Hey all,
we recently switched from a general HubSpot trial to a paid Marketing Hub Professional license.
Since then, emails in our workflows are no longer being sent. The error message shown is:
“Unable to send the email. Details: This email was not sent to contact because this is a non-marketing contact.”
What changed:
- No changes to the workflows or emails.
- Contacts are created via the API (unchanged from before).
- Emails were sending fine during the trial period — the issue started immediately after the upgrade.
My assumption:
During the trial, all contacts were treated as marketing contacts by default. Now that we’re on a paid plan, HubSpot enforces the marketing contact limit, and blocks sends to contacts not explicitly marked as marketing.
Questions:
- Is this the expected behavior after switching from trial to paid?
- How can I ensure new contacts created via API are set as marketing contacts? Via API or Workflow?
- What’s the best way to retroactively mark existing contacts (bulk, workflow, etc.)?
Would really appreciate any input or tips — thanks!
– Tobias
Hey Tobias,
I’ve run into this issue too, no worries, it’s an easy fix!
You’re right: HubSpot does not automatically set all new contacts as “Marketing Contacts”. This is intentional, as it helps prevent unnecessary usage of your contact tier by giving you the opportunity to review the quality of inbound contacts (and filter out any junk).
If you still want to ensure that all contacts are set as “marketing contact” heres how to fit in through a single workflow.
You can create a simple automation that sets all “non-marketing contacts” as marketing contacts.
- Navigate to: Automation > Workflows > (Create a new contact-based workflow)
- Set the Trigger: Record meets filter criteria
- Filter: Property: Marketing contact status
- Criteria: is any of → Non-marketing contact
- Add an Action: Marketing > Set marketing contact status
- Choose: Set as marketing contact
- Review & Turn On the Workflow
Hope this solves the issue you are having!
Best of luck,
Sonya
Hi @Tobainen,
It’s not documented whether this is expected behavior when switching from trial to paid, as far as I know, but it doesn’t strike me as surprising.
Regarding your second question, workflow is your best option. This is the workflow action:
Retroactively, you can either bulk set contacts as marketing or also use a workflow: Set contacts as marketing
Best regards!
