HubSpot is one of the most complete email marketing platforms available, and knowing how to use it correctly separates teams that see consistent ROI from those that just send batch-and-blast emails. Email marketing earns an average of $36 for every dollar spent, and HubSpot's Marketing Hub is built to help you capture that return through a unified CRM, behavior-based automation, and actionable analytics. This guide walks through every stage of the process: from setting up your account and building lists, to writing emails, automating sequences, protecting deliverability, and reading your results.
Key Takeaways
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing automation platform built on a unified CRM, which means every email, workflow, and personalization rule is powered by a single, consistent customer record.
With the free HubSpot CRM, you can send up to 2,000 emails a month. Upgrading to Marketing Hub Starter, Professional, or Enterprise unlocks higher limits and advanced features.
Segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones.
Automated emails achieve a 42.1% open rate and 5.4% click rate.
HubSpot supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email authentication, giving you solid technical foundations for inbox placement.
Understanding HubSpot's Email Marketing Structure
Before sending your first email, it helps to understand how HubSpot organizes its tools. HubSpot categorizes its features into distinct "Hubs," including Marketing, Sales, Service, Content, Operations, and Commerce. To access email marketing tools, you will need to activate the Marketing Hub.
Marketing Hub is available in three paid editions: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise, with select functionality in the free tools. Here is what each tier unlocks for email:
Free: Up to 2,000 email sends per month, basic templates, and HubSpot branding on all sends.
Starter: Removes HubSpot branding and gives basic email marketing tools, landing pages, live chat, and ad management. Starts at $9 per seat per month (annual billing).
Professional: Unlocks HubSpot's full workflow engine, including up to 300 active workflows triggered by behaviors, form submissions, email engagement, deal stages, and more. Starts at $800 per month on an annual contract.
HubSpot is one of the most complete email marketing platforms available, and knowing how to use it correctly separates teams that see consistent ROI from those that just send batch-and-blast emails. Email marketing earns an average of $36 for every dollar spent, and HubSpot's Marketing Hub is built to help you capture that return through a unified CRM, behavior-based automation, and actionable analytics. This guide walks through every stage of the process: from setting up your account and building lists, to writing emails, automating sequences, protecting deliverability, and reading your results.
Key Takeaways
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing automation platform built on a unified CRM, which means every email, workflow, and personalization rule is powered by a single, consistent customer record.
With the free HubSpot CRM, you can send up to 2,000 emails a month. Upgrading to Marketing Hub Starter, Professional, or Enterprise unlocks higher limits and advanced features.
Segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones.
Automated emails achieve a 42.1% open rate and 5.4% click rate.
HubSpot supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email authentication, giving you solid technical foundations for inbox placement.
Understanding HubSpot's Email Marketing Structure
Before sending your first email, it helps to understand how HubSpot organizes its tools. HubSpot categorizes its features into distinct "Hubs," including Marketing, Sales, Service, Content, Operations, and Commerce. To access email marketing tools, you will need to activate the Marketing Hub.
Marketing Hub is available in three paid editions: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise, with select functionality in the free tools. Here is what each tier unlocks for email:
Free: Up to 2,000 email sends per month, basic templates, and HubSpot branding on all sends.
Starter: Removes HubSpot branding and gives basic email marketing tools, landing pages, live chat, and ad management. Starts at $9 per seat per month (annual billing).
Professional: Unlocks HubSpot's full workflow engine, including up to 300 active workflows triggered by behaviors, form submissions, email engagement, deal stages, and more. Starts at $800 per month on an annual contract.
Enterprise: Full platform access with custom event-triggered emails, advanced reporting, and dedicated support. Starts at $3,600 per month.
The Professional plan also includes a mandatory $3,000 onboarding fee in year one. Plan for this cost when budgeting.
Step 1: Build and Manage Your Contact List
Every email program starts with a clean, permission-based contact list. All HubSpot contacts are stored in the free CRM tool. Within HubSpot's CRM, contact information is automatically organized and enriched with other data so you can follow each lead's journey through the sales funnel and personalize marketing campaigns.
To capture new subscribers, using HubSpot's free online forms is a simple way to build your audience. To create a form, navigate to Marketing, then Forms, and click Create a Free Form.
For GDPR compliance, enable consent checkboxes and consider setting up double opt-in under Settings, then Marketing, then Email.
