Targeting Cold Contacts? How to Find People Who Haven't Received Your Marketing Emails in HubSpot

Figuring out who hasn't received your marketing emails in HubSpot can be trickier than it seems. Many HubSpot users, especially those managing e-commerce operations, want to target truly "cold" contacts. One HubSpot Community member ran into this exact problem and asked for help segmenting their contacts.

The Challenge: Identifying Untouched Contacts

The original poster wanted to create a list of contacts who had never received a marketing email. Following HubSpot's guidance, they tried filtering by "Last marketing email open date is unknown" and "Marketing emails delivered is equal to 0 / less than 1".

The problem? This approach pulled in bounced or undeliverable contacts instead of those who were simply never targeted.

The core question was:

1. How can you reliably distinguish between contacts who were never targeted and those who bounced?
2. Can HubSpot retroactively filter for contacts who've never received an email, or does this require a workflow going forward?

Solutions from the Community

Several helpful suggestions emerged from the HubSpot Community.

Filtering by "Last Marketing Email Send Date"

One respondent suggested filtering for "Last marketing email send date is unknown." This should include contacts without email addresses, hard bounces, and invalid addresses, as these contacts couldn't have been sent an email.

To exclude bounced or invalid addresses, you can refine the filter with these additional criteria:

• AND Email hard bounce reason is unknown
• AND Email is known
• AND Invalid email is not equal to True

Understanding HubSpot's Data

Another community member clarified that a list created using the initial filters (no marketing email activity) represents contacts with an email address but no recorded marketing email activity in the system.

For thorough email validation, the respondent suggested using external email validation tools to verify email addresses, ensuring deliverability for your campaigns.

Putting it All Together: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here’s how to create a HubSpot list of contacts who have likely never received a marketing email, while excluding bounces:

1. Create a new contact-based list.
2. Set the filter to "Last marketing email send date is unknown."
3. Add the following filters to exclude bounces and invalid emails:
   • "Email hard bounce reason is unknown"
   • "Email is known"
   • "Invalid email is not equal to True"
4. Save your list.

This list should provide a cleaner segment of contacts who haven't been actively engaged.

ESHOPMAN Team Comment

This HubSpot Community discussion highlights a common challenge for marketers: accurately segmenting contacts based on engagement history. The suggested solution of filtering by "Last marketing email send date" combined with bounce exclusions is a solid starting point. However, for optimal list hygiene, integrating a third-party email verification tool, especially within a builder ecommerce setup, is crucial to remove invalid emails before they even enter your HubSpot database. ESHOPMAN can help streamline this process by providing more granular data on customer interactions within your online store, allowing for better segmentation.

Remember that data accuracy is key. Regularly review your list criteria and consider using workflows to automatically update contact properties based on email engagement.