Verify your HubSpot contacts before you send

1. 1
   In HubSpot

   Export your contacts from HubSpot

   Before you start

   Exporting contacts requires Export permissions in HubSpot.

   1. Go to CRM then Contacts, through More if that menu shows in your account.
   2. Click the tab of the view to export. To export every contact, open the All contacts view.
   3. In the top right of the table, click Export.
   4. In the dialog box, pick CSV in the File format drop-down menu, then click Export.
   5. Open the email HubSpot sends you and download the file from its link, which expires after 30 days.
   6. A CSV file over 2 MB comes zipped: unzip it before moving on.

   Tip

   By default, the file carries the properties and associations of the open view: keep only the email column in a spreadsheet before moving on.

   SourceHubSpot's official help center

   • Export your records (opens in a new tab)knowledge.hubspot.com
2. 2
   In PricklyMails

   Verify the file in PricklyMails

   1. In the dashboard, open Batches and click New batch.
   2. Drop the file you exported from HubSpot: a .csv or .txt with one address per line, no header row and no quotes. A header row would count as an address in the estimate, though it is never billed, and a quoted address would not be verified: the report lists both as malformed. You can also paste the list.
   3. The dashboard counts the addresses and shows the estimated cost in tokens before anything is sent, then you click Submit batch. A batch holds at least 20 addresses, and your plan sets the largest list it can hold.
   4. The list is verified in the background. Once the batch is done, open it and click Download report: you get a CSV with a row for each address of your file, giving its verdict, its reason, its score and its recommendation, with the dashboard's labels.

   Note

   Download the report from the browser that sent the list: that browser is what keeps the addresses, for the 16 most recent batches at most. Our servers, in Germany, only keep a one-way fingerprint of each one.

   What the report says

   Every address gets a recommendation: the action to take. The report writes it with the dashboard's label; the API returns a short form of it.

   Send

   The address is valid, or hosted by a large provider that accepts every address without confirming any. Send as usual.

   Review

   A domain that accepts any address (catch-all), a generic address such as contact@, a full mailbox, or a server that never answered, or refused to. Take a look before you send.

   Remove

   The address does not exist, its domain cannot receive mail, or it is disposable, mistyped or malformed. Take it out.

   Note

   A malformed address is never verified: the batch counts it under "Malformed addresses", and the report still lists it, with the verdict "Invalid", the reason "Malformed address" and the recommendation "Remove", so you take it out of HubSpot with the others. A duplicate, counted under "Duplicates removed", appears only once.

   Behind each recommendation sit a verdict (Valid, Risky, Invalid or Not verifiable), a reason and a score from 0 to 100, each in its own column of the report. When a server never answers, the address comes back "Not verifiable" and the checks that got no answer are refunded.

3. 3
   In HubSpot

   Bring the result back into HubSpot

   Open the report in a spreadsheet and filter the Recommendation column.

   Remove

   They get imported as opted out: HubSpot sends them no more marketing emails or sequence emails.

   HubSpot advises importing contacts who hard bounced in the past as opted out. Do the same with the addresses to remove, before they bounce.

   1. Copy them into a new CSV file, under an Email header.
   2. In HubSpot, go to CRM then Contacts and click Import in the upper right.
   3. Click Import data, then select List of contacts to opt out of emails.
   4. Select your file, then click Upload.
   5. In the Email field drop-down menu, pick the Email column of your file, then click Next, confirm your choice.
   6. Enter the number of contacts to confirm the opt-out, then click Begin import.

   Review

   They deserve a look before your next campaign.

   Send

   They stay in HubSpot: nothing to do.

   Tip

   Contacts already in HubSpot stay in your CRM and still count toward your billable contact total. With Marketing Hub, set them as non-marketing to stop paying for them: select them in the contacts table, then click More then Set as non-marketing contacts and confirm. The change takes effect on the next update date.

   SourceHubSpot's official help center

   • Clean up contacts to improve email deliverability (opens in a new tab)knowledge.hubspot.com
   • Import opted-out contacts (opens in a new tab)knowledge.hubspot.com
   • Set contacts as non-marketing (opens in a new tab)knowledge.hubspot.com

Verify each address before it reaches HubSpot

Does your signup form or sync script create contacts through HubSpot's API, with the Create a contact (opens in a new tab) call? Ask PricklyMails first. If the recommendation is remove, don't create the contact.

curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "email": "ana.silva@gmail.con" }' \
  | jq '{job_uuid, suggestion}'

{
  "job_uuid": "8f1c2a9e-4b7d-4e2a-9c61-3d5f0b7a2e18",
  "suggestion": "ana.silva@gmail.com"
}

curl -s https://api.pricklymails.com/api/verify/$JOB_UUID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_9f3a..." \
  | jq '.verifications[0] | {status, reason, score, recommendation}'

{
  "status": "invalid",
  "reason": "no_mx_records",
  "score": 0,
  "recommendation": "remove"
}

Frequently asked questions