Log email in your CRM with the BCC or forwarding address

With the HubSpot Sales email extension or add-in, you can automatically log emails sent from outside of HubSpot to the CRM. If you're not using the sales extension or add-in, you can use the HubSpot BCC address or forwarding address to manually log emails.

Emails that are logged to HubSpot using the BCC address or forwarding address will include the email content and any attachments included in the email. The logged email will automatically be associated to the recipient's contact record, its associated company record, and the five most recent open deal records associated to the contact. Learn more about logging email replies to HubSpot. 

Use the BCC address

When you send an email from your mail client, add the BCC address to the BCC line of the email. The email content will be automatically recorded on the contact's record in HubSpot.

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects > Activities.
• Click the Email Logging tab.

• To the right of the BCC Address field, click Copy.

• Navigate to your email inbox and compose a new email.
• Add the copied BCC address to the BCC line of the email.

The sent email will be logged to the contact's record in HubSpot. If the email recipient is not associated with a contact record in HubSpot, a new record will be created.

Requirements to log emails to the CRM using the BCC address

• The user sending the email must have personal email access.
• The email address from which you are sending the email must be one of the following:
  • A user in your account.
  • One of your connected personal emails.
  • An alias in your email client (either an alias that has been configured in your connected Gmail inbox, or an alias added to your Profile & Preferences).
• The email address of the recipient is not listed in your Never Log list.
• The email address wasn't previously permanently deleted. 
• If you've turned on GDPR privacy settings in your HubSpot account, you must have legal basis to communicate with the email's recipients.

Please note: if you manually use the BCC address in an email client without tracking, this will only log the email on a contact record in HubSpot. This will not allow you to track opens or clicks on your emails.

Use the forwarding address

Use the forwarding address to log an email reply to the contact record's timeline. The forwarding address is useful when you need to log an email after you received it. Before you get started, make sure your email client is supported by the forwarding feature. 

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects > Activities.
• Click the Email Logging tab.
• To the right of the Forwarding Address field, click Copy.

• Navigate to your email inbox and open the email you want to log in HubSpot.
• Forward the email to the copied forwarding address.

The forwarded email will be logged to the contact’s record in HubSpot. If the email recipient is not associated to a contact record in HubSpot, a new record will be created.

Requirements to log replies to the CRM using the forwarding address

Your email must meet the following criteria in order to be logged in the CRM:

• The user sending the email must have personal email access.

• You're forwarding the individual reply email (not other parts of the email chain). The forwarded message header generated by your email client must be present:

• The email address you're using to send the forwarded email must be one of the following:
  • A user in your account.
  • One of your connected email inboxes.
  • An alias in your email client (either an alias that has been configured in your connected Gmail inbox, or an alias added to your Profile & Preferences).
• The contact's email is not listed in your Never Log list.
• If you've turned on GDPR privacy settings in your HubSpot account, you must have legal basis to communicate with the email's recipients.
• The forwarded email will appear in the contact's timeline.

• If the person that sent you the original email isn't in your CRM, forwarding the message will create a contact record, as long as their email or email domain isn't listed in your Never Log list.
• The forwarded message must be in one of HubSpot's supported languages. 
• The forwarded message must include both the HTML and plain text section of the email.
• Your email server must allow external forwarding. 

There is no standard formatting for a forwarded email. If HubSpot is unable to process your email format, the email will not log to HubSpot. Learn how to manually log an email to HubSpot. 

Please note: if you receive an email reply from a contact or prospect, and they CC recipients, HubSpot won't add those copied recipients as contacts in your account.

Email clients that are supported by the forwarding feature

If your forwarded email meets the above requirements but is still not logging to HubSpot, your email client is incompatible with HubSpot's forwarding feature. If your email client is not compatible with the forwarding feature, you will not be able to forward an email to a record in HubSpot.

The email clients below are compatible with the forwarding tool: 

• Apple iPhone
• Gmail
• Apple Mail
• Outlook Desktop 2010-2019
• Yahoo! Mail
• Samsung Mail
• Apple iPad
• Google Android
• Windows Live Mail
• Outlook.com
• Thunderbird

Sender attribution for BCC and forwarded emails

When sending emails using the BCC or forwarding address, the following rules determine which user is attributed as the sender of the email logged to the CRM. These rules, in order of priority, determine which emails are counted towards a user's total activity in your sales reports. 

1. If only one user has the sending email address as a connected personal email address, attribute to that user.
2. If only one user has the sending email address as their HubSpot user account email, attribute to that user.
3. If only one user has the sending email address as an alias, attribute to that user.
4. If multiple users have the sending email address as a connected personal email address, attribute to the user who has had the email address connected the longest.

If you log an email from outside of HubSpot using the BCC address, and you're sending from an email address that's connected as a team email in HubSpot, the email will always be attributed to the user who originally connected the team email account.