INTRODUCTION
HubSpot is an AI-powered customer platform that can integrate marketing, sales and customer service into one central hub. Its email marketing tools, in particular, can help businesses of all sizes create personalized campaigns that resonate with and inspire action from their target audience(s).
Following is how your B2C business can use HubSpot for email marketing.
SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT AND ORGANIZE CONTACTS
While HubSpot offers a free plan, email marketing is limited to 2,000 email sends per month (and includes HubSpot branding) and does not include marketing automation. Your business will likely need to go with a paid plan, which starts at $15/month/seat, to unlock the features you need.
Once you are set up, start by creating lists. If you already use HubSpot as your CRM, you can use your existing list of contacts; otherwise, you can upload a .csv, .xlsx or.xls file. When uploading contacts, make sure to have separate columns for each field (e.g., first name, last name, email address, etc.). You must also adhere to HubSpot’s opt-in criteria before sending marketing emails to contacts.
Whenever possible, separate contacts based on their interests or behaviors to send more personalized communications. For example, you could segment lists based on the types of products they purchased or by the types of communications they prefer to receive. Sorting contacts also will help increase positive engagement (e.g., opens, clicks) and avoid negative engagement (e.g., spam reports), which can lead to account suspension.
Over time, you will likely have a combination of active lists and static lists in your HubSpot account. Active lists automatically update members based on established criteria. In other words, contacts join the list when they meet the criteria and leave when they no longer meet it. Criteria could include subscribing to your e-newsletter, contacts you labeled as a customer or contacts that exhibit specific behaviors, for example.
Static lists, on the other hand, are not automatically updated. Instead, they include contacts that met a specific set of criteria when the list was made. For instance, you may use a static list to reach contacts who attended a trade show or an event.
Maintain and clean your contact lists regularly to improve deliverability. This includes continuously adding labels, known as “contact properties,” based on interests and removing or shifting contacts that have hard bounced or unsubscribed, or those with limited engagement.
SEND REGULAR, TAILORED EMAIL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Send frequent email marketing communications to stay top-of-mind with your customers or drive repeat business. Depending on the lists you created, you could send out a monthly newsletter or create various campaigns tailored to your contacts’ interests and behaviors.
For instance, if you run a clothing retail shop, you may create one campaign focused on women’s styles for spring and another for men’s, or you may feature discounted items that you are trying to push for those most interested in hearing about special offers.
Create templates for your various communications that you can use in the future. Like many email marketing platforms, HubSpot has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor that allows you to add content blocks (e.g., text, images) to customize your design.
They also offer various preset goal-based email templates that may help you get a jump start. For example, you can select templates for e-commerce events (like Black Friday), templates for newsletters and templates for events.
Add your company’s fonts, logos, color schemes and photos in your templates to stay on brand.
To create an email, go to “Marketing” and select “Email.” Then click “Create email” and select the email type. Choose “Regular” to create a campaign that you can send to your subscribers or a segment you created.
Select your saved template or create a new one and compose your email. In general, you should aim to have at least one image or visually striking component, an attention-grabbing headline, concise text and a call-to-action. Lead with the most important information (e.g., your ultimate goal for the email) and limit yourself to 1-4 sections to keep your email short and easy to consume.
Create a compelling subject line and add preview text to entice people to open your email. You can add emojis (but use them sparingly) or add personalization tokens, such as the contact’s first name, to your subject line.
HubSpot also has an AI content writing feature that can inspire some ideas or generate first drafts for subject lines and content. You should always review and edit AI content to ensure the information is correct and the tone matches your brand.
Use HubSpot’s A/B testing feature to experiment with your subject line, copy, offers or images to see what resonates best with your target audience(s). You can determine what percentage of contacts will receive each variation and analyze the results, or start by sending both emails to a smaller group. Then send the “winning version” to your entire list.
SET UP AUTOMATED EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Use automated emails to create drip campaigns for your B2C business. If you’re not familiar, a drip campaign automatically sends communications to contacts who match certain criteria or take specific actions. They can both streamline your efforts and ensure that your contacts are receiving timely and relevant content.
For example, you could set up a campaign that targets people who abandoned their carts and encourages them to come back to finalize their purchase in your online shop. You could also create a campaign that goes out to leads who filled out a form on your website or promotes a milestone event among your existing customers.
To launch a drip campaign, start by creating a workflow in your HubSpot account. Select a premade template that aligns with your goals or create one from scratch. Then set enrollment triggers, or the criteria a contact must follow to enter the drip campaign.
These can be event-based (e.g., when a form is submitted) or you can set specific filter criteria (e.g., where the contact lives). You also can launch a workflow to your audiences on a specific date or time, such as when a sale starts.
Contacts will only be enrolled in a workflow the first time they meet the trigger(s) unless you opt to set up re-enrollment.
Add actions to establish the rules for your workflow. For example, you can add a time delay (e.g., send email after a specific date, wait three days before the next message, etc.) or split contacts down different paths based on the outcomes of the previous action. If needed, you can also connect multiple workflows to create complex campaigns.
Compose each email in the drip campaign before you launch. You can do this directly in the workflow or select the “Automated” email type when you create an email.
Make sure to preview your workflow and establish settings (e.g., timing, end date) before you turn it on.
MONITOR INSIGHTS AND ADJUST
Monitor key performance indicators for your email marketing campaigns, such as open rate, clicks/click rate and unsubscribe rate, to track what’s working and what’s not. You also should examine the click map to see which links were most popular. If you A/B tested your campaign, you may see different results based on where you included call-to-action buttons or links.
Aim to replicate successful communications, content blocks and drip campaigns and minimize the ones that underperformed.
HubSpot also offers insights and recommendations for your emails on the marketing email index page, which can help you adjust your strategies. For example, the platform can tell you if a campaign has a lower open rate than normal.
Insights can be generated for marketing emails that have a minimum of 250 recipients.