Overview

Every Marketing Hub Subscription comes with a contact tier, which is the number of allotted marketing contacts allowed in the database. Any contact marked as non-marketing does not count towards your contact tier, meaning you are not charged for those contacts.

HubSpot Marketing Contacts Explained

A HubSpot Marketing Contact is a contact in your HubSpot database that you plan to actively engage with through marketing or other integration tools, which will go against your contact tier subscription limit.

A HubSpot non-Marketing Contact are all other Contacts in the HubSpot database that you plan not to engage actively with. These contacts will not go against your contact tier subscription limit. Some examples are employees, partners, and vendors.

Key factors to consider when choosing between marketing and non-marketing contacts include:

1. Engagement Levels: If a contact has shown little to no engagement with your content, it might be best to categorize them as a non-marketing contact. This way, you can focus your resources on more responsive individuals.
2. Target Audience: Consider the demographics, interests, and pain points of your ideal customers, and use this information to segment your contacts. Those who fit your target audience should be identified as marketing contacts, while others can be classified as non-marketing contacts.
3. Contact Relevance: Some contacts may be valuable in other aspects of your business but aren’t destined for marketing greatness. For instance, vendors or partners should be considered non-marketing contacts.

How is a contact set to Marketing Contact?

There are a few different ways a contact can be set as a Marketing Contact in HubSpot:

• HubSpot Tools (think Forms and Chatbots)
  • Tools can be customized to be set as marketing or non-marketing
• List Imports
• Manually upon updating or creating contacts
• List Imports
• Workflows (Professional and enterprise subscriptions only)

Is unsubscribing a contact the same?

No, unsubscribing a contact is not the same as setting someone as non-marketing. When you set someone as non-marketing you will not be able to:

• Send any marketing emails
• Send Follow-up emails after a form submission
• Create Contact list audiences in the ads tool
• Add them to a marketing workflow to send an email and to and Add to or Remove from ads audiences

Why does any of this matter?

There are some considerations around how HubSpot counts and bills for marketing contacts.

• Four (4) notifications will be sent within the HubSpot instance to notify you when your contact tier reaches the following:
  • 75% of your current tier
  • 90% of your current tier
  • 90% of your current tier
  • Exceeds your current tier
• Each Month (either yearly or monthly subscriptions), the following occurs:
  • Any contacts set as marketing contacts on the update date will be considered marketing contacts until the next update date. The contacts will count towards your subscription tier and affect your subscription costs.
  • Any contacts set as non-marketing contacts on the updated date will be considered non-marketing contacts until the next time you set them as marketing. Updating a marketing contact to a non-marketing contact will not go into effect until the next update date.
• Update Frequency:
  • Monthly subscription, every month on the subscription start date
  • Yearly subscription, first of each month

If you exceed your contact tier, you will be automatically upgraded to the next tier and receive a prorated charge. If you go below your contact tier, you will not be automatically downgraded to a lower tier and will not have a reduced cost.

Where to find Usage & Limits?

Remember that non-marketing contacts don’t count towards your HubSpot contact tier. Here are some steps on how to find your current usage and limits in HubSpot:

• Click on your Account Name
  • Account & Billing
  • Usage & Limits

How do you monitor your Marketing Contacts in HubSpot?

There are a few ways you can monitor your Marketing Contacts in HubSpot.

• One is to create Active lists with filter criteria to identify records eligible for marketing contact management. Another helpful tip is to organize your active lists in folders.
  

  

• Another great way to monitor your Marketing Contacts is by building reports. Here are some reports you can build.
  • Marketing Contacts this Month Total
  • Marketing Contacts until End of Month
  • Non-Marketing Contacts this Month
  • Marketing Contacts for Next Month
  • Number of Non-Marketing Contacts for Next Month

Conclusion

In conclusion, effectively managing your HubSpot Marketing Contacts is crucial for optimizing your marketing efforts and controlling costs. By distinguishing between marketing and non-marketing contacts, you can ensure that you only pay for contacts you actively engage with, while non-marketing contacts, such as employees, partners, and vendors, do not impact your contact tier limit.