HubSpot Sales vs. Marketing Emails - Which to use? ✉️

The main difference between sales and marketing emails is their goal.

Are you fostering a relationship with a lead? Or are you helping your prospective client make a final decision?

Let's Start with Marketing Emails...

If you are fostering a relationship with a lead, then you are likely looking to send a marketing email.

A marketing email may consist of a wide array of things, but in general, they are nurturing, educational, informative, or promotional. Marketing emails include welcome sequences, holiday campaigns, browse abandonment flows… You get the gist of it!

Marketing emails are often the result of a visitor’s initial interest — someone who either signed up for the newsletter, downloaded a resource, or made a purchase online. The key here is that these emails are sent to a list of subscribers.

Marketing emails are usually "styled," compared to a sales email which would generally just be a plain text email. They should catch the readers attention and draw them in. They can be automated to send as part of workflows, and they will usually land in the "promotions" tab of one's inbox.

With all that said, your subscriber needs to opt-in - without consent, according to GDPR laws, you're not legally allowed to send them marketing emails.

Now, About Sales Emails...

If you are helping a prospective client make a final decision, you need to be sending sales emails.

A sales email is a highly personalized communication between a sales rep and a lead or prospect. Sales emails are meant to seal the deal with a prospective client.

Sales emails are generally the result of a prospect getting qualified as "sales-ready." This means they seem to be a match when it comes to wether or not you should work together. They see the value in working with you, and you know that you can help them and are a good fit to solve their problems.

These emails are meant to be tailored to the existing contacts and potential deal they will bring in. While you can use an existing template, they should be highly personalized so that the prospect knows you care and are trustworthy.

These emails go directly to the prospect's inbox, and you can enroll the contact in a sequence that can trigger follow-ups. If you have HubSpot Sales Enterprise, you'll be able to auto-enroll contacts into sequences with workflow triggers!

This type of email doesn't require a person to opt-in.

You can send both marketing and sales emails with HubSpot. But their functionalities are different.

• Marketing emails in HubSpot have all the analytics you would find in other ESPs, like open rates, clickthrough rates, and successful deliveries. You also get to do AB testing, which we strongly recommend as a tool to improve your rates over time.
• Sales emails in HubSpot can be sent by integrating your Gmail/G Suite or Outlook account to get access to templates, documents, and sequences right from your inbox. This integration allows you to track status, opens, and clicks.

HubSpot's marketing email templates

A great email strategy often includes both sales AND marketing emails to engage your audience at every stage. Keep in mind that your sales and marketing teams should be integrated with one another, and communicate often!

Which type of email have you implemented most successfully thus far?

Want help setting up your marketing and sales emails? Book a time with us here to see how we can help!