“Email marketing is dead.”

You’ve probably heard that line more times than you can count over the past decade.

But in reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, metrics like open rates and click-through rates may show a downward trend but that’s largely because email has become such a widely adopted channel. With so many businesses using email to generate leads and drive sales, competition for attention is naturally higher.

Consider this: if email marketing didn’t deliver results, would countless companies invest heavily in building and nurturing their subscriber lists? Definitely not.

Email marketing remains an incredibly powerful tool for businesses looking to engage audiences, build relationships, and increase conversions. Among the many platforms available, HubSpot stands out for its ease of use, in-depth analytics, and seamless integrations. It allows marketers to create emails that not only reach inboxes but also engage readers in meaningful ways.

In this post, we’ll explore how to craft high-impact marketing emails in HubSpot, helping your messages cut through the noise and drive real action.

What is Email Marketing actually is?

At its core, email marketing is all about creating meaningful connections with your audience. It’s not just sending messages it’s about delivering the right content to the right person at exactly the right moment. Done correctly, this approach fosters relationships that go beyond simple transactions, which is more important than ever in today’s competitive landscape.

As mentioned earlier, nearly every business today leverages email in some form. If you fail to nurture the relationships with the people on your list, your emails risk being ignored or forgotten.

This is where HubSpot email marketing shines. By combining automation, segmentation, and personalization, HubSpot allows marketers to craft tailored communications with accuracy and care. Whether you’re a veteran marketer or just starting out, mastering HubSpot’s email marketing tools is essential for creating campaigns that truly resonate and drive meaningful results.

Why HubSpot is the ultimate email marketing platform

Creating a marketing email in HubSpot goes far beyond simply writing content. It’s a strategic process that starts with understanding your audience, setting clear goals, and crafting messages that reflect your brand’s voice and values. Success requires blending creativity with data-driven insights, ensuring that every component from eye-catching subject lines to engaging body copy and compelling CTAs works together to drive results.

HubSpot’s platform is packed with features that elevate your email campaigns. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to design visually appealing, responsive emails without any coding knowledge. A/B testing tools let you experiment with different elements to discover what resonates most with your audience. Plus, advanced segmentation ensures your messages are targeted, relevant, and personalized for each contact.

Perhaps HubSpot’s biggest strength lies in its integrated analytics. Real-time tracking of opens, clicks, and conversions provides critical insights into campaign performance. These metrics not only help refine current emails but also guide your overall marketing strategy, enabling continuous improvement and keeping your campaigns aligned with your audience’s changing needs.

Step-by-step guide to writing an email in HubSpot Email Marketing

Creating an effective marketing email in HubSpot starts with a clear understanding of your objective and finishes with a thorough review of your results. By following a structured process, you can ensure that your emails are not only opened and read but also drive meaningful action from your audience.

Step 1: Set Up Your HubSpot Email Campaign

Before you start writing, it’s important to lay the foundation for your email campaign. In your HubSpot dashboard, navigate to the Email tool and click “Create email”. Decide on the type of email you want to send whether it’s a standard marketing email or part of an automated workflow. HubSpot Email Marketing offers a variety of templates to help you get started, making it easier to build a campaign tailored to your audience’s needs and interests. This initial setup ensures your emails are structured for maximum impact from the very beginning.

Step 2: Define Your Audience Through Segmentation

Knowing exactly who you’re speaking to is crucial in email marketing. HubSpot makes segmentation simple, allowing you to group contacts based on factors like demographics, past interactions, and behavioral data. This ensures your emails reach the people who are most likely to engage with your message.

For example, sending content about Agency Accelerator programs to a manufacturing company wouldn’t make sense, just as sharing manufacturing sales enablement strategies with an agency owner would fall flat. Segmentation helps avoid these mismatches and keeps your campaigns relevant and personalized, boosting engagement and results.

Step 3: Craft Your Email Content

Now comes the creative stage. Start with your subject line, since it’s often your first and only opportunity to grab attention. Make it clear, concise, and compelling, highlighting the value or solution your email provides.

When writing the body, stay consistent with your brand voice while focusing on the reader’s needs. HubSpot Email Marketing personalization tokens allow you to address recipients by name or other attributes, making each email feel tailored and thoughtful.

A simple framework to follow is:

• Hook: Capture attention immediately.
• Value: Explain what the reader gains from your email.
• CTA: Direct the reader to take the next step.

• Introduction:
  Start your email by clearly stating its purpose. Get straight to the point don’t beat around the bush. Readers decide within seconds whether your email is worth their time, so make it obvious why they should keep reading.
• Main Content:
  This is where you share your main message or value proposition. Keep your language concise and engaging, and don’t shy away from storytelling. Stories make your emails memorable and help build a personal connection.
• Call-to-Action (CTA):
  End your email with a clear and compelling CTA. Whether your goal is to get readers to sign up, learn more, or make a purchase, your CTA should be unmistakable, actionable, and enticing enough to drive clicks.