Once your contacts are in, organize them into segments before you send anything. HubSpot offers two types:
Active segments: Send unique marketing emails based on each contact's behavior and properties. If you send a regular newsletter, an active segment automatically manages the continually changing subscriber group.
Static segments: Include records that meet a set of criteria at the point when the segment is saved. Static segments do not update automatically, so new records that meet the criteria will not be added. Use these for one-time sends like event attendees or trade show lists.
In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing, then Email. In the top right, click Create email. HubSpot will prompt you to choose an email type:
Regular: Send or schedule a single email to specific contacts or segments.
Automated: Create and save an email for automation using workflows.
Blog/RSS: Create and save an email for your blog or RSS subscribers. This email will be sent automatically when you publish new content.
From there, edit your email using the intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Style the email to match your brand and create a compelling message for your customers.
Enterprise: Full platform access with custom event-triggered emails, advanced reporting, and dedicated support. Starts at $3,600 per month.
The Professional plan also includes a mandatory $3,000 onboarding fee in year one. Plan for this cost when budgeting.
Step 1: Build and Manage Your Contact List
Every email program starts with a clean, permission-based contact list. All HubSpot contacts are stored in the free CRM tool. Within HubSpot's CRM, contact information is automatically organized and enriched with other data so you can follow each lead's journey through the sales funnel and personalize marketing campaigns.
To capture new subscribers, using HubSpot's free online forms is a simple way to build your audience. To create a form, navigate to Marketing, then Forms, and click Create a Free Form.
For GDPR compliance, enable consent checkboxes and consider setting up double opt-in under Settings, then Marketing, then Email.
Once your contacts are in, organize them into segments before you send anything. HubSpot offers two types:
Active segments: Send unique marketing emails based on each contact's behavior and properties. If you send a regular newsletter, an active segment automatically manages the continually changing subscriber group.
Static segments: Include records that meet a set of criteria at the point when the segment is saved. Static segments do not update automatically, so new records that meet the criteria will not be added. Use these for one-time sends like event attendees or trade show lists.
In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing, then Email. In the top right, click Create email. HubSpot will prompt you to choose an email type:
Regular: Send or schedule a single email to specific contacts or segments.
Automated: Create and save an email for automation using workflows.
Blog/RSS: Create and save an email for your blog or RSS subscribers. This email will be sent automatically when you publish new content.
From there, edit your email using the intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Style the email to match your brand and create a compelling message for your customers.
You can set the email's subject line and preview text. You can also specify the name and address the email will display as the sender, as well as the address that will receive any replies.
Personalization
Personalization is where HubSpot's CRM integration pays off directly. Use HubSpot's smart content modules in your email templates to show different messaging based on contact properties such as industry, lifecycle stage, or job title. Go beyond first name and use tokens like company name, job title, or last webinar attended for deeper engagement.
Simple personalization can boost open rates by up to 26%. To add a token, click the Personalize button inside the subject line or body editor and select the relevant contact or company property.
For more techniques on using personalization to lift conversions, read our post on email personalization techniques that boost conversions by 47%.
Subject Lines
Your subject line is the first filter between your email and the inbox. HubSpot has found that the most compelling email subject lines engage curiosity, include promotional offers, contain emojis, and are personalized to each recipient's interests. Pair this with HubSpot's built-in A/B testing (covered below) to confirm what actually works for your audience. You can also review our email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27% for a full breakdown.
Step 3: Segment Your Audience Before Sending
Segmentation is the single highest-leverage action you can take before hitting send. Segmentation is one of the most important steps in an effective email marketing strategy. You want to send the right information to the right people at the right time. This means gathering information that helps you understand who that person is and where they are in the buyer's journey. When you group contacts into smaller buckets based on similar interests or goals, you can more easily tailor your message to meet their needs.
HubSpot's AI-powered segmentation goes further. HubSpot's AI-powered Segments feature allows you to move beyond static lists. Using the Breeze Assistant, you can ask for audiences in natural language, such as: "Show me contacts in the education industry who viewed our new product page in the last week."
Automated email segmentation uses dynamic rules and real-time data to group contacts automatically, eliminating manual list updates while boosting campaign relevance. By connecting unified customer data, you can build segments that update based on behavior, lifecycle stage, or engagement, and then trigger personalized workflows and content for each group.
