It would be great to be able to test a sequence immediately (see the emails and task notifications) instead of having to wait for it process through the timing.
Is ANYONE at HubSpot looking at this thread?! This is so much more important to my clients than all the development attention being put into AI. Sales teams want to send sequences and I cannot confidently set them up without testing. Someone at HubSpot please respond and tell us where this stands, thank you!
How this isn't in Hubspot already is extremely surprising. Why it isn't a top priority to add ASAP is baffling.
Outreach, SalesLoft, and everyone else have it because it is CRITICAL to make sure your email looks professional before sending it to customers and prospects.
This definitely needs to be implemented sooner than later. Why is this something that keeps getting pushed back? Hubspot is very user friendly, and not allowing for easy testing of sequences goes against that persona.
The only way I've found to test a Sequence is to clone it so it doesn't skew the Open/Click rates, then go to my Hubspot record and add myself. I start with email #1, enroll & send, then unenroll myself and add myself again, but starting with email #2. Wash, rinse, repeat until all 5 emails are in my inbox for review/editing. It sounds worse than it is, but it goes quickly and at least I know my emails look okay. They really do need to add a test feature like Marketing Hub has.
The ability to have access to this function is absolutely paramount. Seeing as it is now over five years since this issue has been flagged, I think it's shocking that it hasn't been addressed but HubSpot dev teams.
I have recently had a number of decent leads pretty much invalidated due to an issue with a variable (Contact: First name) which didn't populate and sent a load of emails saying "Hi [Name]", which as we all know is the equivaent of marketing/sales suicide. If I had the ability to check a Sequence first, those expensive leads would not have been wasted. I have used Outreach and SalesLoft extensively, both of which have this functionality pretty much baked in.
From what I see, the functionality already sits within HubSpot but it needs tying in at the back end. Here's my suggestion for the HubSpot architects to create test sequences that we can use:
Go to the Actions in option on the Sequence you have created and have a 'Test Sequence' option (which in essence would just be a clone of the Sequence)
When the 'Test Sequence' is created, allocate by default the creators (or user if shared) email to that Test Sequence and name the cloned Sequence "TEST - *whatever the name of the Sequence is* and allow you to save it.
Once saved, when you go into this test Sequence, have a button on each of the email steps saying "Send Test Email" which will then send it
instantaneously, which will enable the user to check variable and formatting etc etc
As said, the functionality is there (cloning sequence, sending template email directly from contact records etc etc), and this really is a feature that should be standard in this software.
If I were looking to purchase a Sequencing tool, and if I knew this functionality was not available, it would not be a product I would go for. Marketing leads are expensive, and if we are unable to ensure that our contact with our leads is not as we intend, it will be an ongoing and very costly mistake
Tagging on to say this is SO NEEDED. Such a HUGE flaw in the system. Admins often do not have our inboxes connected to Hubs for privacy purposes, so the workaround isn't something we can even do. The only way around this is to either temporarily connect our inbox or have a rep test for us, neither option being something I'm interested in. Please please PLEASE HubSpot I am begging you to prioritize this! We moved from Outreach to HubSpot a month ago and have had this situation come up 3x. I imagine we'll continue to have it be an issue in the future.
I contacted customer support to help, and they pointed me to this thread. SalesLoft has this feature, and I was expecting to be able to conduct a test before launching it to prospects.
We ultimately had to move away from HubSpot for our prospecting needs due to significant limitations, particularly the inability to effectively test Sequences, along with other fundamental features that should be standard in this area of their platform. We spent weeks trying to work around these issues, and even after extensive efforts, we were left uncertain whether the Sequences were functioning as intended.
In stark contrast, the new software we adopted allowed me to accomplish in just a day and a half what took three weeks in HubSpot, despite being completely new to the platform.
As someone with considerable experience within Outreach and SalesLoft, I can say that while our new solution isn't as comprehensive (we didn't need full sales cycle software, just prospecting and sales enablement), it provides all the essential tools HubSpot lacks—and at a fraction of the cost.
HubSpot, you need to prioritize adding this functionality discussed in this thread to your roadmap, or you risk losing more customers.
