--- title: Why your HubSpot emails are going to spam (and how to fix it) description: HubSpot emails going to spam? Use who's affected to find the cause (authentication, list, content or reputation), then fix it before the next send. image: https://koalify.io/hubfs/Why%20your%20HubSpot%20emails%20are%20going%20to%20spam%20(and%20how%20to%20fix%20it).png --- [Skip to content](https://koalify.io/blog/hubspot-emails-going-to-spam#main-content) [![rectangle\_long\_koala\_with\_name\_bold\_200\_125\_white](https://koalify.io/hubfs/rectangle_long_koala_with_name_bold_200_125_white.png)](https://koalify.io) - Products Show submenu for Products - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/hubspot-email-validation) - Pricing Show submenu for Pricing - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io/pricing) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/hubspot-email-validation-pricing-koalify) - [Partners](https://koalify.io/partners) - [Blog](https://koalify.io/blog) - Knowledge base Show submenu for Knowledge base - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io/knowledge-base) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/email-validation-knowledge-base) - Products Show submenu for Products - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/hubspot-email-validation) - Pricing Show submenu for Pricing - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io/pricing) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/hubspot-email-validation-pricing-koalify) - [Partners](https://koalify.io/partners) - [Blog](https://koalify.io/blog) - Knowledge base Show submenu for Knowledge base - [Deduplication](https://koalify.io/knowledge-base) - [Email Validation](https://koalify.io/email-validation-knowledge-base) ![menu-toggle](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-toggle.svg) ![menu-close](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-close.svg) [Get Started Free](https://api.koalify.io/hubspot/install?utm_source=koalify&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=navigation) [HubSpot Email Validation](https://koalify.io/blog/tag/hubspot-email-validation) # Why your HubSpot emails are going to spam (and how to fix it) [By \- Jonas,](https://koalify.io/blog/author/jonas) Oct 12, 2026 ![ Featured Image](https://koalify.io/hs-fs/hubfs/Why%20your%20HubSpot%20emails%20are%20going%20to%20spam%20(and%20how%20to%20fix%20it).png?width=1132&height=366&name=Why%20your%20HubSpot%20emails%20are%20going%20to%20spam%20(and%20how%20to%20fix%20it).png) Your open rate was 28% last month. This week's newsletter came in at 9%. HubSpot says 98% delivered, nobody has unsubscribed, and then a colleague forwards you a screenshot: your email, in their spam folder. The instinct is to rewrite the subject line, strip out the images, and resend. Sometimes that's right. More often the problem has nothing to do with this email. It's your domain's authentication, the addresses you're sending to, or a reputation that's been sliding for months and only just tipped over. You can usually tell which by looking at *who* is getting your email in spam. All of Gmail? One company? Every provider since Tuesday? Each pattern points to a different cause. This post walks through how to read the pattern, then the fixes in the order that makes the most difference. For the full checklist behind it, see the [HubSpot email deliverability guide](https://koalify.io/hubspot-email-deliverability). ![Why your HubSpot emails are going to spam (and how to fix it)](https://koalify.io/hs-fs/hubfs/Why%20your%20HubSpot%20emails%20are%20going%20to%20spam%20(and%20how%20to%20fix%20it).png?width=1132&height=366&name=Why%20your%20HubSpot%20emails%20are%20going%20to%20spam%20(and%20how%20to%20fix%20it).png) ## First, check it's actually spam "My emails aren't getting through" covers four different problems, and only one of them is spam. Rule out the other three first, because their fixes are different. - **It bounced or was never sent.** Open the email in **Marketing \> Email**, go to the **Recipients** tab, and look up the contact. If they're under **Bounced** or **Not sent**, the email never reached their server. That's a list or suppression problem, not a spam one. - **It landed in Gmail's Promotions tab.** Promotions isn't spam. It's Gmail sorting marketing email where it belongs. It hurts opens, but it isn't a reputation problem and you shouldn't treat it as one. - **It's held in a corporate quarantine.** Company security tools such as Microsoft Defender or Mimecast can accept an email, which HubSpot records as delivered, then hold it before it reaches anyone's inbox. The recipient sees nothing, not even a spam folder entry. - **It's genuinely in the spam or junk folder.