Step 4: Set Up Automation Workflows
Automation is what separates a scalable email program from a manual one. HubSpot's automation capabilities improve email marketing strategies by enabling companies to design workflows that automatically send personalized emails in response to user actions, lead evaluation, and data segmentation.
You can set the email's subject line and preview text. You can also specify the name and address the email will display as the sender, as well as the address that will receive any replies.
Personalization
Personalization is where HubSpot's CRM integration pays off directly. Use HubSpot's smart content modules in your email templates to show different messaging based on contact properties such as industry, lifecycle stage, or job title. Go beyond first name and use tokens like company name, job title, or last webinar attended for deeper engagement.
Simple personalization can boost open rates by up to 26%. To add a token, click the Personalize button inside the subject line or body editor and select the relevant contact or company property.
For more techniques on using personalization to lift conversions, read our post on email personalization techniques that boost conversions by 47%.
Subject Lines
Your subject line is the first filter between your email and the inbox. HubSpot has found that the most compelling email subject lines engage curiosity, include promotional offers, contain emojis, and are personalized to each recipient's interests. Pair this with HubSpot's built-in A/B testing (covered below) to confirm what actually works for your audience. You can also review our email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27% for a full breakdown.
Step 3: Segment Your Audience Before Sending
Segmentation is the single highest-leverage action you can take before hitting send. Segmentation is one of the most important steps in an effective email marketing strategy. You want to send the right information to the right people at the right time. This means gathering information that helps you understand who that person is and where they are in the buyer's journey. When you group contacts into smaller buckets based on similar interests or goals, you can more easily tailor your message to meet their needs.
HubSpot's AI-powered segmentation goes further. HubSpot's AI-powered Segments feature allows you to move beyond static lists. Using the Breeze Assistant, you can ask for audiences in natural language, such as: "Show me contacts in the education industry who viewed our new product page in the last week."
Automated email segmentation uses dynamic rules and real-time data to group contacts automatically, eliminating manual list updates while boosting campaign relevance. By connecting unified customer data, you can build segments that update based on behavior, lifecycle stage, or engagement, and then trigger personalized workflows and content for each group.
Step 4: Set Up Automation Workflows
Automation is what separates a scalable email program from a manual one. HubSpot's automation capabilities improve email marketing strategies by enabling companies to design workflows that automatically send personalized emails in response to user actions, lead evaluation, and data segmentation.
To set up a workflow: navigate to Automation, then Workflows. There you will have the option to choose an existing workflow or create a new one. Once in the workflow editor, click the plus icon to add the action you want your workflow to perform. In the right-hand panel, click the Send Email option. Here you can choose the automated email you previously created, or create a new one.
Using Workflows, you can set up automated emails to go out to specific contacts based on different triggers. For example, if a subscriber signs up for a free trial, you can send them an email with more information about their new account. At the same time, you can set a task for a salesperson to follow up with the lead to see how they are doing.
Common Automation Triggers
Form submissions
Deal stage changes
Email link clicks
Page visits (e.g., pricing page)
Contact property changes (e.g., lifecycle stage)
It is important to set a delay between email sends so the recipient has a chance to engage with the content before receiving the next email in the series. The right delay depends on your audience's behavior and the goal of each email in the sequence.
One critical technical note: automated emails not sent using a connected email sending domain will be sent from a HubSpot-managed domain, which can hurt deliverability and sender reputation. Connect your domain before launching workflows.
Step 5: Protect Your Email Deliverability
Deliverability determines whether your emails land in the inbox or the spam folder. Email deliverability is a feedback loop for whether you are sending the right content to the right contacts at the right time. Email engagements such as clicks, opens, and spam complaints contribute to your email sending reputation. Higher rates of positive engagements improve your chances of reaching the inbox instead of getting stuck in a spam filter.
Authentication Setup
HubSpot supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email authentication. HubSpot provides an easy-to-follow in-app authentication wizard to guide users through setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. You can find helpful resources to ensure you are compliant, making the setup process smooth.
Google started requiring authentication for bulk email senders in 2024, and Microsoft began requiring it in 2025. If your authentication is not configured, bulk sends will fail or land in spam.
List Hygiene
Your list quality directly determines your sender reputation. If you are emailing contacts who have not engaged in 6 to 12 months, have not opted in properly, or have invalid addresses, you are training ISPs to treat your domain as a spam source.
