Optimizing email deliverability within HubSpot requires a strategic approach that spans technical setup, list hygiene, and content engagement. It's crucial to understand how HubSpot's infrastructure and your sending practices interact to influence inbox placement. Focusing on foundational elements such as proper authentication and maintaining a healthy sender reputation will yield significant improvements.
Key findings
Authentication is paramount: Fully implementing email authentication protocols like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC is fundamental for establishing trust with mailbox providers. Without these, your emails are far more likely to face deliverability issues. HubSpot provides features to ensure validated sender authentication.
Engagement matters: HubSpot actively monitors engagement rates (opens and clicks) and can throttle sends if engagement is low. Prioritizing active users and creating compelling content are essential to maintaining a strong sender reputation.
List quality is critical: Avoid purchased lists and consider using double opt-in. Regularly cleaning and segmenting your lists, removing inactive or invalid addresses, helps prevent issues like hitting spam traps and reduces bounce rates.
Monitoring is key: Utilize HubSpot's Email Health tool to track bounce rates, complaint rates, and delivery rates. This helps diagnose and address issues promptly.
Key considerations
IP address type: Determine whether your HubSpot account uses a shared or dedicated IP address. Shared IPs mean you share reputation with other users, which can impact your deliverability if others send poorly. Understand how shared IP addresses affect deliverability.
Content personalization: Utilize HubSpot's personalization tokens to make emails more relevant to recipients. This can boost engagement and positively influence inbox placement.
Strategic segmentation: Regularly revise your audience segmentation approaches to target the right people with the right message, improving relevance and engagement.
Ongoing optimization: Email deliverability is not a one-time setup. It requires continuous testing, monitoring, and adaptation to evolving email marketing trends and mailbox provider requirements. Consider implementing a proven checklist for deliverability testing.
What email marketers say
Email marketers using HubSpot frequently highlight the importance of fundamental email practices combined with leveraging HubSpot's specific features. Their experiences underscore that a blend of technical setup, audience management, and engaging content is crucial for achieving good inbox placement. Many emphasize starting with basic checks before delving into more complex issues.
Key opinions
Start with basics: Before optimizing, assess current problems and what metrics are already being monitored within HubSpot.
Domain authentication: Marketers consistently point to the necessity of ensuring domains are properly authenticated, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
Audience engagement: Engaging with active users first and segmenting lists effectively are common recommendations to improve deliverability and prevent throttling by HubSpot.
Content quality: Sending valuable, wanted content is repeatedly cited as a method to encourage opens and clicks, thereby building a positive sender reputation.
Key considerations
Inquire about IP type: It's important to know if you're on a shared or dedicated IP address, as this impacts how your reputation is managed. You can learn more about understanding your email domain reputation.
Avoid purchased lists: This is a frequently mentioned best practice, as purchased lists often contain invalid addresses and spam traps that harm deliverability. Effective strategies to avoid spam traps are critical.
Regular list cleaning: Cleaning inactive or invalid email addresses from your lists helps improve engagement rates and reduce bounces.
Ongoing optimization: Marketers suggest continuously testing and optimizing subject lines, personalizing content, and creating engaging email experiences. Keeping up to date with deliverability best practices is important.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks emphasizes checking IP address type. It is essential to determine whether your HubSpot account is using a shared or dedicated IP address. This distinction is important because sharing an IP means your sending reputation is tied to the practices of other users, which can introduce volatility.
06 Jul 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from HubSpot Community stresses authentication and content quality. They state that domains require authentication, contacts should be opted-in, and the content sent must be valuable and desired by recipients. This builds positive engagement and overall sender reputation over time.
01 Jan 2025 - community.hubspot.com
What the experts say
Email deliverability experts often provide a more technical and strategic perspective on optimizing HubSpot email programs. They consistently emphasize the critical role of email authentication and the careful management of sending reputation. Their insights delve into how these foundational elements directly influence inbox placement, particularly within platforms like HubSpot that handle sending infrastructure.
