email sending clarification

[#1]

i am evaluating the Sales system, free version \ i did the following procedure  a few times >

1] selected a Contact i had entered 

2] saw the record-profile > selected the "Email" button above it 

3] saw an email form > with To and From email addresses filled in correctly

4]  added Subject and body

5]  hit "Send email" below

6]  saw "Email sent successfully" and it was added to the history-list below

7] it said:  "You sent a tracked email to..."

8]  BUT the emails never show up 

9] i've looked all over the hubspot help, etc and cannot find this addressed

10]  conclusion SOMETHING is WRONG here 

11]  theories [for which i'm hoping for someone to set me straight so i can just drop this evaluation or continue it] 

a]  hubspot requires an external email [apparently gmail or outlook] [in contrast to some other crm systems which send from the system] 

-- and does not know that my registration email is not gmail or outlook and is an alias and not a 'sending' email

-- so the problem is that hubspot is missing some error tracking in the email 'send' function > it should TELL ME something like > hey, duh, you don't have an email-sending system connected 

b] another theory is that the 'email send' that i'm using is just some sort of 'hey i "sent" an email and this is just a record of it' 

-- in which case hubspot is not providing any clarity on 'what exactly is this'

------

c] theory i'm tending to go with = the "Email" "Send" function i'm using [from the contact record-profile] "thinks" that there is a gmail or outlook email account connected to my hubspot account > BUT hubspot does not know whether it is or isn't [wow this 2016 y'know, not 1986 - y'all can do better error trapping than that]

-- so would appreciate clarification / thanks

[#2]

I've been having the same problem. No ones gotr back to me yet. I use a Citrix reciever for my outlook so its a secure connection due to the nature of my work... do you have anything similar?

Unfortunately I went a few days before I realised the CRM wasn't actually sending anything despite telling me otherwise. Really gutted as I thought this thing was brilliant before and was going to buy the add ons but now I might have to start from scratch and use something else.

Hopefully it's just user error and i've done something otherwise it looks like it might be quite buggy or just not compatible with anyone that uses Citrix.

Let me know if you hear anything back that can help! 

[#3]

Hi @sarahlan, thanks for you detailed and comprehensive question - this will be very useful in troubleshooting this issue.

First, I want to cover the basics: though it is definitely recommended practice to have a connected inbox when sending emails from the CRM, it is not a requirement (there are some exceptions to this, but as long as you're able to see the email form, you're able to send emails). When you have connected your inbox to the CRM, you are then sending emails through your own email client, with the CRM just serving as a proxy for your email client. In this situation, sending an email from the CRM is virtually the same thing as sending an email from your own Gmail or Outlook client. 

When you're sending emails from the CRM without a connected inbox, however, you're sending emails through HubSpot's email-sending service, SendGrid, via one of our shared IP addresses. This means that, though the email looks like it's being sent from your email (i.e. sarahlan@email.com), it's actually being sent from HubSpot. There can be several deliverability issues that ensue from such a setup, including the fact that sending from a shared IP means that your deliverability can be impacted by the sending behavior of other users on the same IP, and that certain email filters recognize the disconnect in between the sending email address and the sending IP, and categorize this as spam. 

My hypothesis, from the information that you've provided, is that the emails were in fact sent but that, due to the deliverability issues mentioned above, they never arrived in their intended inboxes. I can verify this if you can provide me with links to a couple of contact records through which you sent emails that are showing as delivered; just PM them to me whenever you get the chance and I will take a look.

If this is in fact what is going on, there is not a lot that can be done to temper these deliverability issues, aside from setting up a connected inbox. Indeed, whether your messages arrive to their intended recipients depends entirely upon those recipients' email clients' filters - if they look at an email that says it's "from" sarahlan@email.com, but is able to recognize the sending IP as associated with hubspot.com, there is a chance that it will prevent it from being read.

Let me know whever you get the chance to send me the above examples and I will take a closer look! Thanks so much for your help and patience.

Also @djackouk I read your other post in the Community here which leads me to believe that you're having a different issue (because you're actually seeing an "email failed" notice), but someone will get to your question within the day and dig into it further, so please stay tuned.

All the best,

May

[#4]

thank you May \ i will follow up as you suggest at a later time / thanks

[#5]

Hi,

A great tool to use and test what might be ths issue AND gives suggestions for resolution to most email delivery problems is https://www.mail-tester.com/.

I've used it many times to verify deliverabilty for myself and my clients.

Best of luck,

D

[#6]

Great suggestion - thanks @dennisfjalestad!