Cold Emailing: Is there a method to email cold leads without being marked as spam?

[LCleere]

Hi Everyone!

I have completed the Hubspot Academy course on Email Marketing. During this course there was mentions of Hubspot email marketing best practices regarding emailing recipients that have opted in to recieving your emails.
My question is, after seeing this blog post by Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/how-to-write-a-cold-email-that-will-actually-get-a-response
Is there a method to email cold leads without being marked as spam? I am confused since other forums by hubspot professionals have said that cold emailing is strictly not allowed but there is still blog posts by hubspot advertising the use of cold emailing and providing templates to execute these strategies?
If anyone has any insight in regards to this, it would be brilliant!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Semmy,

That's relating to GDPR but also HubSpot's functionalities and, if I'm not mistaken, terms of use. When you create a contact, you always need to provide a legal basis for data processing. When you want to send a one-to-one email, see my screenshot above, you also need to provide a legal basis for communication.

You can of course, hypothetically, bypass this by making incorrect choices – which I would not recommend. In some countries, data privacy audits have become more common and fines for violations can be quite high.

If you're unsure, I'd recommend discussion all of this with a legal professional. (My posts do not constitute legal advice.)

Best regards!

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @LCleere,

To send one-to-one sales emails from HubSpot, you always need to provide a legal basis for sending the email:

That's the legal aspect of your question. HubSpot does not allow email sends to contacts that you don't have a legal basis for sending email or processing their data for.

Additionally, there is the email deliverability aspect of your question. Whether a contact marks your email as spam or not is not a legal question. This is entirely up to the recipient. If they deem your email spammy, they can mark it as spam and there's nothing that you can do on your end to prevent this.

And yes, reading HubSpot's blog posts can lead to some confusion. When in doubt, you should always discuss with a legal professional what the legal basis for contacting your contacts is. This can vary wildly between industries and contact sources, unfortunately there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer here.

You might also find these links helpful:

https://mailshake.com/blog/gdpr-compliant-cold-email/

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/settings/gdpr-resources

Let me know if that clarifies things!

Best regards

[Semmy]

Is your comment that there are "legal" justification required for sending email related to those protected by GDPR or a general guideline?  I don't believe the need for a legal aspect in general, but would like you to clarify the source of your insight.   Thank you.