How to Build An Automated Email Series with Zapier & HubSpot Starter [No PRO Upgrades Required] 🔥
In this tutorial, the presenter demonstrates how to build an automated email nurture series without a HubSpot Pro subscription by leveraging Zapier. He first creates a static contact list in HubSpot Starter, then sets up a Zap with a "New contact in specific list" trigger. After connecting HubSpot to Zapier, he adds a delay action (configurable in minutes, hours, days) to space out emails. He then connects an email service (Gmail, Zoho Mail, or Outlook) as the action to send personalized messages, mapping the contact’s email and using HubSpot tokens for first‑name personalization and custom subject lines. By duplicating the delay and email steps, he constructs a multi‑step series, customizing each email’s content. Finally, he publishes the Zap, adds his own contact to the static list, and verifies that the emails are delivered as expected, confirming the workaround works for any HubSpot Starter user seeking automated sequences without upgrading to Pro.
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Hey guys, so today I'm just going to show you how to create an email series, uh, you know, and this assumes that you only have HubSpot, you know, Marketing Hub Starter or like a starter version, you know, the $25 a month or $30 a month. I don't know how expensive it is right now, but, uh, you know, that version. So, um, and definitely you will know that if you have that version and you've ever been in a Pro account that you can't create workflows for email series in the, particularly in any hub that is not Pro or Enterprise, right? So in this case, the Starter Hub, if you have it, you probably can't create email series as you would like, at least automated series. But here I'm going to teach you a workaround. We're going to use Zapier in order to do this. And so here is how we're going to build it. And this is going to be based off of a contact list, right? So let's actually go back into another Zap here and create that email series. So let's go to Zaps here. I'm going to go— this is my Zapier account. I'm going to create a new Zap, right? And then I'm just going to here title it maybe email nurture series number 1 or so, right? And so I want that this email series get triggered by contacts being added to a specific list that I already have in HubSpot, right? So I'm just going to go into my HubSpot tab here and you'll notice that if I go to my lists CRM list, we will need to create a quick static list, right? So this is what I'm going to do first. I'm going to create a list. I'm going to make it a contact-based list. I'm going to click next here. And then it's just going to be, I'm going to relabel it static list for ENS, right? Which is even larger series. I'll just leave it like that because I'll actually be adding people manually in bulk to it, right? So I'm just going to review and save this and play, make it a static list and save and process the list. Right. And so now we have our list in our HubSpot. I'm just going to refresh my HubSpot here and then I'm going to go back to Zapier. And then over here, I'm going to select the first trigger, which is going to be, you know, HubSpot. And then I'm going to choose an event, which is going to be, I'm going to search for list, right? So new contact in a specific list, right? So great. My HubSpot, by the way, is already connected to my Zapier, right? But if you haven't done this step, you will need to in this section go change. Well, actually you'll click connect and then just log into your HubSpot via Zapier. That's a, like a 3 clicks. Or so connection. But assuming that's already connected, let's actually go and continue. And I'm going to now choose my contact list that I just created, which is actually called Static List for ENS. So that's the one we just created is the static list. And then I'll just leave that empty and then continue. Right. So right now I'm not going to test the trigger because it's not going to be successful. Well, let's actually do it just so that you can see it's not going to be successful because there's no contacts in the list. Right. So there's no contacts there, but I'll just skip the test. And that is actually going to be correct. And then I'll just continue, right? So now let's actually add the next step, which is going to be a delay. So I'm actually, I want to delay this for maybe, in this case, do know that we click on delay by Zapier as part of the action. Then we go delay for, and then in this delay for, I'm actually going to select in the next section the amount of time, right? So for example, right now, just so that we can see the example, I'm going to add 1 and then I'm going to choose minutes, right? But do know that, for example, we wanted to add different hours, days, weeks, etc. We can add 1 hour, 10 hours, 10 days, 3 days, etc. So do know that that's part of the nurture series. But in this case, I'm just going to be basing it off of minutes to make it faster. So let's actually add 1 minute as a delay and then click next. I will skip the test just because I know it's going to work. So let's actually skip that test for the delay. It should work there. I'm just going to close this out and now Here comes the, the best part, right, where we connect our email account in order to send out those emails, right? So, so now there's— do know that this functionality, I'm going to click on more here for the next action, and do know that you can do it based on Gmail, based on Zoho Mail, or even I believe based on Outlook too, right? So in any of the apps, um, Microsoft Outlook here for example, uh, whatever your email is, whether that's Gmail in this case, Zoho— I have Zoho and Gmail, and I also have an Outlook too. So in the case that you have either or of those 3, you can connect it, right? So the easiest one is probably going to be Gmail. So I'm actually just going to connect my— one of my Gmail accounts, right? So Gmail, and I'm going to choose, um, the event to be, uh, send email, right? So I'm actually going to search for it, send email. That's it, create and send a new email. And I'm going to sign in to my account, right? So in this case, I'm just going to click sign in here. And then I'm going to select the account I want this email to go out from, right? So I'm going to select this one right here, which is the one that I want selected in this case. And then I'm just going to continue. And as you can see, I'm going to allow Zapier definitely to be able to pull my info from there so that we can send out the emails. And that's pretty much it. So now I'm just going to click continue here. And then I'm just