Delivery emails are being sorted into the spam folder

Smart CRM & Sales Hub
1

I am currently using the free plan.

We have discovered that customer replies to emails we sent via HubSpot are being routed to our spam folder.
As a result, we have failed to notice these replies, leading to delayed responses.
Conversely, we are concerned about whether the emails we send via HubSpot might be ending up in our customers’ spam folders.

Is this issue common among other companies? If so, we would greatly appreciate any advice on countermeasures or recommended settings.

Thank you for your assistance.

2

Hi @NT.SP,

If you’re asking about sales-related emails, one possible cause is email tracking for sales emails: 1対1のEメールトラッキングまたは添付ファイルのログをオフにする

The tracking pixel embedded in the email may cause some email clients to classify the message as spam.

Try disabling the tracking feature for sales emails, and let me know if the issue persists.

I hope this helps.

4

Hey @NT.SP and welcome, we are so glad you are here! :raising_hands:

Thanks for asking the HubSpot Community!

I’d like to add to what Karsten shared (thank you so much!), here are some resources that might help also:

I hope this helps!

Have a wonderful day!
Bérangère

7

Thank you!

So it’s due to the tracking pixel. I now understand how it works.
We’d also like to use it to monitor customer reactions, so this is quite a dilemma…
I’ll think about how to handle it depending on the email content and purpose.

9

Hi @NT.SP, thanks for getting back to us and sharing this valuable feedback!

As a best practice, we’d recommend using tracking selectively depending on the purpose of the email.

For important 1:1 sales emails where deliverability is the top priority, you could send these without tracking.

If engagement insight is important, tracking can still be useful, ideally with a custom sales and service email tracking domain configured, if that’s not already the case.

Here you mention the tracking pixel but we also recommend reviewing mailbox spam/quarantine settings for incoming replies and checking broader deliverability factors like contact quality. Here is an article that might help: Clean up contacts to improve email deliverability

Hi @karstenkoehler, @danmoyle and @EmmaAtKiwi do you have best practices to share in this specific situation, please?

Thanks so much and have a wonderful weekend!
Bérangère

13

Welcome to the Community @NT.SP! You’ve got some great guidance from @karstenkoehler & @Berangere so far here. I’d echo that the best practice in this situation is to treat tracking as a tool, not a default. HubSpot’s own guidance in their documents and resources says open tracking uses an invisible one-pixel image, and that strict filters or image-blocking clients can interfere with loading; HubSpot also notes that tracked email can be more likely to be filtered by very strict spam systems, while the majority of clients won’t treat it differently.

So I’d suggest that you use tracking only when the benefit outweighs the deliverability risk, and don’t rely on tracking for every email by default. For sensitive sales conversations, I’d prioritize getting the reply into the inbox; for routine campaigns or follow-ups, tracking is reasonable if the content is clean and the sending domain is properly authenticated.

Here’s how I’d take action on your situation if I were consulting you as a client:

  1. Turn tracking off for high-priority manual sales emails.
  2. Keep tracking on for lower-risk emails where engagement data matters.
  3. Confirm SPF/DKIM/DMARC are set up correctly.
  4. Clean up unengaged contacts and avoid sending to stale lists.
  5. If tracking must stay on, use a custom tracking domain and monitor deliverability closely.

I hope that helps!