Is Hubspot a good email marketing tool?

[SHolland4]

Hello all, 

New to hubspot. I have Hubspot Marketing Starter. 

To be honest, I am somewhat unimpressed with the email marketing tool. While I love the hubspot CRM tool, I am curious if other marketers are using another email marketing tool alongside hubspot? 

I get a lot of image and link errors with hubspot emails. When talking to support, they essentially say it isn't a hubspot problem. 

Thanks! 

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

Thank you @SHolland4, I downloaded the image as a PNG and ran a test with my free account using a logo at the top followed by your image above text.

As soon as I opened the email in Gmail, it loaded just fine:

Can you check your images in HubSpot files to ensure they have public availability?

This should be the default when you add new images via the email editor, but if it was somehow set to Private, the image wouldn't load.

Since you've confirmed in both Gmail and Outlook, it doesn't look like it's an issue with the ESP - it is possible that your settings are blocking the images, because images in emails are hosted externally there are options to block images at the user level. You can confirm your settings for Gmail here.

It's also possible that if you have a firewall in place, the images could be blocked outside of the ESP and you would need to review with your IT who implemented the firewall to better understand the restrictions.

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tag @Jnix284. Hello @SHolland4! HubSpot user since 2010 here, when email was mostly all it did. 

I haven't seen this issue in my testing over the years. I usually send a test email or two, and also look at the adaptive testing in the preview tool of the email creator. Then I'm often on the email list so I also get the final product sent to me as well. 

Over the years I've had Gmail, phone email, and Outlook. Images and links rarely error out for me. 

If I were in your shoes, I'd be following what Jennifer has asked as well to troubleshoot it.  

I'd also ensure my email domain was authenticated to make sure it's coming from a legit email for the recipients. 

[SHolland4]

@trevordjones In the email I just sent, at least for me, the links are now working, but not the images. It is completely inconsistent. 

[SHolland4]

Thank you so much for the help! I usually use PNG.

It isn't specific to this image, it has happened with many different images in hubspot. 

Here is a link to one that didn't show up in an email last week:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGEGR8FDcU/8vl8f5INaAH3x2ITylWhSA/edit?utm_content=DAGEGR8FDcU&utm_cam...

[SHolland4]

and you can see when I send a test how the image shows up. 

[SHolland4]

The newsletter banner is a JPEG, actually. So it is all very inconsistent. 

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

Thank you @SHolland4, I downloaded the image as a PNG and ran a test with my free account using a logo at the top followed by your image above text.

As soon as I opened the email in Gmail, it loaded just fine:

Can you check your images in HubSpot files to ensure they have public availability?

This should be the default when you add new images via the email editor, but if it was somehow set to Private, the image wouldn't load.

Since you've confirmed in both Gmail and Outlook, it doesn't look like it's an issue with the ESP - it is possible that your settings are blocking the images, because images in emails are hosted externally there are options to block images at the user level. You can confirm your settings for Gmail here.

It's also possible that if you have a firewall in place, the images could be blocked outside of the ESP and you would need to review with your IT who implemented the firewall to better understand the restrictions.

[SHolland4]

Thanks.

They are all set to public- on index. 

Do you mean the firewall WITHIN hubspot or my personal firewall? 

Thank you so much. I feel like we're getting closer. 

[Jnix284]

Thanks for confirming @SHolland4, for the firewall, it'd be something you have configured on your computer or network.

could you send a test email from your account to my email?
jennifer @ aptitude8 .com

That will help us confirm if the image issue is isolated to your account or to you as a recipient. 

[SHolland4]

Thanks! Just sent.

I have been doing this test with my other 2 coworkers as well, and it is so inconsistent. Sometimes the image will show up with their accounts, sometimes it won't. Same with mine. I cannot track a pattern. 

[Jnix284]

Hi @SHolland4 inconsistent is a good way to describe it...

When I initially opened the email this morning, the images loaded immediately.

I snoozed it in my inbox and when I viewed it from a folder outside of the inbox, the images didn't load - so I moved it back to the inbox and the images loaded again:

We use Front (screenshot above), so I also checked Gmail directly.