going to— now here comes the best part in order to build the email. I'm going to click the to section and I'm going to map the field, which is going to be from the new contact in list in HubSpot. And then I'm going to choose their email, right? So in this case, this is just an example because there was no contacts in that. But then send message to Google contact group label. We don't need that. We'll just say here in the from section, I'm actually going to choose my email, right? And then in the from name, I can actually choose Jorge Fuentes in this case. And then as part of the subject, I'll just, this is something that can be even more personalized. Which in this case I'm just gonna exemplify it like, hey, and then I'm gonna do a space and then I'm gonna add the token from the contact, which is gonna be the first name, right? So as you can see, the personalization starts building up here as if you were crafting an email in HubSpot. So I'm just gonna do, hey, first name, and then I'm gonna do long time no see. You know, how have you been? How have you been, right? In this case, you know, I know we wanna build like an nurture series. It can also be used for cold outreach, right? Whichever type of content you want to add to it. Do know that right now I'm doing a plain body type, but definitely you can do HTML as part of it, like if you need graphics, etc. So that'll be the workaround. But right now I just want to do something very simple to exemplify this. So definitely, long time no see, how have you been? And then I'll just leave it at that. And then I'm going to add the default signature just in case. And then that's it, right? So I'm going to click continue. And then I don't want to test this step right now just because I know it'll work. So definitely it'll most likely work. I am seeing something I missed a little bit with this signature. So in this particular case, I'm actually just going to go back and I'm not going to use a signature just for the time being, just so that our test is successful. So let's actually click continue, remove the signature, and I'm just going to skip this particular test right here. And then now what I'm going to do is clone a couple of things. So I'm actually, I want to duplicate my delay, right? Because I want to send out a second email. And then on the left-hand side, you see we have like this drag and drop, um, uh, thingy right here, and then I'll just place it below the next email, right? So we'll delay for another minute, and then here I'm just going to duplicate it again. So, and, but this case, in this case for the email, so I'm actually going to duplicate the email, I'm going to grab it, I'm going to place it here, right? So this is essentially a 2-step, um, series, right, with, you know, 2 delays and 2 emails. So that's very simple. But then I just, you know, because I cloned that, I can now just go ahead and edit this, uh, other email, and then I'm just gonna just copy. So it's gonna be, hey, Uh, you know, first name. Um, I forgot something. I forgot this, you know, and whatever. And then I'm just gonna put that thing. Um, I've been doing all right. And then that's it. I'm just gonna leave it as that as an example, right? For example. And then I'm just gonna click continue. And then I'm gonna skip the test right here because I'm— I know that it'll work, right? So I'm gonna skip the test. Um, and now my Zap is ready to go, right? This is like a, you know, it's not really an email nurture series right now. I'm just exemplifying You know, but definitely do know that you can definitely nurture contacts, you know, if it's going to be like an email series with, you know, an instant email being sent out 1 minute later after they get added to the list. And then 3 days later, you do a follow-up and then 10 days later, 14 days later, whatever you want to do. And you can send as many of the emails as you'd like. So I'm actually just going to publish this email series right now. And there we go. Our email series is ready for us to test it. Now I'm just going to proceed to do a live test of this. I'm actually going to go to my list in HubSpot and you see where it says static list for ENS. I'm actually going to go to my CRM here, right? And then actually handpick the contact that I do want to add. So in this case, I'm just going to search for myself. So Jorge in this case, and then I want to go and choose my own email. So let's actually go for my email, and then I'm just gonna— sorry, I'm just gonna continue typing my email, right? And let's go and try to receive an email from— well, actually to this contact, right? So, so fntj008@gmail. I'm gonna now add that contact to the static list so that'll trigger the sequence automatically, so the email nurture series automatically. So I'm gonna add to the list, and then I'm going to search for that list, which is called Static List for ENS. And then that's it. So I'm just gonna add it. I'm gonna add the record. And now we're just gonna wait a little bit because what's gonna happen now that I added it, and you can see I'm gonna go back to the CRM, the list over here, and then I'm going to see the static list for ENS, and then I'm just gonna reload it. It might take just a little while. If not, I'll just check over here what may have happened. But definitely do know that HubSpot takes a little bit of a minute. And there we go. My contact actually shows up now, even though the site still says zero contacts. This is just a quick delay that HubSpot has there. But then now we can— let's go and verify into my email over here that I did receive that new email. So let me actually refresh from there, and that's going to probably take just one minute. So let's actually wait a little bit. All right. And you'll notice that that came through. So it is right here. Hey, Jorge, and from Jorge Fuentes. And I can actually go ahead and see it. Long time no see. Perfect. So that means that the email series works right now. I can get the email from myself in this case, but definitely do know that that works for any effort you want to do within HubSpot. Within a minute, I'll probably also get the other email, right, from, from that same series, right? Because I just have a 1-minute delay. But as mentioned, you can have as many types of delays as you want. And that's pretty much it and all you need to know in order for you to build Um, you know, more cost-effectively, uh, Zapier-based and HubSpot, uh, integrated-based, um, workflow or sequence or email series that just, uh, does what it does without needing to upgrade to, uh, any form of HubSpot Pro Hub. And, uh, yeah, that's pretty much it, and I will see you all in the next video.
