Send blog subscription emails for external blogs using RSS feeds

For blogs hosted outside of HubSpot, you can use an RSS feed to send subscribers emails about your new blog posts. The email can pull in key information about each post from the RSS feed, including the post name, publication date, and summary. 

Before you get started

Before you begin working with this feature, make sure to fully understand what steps should be taken ahead of time, as well as the limitations of the feature and potential consequences of using it. 

Understand limitations & considerations

• 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.
• Each send will only include new posts since the prior send of the email, even if that's fewer than the maximum number of posts you've selected. 
• Featured images will not be automatically added to the email. To include images, it's recommended to add them to the <description> tag of your RSS feed. 

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:

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Email. 
3. Click the Subscription Types tab. 
4. Click Create subscription type.
5. In the dialog box, add a name and description for your new subscription type, then click Save. 
6. 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.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Forms.
2. Click Create form, select Regular Form and click Next.
3. 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:

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Lists.
2. Click Create list.
3. 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. 
4. 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.

5. 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. It's recommended to include: 

• A column for Email with your contacts' email addresses. 
• A column that matches your subscription status property. Enter Yes as the value for all rows in this column. 

Create an 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.

Create a new RSS email

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Email.
2. In the top right, click Create email.
3. In the right panel, select Blog/RSS, then click Next. 
4. Select RSS feed, then enter the RSS feed URL.
5. On the template selection screen, hover over a template and click Choose template. 
6. In the dialog box, insert a name for your email, then click Create email. 
7. In the email editor, click the body of the email where the main content is displayed. 
8. In the sidebar editor, customize the format of your RSS email in the Display field. To add additional RSS tokens:
   • Click the Insert dropdown menu and select RSS token.
   • Click the Token dropdown menu and select a token. 
9. In the Max number of posts to display section, enter the highest number of posts that can be present in the RSS email. Only posts published since the last RSS email send will be included. 
10. To customize the maximum width for post images:
    • Click to expand the Advanced settings section.
    • In the Image max width section, select Custom max width.
      
    • In the field, enter a width in pixels. 

Please note: only images hosted in HubSpot's files tool can use a custom max width.

11. Click the Inbox tab. 
12. In the Subject Line field, enter a subject line for the email. 
13. Click the From name dropdown menu and select a sender. 
14. Click the From address dropdown menu and select the sender's email address.
15. Click the Send to tab.
16. Click the Subscription type dropdown menu to select the subscription type you created. 
17. Click the Send to dropdown menu and select the list of subscribers. 
18. Click the Schedule tab. 
19. Set how frequently the email will send: 
    • In the Send frequency section, select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. 
    • For weekly and monthly emails, click the Day of the week/month dropdown menu and select a day. 
20. Click the Time dropdown menu and select a time the email will send in the account's time zone. You can see the time the email will send in your current time zone in the Timezone section. 
21. In the upper right, click Review and Publish.
22. Read through the email's information, resolve any errors, then click Publish.