Set up an RSS-to-email blog subscription for an external blog

If you don't host your blog with HubSpot, you can still offer an email-based subscription (RSS) to your blog using HubSpot.

Create a subscription type

Your contacts manage subscriptions to all your email subscription types separately. This way, if they decide to unsubscribe from one subscription type, they won't have to unsubscribe from them all. To create a subscription type for your blog subscription emails:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Email. 

• Click the Subscription Types tab. 
• Click Create subscription type.
• In the dialog box, add a name and description for your new subscription type, then click Save. 
• If you have data privacy settings turned on in your account, add a process and operation for your subscription type.

Create a custom property

Next, create a custom contact property for your external blog. This will be used in your subscription form to manage which contacts receive your blog subscription emails. Click the Field type dropdown menu and select  Single  checkbox. Then, click Create.

Create a subscription form for your external website

Next, create a subscription form for these emails that you can embed on your external blog pages so that visitors can easily subscribe.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Forms.
• Click Create form, select Regular Form and click Next.
• Under Add form field, use the search bar to find the property you just created, and click the property to add it to your form. You can embed this form on your external blog pages.

Create an active list of blog subscribers

Next, create an active list of your blog subscribers:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Lists.
• Click Create list.
• In the upper left, click the pencil edit icon and enter a name for the list, then click the dropdown menu and select Active list. 
• Set up the criteria for your list:
  • Add a filter for the custom property you created in the previous step:
    • Click Add filter.
    • On the right, under Object information, select Contact properties.
    • Scroll or type to search for the custom property you created, then select the property to filter by.
    • Click the top dropdown menu then select is equal of all of. Then click the bottom dropdown menu and select Yes.
  • Add another filter to ensure that the list only includes contacts set as marketing:
    • In the left panel, under AND, click Add filter.
    • On the right, under Object information, select Contact properties.
    • Scroll or type to search for Marketing contact status then select it.
    • Click the top dropdown menu then select is equal to all of, then click the bottom dropdown menu and select Marketing contact.

• In the upper right, click Save.

If you already have an existing list of contacts subscribed to your blog emails, you can import the list from a spreadsheet.

• Be sure to include a column for Email with your contacts' email addresses and a column with a header that matches the property label for your subscription status property. Enter Yes as the value for all rows in the subscription status property column.

Create your RSS email

Next, create the RSS email that will go out to your blog subscribers. The RSS email is simply an email template that you can customize to include the latest items from a particular feed, such as the RSS feed from your blog. You can use any email template that you like for this email, as long as it contains a main email body module.

Depending on the email editor you are using, follow the corresponding instructions below to create your RSS email:

Create a new RSS email in the updated classic editor

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Marketing Email.
• Click Create email.
• In the dialog box, select Blog/RSS.
• Select External blog and insert the RSS feed URL.
• In the Custom tab, select a template for the RSS email.
• In the dialog box, insert a name for your email.
• In the email editor, click the Edit modules icon in the left sidebar, then select Main Email Body.
• In the RSS feed URL text field, enter an RSS feed URL to see a sample preview of the feed.
• You can also set the number of posts to feature in each RSS email, and customize the styling of your feed within the item layout/style text box. 
  • You can move around the tokens in your RSS email or adjust the fonts and font sizes.
  • Click Advanced options to customize your author by line or set a max width for your post images.

Please note: each send will only include new posts since the prior send of the email, up to the maximum number you've chosen. For example, if you've set a maximum of five posts to display in your RSS email and the next week you only publish three blog posts, the next send of your email will only include those three new posts and will not pull in two posts from the previous week. 

• Make any additional edits to the email as needed and add your from details. 

• Click the Settings tab.
• Click the Subscription type dropdown menu to select the subscription type you created. Make any other settings changes (web version, campaign, etc.) as needed.
• Click the Send or Schedule tab. Under Recipients, select the list you created.
• In the right pane, select your send frequency and the time of day to send the RSS email. If you select Weekly or Monthly, you'll also be asked to select a day of the week or month. 

Please note: RSS emails will always be sent based on the timezone you've configured in your HubSpot account, and will not be sent based on the recipient's timezone. Unlike regular and automated emails, you cannot schedule an RSS email based on the recipient's timezone.

• In the upper right, click Review and Publish. Your RSS email will be sent to your subscribers every day, week, or month that a new entry has been added since the previous send.

Create a new RSS email in the drag and drop editor

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Email.
• Click Create email.
• In the dialog box, select Blog/RSS
• Select External blog and insert the RSS feed URL.
• Click the Drag and drop tab.
• Select a template for the RSS email.
• In the email editor, click the Edit layout icon where your RSS feed displays.
• In the left sidebar you can:
  • Edit the RSS feed URL.
  • Position the tokens in your RSS email or adjust the fonts and font sizes.
  • Set the number of posts to feature in each RSS email.

• Click the Settings tab.
• Edit the from details and subject line for your email.
• Click the Subscription type dropdown menu to select the subscription type you created. Make any other changes to your email settings (web version, campaign, etc.) as needed.
• Click the Send or schedule tab and select the list you created.
• In the right panel, select your send frequency and the time of day to send the RSS email. If you select Weekly or Monthly, you'll also be asked to select a day of the week or month.
  

Please note: RSS emails will always be sent based on the time zone you've configured in your HubSpot account, and will not be sent based on the recipient's time zone. Unlike regular and automated emails, you cannot schedule an RSS email based on the recipient's time zone.

• In the top right click Review and publish.
• Click Publish. Your RSS email will be sent to your subscribers every day, week, or month that a new entry has been added since the previous send.