** This is the one the rest of this post is about. HubSpot's "delivered" status only means the receiving server accepted the email. It can't see what Gmail or Outlook did with it next. So to know where you're landing, test it yourself: send the same email to a Gmail address, an Outlook.com address and a colleague at another company, from the same sending domain, and check where each one ends up. Also set up [Google Postmaster Tools](https://postmaster.google.com) for your sending domain if you haven't. It's free, and it's the only place you'll see Gmail's spam complaint rate, because HubSpot's spam report count doesn't include Gmail. ## Why HubSpot emails go to spam: read the pattern Who's affected tells you more than any spam-score tool. Match your situation to a row, then go to the fix it points to. | Who's getting it in spam | Most likely cause | What to check | | --- | --- | --- | | Everyone, on every provider, starting suddenly | Authentication broke: a DNS change, a new sending domain, or DMARC failing | **Settings \> Domains & URLs**: is the email sending domain still connected? | | Everyone, after one bad campaign | Reputation hit from a send with lots of bounces or spam reports | That send's bounce and spam report rates on the **Recipients** tab | | Mostly Gmail | Gmail's view of your domain, usually complaints or low engagement | Spam rate and domain reputation in Google Postmaster Tools | | Mostly Outlook or Hotmail | Microsoft's authentication enforcement, or Outlook complaint signals | Authentication first; then delivery by mailbox provider on the **Delivery** tab | | One company only | Their security gateway, not your reputation | Ask their IT team to allowlist HubSpot's sending IPs | | One email only, others fine | Content: link shorteners, a flagged link domain, image-only design, attachments | What's different about that email compared with the ones that land | | A slow slide over several months | List decay and unengaged contacts dragging engagement down | Bounce trend, unengaged share and click rates by subscription type | | Right after an import or enrichment run | Invalid addresses or spam traps in the new contacts | Bounce rate and spam reports for contacts by **Create date** and **Original source** | Two causes cover most HubSpot portals: a missing DMARC record, and list quality. If you can't tell which row you're in, check those two first. ## How to stop HubSpot emails going to spam, step by step Work through these in order. The early steps take minutes and fix the problems that get mail rejected outright. The later ones take weeks to show results, because reputation recovers slowly. ### 1. Fix authentication Go to **Settings \> Domains & URLs** and check your email sending domain is connected, with SPF and DKIM verified. Then confirm a DMARC record is published on your domain. It's the most common gap in HubSpot portals, and since 2024 Google and Yahoo have required SPF, DKIM and DMARC from bulk senders. Start DMARC at `p=none` if you don't have one; it's the safe way to begin. While you're there, check the From address on your emails. A marketing email sent "from" a gmail.com or outlook.com address fails DMARC every time. Use your own domain.   ### 2. Pause sending to cold contacts If your reputation has dropped, the fastest way to rebuild it is to send only to people who engage. For the next few weeks, limit sends to contacts who've clicked recently, and leave the rest out. Make sure **Don't send to unengaged contacts** is switched on in your send settings; it's on by default, so if it's off, someone turned it off. It feels like shrinking your audience. It's the opposite: a short run of sends with high engagement tells Gmail and Outlook your mail is wanted, and that lifts placement for everyone once you widen the list again.   ### 3. Clean out the addresses that are hurting you Suppress hard bounces, chronic soft bouncers and anything you know is invalid, and set them as non-marketing. If a recent import or enrichment run is behind the problem, validate those contacts before they're emailed again. Spam traps and dead addresses don't just bounce; they tell mailbox providers you don't look after your list. The step-by-step version is in [how to reduce your HubSpot bounce rate](https://koalify.io/blog/how-to-reduce-bounce-rate-hubspot).   ### 4. Fix the email itself, if it's one email If only one email is landing in spam, compare it with one that isn't. The usual differences: link shorteners like bit.ly, links to a domain with a poor reputation, a design that's one large image with little text, or an attachment. A subject line full of capitals and exclamation marks rarely causes spam placement on its own today, but it doesn't help.   ### 5. Make unsubscribing easier than complaining A spam report costs you far more than an unsubscribe. Every marketing email needs a visible unsubscribe link and one-click unsubscribe, which Google and Yahoo now require. A preference page that lets people choose fewer emails, not just none, turns some would-be complaints into a quieter list.   ### 6. Watch it recover Check **Marketing \> Email \> Health** monthly, along with delivery by mailbox provider and your Gmail spam rate in Postmaster Tools. Keep spam reports under 0.1% and hard bounces under 1%. HubSpot can suspend marketing email at a 5% hard bounce rate or a 0.1% spam report rate in a month, and when it does, workflow emails stop too.   ### What not to do Don't switch to a new sending domain to escape a bad reputation. A new domain with no history and the same list will end up in the same place. And don't buy a dedicated IP as a first fix. It needs a gradual warm-up, and it only helps if your list and sending habits are already clean. ## Keeping your emails out of spam Authentication stays fixed once it's set up. Your list doesn't. People change jobs and their mailboxes close. Forms collect typos. Apollo and Clay add addresses nobody has checked. Every one of those, emailed, chips at the reputation you just rebuilt. That's why so many teams fix spam placement once and find themselves back in the same place six months later. Koalify's email validation covers that one lever, inside HubSpot. A workflow action validates your existing contacts in one pass and then checks every new contact as it's created or updated, so invalid addresses are flagged before their first send rather than after their first bounce. Results land on a native HubSpot property you can filter on, so your suppression list keeps itself current. Teams running it have kept sends to a 0.4% bounce rate across 4,000+ emails. To be clear about what it doesn't do: it won't fix a missing DMARC record, a flagged link domain or an email people report as spam. Those are steps 1, 4 and 5 above, and they're yours to fix. What it removes is the cause that keeps coming back on its own. ## Frequently asked questions **Why are my HubSpot emails suddenly going to spam?** A sudden change across every provider usually means authentication broke, for example after a DNS change, or that one recent campaign with lots of bounces or spam reports damaged your reputation. Check that your sending domain is still connected in **Settings \> Domains & URLs**, then look at the bounce and spam report rates on your last few sends. **Why are my HubSpot emails going to spam in Gmail but not Outlook?** Gmail weighs engagement and spam complaints heavily, so a Gmail-only problem usually points to complaints or low engagement from Gmail users. Check your spam rate and domain reputation in Google Postmaster Tools, which HubSpot's own reports don't include. **Why are my HubSpot emails going to junk in Outlook?** Microsoft began enforcing authentication for high-volume senders to Outlook.com in 2025, so start by confirming SPF, DKIM and DMARC all pass. If they do, compare delivery by mailbox provider on the Delivery tab to see whether Outlook is the outlier. **HubSpot says the email was delivered. Why didn't they get it?** "Delivered" means the receiving server accepted it. After that, the email can still be filtered to spam, sorted into a tab like Promotions, or held in a company's security quarantine where the recipient never sees it. **Will changing the subject line stop my emails going to spam?** Rarely on its own. Subject lines matter less than authentication, list quality and engagement. If only one email is landing in spam, look at its links, images and attachments before the subject line. **Should I get a dedicated IP to fix spam placement?** Not as a first step. Most HubSpot accounts send from shared IP pools, and a dedicated IP needs a gradual warm-up. It only helps once your list and sending habits are already clean. ## Conclusion When HubSpot emails go to spam, the email is rarely the whole story. Start with who's affected, because the pattern points you to the cause: authentication when it's everyone at once, reputation when it's one provider, content when it's one email, and list quality when it's a slow slide. Fix authentication today, send only to engaged contacts while you recover, and clean out the addresses that got you here. Then keep them out. If you'd like to see how many addresses in your HubSpot are quietly working against your inbox placement, you can check without exporting a thing. 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