Key opinions
Authentication is non-negotiable: Experts agree that full implementation of DKIM, SPF, and DMARC is fundamental. While it doesn't guarantee inbox placement, its absence significantly increases deliverability challenges. A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM is essential reading.
Targeting is paramount: A common error is sending to inactive users. Experts advise maintaining proper engagement by targeting only active segments of your audience. Sending to a large, unengaged list negatively impacts deliverability.
Reputation is shared: If on a shared IP address, your reputation is influenced by other senders. This necessitates vigilance over your own practices and understanding the potential external factors.
Data-driven approach: Monitoring current deliverability problems and existing measurement practices is key to diagnosing issues effectively.
Key considerations
Consistent engagement: Focusing on maintaining high engagement with your audience is more valuable than simply increasing send volume. HubSpot's internal mechanisms factor this into your sender reputation.
Monitor complaint rates: High complaint rates are a strong signal of poor sender reputation. Experts advise closely tracking these and taking prompt action to remove complainers from your list. Read our guide on how to improve email reputation and deliverability.
Gradual volume changes: For new IPs or domains, or when significantly changing sending patterns, gradually increasing email volume (warming up) helps build trust with mailbox providers and avoid blocklisting.
HubSpot's role: While HubSpot provides tools, the ultimate responsibility for list quality and content relevance lies with the sender. Leveraging their built-in features correctly is key.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks highlights the importance of DKIM authentication for inbox placement. They emphasize that while DKIM authentication does not provide an absolute guarantee of inbox placement, its complete implementation is crucial. Without it, senders are significantly more likely to encounter deliverability challenges, making it a foundational element for trust.
06 Jul 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource suggests closely monitoring bounces and spam complaints. These metrics are key indicators of deliverability health and can signal underlying issues requiring immediate attention. Proactive monitoring allows senders to address problems before they escalate and significantly impact reputation.
15 Mar 2024 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
Official documentation and authoritative resources provide clear guidelines and best practices for optimizing email deliverability, particularly within platforms like HubSpot. These sources emphasize foundational technical setups and ongoing list management as key pillars for successful email campaigns. They often detail the features and tools available to help users maintain good sender health.
Key findings
Domain authentication: Documentation consistently highlights the need for setting up email authentication like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. This is crucial for verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing.
Email health monitoring: HubSpot provides an Email Health tool to track domain health, bounces, and complaints. Regularly checking this tool is a recommended practice.
List quality and segmentation: Official guidance emphasizes avoiding purchased lists, cleaning lists regularly, and segmenting audiences to ensure high engagement and relevance. This helps prevent being placed on a domain blacklist or blocklist.
Content optimization: Personalized content and engaging subject lines are highlighted as methods to improve open rates and overall engagement, which in turn boosts deliverability.
Key considerations
Proactive troubleshooting: Documentation suggests investigating past email performance to diagnose and fix deliverability issues. This includes understanding the specific challenges that may arise, for instance, when switching to HubSpot.
Sunset policies: Implementing a sunset policy to regularly remove unengaged subscribers is a best practice to maintain list hygiene and sender reputation.
Utilize HubSpot features: Beyond basic sending, leverage HubSpot's advanced features for managing campaigns, automating emails, and ensuring compliance, as these are designed to enhance deliverability rates.
Continuous learning: Staying updated with the latest trends and best practices in email marketing is crucial for long-term deliverability success.
Technical article
Documentation from HubSpot Community emphasizes using the Email Health tool. Senders should monitor their email deliverability health directly within HubSpot's Email Health tool. It is also vital to ensure domain authentication and regularly clean and segment email lists to maintain good standing.
01 Jan 2025 - community.hubspot.com
Technical article
Documentation from EmailTooltester details key HubSpot deliverability features. HubSpot offers several core features designed to enhance deliverability, including robust authentication compliance for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. It also provides mechanisms for spam complaint handling, and dedicated support to help users navigate deliverability challenges.