Key list hygiene actions in HubSpot:
Enable graymail suppression. This HubSpot feature automatically excludes contacts who habitually ignore your emails, which protects your reputation on autopilot.
Never send to contacts who have not opened one of your emails in over a year, as they pose a high risk for deliverability problems.
HubSpot automatically suppresses bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints, which helps protect your reputation as a sender.
HubSpot also provides an email health dashboard and a health score out of 10 that allows you to monitor your sending performance and reputation. Check this regularly, especially after large sends or list imports.
Step 6: Run A/B Tests to Improve Performance
To set up a workflow: navigate to Automation, then Workflows. There you will have the option to choose an existing workflow or create a new one. Once in the workflow editor, click the plus icon to add the action you want your workflow to perform. In the right-hand panel, click the Send Email option. Here you can choose the automated email you previously created, or create a new one.
Using Workflows, you can set up automated emails to go out to specific contacts based on different triggers. For example, if a subscriber signs up for a free trial, you can send them an email with more information about their new account. At the same time, you can set a task for a salesperson to follow up with the lead to see how they are doing.
Common Automation Triggers
Form submissions
Deal stage changes
Email link clicks
Page visits (e.g., pricing page)
Contact property changes (e.g., lifecycle stage)
It is important to set a delay between email sends so the recipient has a chance to engage with the content before receiving the next email in the series. The right delay depends on your audience's behavior and the goal of each email in the sequence.
One critical technical note: automated emails not sent using a connected email sending domain will be sent from a HubSpot-managed domain, which can hurt deliverability and sender reputation. Connect your domain before launching workflows.
Step 5: Protect Your Email Deliverability
Deliverability determines whether your emails land in the inbox or the spam folder. Email deliverability is a feedback loop for whether you are sending the right content to the right contacts at the right time. Email engagements such as clicks, opens, and spam complaints contribute to your email sending reputation. Higher rates of positive engagements improve your chances of reaching the inbox instead of getting stuck in a spam filter.
Authentication Setup
HubSpot supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email authentication. HubSpot provides an easy-to-follow in-app authentication wizard to guide users through setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. You can find helpful resources to ensure you are compliant, making the setup process smooth.
Google started requiring authentication for bulk email senders in 2024, and Microsoft began requiring it in 2025. If your authentication is not configured, bulk sends will fail or land in spam.
List Hygiene
Your list quality directly determines your sender reputation. If you are emailing contacts who have not engaged in 6 to 12 months, have not opted in properly, or have invalid addresses, you are training ISPs to treat your domain as a spam source.
Key list hygiene actions in HubSpot:
Enable graymail suppression. This HubSpot feature automatically excludes contacts who habitually ignore your emails, which protects your reputation on autopilot.
Never send to contacts who have not opened one of your emails in over a year, as they pose a high risk for deliverability problems.
HubSpot automatically suppresses bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints, which helps protect your reputation as a sender.
HubSpot also provides an email health dashboard and a health score out of 10 that allows you to monitor your sending performance and reputation. Check this regularly, especially after large sends or list imports.
Step 6: Run A/B Tests to Improve Performance
A/B testing removes guesswork from your email decisions. Testing your marketing emails empowers you to make data-driven changes to improve the next send. With an A/B test, you can test variations of the same email with a sample of your contacts. In HubSpot, once you have created your email (version A), you can create a version B where you can make a single variation to see how the change impacts email engagement.
Click the Winning metric dropdown menu and select a metric for how the winning version will be determined. You can choose from Open rate, Click rate, and Click through rate. In the Test length field, enter a number of hours over which the test will take place. After this time, the remaining recipients will be sent the winning version.
What to test:
Subject lines: try different wording, lengths, personalization, or emojis. Preview text: see what entices recipients before they even open. Email content: test headlines, body copy, images, or offers. CTA buttons: experiment with button color, text, or placement.
Only test one thing at a time. That way, you will know what actually drove better results.
Step 7: Analyze Campaign Performance
Planning and executing email marketing campaigns take valuable time and effort. Analyzing email performance will help you see why some emails are more successful than others and determine what actions drive results.
The Analyze tab allows you to review user interaction (number of emails sent, click-through rate, open rate), email deliveries made (percentage of emails delivered, unsubscribes, spam reports), and the performance of emails by device type and time spent reading, all customizable by date range.
HubSpot's automation tools allow you to track the performance of your workflows in real time. You can see how many contacts are moving through each stage of the funnel, which emails drive the most engagement, and where there might be drop-offs.
