If you’ve ever used HubSpot’s CRM to manage your engagements with customers and prospects, you’ve likely sent an automated email or two through HubSpot’s Marketing Hub. You may notice that HubSpot does not have a native or integrated way to spam test emails; not even with the enterprise-level plan!
With the lack of spam testing options in HubSpot, you have two choices. Send the email and pray to the email gods that it reaches a recipient’s inbox, or run a manual spam test through 3rd party tools like Litmus or Email on Acid. Both tools pride themselves on offering email delivery and spam test solutions for email marketers. I chose Email on Acid for two reasons; it is less expensive and I only need it to spam test emails across a number of different email clients.
Step-by-Step Guide
This step-by-step guide already assumes you have a HubSpot account, are using HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, have created an automated email in HubSpot, and have an Email on Acid account. I will preface that it is a cumbersome process, but it does work and is a way to protect your emails from hitting the dreaded Spam box.
Step 1
Sign in to Email on Acid and click Spam Testing in the left-hand column of your Dashboard. Check the radio button called I will send each test email from my ESP using a provided seed list and select the list of email addresses it generates in the box below it. The list should contain 23 unique email addresses*.
*These email addresses are unique to your spam test campaign and change every time you run a new spam test.
Keep this window open in a tab because you’ll need it for Step 10.
Step 2
Paste the list of email addresses into a text editor, I use TextEdit on my Mac. Leave them in that editor and proceed to Step 3 for now.
Step 3
Open up Excel, Google Sheets or similar spreadsheet client. Next, copy our HubSpot <> Email on Acid Import Template. You’ll need this CSV file to import the Email on Acid seed addresses you copied in Step 1 into HubSpot. Copy each of the 23 email addresses into Column C of the spreadsheet. Once all of the addresses are added, save the spreadsheet on your computer as a CSV file.
Step 4
Sign in to HubSpot and click Contacts and then click the Import button.
Next click the Start Import button.
Step 5
Select the File from computer option and then click the Next button.
Select the One file option and then click the Next button.
Select the One object option and then click the Next button.
Select the Contacts option and then click the Next button.
Click the choose a file link and locate the CSV file you created in Step 3. Be sure to keep the Update existing contacts using “Contact iD” exported from HubSpot left unchecked. Once you’ve found the CSV file, click the Next button. It will turn orange after you’ve connected your CSV file.
Step 6
Ensure the columns from the CSV file match up to the HubSpot contact properties and then click the Next button.
Give your new contact import list a name (i.e. Email on Acid Group Test #1) and make sure the two checkboxes are checked. Click the Finish import button.
Step 7
Next go to the main menu bar of HubSpot and click Automation and then Workflows. Then click the Create workflow button.
Give your new Workflow a name, select the Contact based option, check the Start from scratch option and then click the Next button.
Step 8
I’m not going to deep dive into how to create a Workflow in HubSpot. HubSpot’s knowledge base covers that. However, there are 3 components you want your Workflow to have.
- The enrollment trigger should consist of a user being a member of the import list you just created. In my case, this is Email on Acid Group Test #1.
- I set a delay of 1 minute in between the enrollment and the email being sent. This gives you time between Step 9 and Step 10 to activate the test in Email on Acid.
- The last component is to send the email you want to spam test.
Once you have these 3 components configured, click the Review button.
Step 9
Your enrollment should list 23 existing contacts. These are the 23 Email on Acid addresses you imported. Select the radio button for Yes, enroll existing contacts who meet the trigger criteria as of now. This will ensure the contacts that were imported receive the email test. Next, click the Turn on button.
Step 10
Now your Workflow is running. Your next step is to click back over to your Email on Acid screen and click the Run Spam Test button.
Now that your spam test in running in Email on Acid, you can dive into the results and make changes if necessary. If you’re not pleased with the results and need to make adjustments, you’ll need to import a new set of Email on Acid seed addresses into another HubSpot list and run it again.
Once you’ve completed your spam test, you should delete the Email on Acid users from your HubSpot account so they don’t continue to count toward your contact quota. I am always looking to make improvements to processes so if you have a better way of doing this, please reach out to me.
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