Request approval to send a marketing email

To streamline coordination between marketing email designers and other users in your HubSpot account, you can turn on email approval requests, which will automatically notify stakeholders and prompt them to review the email before it can be sent.

Once turned on, approval will be required for all users except super admins in your HubSpot account. Super admins can still optionally request approval from other users in your account.

If you want to test out the email approval process without interrupting other users in your account from publishing emails normally, you can turn on email approvals in a standard sandbox account.

Turn on email approval requests

To turn on approval requests, a super admin in your account must do the following:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Approvals.
• Under Marketing, click Set up approvals for marketing emails.
• In the Choose who can skip approvals section, select an option for which users don't need approval to publish content:
  • Only Super Admins can skip approvals: only users with super admin permissions can send marketing emails without requesting approval. 
  • Everyone can skip approvals: all users can send marketing emails without requesting approval. 
  • Only users I choose can skip approvals: specific users can send marketing emails without requesting approval. When you select this option, select the checkbox next to each user who can skip approvals. Super admins cannot be selected, as they always have the ability to skip approvals. 

• Click Next. 
• Click Turn on approvals, then click Done. 

Customize approval permissions

After you've turned on marketing approvals, all super admins in your account will automatically have permission to approve marketing emails by default. You can also grant permission to other users in your account to approve marketing emails, or allow certain users to skip the approval process.

Grant email approval permissions

To grant email approval permission to users who aren't super admins:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, click Users and teams.
• Hover over a user, then click Edit permissions.
• In the left sidebar menu, click Marketing.
• Ensure the Marketing Access switch is toggled on. Then, scroll down to the Approvals section, then click to toggle the Approve marketing emails switch on.

You can also add the Approve content permission to a permission set. Learn more about how to create and manage permission sets.

After you've turned marketing email approval on and configured who can grant approval, other users in your account can request approval for an email in the  Review and send panel of the email editor. You can also request approval, view approval activity, or approve an email using the collaboration sidebar.

Allow users to skip approval

By default, only super admins can skip the approval process. To change this setting to allow specific users to bypass the approval process, or allow everyone to skip approvals:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Email.
• On the Configuration tab, click Approvals.
• In the right panel, click the Skip approvals tab.

• Select who can skip approvals:
  • Only Super Admins can skip approvals: only super admins in your account can bypass the email approval process.
  • Everyone can skip approvals: you can select this option if you want to keep the approval process in place but you want to allow all users in your account to skip approvals. For example, this option might be useful if you have critical emails that you need to send out and your normal approvers are busy.
  • Only users I choose can skip approvals: in addition to super admins, you can select specific users in your account that will also have permission to bypass the approval process.
• Click Save.

Request an approval in the email editor

If you're designing a marketing email and you want to request a review:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.
• In the top right, click Create email, or click the name of an existing email.
• When you're done designing your email, click Request approval in the top right of the editor.
• In the dialog box, click the Approver dropdown menu, then select up to 10 users that you want to review and approve your email. If you select multiple approvers, they all must approve your email before you can publish it.
• Select an option on the threshold of approvals required:
  • All approvers: all approvers selected in the previous step must each approve your email before it can be published.
  • Just one approver: only one approver is required to approve your email before you can publish it.

• Enter an optional message that will be included in the approval request notification.
• Click Request approval.

You can also request an approval using the HubSpot mobile app:

• Open the HubSpot app on your mobile device.
• Tap Menu, then tap Marketing emails in the left sidebar.
• Tap your drafted marketing email.
• In the top right, tap the three horizontal dots, then tap Request approval.

Manage your approvals with the collaboration sidebar

After requesting an approval, you can review and manage an email's approval status from your collaboration sidebar. You can also use the collaboration sidebar to add comments to your email during the approval process. Learn more about using the collaboration sidebar. 

To review and manage your approvals with the collaboration sidebar:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.
• Hover over your email and click Edit. 
• In the top right, click the approvals approvals icon. If an approval has been requested, one of the following approval statuses will be displayed:
  • Pending approval: the email is waiting on approval. Other users, including super admins, will not be able to publish and send the marketing email. 
  • Approved: the marketing email has been approved and can be sent. 
  • Approval recalled: the approval has been recalled by the user who initially requested the approval. 

• To approve an email:
  • Click Approve.
  • In the dialog box, enter a message. This message will be displayed in the approval notification. 

• • To request changes to the email, click on Request changes. In the comments tab, you can add comments to provide additional context. You can also @mention your teammates, which will notify them that 

Recall an email approval

If you need to fully restart the approval process, you can recall an approval and request approval again after you've made your changes.

To recall an approval:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.
• Hover over the email you want to recall approval for, then click Edit.
• In the top right, click Approvals, then select Recall approval.
• In the dialog box, enter a message to provide context on why you're recalling approval. This message will be included in the notification to all the original approvers.
• Click Recall approval.

Review approvals on the email index page

If you navigate to the marketing email index page, you can review the approval status of your emails under the Approval status column. If the column isn't present on the page, you can click Manage columns, then select the Approval status checkbox to add it to the index page columns.

RSS and blog subscription email approvals

When requesting an approval for a RSS or blog subscription email, the email only needs to be approved once. Any subsequent updates to the email can be published immediately without the need to regain approval.

Learn more about how to set up a blog subscription or RSS subscription email.