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What are HubSpot Marketing Contacts?

Published by Boris Robles-Slyusar on
Marketing contacts explained

Discover how leveraging HubSpot for marketing contacts can revolutionize your marketing strategy and drive business growth.

Understanding HubSpot Marketing Contacts: A Simple Guide for New Users

I often hear the question, "What are HubSpot marketing contacts?" especially from teams new to HubSpot. It's a key concept, but it can be a bit confusing at first. Let's break it down.

The Foundation: Different Types of Emails in HubSpot

Before we dive into marketing contacts, it's important to understand the three types of emails you can send in HubSpot:

  1. Marketing emails: These are your bulk emails designed to nurture leads and engage potential customers. Think newsletters, promotions, and announcements. They have specific rules (we'll get to that) and require "marketing contacts."
    Read more: 5 Reasons You Need Branded Emails
  2. Sales emails: These are more personalized emails sent by your sales team to individual prospects or customers.They're less restrictive than marketing emails and don't require marketing contacts.
  3. Transactional emails: These are essential emails like password resets, order confirmations, or two-factor authentication codes. They typically require an add-on in HubSpot and have different rules than marketing and sales emails. Your contacts cannot unsubscribe from transactional emails.

The Heart of the Matter: What are HubSpot Marketing Contacts?

Marketing contacts are simply contacts in your HubSpot database who are eligible to receive your marketing emails. That's it! They're a special category because of those pesky legal regulations around email marketing (think CAN-SPAM).

Why Does it Matter?

  • Legal Compliance: You must get permission from contacts before sending them marketing emails. HubSpot marketing contacts help you track who has opted in.
  • Targeted Marketing: By segmenting your marketing contacts, you can send them more relevant emails, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
  • Cost: HubSpot charges based on the number of marketing contacts you have. So, it's important to be thoughtful about who you designate as a marketing contact.

How to Create HubSpot Marketing Contacts

There are several ways to add marketing contacts to HubSpot:

  1. Import from a CSV file: Great for bulk additions, but double-check that you have permission to email these people!
  2. Create manually: Ideal for a few contacts at a time.
  3. Use HubSpot forms: These are fantastic because contacts usually opt in to marketing emails when they submit a form. Just be sure you have a workflow set up to automatically assign them as marketing contacts.

Pro Tip: Always include a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in your marketing emails. It's not just the law; it's good practice!

Need More Help?

If you're still feeling uncertain about marketing contacts or how to best use them in your HubSpot strategy, don't hesitate to reach out to a HubSpot consultant. Fill out the form below.