One-to-One Emails vs. Mass Emails in HubSpot

Both one-to-one and mass emails play crucial roles in communicating with stakeholders. HubSpot provides the functionality for both, allowing NCUK to reach groups of customers (e.g. Study Centres/Universities/Students) on an individual basis or on mass, depending on the specific needs of your communication. 

One-to-One Emails

One-to-one emails are personalised messages sent to individual contacts. They're typically used for direct, personal communication and are perfect for building relationships with your customers. You can do this through your Outlook (make sure to have your HubSpot tracking tool connected to track and save emails in the HubSpot system) or directly in the HubSpot platform.

Sending One-to-One Emails in HubSpot

• Navigate to a contact's record in your HubSpot CRM.
• Click the 'Email' button in the contact's profile.
• Write your message in the email editor. You can personalise this using contact tokens.
• Click 'Send'.

Mass Emails (Marketing Emails)

Mass emails, also known in HubSpot as ‘marketing emails’, are designed to reach a larger group of recipients. They're ideal for newsletters, marketing initiatives, or updates that apply to a broad audience e.g. all Academic Managers at centres running in China or All Regional University contacts in New Zealand. HubSpot's Marketing Email feature enables efficient sending of mass emails, real-time performance tracking, and ensures your messages reach the right recipients.

Benefits of HubSpot's Marketing Email Feature

1. User-Friendly Interface: Design, schedule, and send emails with ease.
2. Email Automation: Schedule your emails in advance for consistent communications. You can also ensure emails are received at a specific time based on their time zone.
3. Performance Tracking: Monitor the success of your emails with real-time analytics.
4. List Segmentation: Target specific groups with personalised emails, improving engagement.

In HubSpot, both regular marketing emails and automated marketing emails serve unique purposes and can be utilised to meet different goals. Note: Within NCUK, automated emails are controlled by NCUK’s marketing team.

Regular Marketing Emails

These are standalone emails that you send to a segment of your contacts. They are typically used for newsletters, updates and deadlines, announcements, promotions, or a commercial purpose intended to nurture leads. Regular emails allow you to personalise messages using the properties we have and manually choose when and to whom the emails are sent.

Automated Marketing Emails (controlled by NCUK Marketing team).

Automated marketing emails, on the other hand, are triggered by specific actions or behaviours from your contacts. These emails are set up within workflows and are sent automatically based on the rules you define. For instance, an automated email could be sent when a contact fills out a form on NCUK's website, clicks on a link in a previous email, or reaches a specific score in your lead scoring system.

The primary difference between the two lies in their deployment. Regular marketing emails require manual effort for each send, while automated marketing emails are set up once and then function on autopilot.

Sending a Regular Mass (Marketing) Email

Step 1: Designing the Email

• Go to the 'Marketing' tab, select 'Email', then 'Create email'.
  • Please create an internal name for the email which is clear/easy to search for such as “department | topic of email | list of recipients | date sent”
    • Academic Operations | Centre Registration | Academic Managers | September 2023

• Choose a template that aligns with your message.
• Customise your email using the drag-and-drop editor. Use personalisation tokens if necessary.

Step 2: Scheduling the Email

• Click on the 'Settings' tab in the email editor.
• Set the 'From name', 'From address', and 'Subject line'.
• Select subscription type (e.g. transactional for operational communications, other communications such as newsletters would be set as ‘partner communications’ which users can opt-out from)
• Under ‘plain text and web version’ toggle on ‘web version’ if you would like to create a shareable link of the email to send on to other contacts outside of the distribution list.
• Click on the 'Send or schedule' tab.

Step 3: Obtaining Manager Approval

All emails must be reviewed by a manager before sending. In the case of sending to contacts not owned by your department, you should also ask that department to review (see Lists for responsibility). 

• Save your email as a draft.
• Share the draft with your manager for review.
• Incorporate feedback and adjust as necessary.

Step 4: Verifying Email Lists

To ensure accuracy:

• Navigate to 'Contacts' then 'Lists'.
• Review your lists, removing any outdated or incorrect information.

Step 5: Sending the Email

• Once your email is approved and your lists verified, return to your draft.
• Click on 'Send or schedule'. Confirm your decision in the pop-up window.

Step 6: Saving the Email in a Folder

• Once you have sent your email, move it to your department folder or create a department folder and save it there. This will make it easier to find emails in the future.

 Troubleshooting Common Issues

• Email not displaying correctly: Ensure your email design is compatible with all major email clients. Use HubSpot's preview feature to check this.
• Low open rates: Revise your subject lines for more impact. Also, review your list segmentation to ensure you're reaching the right audience.
• Bounced emails: This may be due to incorrect email addresses. Double-check your contact lists for any errors.

In conclusion, HubSpot's Marketing Email feature can significantly enhance NCUK's communication efforts. With a thoughtful approach to designing, scheduling, and sending emails, you can ensure your emails are effective and error-free.