow when ready.

Insight

Review performance

This is what turns one-off sending into a learning loop. Review performance before you repeat the same campaign pattern again.

Outcome: Leave with better clarity on what to keep, change, or test next.

1
Go to Marketing → Analytics.
2
Review open rates, clicks, and ROI.
3
Adjust your next campaign based on results.

Forms

Collect program interest with a custom form

Use this when you need people to raise their hand for a program, waitlist, membership interest list, or campaign follow-up without building a separate HubSpot form.

Outcome: Leave with a public form link, tagged submissions, synced contacts, and a clear follow-up path.

1
Go to Marketing → Forms.
2
Click New or choose a template such as program interest, membership interest, volunteer interest, sponsor inquiry, newsletter signup, or resource download.
3
Name the form for the program, campaign, or interest list you are building.
4
Confirm the fields you want to collect, such as name, email, phone, program interest, consent, and notes.
5
Add or edit fields from the field editor. Drag fields to reorder them, duplicate common questions, and use dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, dates, long answers, consent fields, and conditional display rules when a follow-up question only applies to one answer.
6
Add tags such as program-interest, membership-interest, or the program name so submissions are easy to segment later.
7
Use conditional tagging when specific answers should apply additional tags, such as ready-to-talk, sponsor-lead, or a specific program name.
8
Turn on follow-up tasks if someone on the team should review every submission. Add notification emails or select an active workflow if the response should trigger an automated follow-up sequence.
9
Optional: turn on branded confirmation email, add preview text, include a CTA button, and send yourself a test email.
10
Choose the embed style and theme: full card, compact, transparent, popup content, accent color, background color, logo, intro label, and privacy link.
11
Click Publish, then copy the public form link, tracking link, or embed code and place it on the program page, email, social post, QR code, or campaign page.
12
Review new submissions from the same Forms page. Contacts are synced into the marketing contact list when an email is provided, and submissions can be moved through new, reviewed, contacted, converted, or archived.

Recognition

Use membership badges with a campaign

Use this when a membership campaign needs visible supporter recognition attached to the tier or offer.

Outcome: Leave with a membership tier that includes clear badge text, description, and supporter-facing recognition.

1
Go to Donors → Settings → Membership Widgets.
2
Create or select the membership tier connected to the campaign.
3
Enable the digital membership badge option.
4
Add the badge name, public badge text, short description, and color.
5
Create the tier and use the membership link or widget in your campaign.
6
When people join through the membership flow, the badge appears as part of the membership experience so supporters understand what recognition they receive.

Keep momentum

The habits that keep campaigns useful instead of noisy.

The strongest marketing teams keep goals, segments, and measurement tight. These habits help you avoid sending more while learning less.

Campaign habits

Keep segments small for more relevant messaging.
Reuse templates to move faster each month.
Schedule sends mid-week for best engagement.
Use a form when the goal is to collect interest or intake details; use a campaign when the goal is to send a message.
Keep public forms short. Name, email, one intent question, and consent usually perform better than long forms.
Use conditional fields sparingly. They are best for one or two follow-up questions, not for turning a public interest form into a long application.
Use source and UTM links when sharing forms so Analytics can show which channels created responses.
Use the submission pipeline weekly so form responses do not become another inbox nobody owns.
Open the submission detail drawer when a response has longer answers, quality flags, or internal notes.
Export filtered submissions when a program team needs a working list, but keep follow-up status in Fundamentl.
Use badges as recognition, not decoration. The badge should reinforce why someone joined the membership campaign.

Related guide

Donors Quick Start

Use this when your next marketing step depends on cleaner donor records, better segments, or stewardship context.

Open resource

Product help

Help center

Best for campaign, workflow, or analytics questions once you know which task is blocked.

Open resource

Hands-on help

Contact support

Use this if you need help choosing the right audience strategy, automation order, or campaign setup plan.

Open resource

FAQ

Questions teams usually ask once campaigns are live.

These are the issues that show up after the first sends go out and the team needs a repeatable way to improve the next round.

Good stopping point for today

If one campaign is drafted, one audience is defined, and one follow-up path exists, the marketing workspace is already doing meaningful work.

Where do I manage segments?

Go to Marketing → Segments to build and update audiences.

Can I automate donor follow-ups?

Yes—use Workflows to send timed sequences automatically.

How do I add new templates?

Open Marketing → Templates and create a new one.

Can I create a HubSpot-style custom form for program interest?

Yes. Go to Marketing → Forms, choose a starter template or create a blank form, edit the fields, publish it, and copy the public link or embed code. Form submissions can sync contacts, apply standard and conditional tags, send confirmation emails, notify staff, create follow-up tasks, and enroll contacts in a workflow when configured.

Where do form submissions go?

Submissions appear on the Marketing → Forms page under the selected form. If the person provides an email address, the contact can also be added or updated in the marketing contact list with the tags you selected.

Can I use forms for a program page?

Yes. Create a form for the program, publish it, and add the public form link or embed code to the program page. Use tags like the program name or program-interest so your team can filter and follow up later.

Can forms send an automatic follow-up?

Yes. Forms can create a team task, send a branded confirmation email, notify staff, and optionally enroll the contact in an active workflow from the workflow dropdown.

Can I preview the workflow connected to a form?

Yes. After selecting a workflow, the form builder shows a short preview of the active workflow and its first steps so you can confirm the right automation is attached.

Can a question appear only after a specific answer?

Yes. In the field editor, use conditional display to show a field only when another field equals a selected answer. You can also use conditional tagging to apply extra tags based on answers.

Can I see which form sources are working?

Yes. The form performance panel shows views, submissions, conversion rate, top sources, top tags, status counts, and copy-ready tracking links for email, social, and QR use.

Can I export submissions?

Yes. Use the submission pipeline filter, then export the visible submissions to CSV with contact details, status, source, tags, and answer columns.

Can membership campaigns have badges?

Yes. Digital badge settings live with membership tiers in Donors → Settings → Membership Widgets. Add the badge name, description, display text, and color when creating the membership tier.