Given that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection automatically preloads email content and images for Apple Mail users, even if they never actually open the email, open rate data is less reliable than it used to be. Prioritize click-through rate, click-to-open rate, and downstream conversions as your primary performance signals.
Yes, partially. The free plan of HubSpot Marketing Hub includes forms, email marketing, and basic chatbots. With the free HubSpot CRM, you can send up to 2,000 emails a month. All emails on the free plan carry HubSpot branding. Paid plans start at $9 per seat per month (Starter, billed annually) and remove that branding while unlocking more advanced tools.
What is the difference between a regular and automated email in HubSpot?
A/B testing removes guesswork from your email decisions. Testing your marketing emails empowers you to make data-driven changes to improve the next send. With an A/B test, you can test variations of the same email with a sample of your contacts. In HubSpot, once you have created your email (version A), you can create a version B where you can make a single variation to see how the change impacts email engagement.
Click the Winning metric dropdown menu and select a metric for how the winning version will be determined. You can choose from Open rate, Click rate, and Click through rate. In the Test length field, enter a number of hours over which the test will take place. After this time, the remaining recipients will be sent the winning version.
What to test:
Subject lines: try different wording, lengths, personalization, or emojis. Preview text: see what entices recipients before they even open. Email content: test headlines, body copy, images, or offers. CTA buttons: experiment with button color, text, or placement.
Only test one thing at a time. That way, you will know what actually drove better results.
Step 7: Analyze Campaign Performance
Planning and executing email marketing campaigns take valuable time and effort. Analyzing email performance will help you see why some emails are more successful than others and determine what actions drive results.
The Analyze tab allows you to review user interaction (number of emails sent, click-through rate, open rate), email deliveries made (percentage of emails delivered, unsubscribes, spam reports), and the performance of emails by device type and time spent reading, all customizable by date range.
HubSpot's automation tools allow you to track the performance of your workflows in real time. You can see how many contacts are moving through each stage of the funnel, which emails drive the most engagement, and where there might be drop-offs.
Given that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection automatically preloads email content and images for Apple Mail users, even if they never actually open the email, open rate data is less reliable than it used to be. Prioritize click-through rate, click-to-open rate, and downstream conversions as your primary performance signals.
Yes, partially. The free plan of HubSpot Marketing Hub includes forms, email marketing, and basic chatbots. With the free HubSpot CRM, you can send up to 2,000 emails a month. All emails on the free plan carry HubSpot branding. Paid plans start at $9 per seat per month (Starter, billed annually) and remove that branding while unlocking more advanced tools.
What is the difference between a regular and automated email in HubSpot?
A regular email is a single email you send or schedule to specific contacts or segments. An automated email is created and saved for use inside a workflow. This option is only available for accounts with a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise subscription. Automated emails are triggered by contact behavior or properties, allowing you to send the right message at the right moment without manual effort.
How does HubSpot handle email deliverability?
HubSpot uses machine learning to predict when an email campaign's performance is doing damage to your sending reputation. It pauses the send automatically and notifies your HubSpot consultants to help you get ahead of the problem. Beyond that, HubSpot provides authentication wizards, graymail suppression, automatic bounce handling, and an email health dashboard to help you maintain strong inbox placement rates.
Can I do A/B testing on HubSpot's free plan?
No. Workflow automation and A/B testing for email and landing pages are gated behind the Professional plan. If running split tests is important to your strategy, you will need at least a Marketing Hub Professional subscription.
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A regular email is a single email you send or schedule to specific contacts or segments. An automated email is created and saved for use inside a workflow. This option is only available for accounts with a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise subscription. Automated emails are triggered by contact behavior or properties, allowing you to send the right message at the right moment without manual effort.
How does HubSpot handle email deliverability?
HubSpot uses machine learning to predict when an email campaign's performance is doing damage to your sending reputation. It pauses the send automatically and notifies your HubSpot consultants to help you get ahead of the problem. Beyond that, HubSpot provides authentication wizards, graymail suppression, automatic bounce handling, and an email health dashboard to help you maintain strong inbox placement rates.
Can I do A/B testing on HubSpot's free plan?
No. Workflow automation and A/B testing for email and landing pages are gated behind the Professional plan. If running split tests is important to your strategy, you will need at least a Marketing Hub Professional subscription.
