Marketing email sending is suspended (free account)

[DarleneGFGF]

I wish I knew how to fix this. I'm new to email marketing and tried to do things the right way but I was missing some knowledge. I knew my knowledge wasn't sufficient but thought I had to "just start" as they say. 

So here's the story: 

I had been featured for a keynote for an online summit a few weeks ago.

There were 50 speakers and I was so excited to be one of them.

I payed a fee to cover the expense of the platform, advertising etc and it was a way for all of us to get our business out there.

The person who organized the talk explained that once the summit was over she would send over a list of who signed up for our talks for our email lists, and that people would opt in / understand they would be recieving emails. It was directed to female entrepreneurs and business owners.

What I understood was that attendees would know they were receiving from the speakers for the talks they signed up for. (I was wrong)

When I asked for the list pertaining to my talk, she said they were unable to get that or any of the stats etc of who watched it how many people actually played it etc. I was looking for feedback. I had none.

This was disappointing but ok. She was sending everyone the full list of attendees to add to our CRM or Email etc. I wasn't happy about this but accepted the list anyway rather than lose months of work.

I suggested a different platform that she could try for the future because I knew that others were asking for the same thing and it seemed like it would cause confusion among those who didn't sign up for my talk directly. (The online summit was a week long)

So imagine that you have 50 people shoving you into an email sequence, and I really didn't like the sound of that - so I made a plan to email 2-3 weeks after the event instead of right away to ease the load off of emails that attendees would be getting.

I uploaded the list of 425 attendees to hubspot and made sure it was a new list to keep track. My plan after my first email was to send a second one to the ones who at least opened the first. I was happy to see a 23.9% open rate, but unfortunately my unsubscribe rate was high at 6.38%

I had expected that, but didn't realize that would mean that I would be locked out or banned from emails. I tried to follow directions to segment my list and delte contacts and then realized it didn't matter what I did since I have a free account.

I would really like to continue to use hubspot, but if I can't even use the email I don't see the point if I can't even get my emails reinstated. This is forever? This seems extreme. And I am just not big enough to pay for more just yet. 

Please help me!

[Ben_M · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately it is forever with the free accounts and there is no way to reverse this.  Having lived on both sides of the Hubspot fence (paid and free), there are definitely 2 different bars of measure for spamming and the free side is a bit extreme in my opinion.  All you can do at this point is setup a new account as support does not have a way to re-activate your original account.  There are other free email providers that you can use, some event connect to Hubspot CRM and I would recommend that as an option moving forward if you wanted to keep using Hubspot CRM and you could always switch to their email down the road if you move to their paid accounts.

[DeliveryByJess · Accepted solution]

Hello @DarleneGFGF ,

The list you described does not meet HubSpot's requirements for opt in, as it was provided to you by.a 3rd party.  HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy requires that all contacts used in a marketing email send have opted into your brand through a direct and veriifable method.  Opt in means a contact has personally provided both their email address and permission to the brand sending the email directly.  Lists provided by a 3rd party source don't meet these requirements, regardless of any expectation set by the 3rd party at the time contacts were collected.  These requirements are in place within HubSpot as non opt in contacts are much more likely to hard bounce, unsubscribe, or mark mail as spam - which based on the high unsubscribe rate you shared is what happened as a result of using these contacts.  High rates of negative engagement will impact your ability to reach the primary inbox in the future and degrade the HubSpot network that all customers share.

Email sending suspenisons in HubSpot Free accounts cannot be remediaited, and the marketing email tool will remain locked moving forward.  You can still continue to use the rest of the tools within HubSpot, including 1:1 emails sent throigh a connected inbox. 

[stefans71]

I signed up with my gmail; sign-up account to test things.                       As soon as i signed up and tried to register a main domain new email as a user, it was suspeneded.

Waited 3 weeks and it was approved. Today I tried to verify a dedicated sales@... our domain.com and it got suspended again.

Ive have never emailed anyone and we have no live forms on our site.

I spent 1.5hrs on a chat with Customers service today and they were asking me some great questions and trying to sell me on a paid plan.

