HubSpot Reports Ninefold Lead Growth in Japan Market

HubSpot says a rebuilt marketing automation program helped deliver ninefold growth in qualified leads in Japan, a market outside its main areas of automation investment. Before the overhaul, its automated emails were producing roughly 12 qualified leads a month, compared with a target of 160. The company says it rebuilt the program over two months without adding staff.

The gap was not primarily a lack of content or infrastructure, according to HubSpot. The company already had both in place, but its Japan automation programs were outdated, incomplete or had not been substantially adapted for the local market. As a result, the existing setup was not performing as intended.

HubSpot describes the issue as a common one for companies operating across multiple regions. Automation expertise is often assigned to markets that generate the most volume, leaving other markets with programs that were never built or that have gone years without meaningful updates. In Japan, HubSpot says the latter problem applied.

The company’s automation investment had historically focused on English, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese markets, where programs received repeated rounds of development and refinement. HubSpot says other markets received less dedicated attention because automation resources had not been allocated to cover them, rather than because of an explicit decision to deprioritize them.

Hiring an automation specialist in Japan was one possible response, but HubSpot says that was not realistic. It instead used a two-person operating model to rebuild the email program with no additional headcount. HubSpot also identifies targeting high-intent prospects as part of its approach. The available summary does not explain how responsibilities were divided, how prospects were selected or how the reported growth was measured.

What this means for marketers

Teams working across regions can review whether older automation programs still fit their local markets, rather than assuming that existing content and infrastructure are enough. HubSpot’s experience also points to the importance of comparing lead production with targets before deciding how to allocate automation resources. The summary does not establish whether the same model would produce similar results elsewhere.