Oddly, the logo didn't load, but the image did:

I can't find anything that would explain this behavior, especially since I can't recreate it with my own emails or emails from other accounts.

@trevordjones @danmoyle have either of you run into anything like this before?

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tag @Jnix284. Hello @SHolland4! HubSpot user since 2010 here, when email was mostly all it did. 

I haven't seen this issue in my testing over the years. I usually send a test email or two, and also look at the adaptive testing in the preview tool of the email creator. Then I'm often on the email list so I also get the final product sent to me as well. 

Over the years I've had Gmail, phone email, and Outlook. Images and links rarely error out for me. 

If I were in your shoes, I'd be following what Jennifer has asked as well to troubleshoot it.  

I'd also ensure my email domain was authenticated to make sure it's coming from a legit email for the recipients. 

[SHolland4]

Hi Dan, 

So i got as far as adding a record in CloudFlare.....but I do not know where the Value column is, or what subdomain to enter.....www or blog.....

I really need an expert here. I am so desperate. This is my third week at this job and I can't get any email out the door until this issue is solved. 

Is there anyway we could hop on a zoom call and walk me through this. I will pay. I just really need to fix this. I've spent over 15 hours on this issue. 

my email is s.holland@renewgroup.com

[Jnix284]

Thank you @danmoyle for your insights, good callout on the email authentication!

I was using my free account to remove any paid variables - @SHolland4 since you have a Starter subscription, following the documentation from Dan to verify it is properly authenticated would be a good next step in troubleshooting the image issue.

[trevordjones · Accepted solution]

Hi @SHolland4 and thanks for the Tag @Jnix284 !

Like @danmoyle I've been using HubSpot since 2010, and don't often run into these issues.  @Jnix284 offers some very good advice with respect to email checking ESP settings and your internal firewall, and Dan's advice on making sure your domains are validated is also very good.

Perhaps you could send me a test at tjones [at] digitopia [dot] agency so I can see for myself?  Without seeing the email firsthand I have no idea if the below is an issue, but....

One word of advice is to watch your file names.  Because modern OS will allow you to save things with really long file names, spaces, and the like, it's tempting to do this and then upload the results to HubSpot as-is. Browsers and email clients don't always like the gobldygook that such file names produce. Keep your file names short. Don't use spaces, and instead use either underscores or hyphens and otherwise avoid special characters in your file names.

Hopefully this is useful info, but definitely send me that test!

[SHolland4]

@trevordjones I just sent an email. Thank you so much for your help! I am willing to pay anyone who can help me solve this. 

[SHolland4]

Hey Trevor,

Thank you. I will send an email to you shortly.

I hired an expert yesterday on upwork, and we tried the file name thing. It didn't make a difference.

He also had me copy the tracking code in hubspot, and add it to the code in my webflow account. Then we purged the cache in cloudflare and everything was working smoothly for a few hours. I wake up this morning and the issue is back.

I will send a test email. Thank you so much for your help. I am desperate. I am a good marketer, but I am not so code, DNS, etc saavy. This is my 3rd week at a new job and i can't get an email out the door with this issue. It's so embarassing. 

[Jnix284]

Thanks for jumping in to help @trevordjones!

@SHolland4 if you and Trevor weren't able to get the DNS updated, I'd be happy to jump on a zoom to help - it only takes a few minutes, no payment needed on my end.

[SHolland4]

@Jnix284 Thank you for the offer! I ended up paying someone on upwork, a DNS expert, to help me! Here was the issues: So the primary domain in hubspot was set to renewgroup.com, which points at webflow causing intermittent fails due to the DNS being randomly picked between 3 ips, 2 Webflow & 1 hubspot. Changing the primary domain to hub.renewgroup.com forces the images, click tracking etc to go via that web-page ensuring links/images will work correctly.

It is resolved! I am sooooo relieved! 

[danmoyle]

That's such great news @SHolland4! 

[Jnix284]

Thank you for the update @SHolland4, I'm so happy to hear you were able to resolve the issue and that everything is now working as expected!

[Jnix284]

Hi @SHolland4 I've been using HubSpot's email marketing tool exclusively for the last 8 years, migrating many accounts from Mailchimp and other ESPs.

Can you share more information about the image and link errors you're running into?