I said, we have zero budget for something we can't test! I said this free product doesn't work for me, at least. I've already waited 3-4 weeks for approval, made another form and work around to do a CRM with gmail and alt app. And now i'm suspended again.  Should I keep waiting to be approved and maybe get suspended again?

I said, on sign up- their should be pop-ups that tell you the best way to sign up and major infractions of their policy.

The offer looks great but now i'm looking at another 3 week or more and might have this happen in the future. I don't get it.

My excitement for Hub spot went from excited, to they have wasted my time. This is the 2nd time I have tried their service, 1st was in the early/mid 2000's.

Again, maybe I should have used our main domain email to sign-up with, but if the free trial doesn't work, the the funnel is broken.

Anyhow, my bad luck or something needs to be fixed.

Hope this feedback helps make a change.

Thanks xxx

[stefans71]

How do you make a post here?

[bpalgi]

I have not sent ANY mass emails, nor did I get any bounces as I didn’t use any of the marketing tools of HubSpot. All my info is easily verifiable online.

Why then did you suspend my account?

[DeliveryByJess]

Hello @bpalgi,

Some HubSpot accounts will require additional verification before certain tools like marketing email sending, forms and landing pages can be unlocked, and not all accounts will qualify for access to these tools.

[bpalgi]

I understand that this is your official position. However the reality is that you seem to be blocking accounts, like mine, that I have not sent ANY mass emails and that do have easily verifiable online footprints.

It seems that most people that are writing here and elsewhere on social media, agree that at least an explanation and an ability to correct any misperceptions causing your decision to block, are warranted.

[DeliveryByJess]

Hi @bpalgi ,

We appreciate your feedback.  HubSpot is not able to share specifics around secuirty measures or why an account was denied access to tools following an internal review.  

[andrus · Accepted solution]

If you can't use free Marketing emails in Hubspot, your two options are to: A. Subscribe to a paid plan (the Starter plan is relatively affordable) or B. Find an email tool that's free or more affordable than the Starter plan and that integrates well with Hubspot. See options in the Hubspot Apps Marketplace

[bpalgi]

I had a similar issue, with the only difference that I did not send any bulk emails at all! I have no idea what caused Hubspot to block my account.
I have a free account as a trial of Hubspot, and I like the service - although I really loath the way this email block was performed and subsequently handled.
Regarding your option A. Are you saying that if I upgrade to a paid plan, this permanent block can be stopped? I would consider that if that's the case

.

[DeliveryByJess]

Hello @bpalgi,

You are describing an Account Verification suspension, and you can read more about this here:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/account-settings/account-suspension-faq

This suspension type cannot be solved by moving to a paid account. Marketing email access will remain locked but you can continue to use the other tools within HubSpot.

[DeliveryByJess · Accepted solution]

Hello @DarleneGFGF ,

The list you described does not meet HubSpot's requirements for opt in, as it was provided to you by.a 3rd party.  HubSpot's Acceptable Use Policy requires that all contacts used in a marketing email send have opted into your brand through a direct and veriifable method.  Opt in means a contact has personally provided both their email address and permission to the brand sending the email directly.  Lists provided by a 3rd party source don't meet these requirements, regardless of any expectation set by the 3rd party at the time contacts were collected.  These requirements are in place within HubSpot as non opt in contacts are much more likely to hard bounce, unsubscribe, or mark mail as spam - which based on the high unsubscribe rate you shared is what happened as a result of using these contacts.  High rates of negative engagement will impact your ability to reach the primary inbox in the future and degrade the HubSpot network that all customers share.

Email sending suspenisons in HubSpot Free accounts cannot be remediaited, and the marketing email tool will remain locked moving forward.  You can still continue to use the rest of the tools within HubSpot, including 1:1 emails sent throigh a connected inbox. 

[Ben_M · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately it is forever with the free accounts and there is no way to reverse this.  Having lived on both sides of the Hubspot fence (paid and free), there are definitely 2 different bars of measure for spamming and the free side is a bit extreme in my opinion.  All you can do at this point is setup a new account as support does not have a way to re-activate your original account.  There are other free email providers that you can use, some event connect to Hubspot CRM and I would recommend that as an option moving forward if you wanted to keep using Hubspot CRM and you could always switch to their email down the road if you move to their paid accounts.