Email marketing: The Swiss Army knife of your digital strategy. A weapon in the right hands; an awkward bottle opener in the wrong ones.
Done right, your automated email campaign builds relationships, nurtures leads and converts browsers into buyers — all while you’re sipping a Rivella (If you’re going to use a Swiss Army knife, you might as well).
But here’s the catch: Great email performance doesn’t happen by accident. It takes planning and the right systems to support day-to-day tasks.
That’s where HubSpot workflows step in — your co-pilot for crafting email content that hits inboxes with precision and purpose. Let’s explore how to turn this platform into your secret weapon for email marketing success.
Getting Started With HubSpot Email Marketing: Setting the Foundation
We don’t always think of the way creative work comes to life, whether it’s in a museum or a marketing strategy. But the truth is, every masterpiece relies on trusted workflows. Just as the painter starts by grounding the canvas, each HubSpot sequence also needs a solid foundation. Here’s how to lay the groundwork:
1. Gather Your Contacts
Start by building your email list. Whether you’re importing contacts from another platform, syncing them from your CRM or creating a list from scratch, HubSpot makes it seamless. And with options to segment your audience from the get-go, you’ll be ready to craft messages that speak directly to your readers, thus boosting email deliverability in the long run.
2. Organize With Segments and Lists
Yes, we just mentioned segmentation, but there’s more to it than putting each email recipient into a bucket. Here’s how Manuela Moreno, Brafton’s Sales Operations Executive, thinks of segments:
“Segmenting an email audience is an important strategy because it allows the creation of content for specific groups inside the audience, making it more relevant for their interests, needs and behavior. It makes it possible for us to address their unique preferences and focus on encouraging specific actions we want them to take. And it can also help us be more precise when analyzing the performance of a campaign, letting us see which strategy works best for a group and decide if any changes are necessary for future campaigns.”
3. Create Professional Emails, No Coding Required
Say goodbye to design headaches with HubSpot’s drag-and-drop editor. Customize your branded email template, tweak visuals and add personal touches — all with zero coding knowledge. It’s email design made easy.
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4. Schedule and Send at the Perfect Time
Timing can make or break your marketing email. HubSpot lets you schedule emails to hit inboxes when your audience is most likely to engage. Morning coffee readers? Check. Night owls? You’ve got it.
With HubSpot, setting the stage for email marketing success is simple, intuitive and surprisingly fun.
Analyzing Email Campaign Performance With HubSpot
You’ve hit send — now what? This is where the real magic happens and where HubSpot turns your future emails into a goldmine of actionable data. Forget the guesswork. HubSpot lays out your open rates, click-through rates and unsubscribe stats in an easy-to-read format.
Master A/B Testing for Better Results
When in doubt, test it out. Want to know which sales email subject line sealed the deal or which CTA flopped?
HubSpot’s A/B testing feature lets you pit subject lines, designs and content against each other to see what resonates. Never ask yourself again whether “Save 50% Today!” outperforms “Your Exclusive Discount Awaits”. HubSpot will tell you — no need for crystal balls.
Dive Into Advanced Reporting Tools
For the data-obsessed (you know who you are), HubSpot offers robust reporting tools that track ROI and campaign performance. Build dashboards that show email metrics alongside lead generation, and you’ve got the full story of how your emails impact the bottom line.
At Brafton, we especially appreciate the filtering options in analytics dashboards. Here’s our AVP of Marketing, Molly Ploe, to tell you all about it:
“HubSpot makes it easy to see the performance of each individual email, or to filter based on email names. We also use HubSpot reports and dashboards to compile relevant statistics we look at every week, like the number of marketing contacts we emailed in a week, and relate that information to lead generation.”
No strategy is just perfect straight out of the box. That’s why you first develop it based on your first assumptions and then tweak it as you gather more data. With HubSpot, every campaign becomes a stepping stone toward even better results.
HubSpot’s Capabilities for Email Marketing
HubSpot comes equipped with everything you need to build smarter, more impactful email campaigns. Here are some standout features:
- Automation: Create workflows to automatically send personalized emails based on user actions, like signing up for a webinar or exploring your pricing page.
- Integrations: Connect HubSpot with your favorite tools — CRMs, analytics platforms and social media channels — to create campaigns that span multiple touchpoints while keeping your data unified.
- Personalization: With dynamic fields and behavioral insights, HubSpot enables hyper-targeted messaging. Greet your recipients by name, pick up on their preferences or tailor your offers — all in just a few clicks.
