Use this workaround to improve marketing email deliverability in HubSpot
As of December 2024, HubSpot doesn't have a native function to stagger marketing email sends - only sales emails. But, if email deliverability has been on your agenda, you might know that a step you can take to improve it is not to send thousands in one go, but in smaller chunks instead. Of course, this isn't always possible. You might need to send out an email which is time sensitive, or that people expect to receive on a certain day. But it's worth considering those emails that you could stretch out over a week, like newsletters or invites to an event that is happening a few weeks out.
If you want to give it a go, here are the steps:
1) Create an automated email
2) Choose an existing list or create a new one
3) Select 'Actions' > 'Split List'
You'll have a few options here. You need to decide how many lists you'll want, and how to split them. Most of the time the 'Distribute contacts equally across lists' will be the best option. For deliverability, 'best practice' is said to be under 200. This is an incredibly low limit for most marketers, so use your best judgement.
This action will create multiple lists named 'List Name - Split 1', 'List Name - Split 2' and so on.
4) Create your email sending workflow
Trigger criteria: 'Is a member' of your original list, before it was split
Branch 1: 'Is a member' of 'List Name - Split 1'
If true: Delay until [date] (i.e. the day you would like the first batch of the email to be sent. Top tip: to avoid any confusion, name each respective 'True' branch as the name of each respective split.
None met: Another branch - 'Is a member' of 'List Name - Split 2'
Then repeat the steps from 'If true' ongoing, until you have covered each list split, adding a new delay date for each send.
Here are some images of a workflow with the first couple of branches set up:
There are lots of resources available online which give great tips of deliverability best practice, many of which can be accommodated in HubSpot like using a range of email domains.
Author: Hollie Higa
Head of Marketing