I have been following discussions regarding rejected emails for a while now. I am on the free subscription. There are also users who have a paid subscription and still have the same problem. There are posts as far back as 2017. I am surprised that the issue is still UNRESOLVED. I have not seen one post from HunSpot support team that would give any kind of explanation or guidance how to deal with SPF and email rejection problems.
The thread "Your message wasn't delivered because the recipient's email provider rejected it." was vied over 6,400 times but received only 11 replies and it is maked as "Solved".
Correct me if I am wrong but this is my understanding of what is happening: ( I am not an IT expert)
If your email is not sent directly from your own email client (like Outlook), it is only a matter of time when the receiving mail servers will start rejecting your messages. There is too much garbage overflowing mail servers that anything that is even remotely suspicious will be rejected. HubSpot is sending emails “on behalf of…” thus you have a problem right there. Adding SPF record to your domain DNS is supposed to solve the problem. There are plenty of posts in this forum from community “gurus” sending out links to KB articles about SPF records and how to connect your email sending domain .. etc. but they forget to mention that all of it is only available to PAID subscriptions. HubSpot will not disclose the SPF record to a FREE user. There is nothing much that Microsoft support can do , neither your IT department. Unless HubSpot appears as a “safe” or “approved” email sender to the receiving mail servers, this problem will never be solved.
This raises a question of the essence of the HubSpot software. Don’t get me wrong, I love what HubSpot can do, but if the basic feature is not working even for a paid user…. Where is the point?
To be fair, I will mention that we (free users) can use most of the features like email templates, but we have to do it by using our own email clients that are integrated with HubSpot (like Outlook / O365). Copy a template or create your own in Outlook and use the “Log to CRM” and “Track Email” options to connect your activity to HubSpot. This way your email will not be rejected because it goes out directly from your email account, not “on behalf of…”.
I have a question to all of you who did not give up and try to find solution(s) to this very basic but most important problem. - Did you try using MailChimp with HubSpot? Did your emails get rejected? What else have you tried and it WORKED?
Can we get an official comment from HubSpot Support about this issue, please?
Thank you, Jenny @jennysowyrda for your input in so many of the posts relating to this problem.
@PamCotton - Ensuring emails (Marketing and Sales, etc) actually get delivered to the inbox (and not to the spam folder) is the single most important thing any CRM can do, be it free or paid. I couldn't care less about templates or documents or tasks or any other fancy feature unless emails get delivered right where they are meant to go: the INBOX!
So far, all emails I've been sending (to myself) from HubSpot are flagged by Gmail as "Gmail couldn't verify that domain name actually sent this message (and not a spammer)" . After spending countless hours between yesterday and today setting everything up, I just realized (reading this thread after googling the topic) that I cannot fully utilize HubSpot as a free user!! You've gotta be kidding! This is not how you're going to retain and convert users! Giving all users, free or paid, access to SPF and DKIM records is just basic stuff!
Thank you for your feedback, currently Free users are not able to connect an email sending domain, which authenticates for DKIM. Accessing HubSpot's SPF record requires access to the domain manager, which is also not offered in Free accounts. Senders have access to these tools using paid marketing subscriptions.
Hi, Over the years I have used several different HubSpot FREE accounts. There is nothing you can do to solve the problem. I read most (if not all) threads regarding this problem on this forum. I found some posts from people who , actually, purchased the paid version just to get the email working, and.... no luck.
I agree with you 100% that this is the single and most frustrating issue when you have CRM application but you cannot send emails! What's the point than? Why MailChimp doesn't have this problem? Wouldn't it be great to combine them both and make the coolest CRM with true powerful email features? I would pay for it in an instant! Perhaps one day some other company will create a product that will seriously compete with HubSpot and they will be forced to do something about it. The problem with rejected emails is here from day one. I believe it was 2006 when I opened my first free account. The complaints on this forum date YEARS back. All of the official versions on how to fix the problem are useless or irrelevant.
Evatolia, to help you ease the pain, here is the way i 'deal' with emails:
(it works with Gmail and with Outlook)
I set up the email integration in HubSpot. Connect my email client with HubSpot.
I DO NOT send emails from HubSpot. When you write/reply a new email in Outlook or Gmail you have an option to log BCC: to CRM. Use this option and you will have all the e-mails logged to HubSpot and connected to the client. You can also monitor when the email is open. Use this only for emails that you really want to know when they are open and only when you send it to a single recipient. Otherwise you will be getting tons of notifications including your own “open” actions. Test it.
For anyone who reads this post: do not be discouraged. HubSpot CRM is still the best on the market. It **bleep** that its most desirable feature is not working, and it is still the best. Go figure… Let’s wait for competition to put some fire under HubSpot because, so far, the small sparks of disappointment viced by small free users like us, are ignored for years.
Bunus link for those who want to continue this love-hate saga:
This is very useful advice, Wojtek! Thank you so much! I'm stunned this issue has been going on for so long... It's like having a Ferrari with flat tires. You can't go anywhere with it...