HubSpot Knowledge Base

Track and log emails with the HubSpot Sales Chrome extension

Written by Public API | Jan 1, 1970 12:00:00 AM

Use the Track and Log features of the HubSpot Sales Chrome extension to monitor and keep a record of your contacts' engagement with your emails. With the track feature enabled, you can receive real-time notifications when a contact opens your email. You can also choose to log the email to the contact's record in HubSpot to keep a record of all past communication for your team to reference.

You can review email open and click information in the activity feed; logged emails are saved to individual contact records and their associated records.

Please note: if you've enabled General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) functionality in your account, your legal team is the best resource to determine how your company uses email logging and tracking. You can also customize your extension settings to remove this functionality for a specific message or for specific contacts and email domains. In addition, email opens can only be tracked for contacts with an assigned legal basis for data processing. Learn more about email tracking when GDPR settings are enabled.


Before getting started, note the difference between a tracked email and a logged email:

  • Track: use the track feature to monitor when contacts open your emails. To track emails, HubSpot inserts a one-pixel tracking image into the email after it is sent. You'll receive a real-time notification on your desktop when a contact opens the tracked email. Users with assigned Sales Hub paid seats can also track when a recipient clicks a link in the email. Free users cannot track clicks. HubSpot records tracked email opens and clicks in the activity feed and on the record's timeline. Selecting the Track checkbox will not log a copy of the email to the record in HubSpot. 

  • Log: use the log feature to log a copy of an email to a record in HubSpot. Any attachments included in the email will also log to the contact's record. Log your emails to keep a record of past communication. Logged emails do not give you insight into open or click information.

You can send an email that is both tracked and logged. That way, you'll receive open notifications as well as having a record of the email communication in HubSpot. You can also set logging and tracking defaults for your extension.

Tracking emails

To send a tracked email from Gmail:

  • Log in to your Gmail account.
  • Compose a new email. Enter the email recipient, the subject line, and the email body.
  • Select the Track checkbox.
  • Click Send.
 

View the tracked email's status

Before your contact opens the email, the email subject line and recipient will show in your activity feed in HubSpot as Sent.

Once the recipient opens the email, you'll receive a real-time, pop-up notification on your desktop. When you navigate back to your activity feed or Chrome extension feed, you'll see the email information marked as Open. Click the dropdown menu below the contact's name to see when the recipient opened your email. You will also see a history of the contact's activities listed.

You can also see how your contacts are engaging with your tracked emails from the Chrome extension. To access your activity feed from the Chrome extension, click the HubSpot sprocket icon sprocket in the upper right of your Chrome browser.

Learn more about how email tracking and sales notifications work, and how to disable tracking.

Tracking with GDPR settings enabled

If you've enabled GDPR functionality in your account, HubSpot can only track a contact's email opens when the contact has an assigned legal basis for data processing. When composing an email in Gmail, the Track checkbox will be greyed out to indicate a contact's tracking ineligibility.

Email opens will not be tracked for contacts without a legal basis for processing data or email recipients who are not yet contacts. When emailing multiple recipients, email opens will be tracked anonymously.

You can change a contact's tracking eligibility by updating their Legal basis for processing contact's data property.

Logging emails

To log an email and add a new contact to your HubSpot CRM account, the email address you send emails from must be one of the following:

You can specify email addresses and domains that you never want to log emails for in your HubSpot account settings. Or you can add these email addresses and domains in your Chrome extension settings.

Please note: emails larger than 50 MB will not log to your HubSpot account. Attachments count towards this limit. Your email will still be delivered successfully to the contact, but you will not see the email logged to their record.

To send a logged email from Gmail:

  • Log in to your Gmail account.
  • Compose a new email. Enter the email recipient, the subject line, and the email body. If the recipient's email address is already associated with a contact record in your CRM, the HubSpot sprocket icon will appear in line next to their email address in the To field. 
  • Select the Log checkbox.
  • By default, the Chrome extension will automatically select the contact's first three associated deal records to log emails to. If you include any recipients in the CC field, the records' associated objects will also be automatically selected. To explicitly select which records the email will log to:
    • Click the dropdown menu next to the Log checkbox.
    • Select and clear the checkboxes next to the records you want to log the email to.
    • If you're sending the email to a recipient who isn't contact in your CRM, a new contact record will be created. You'll see the contact's email listed when editing the associations. Clear the checkbox if you don't want the email to log to the new contact record. Learn how to log emails to existing contact records only.

  • Click Send.

You can customize which associated records your emails are automatically logged to in your Chrome extension settings. If you're using marketing contacts, a new contact created by a logged email will be set as non-marketing.

Please note: if a new contact is created through a logged email, the HubSpot user who sent the email will be automatically assigned as the contact owner, as long as no previous owner has been assigned. 

View the logged email in HubSpot

Email that are logged to HubSpot using the extension will automatically be associated to the records that you specified before sending the email. To see the logged email in HubSpot:

  • In your HubSpot account, navigate to your contacts, companies or deals.
  • Click the name of the record.
  • On the timeline, locate the logged email. From the email, you can do the following:
    1. Associated records: click to edit associated records.
    2. Pin: click to pin the email to the top if the contact timeline.
    3. Delete: click to delete the email activity from the timeline.
    4. Details: click to see specific information about the email send.
    5. Expand: click to see the full body of the email. If there's an ongoing email conversation, click View thread to see all of the emails in the thread.
    6. Attachments: click to open attachments associated with this specific email send.
    7. Reply: click Reply to send an email reply to the contact from HubSpot.

Please note: to send email replies from HubSpot and log incoming replies to HubSpot, you must have a connected inbox.
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