HubSpot marketing email: setup, authentication and subscription management

HubSpot’s Marketing Email tool allows organisations to create, send and measure marketing emails using information held in the CRM.

Before sending, configure the technical, subscription and data foundations correctly. These settings help protect your sending reputation, improve deliverability and ensure recipients can manage the communications they receive.

HubSpot provides the email platform and technical controls. Your organisation remains responsible for deciding who it can contact, which communications are appropriate and how its email activity complies with applicable laws and internal policies.

How HubSpot sends marketing emails

Marketing emails are sent through HubSpot’s email infrastructure rather than directly from an individual user’s inbox.

HubSpot can track supported activity such as:

• Deliveries
• Bounces
• Opens
• Clicks
• Unsubscribes
• Spam reports

Email providers decide whether a message is accepted and where it appears in the recipient’s inbox. Using HubSpot does not guarantee delivery or prevent a message from being filtered as spam.

Deliverability is influenced by factors including:

• Email authentication
• Sender reputation
• List quality
• Recipient engagement
• Complaint and bounce rates
• Email content
• Sending frequency
• Consent and subscription status

Connect an email sending domain

An email sending domain authorises HubSpot to send marketing email using your organisation’s domain.

Without a connected sending domain, HubSpot may modify the From address to use a HubSpot-managed system domain. Connecting and authenticating your organisation’s domain provides a more recognisable sender identity and supports deliverability.

Setting up the domain requires changes to its DNS records. The work should involve whoever manages your organisation’s domain and email infrastructure.

Do not change DNS records without understanding how they may affect other email services using the domain.

Understand email authentication

HubSpot’s current authentication guidance covers four DNS record types:

• DKIM: adds a digital signature that receiving servers can use to verify that HubSpot is authorised to send using your domain.
• SPF: identifies authorised email-sending services for the domain.
• DMARC: tells receiving servers how to handle messages that fail authentication and can provide authentication reports.
• MX: identifies how a domain receives email. Certain MX configurations, such as a null MX record, can affect whether messages are accepted.

HubSpot provides the DNS values required for its connection, but your organisation must decide how those records fit with its wider email infrastructure.

Take particular care when changing SPF or DMARC. An incorrect record or overly strict policy can affect legitimate email sent through HubSpot or other authorised systems.

HubSpot guides:
Overview of email authentication
Connect an email sending domain

Configure marketing email settings

Marketing email settings provide account-level defaults for creating and sending emails.

Depending on your subscription and configuration, these settings can include:

• Company name and physical address
• Email footer information
• Default From names and addresses
• Subscription types
• Tracking settings
• Personalisation defaults
• Double opt-in settings
• Resubscription options

Review these settings before the first campaign and whenever your organisation’s branding, contact details or communication approach changes.

Marketing emails must contain the required footer and subscription-management information. Avoid removing or obscuring elements that allow recipients to identify the sender or manage their preferences.

Set up subscription types

Subscription types describe the categories of email a contact can receive.

Examples might include:

• Marketing news and updates
• Event communications
• Product announcements
• Customer newsletters

Names and descriptions should be clear enough for recipients and internal users to understand what each subscription covers.

Avoid creating overlapping or vague subscription types. An unnecessarily complicated structure can make preferences difficult to manage and increase the risk of selecting the wrong type when sending an email.

Your organisation should decide:

• Which types of communication it sends
• Which subscription type applies to each email
• How preferences will be collected
• Which lawful basis is appropriate
• How subscription records will be maintained

HubSpot can record subscription preferences and lawful-basis information, but it does not determine whether your organisation’s approach is legally appropriate.

HubSpot guide:
Set up email subscription types

Unsubscribe and preference links

HubSpot marketing emails include links that allow recipients to manage their subscription preferences.

Depending on the email and configuration, recipients may be able to:

• Unsubscribe from the email’s subscription type
• Review their subscription preferences
• Unsubscribe from all marketing email
• Confirm a subscription through double opt-in

Recipients who unsubscribe through HubSpot are automatically excluded from future marketing emails covered by that preference.

Do not attempt to bypass a recipient’s unsubscribe status by importing them again, creating duplicate records or sending the same marketing content through another subscription type.