Step 4: Designing Your Email

HubSpot’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create visually appealing emails without needing advanced design skills. Make sure your design reflects your brand by incorporating your colors, logo, and fonts. Visual elements like images or videos can help convey your message, but use them sparingly so the focus stays on your content.

That said, sometimes simplicity wins. Many times, I send emails that are visually “plain.” On paper, this might seem boring but the goal is to make your emails feel personal, as if you were writing to a friend. When you send an email to a friend, you probably wouldn’t spend hours making it look fancy your message itself is what matters.

Step 5: Testing and Sending Your Email

You’ve drafted your email, and it looks great so naturally, you might be tempted to hit send and watch the results roll in. But hold on there’s one crucial step before your email reaches your full list.

Think of this stage as putting on your marketer’s lab coat. It’s not as creative as writing the email, but it’s essential for ensuring success.

Start with A/B testing in HubSpot Email Marketing to experiment with different subject lines, messaging, or layouts. This helps you determine what resonates best with your audience. Next, send test emails to yourself and your team to catch any typos, formatting issues, or rendering problems across devices and email clients. Once everything checks out, schedule your email at the ideal time, taking into account your audience’s location, habits, and peak engagement hours.

Step 6: Analyzing and Optimizing

The lab coat stays on even after your email is sent. HubSpot provides in-depth analytics so you can track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, giving you a clear picture of how recipients interact with your emails.

Use these insights to refine your future campaigns. For example, if you notice that shorter subject lines perform better, adjust accordingly. If personalized subject lines drive higher open rates, continue leveraging personalization.

By paying attention to these performance trends, you can continuously improve your email strategy, making each campaign more effective than the last.

Other Reasons to Use HubSpot for Email Marketing

The step-by-step guide above covers the basics of running an email marketing campaign in HubSpot. But the platform also offers advanced features and tools that can elevate your email strategy and help you achieve better results.

• Advanced Personalization and Smart Content
  HubSpot goes beyond simple personalization like inserting a recipient’s name. With smart content, you can tailor emails based on a contact’s past behavior, lifecycle stage, or other criteria. This ensures your messages are highly relevant, boosting engagement and effectiveness.
• CRM Integration
  Integrating HubSpot email marketing with its CRM allows you to track how each contact interacts with your emails and website. This data enables more targeted follow-ups, lead scoring, and personalized sales outreach, making your campaigns smarter and more precise.
• Workflow Automation
  HubSpot enables automated email campaigns triggered by specific actions. For instance, you can send follow-ups after content downloads, reminders for abandoned carts, or messages based on website activity. Automation ensures consistent lead nurturing without requiring manual effort.
• List Segmentation with Predictive Lead Scoring
  Using predictive lead scoring, HubSpot analyzes contacts and ranks them by likelihood to convert. This lets you segment your email list more effectively and focus efforts on leads that are most likely to generate revenue.
• Email Health Tools
  Maintaining a clean, healthy email list is vital for deliverability. HubSpot’s tools track bounce rates, unsubscribes, and spam reports, helping you monitor list health and make necessary adjustments for optimal performance.
• Learn Through HubSpot Academy
  For marketers looking to deepen their expertise, HubSpot Academy offers courses and certifications on email marketing, advanced strategies, and industry best practices. These resources are invaluable for staying up-to-date and maximizing the platform’s potential.

Conclusion

Mastering HubSpot email marketing opens a world of opportunities to engage, convert, and retain customers in today’s digital-first environment. Following the steps in this guide from setting up your campaign and defining your audience to crafting content, designing your email, testing, sending, and analyzing performance HubSpot provides a platform that goes far beyond simply sending messages. It empowers businesses to build meaningful connections, deliver real value, and foster lasting relationships with their audience.

HubSpot’s strength lies in its integration of email marketing with CRM, automation, analytics, and other tools. This holistic approach transforms each email into a strategic touchpoint within a broader customer journey. Advanced features such as smart content, workflow automation, and predictive lead scoring allow businesses to tailor communications to their audience’s specific needs, making every interaction relevant, timely, and impactful.

The true power of HubSpot comes from its analytics and optimization capabilities. Detailed reporting goes beyond open rates, revealing how recipients interact with your emails. This data is invaluable, enabling marketers to continually refine campaigns, personalize future communications, and improve engagement, conversion rates, and ROI.

Equally important is adhering to best practices maintaining a healthy email list, ensuring GDPR compliance, and continually learning through resources like HubSpot Academy. With the marketing landscape constantly evolving, staying informed about trends, techniques, and regulations is key to sustained success.

Looking ahead, email marketing will remain a critical tool for building and nurturing customer relationships. Consumers increasingly expect personalized, relevant, and timely messages, and businesses that deliver on these expectations gain a significant competitive edge. HubSpot’s comprehensive features and integrations make it a powerful ally for marketers seeking to meet these demands.

In short, crafting a marketing email in HubSpot is a journey of strategic creativity, technical precision, and ongoing optimization. By leveraging its full capabilities and continuously refining campaigns based on insights, businesses can turn every email into an opportunity to strengthen engagement, boost brand loyalty, and drive sustainable growth.