Betreff: Inserting Email Tracking Into Mail Merge

[rmccurry8]

Hello, 

I am trying to find out if it is possible to add tracking when doing a campaign and using mail merge via word into outlook. Once I finish the mail merge, the messages go to my Outlook Outbox, but the HubSpot feature is grayed out, so you can't add it. 

Is it possible to add the image into the word document or what advice would you have to be able to track a large campaign? I want to use mail merge to make it personalized. 

[JessicaH]

Hi @rmccurry8,

Thanks for reaching out.

I want to tag in some subject matter experts to see if they have any suggestions on tracking a campaign.

Hi @StefaniUAT @Bulder @Yeti_Mike, would you be able to share your thoughts with @rmccurry8?

Thanks!

Jess

[AndrewNichols]

Was there a response provided to this question?  I have found that when I send mail merges through Word/Outlook from my desktop that SOME of the emails are tracked/logged in Hubspot and some are not.  I can't seem to figure out the pattern.

[Mlaps]

I'd also love to know the answer to this.  Looking to do an outbound campaign to a lot of folks and without mail merge natively supported in Hubspot, would love to understand better how tracking works if I do it from Outlook/Word.

[andrus]

Curious about the use case here. Is there a reason why you're not using the Hubspot Marketing email marketing tool instead of mail merge?

[Mlaps]

Using an email marketing tool has poor response compared to something like a mail merge.  On a couple of tests I've run, I'm getting an average of 10% response with mail merge vs. 1% with an email marketing tool.  The content I'm sending isn't really marketing either.  I've hand selected companies that I want to invite to various events.  I just don't want to manually send a similar email 30 times.

In my mind email marketing platforms are great when you're sending something that looks like marketing to 100s or 1000s of subscribers.  Mail merge works a lot better when you're sending to 30-50 names and you want it to feel personal.  

[andrus]

Makes sense, thank you for explaining.

So I'm a bit of an email geek and I wonder what causes the 10x difference. I doubt it's deliverability because deliverability of both Hubspot sales emails and marketing emails is solid. If content is the same, can the 10X difference come from email design/formatting? That emails designed like "marketing emails" create the perception that this email probably went out to 1000s of other people, so it must be irrelevant to me?

[Mlaps]

I should note that my test came from a differnet client that uses a non-Hubspot tool for marketing (Pardot), but yeah that's my suspicion.  Plus the unsubscribe at the bottom is a dead giveaway.  

I'm not a sales and marketing guy.  I've used mail merge rarely and many years ago, but a year ago someone I was working with showed me how to use it effectively for a campaign we were running.  A little while later I got a large client that wanted to do something similar, but they have a whole marketing department and professional tools.  Sounded great to me, I write the content and they make it look all professional, plus have tracking and automatic pushing into the CRM and unsubscribes and I no longer have to manually juggle multiple lists of people.  Then we sent it out to 100 people and I got exactly one response.  Sent to a different slightly smaller list and got zero responses.  Decided to try it my old way and the responses came pouring in, even though it was a much smaller list.  Wrote a plain text follow-up to the original marketing email and got a decent number of responses to that one as well.  

For Hubspot I'm working with a different smaller client that's pre-market.  I'm just using Hubspot to reach out and track conversations with investors.  We don't subscribe to the marketing tool, not because of the cost, but because I don't think that will be an effective way to reach our target list.  But mail merge would take a process that is fairly tedious now and speed it up.  Doing the exact thing we're doing with templates but automating it so that I don't have to click on 10 different buttons to send out one email.

[deehunter]

We're wondering the samething- how to integrate hubspot tracking with Outlook Mail merge- if anyone has suggestions please let me know

[lilywh]

Hi,

I am sending mail merges via Word/Outlook and want to track/log these into Hubspot. I've already installed the Hubspot extension with Office 365...but does anyone know how I can use the extension in these mail merges sent straight from Word? 

Side Note: I could have the emails end up in my Outlook outbox, but I still I don't see the Hubspot extension pop up anywhere for me to track/log these..

Can you help, @StefaniUAT @Bulder @Yeti_Mike ?

[AndrewNichols]

I run Outlook on my desktop with the Hubspot Sales extension and I have my default settings to both "log email" and "track email". 

I send mail merges via Word to hundreds of Hubspot contacts at at time.  None of the emails get logged in Hubspot.  However, they all seem to be tracked because when I pull up the message in my sent, they are all labeled as such.  I also get the open notifications.   Therefore, the email tracking must happen behind the scenes since that is my default setting?

It would be nice if the logging could be addressed on the Hubspot side somehow.   Until then, you can google "Word Mail Merge bcc" and there are some Word plug-ins (and separate email programs) that allow you to include a bcc field where you can add your logging email.  I have not tested this yet, but it seems that it should work.

[jdavid]

Inquisitive about the utilization case here, Is there a motivation behind why you're not utilizing the Hubspot Marketing email advertising apparatus rather than mail blend?

[kchas]

i am also facing the same issue here i am not able to soleve this issue bcz i am facing it for the forst time it hurts my axialapk  blog progress can someone help me out in this issue.

[brayanokorner]

Inquisitive about the utilization case here. Is there a motivation behind why you're not utilizing the Hubspot Marketing email promoting device rather than mail consolidate

[lilywh]

It's a solid question- Yes. I am not using Hubspot Marketing tools for bulk email campaigns because our campaigns end up in more spam boxes resulting in a very poor open rate, compared to when they are sent directly from our email account. The company I work for sells temperature detectors, PPE supplies...etc. This has been part of the problem because email providers are trying to filter out this type of content, making it harder to reach people. I've since found a program called MailMerge365 that allows me to send bulk emails through my outlook account while tracking opens and clicks. Nothing fancy but seems to work fine so far. I can also BCC hubspot to log the emails in the contacts account. 

[IMost]

I am not the usage of HubSpot Marketing gear for bulk email campaigns because our campaigns become in greater spam packing containers ensuing in a very negative open price, in comparison to while they are dispatched immediately from our email accounthere. The organization I work for sells temperature detectors, PPE components...And so on. This has been a part of the problem due to the fact e-mail providers are trying to clear out this type of content, making it harder to attain humans.