HubSpot Email Marketing: How to Set Up and Send Your First Campaign

HubSpot’s email tool is part of the same platform where your contacts live. You do not need a separate email service — lists, segmentation, and send history all sit inside your CRM, which means every email you send updates the contact record automatically.

This guide covers how to create a marketing email in HubSpot, what each plan unlocks, and what teams in Southeast Asia should set up before their first send.

What does HubSpot’s email tool actually include?

HubSpot Marketing Email gives you a drag-and-drop editor, responsive templates, and per-contact personalization using any property stored in your CRM. You can preview across devices before sending and choose smart send timing, which spreads delivery based on when each contact typically opens email.

Key features across plans:

• Drag-and-drop editor with pre-built templates and branded content blocks
• Personalization tokens — pull any contact property into subject lines or body text
• Smart content (Professional) — show different sections to different contact segments in the same email
• A/B testing (Professional) — test subject lines, CTAs, or full content variants
• Email health tools — track deliverability, bounce rates, and list engagement over time
• Breeze AI — suggests subject line variants and body copy improvements

Which HubSpot plan includes email marketing?

All tiers include the email editor, but the limits and capabilities differ.

Plan	Monthly sends	Notable notes
Free	2,000	HubSpot branding in footer
Starter (from $20/mo)	Higher per-marketing-contact limit	Branding removed
Professional	Scaled with contacts	A/B testing, workflows, smart content
Enterprise	Scaled with contacts	Revenue attribution, dedicated IP

For most small and mid-sized teams in Southeast Asia, Starter or Professional is the practical starting point. Free works well for testing the platform, but the branding footer and send cap become limiting once you are running regular campaigns.

HubSpot bills on marketing contacts — contacts you actively email or target with ads — rather than total database size. Contacts you store but do not market to do not count toward your limit. For regional teams that hold large databases with mixed activity levels, this is worth understanding before your first renewal.

How do you create and send your first marketing email?

1. Go to Marketing > Email and click Create email.
2. Choose Regular for a one-time send (versus Automated, which runs inside a workflow).
3. Select a template or start from a blank canvas.
4. Build your content in the drag-and-drop editor. Add a subject line, preview text, and at least one clear call to action.
5. Set the From name and From address — use a domain you control and have already verified in HubSpot.
6. On the Send or schedule tab, choose your recipient list or segment, set the date and time, and review the estimated send volume.
7. Send a test email to yourself first. Check rendering on both desktop and mobile before you schedule the live send.

Before your first real send, confirm three things: domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC under Settings > Marketing > Email > Authentication), subscription type settings so contacts can opt out correctly, and an unsubscribe link in the footer, which is required for all marketing emails.

If you have already worked through the process of setting up HubSpot CRM, your domain is likely verified. If not, complete the authentication step before your first send — sending from an unauthenticated domain raises bounce rates and can affect your sender reputation over time.

How do you segment your contact list before sending?

In HubSpot, you send to lists, not raw contact searches. Create an active or static list under Contacts > Lists before you schedule the email.

Active lists update automatically when contacts meet the criteria. Static lists are a fixed snapshot. For most campaigns, use an active list so contacts who qualify after you schedule the email are included.

Practical segmentation fields for Southeast Asian teams:

• Country or City — useful for Thailand-only sends or city-specific promotions
• Lifecycle stage — Leads need different messaging than existing customers
• Last engagement date — suppress contacts who have not opened in six months before a major send; this protects your sender score
• Language preference — if you collect it, HubSpot supports campaign grouping for multiple language variants

What should Southeast Asian teams set up before their first send?

Subscription types. Under Settings > Marketing > Email > Subscription Types, create categories that match how your contacts expect to hear from you (Marketing Updates, Product News, Promotions). When someone unsubscribes, HubSpot records the specific type they opted out of rather than blocking all future contact globally.

Consent tracking. If you are sending to contacts in Thailand, record how consent was collected. HubSpot’s legal basis fields — found under GDPR settings, which apply equally to PDPA frameworks — let you capture the consent source per contact. Set this up before you grow your list, not after.

Domain verification. Add the SPF and DKIM records HubSpot provides under Email Authentication. Most Thai hosting providers and SiteGround let you add DNS records in the control panel within a few minutes.

For teams using LINE OA alongside email, the HubSpot LINE integration puts LINE conversations on the same contact record as your email history, giving your team a single view of each contact regardless of which channel they used.

How does email fit into a wider automation workflow?

Standalone marketing emails work well for newsletters and announcements. For lead nurturing — sending a sequence based on what a contact does — you need HubSpot Workflows, available from Professional tier.

A typical automated path:

1. Contact submits a form — enrolled in a workflow
2. Day 1: welcome email sent automatically
3. Day 3: if they opened the first email, send a relevant case study; if not, send a shorter version
4. Day 7: sales task created for high-scoring leads

You build this once and it runs automatically. Email becomes part of a sequence that adapts to contact behavior rather than a broadcast you schedule manually each time.

The HubSpot Marketing Hub combines email, forms, ads, and automation in one interface, which reduces the need for separate tools and keeps attribution accurate across channels.

Frequently asked questions

Can I send emails in Thai from HubSpot?
Yes. HubSpot’s editor supports Thai characters in subject lines, body text, and personalization tokens. Set the From address to a verified domain, use a template that renders correctly with Thai fonts, and run a test send first.

Does HubSpot track email opens and clicks?
Yes. Open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribes are tracked per email and per contact. Each open and click also adds a timeline activity on the contact record, which workflows can use as enrollment triggers.

What happens when a contact unsubscribes?
HubSpot marks the contact as opted out from the specific subscription type and excludes them from future sends of that type. They can still receive emails of a different subscription type if they opted in to it separately.

Is the HubSpot email tool suitable for e-commerce?
For product emails that depend on live catalogue data — such as abandoned cart or product recommendations — HubSpot works best paired with Commerce Hub or a connected platform. For lead-based businesses, the built-in email tool covers most needs from Starter onwards.

Do I need Marketing Hub Professional for automated emails?
For sequences triggered by contact behavior, yes — Workflows require Professional. For sending a single email to a list on a schedule, Free and Starter are sufficient.

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