For every business, making and growing connections is super important. It's not just about collecting names and emails; it's about building relationships that turn people into loyal customers. These connections are the “Marketing Contacts” for your business.
Think of marketing contacts as the VIPs of your business network. Each contact is a potential collaborator or customer waiting to be engaged.
From that first enticing email to the ongoing conversation on social media, every interaction is an opportunity to showcase your brand's personality and value.
Let's get into the depth of Marketing Contacts and understand how you can utilize marketing contacts in Hubspot.
What are Marketing Contacts?
Marketing contacts are people or businesses a company interacts with for marketing purposes. Building good relationships with these contacts is important to grow marketing and the business.
In HubSpot CRM, there's a “Contact tier.” This means you can decide the number of contacts you want to engage with using HubSpot.
These engaged contacts in your account are the ones you'll be marketing to and are referred to as Marketing Contacts.
You can choose Marketing Contacts from your HubSpot platform and send them emails or other marketing materials to turn them into potential customers. The number of marketing contacts affects how much you pay for your HubSpot subscription.
On the flip side, there are non-marketing contacts. They're not part of the contact tier list, and HubSpot doesn't charge you anything extra for them.
Before we get into how to make the most of these contacts, let's first understand why they're beneficial.
Advantages of Marketing Contacts
The best thing about HubSpot Marketing contacts is that you can control your marketing expenses. HubSpot introduced marketing contacts to let you pay only for the contacts you want to send marketing emails or show ads.
Non-marketing contacts don't come with any charges.
Now, let's explore the benefits of Marketing Contacts:
1. Cut Unnecessary Costs
Marketing Contacts help you save money by letting you focus your budget on specific customers. You won't have to pay for all contacts, and there are no charges for non-marketing contacts.
2. Easy Sorting of Contacts
HubSpot makes it simple to organize your contacts. You can easily filter them as marketing or non-marketing, streamlining your workflow. You can also update your marketing contacts every month.
3. Generous Contact Limits
HubSpot provides different plans with a wide range of marketing contacts. With HubSpot marketing contacts, you don't have to worry about hitting contact limits. Additionally, it gives you space for 15 million free non-marketing contacts.
Utilizing Marketing Contacts in HubSpot
Before we learn how to use Marketing Contacts, let's first check the access to Marketing Contacts.
Check access to Marketing Contacts
Marketing contacts come with all the latest Marketing Hub Accounts. However, if you've had your subscription before they introduced marketing contacts, you won't automatically have access to them.
To gain access to this new feature, contact HubSpot Support, and they'll assist you in enabling it.
Follow the steps below to check if you already have access to Marketing contacts:
If not, then, well, it might not be part of your subscription. Easy, right?
Now that you've access to marketing contacts let's learn how to utilize these contacts to minimize marketing costs and optimize marketing efforts.
Set Contacts as Marketing
HubSpot allows you to set the contacts as marketing and non-marketing. Here are the 6 ways to set your contacts as Marketing:
1. For new contacts: Set them as marketing contacts
HubSpot offers a variety of marketing tools to create contacts. For some of the tools, the contacts are set as non-marketing by default. However, a few tools allow you to customize the default marketing contact status.
Look at the two lists of tools below – One where the contacts are automatically set as marketing and another where you can customize the marketing status.
Contacts created using the following tools are set as Non-Marketing Contact by default:
Contacts created with the following tools are customizable:
2. Manually set the marketing contact
Follow the simple steps to create the individual contact manually and set it as Marketing Contact:
Now you've manually created a contact and marked it as a Marketing.
3. Import new contacts and set them as Marketing
HubSpot allows you to create new contacts via import. The status of imported contacts is by default set to non-marketing, but you can update the status to marketing.
There are two ways to import contacts: Single file import and Import through multiple files.
HubSpot allows you to set all the contacts as marketing only if they are imported through single file import.
Follow the steps mentioned below to set the status of imported contacts:
These imported contacts have their status updated as Marketing Contacts.
4. Set existing contacts as Marketing Contact
HubSpot allows you to manually set existing contacts as Marketing. Follow these simple steps to update the contact status manually:
This way, you can manually set the existing contacts as Marketing Contacts.
5. Use forms to set contacts as Marketing (automatically)
With HubSpot Forms, you can capture user information and use it in various HubSpot CRM assets.
By default, the contacts who fill and submit the forms, including non-marketing contacts, are set as Marketing. But the good news is you can update the default settings for individual forms.
6. Use workflows to set the contacts as Marketing automatically
HubSpot Workflow helps automate your sales, marketing, and service processes for efficient teamwork.
If you have access to a Professional or Enterprise subscription to HubSpot, you can use these Workflows to set contacts as Marketing.
Follow these easy steps to set your contacts' status as Marketing (using Workflows):
Thus, these are a few methods by which you can Set/Update the status of your contacts and lower the marketing cost on your bill.
Set Contacts as Non-Marketing
In your HubSpot account, you may have contacts that you don't want to send marketing emails to or spend marketing efforts on. With HubSpot, you can set these contacts as non-marketing and don't have to pay for them.
1. Set Default Status for New Contacts
Some contacts are created using HubSpot tools and have non-marketing status set by default.
A few of these tools allow you to customize the default settings for new contacts. You can check the list of these tools above.
2. Update the status of Existing Contacts
You can set the existing contacts as non-marketing from the Usage & Limits page or Contacts Index by following the process mentioned below:
Steps to set the non-marketing contacts using the Usage & Limits page:
Steps to set the non-marketing contacts using the contacts index page:
We suggest regularly maintaining and updating your contacts in the contact tier. This helps in efficiently managing your contact tier billing.
Keeping your marketing contacts updated lets you focus on potential customers and avoid extra costs.
Please Note: Contacts marked as marketing or non-marketing on your update date will stay that way until the next update date.
How to manage your Marketing Contacts?
With HubSpot, you can efficiently organize and monitor your marketing contacts. Follow these simple steps: manage lists, set up workflows, and review reports.
Check & Update Lists
Create Workflows:
After organizing lists, create workflows to designate some current marketing contacts as non-marketing contacts in the next update.
Analyze Reports:
Use these insights to plan your marketing strategy for the next month and manage your expenses effectively.
Do Marketing and Non-Marketing Contacts impact your cost?
By strategically setting marketing and non-marketing contacts, businesses may observe reduced expenses related to HubSpot marketing. Contacts set as marketing will count on the contact tier, while those set as non-marketing will not impact your cost.
Now, it's your opportunity to manage your contacts and determine which ones are worth investing your marketing efforts in, whether through emails or targeted ads.
If you've already taken this step, share in the comments how these contacts have influenced your marketing costs.
In case you need assistance with HubSpot marketing, feel free to Contact us!