- Brand Consistency: Whether your emails come from marketing or sales, HubSpot’s tools ensure they maintain the same professional look and tone. Email signature personalization is the cherry on top, giving every message a polished finish.
By leveraging these capabilities, you can craft campaigns that get results. Keep in mind, though, that some of HubSpot’s advanced features come with additional cost.
Best Practices for Your Email Marketing Hub
Even the best tools need a skilled hand to wield them. To make the most of HubSpot’s capabilities, follow these tried-and-true best practices:
Segment, Segment, Segment
HubSpot makes audience segmentation easy by having a user-friendly interface and through the different tools that it has available to create targeted and personalized email campaigns. Some of them are:
- Custom properties: These allow the creation of custom fields to track specific data points that could help lead content segmentation.
- Lists: You can create multiple lists of different types. Static lists are fixed for one-time campaigns and user groups. Active lists update automatically based on your criteria.
- Behavioral tracking: Track user interactions associated with a website and emails.
- Email personalization tokens: Include dynamic information and content for different segments, tailoring content to different target audiences.
- Lead scoring: Assign a score based on behavior, demographics and engagement.
Balance Your Frequency
Nobody likes an inbox flood. Structure your email program to maintain consistent touchpoints without overwhelming your audience.
At Brafton, we segment our audience based on region, industry, company size and more to garner better engagement. We have different email campaigns going out throughout the week, including our Tuesday newsletter (The Content Marketer), Wednesday emails highlighting services and customer stories and Saturday emails on thought leadership.
Thanks to this fine-grained approach, contacts can unsubscribe from any individual email program without unsubscribing from others, which lets them control their email experience with Brafton.
Craft Irresistible Subject Lines
First impressions matter. Experiment with numbers, humor or curiosity-driven phrases. Drafting a few options per email is a great way to uncover what works — and to avoid sounding like a broken record week after week.
Optimize Preview Text
The preview text is your second chance to grab attention. Treat it like an extension of your subject line, giving recipients a reason to open rather than scroll past.
Popular Types of Sales Email and Marketing Automation
Some emails are designed to inform, others to convert and a few to rekindle interest. HubSpot makes it easy to execute all these strategies with precision. Here are some of the most effective types of emails and automation workflows you can build:
Welcome Series
Roll out the red carpet for new subscribers. A well-crafted welcome series introduces your brand, sets expectations and invites recipients to explore your products or services. Think of it as your elevator pitch, spread across a few emails.
At Brafton, we share different types of information explaining our services and the benefits they could bring to brands in different industries, sometimes incorporating customer stories to show real-world value. We also encourage readers to join our newsletter, and we always provide an easy option to book a meeting with us if readers are interested or need help with a project.
Product Announcements
Got something new to share? Highlight your latest launches with eye-catching visuals, compelling copy and clear CTAs. These emails aren’t just informative — they’re opportunities to drive excitement and engagement.
Abandoned Cart Follow-Ups
Don’t let potential sales slip away. Automate reminders to customers who didn’t complete their purchases, sweetening the deal with a discount or free shipping offer.
Don’t think of these as tools for ecommerce alone, though. Here at Brafton, we send a drip campaign to leads who haven’t booked a meeting yet. We’ve sent the latest iteration of this campaign to 258 contacts, 9 of which booked a meeting straight from the email.
Newsletters
Consistency is key with newsletters. Share recent blog posts, industry insights or curated articles to keep your audience informed and engaged.
Event Invitations and Updates
Whether it’s a webinar or a live conference, email remains one of the best ways to drive attendance. Use HubSpot’s tools to personalize invites, send reminders and even follow up post-event.
Each of these email types serves a unique purpose in your strategy. Together, they help you stay connected with your audience at every stage of the customer journey.
Benefits of Using a HubSpot Account for Your Email List
HubSpot stands out as a powerhouse for email marketing because it seamlessly combines functionality, flexibility and insights. One of its biggest advantages is its all-in-one platform. By integrating email marketing with CRM, automation, analytics and other tools, HubSpot eliminates the need to juggle multiple systems, saving time and reducing errors.
Whether you’re a small business dipping your toes into email marketing or a large enterprise managing complex campaigns, HubSpot adapts to your needs with tools and pricing that grow alongside you. It’s this flexibility that makes it a favorite among marketers worldwide.