HubSpot guide:
Insert subscription links into marketing emails

Import historical opt-out data

When moving from another email platform, import historical opt-out information before sending marketing email through HubSpot.

An opt-out import prevents the listed email addresses from receiving future marketing emails from the account. HubSpot does not need to create new contact records for every address in the opt-out file.

Before migration, obtain the relevant suppression information from the previous platform, including:

• Global unsubscribes
• Subscription-specific opt-outs where applicable
• Hard bounces
• Spam complaints
• Other addresses that must not receive marketing email

The standard HubSpot opt-out import applies an account-wide email opt-out. If the previous platform uses more detailed preference categories, plan how those preferences will be represented in HubSpot before importing and sending.

HubSpot guide:
Import opted-out contacts

Select appropriate recipients

A contact being present in HubSpot does not automatically mean they should receive a marketing email.

Before sending, confirm that recipients:

• Match the intended audience
• Have the required subscription status
• Meet your organisation’s lawful-basis requirements
• Are not included in relevant suppression lists
• Have a valid and appropriate email address
• Are marked as marketing contacts where your HubSpot account requires this

Use exclusion segments as well as inclusion segments. Exclusions can help prevent emails from reaching competitors, employees, test records, inactive addresses or other unsuitable recipients.

Create and review a marketing email

When preparing an email, configure and review:

• The From name and address
• Subject line and preview text
• Subscription type
• Recipient and exclusion segments
• Email content and links
• Personalisation tokens and fallback values
• Footer information
• Web and plain-text versions
• Sending time or automation criteria

Send test emails and preview the content on different devices before publishing. Test personalisation using representative contact records so missing or unsuitable property values can be identified.

HubSpot guide:
Create and send marketing emails

Standard, scheduled and automated emails

Available sending options depend on the HubSpot subscription.

These can include:

• Sending an email immediately
• Scheduling it for a future time
• Sending according to recipient time zones
• Using an email in an automated workflow
• Sending based on contact behaviour or CRM criteria

Automated marketing emails require additional care because contacts can become eligible without a user reviewing each send individually.

Before activating automation:

• Test the workflow’s enrolment criteria.
• Confirm the correct subscription type.
• Check suppression and exclusion rules.
• Review re-enrolment behaviour.
• Test personalisation and fallback values.
• Confirm that contacts cannot receive the same message unexpectedly.

Protecting email deliverability

Good authentication is important, but it cannot compensate for poor audience quality or sending practices.

To protect deliverability:

• Send to people who expect the communication.
• Avoid purchased, scraped or unverified lists.
• Remove or suppress persistently unengaged recipients where appropriate.
• Monitor hard bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints.
• Avoid sudden, unexplained increases in sending volume.
• Use clear sender information and relevant content.
• Investigate significant changes in email performance.
• Review automated sends regularly.

Email performance should be assessed over time. A single open rate or click rate does not provide a complete view of deliverability or recipient engagement.

Compliance and organisational responsibility

HubSpot provides tools for authentication, subscription management, consent records and unsubscribe handling. Using these tools does not by itself guarantee compliance with GDPR, CAN-SPAM or other applicable requirements.

Your organisation remains responsible for:

• Determining the appropriate lawful basis
• Approving consent and subscription wording
• Deciding who can receive marketing communications
• Maintaining accurate preference records
• Honouring opt-outs
• Defining retention and suppression policies
• Reviewing applicable regional requirements

Forbidden can help configure HubSpot’s technical functionality, but does not provide legal advice or determine whether your email marketing activity is compliant.

What can Forbidden help with?

Forbidden can help you:

• Configure HubSpot marketing email settings
• Support the connection of an email sending domain
• Coordinate authentication requirements with your DNS or IT team
• Design a clear subscription-type structure
• Import historical opt-out information
• Configure recipient and suppression segments
• Build and test marketing emails
• Set up and test automated email workflows
• Review email performance and deliverability indicators
• Train users responsible for creating and sending emails

Your organisation remains responsible for DNS approval, legal decisions, recipient eligibility, email content and ongoing data governance.

Further information

• Overview of email authentication
• Connect an email sending domain
• Set up email subscription types
• Insert subscription links into marketing emails
• Import opted-out contacts
• Create and send marketing emails