SendGrid & HubSpot Integration for Email Tracking

Overview

When running outbound email campaigns, maintaining a single source of truth for prospect history is critical — especially when multiple tools are involved. The pattern established for ^[1]'s outreach stack uses SendGrid as the email delivery platform, integrated with HubSpot as the CRM of record, with a Google Sheet as a redundant backup log.

This setup avoids the high cost of HubSpot's native email sequences while preserving full visibility into prospect engagement history.

Architecture

Email Delivery: SendGrid

SendGrid handles all outbound email sending for the drip campaign sequence.
A seat is provisioned per sender (in Aviary's case, Aaron Grossman obtained a seat through Justin).
SendGrid is not connected directly to Outlook; HubSpot serves as the integration layer instead.

CRM Integration: HubSpot

SendGrid is connected to HubSpot so that all sent emails and engagement events (opens, clicks) are logged against the corresponding contact record.
This keeps HubSpot as the single source of truth for prospect history, regardless of which tool initiated the send.
Aaron's Outlook is already connected to HubSpot, so inbound replies are captured automatically.

Backup Logging: Google Sheet

Every outbound email sent via SendGrid also appends a row to a shared Google Sheet.
This provides a lightweight, human-readable audit trail that doesn't require navigating HubSpot's UI.
Rationale: HubSpot's interface can make it difficult to quickly review send history; the Sheet serves as a fast reference.

Why Not HubSpot Sequences?

HubSpot's built-in sequence and automation features require paid tier upgrades that add significant per-feature cost. The SendGrid + N8N approach achieves the same outcome — automated multi-touch outreach with CRM logging — using tools Aviary already licenses.

"Everything you want to do [in HubSpot], you've got to pay more... so once we get this figured out, we can figure out a way to do it without buying anything from HubSpot." — Mark Hope

See ^[2] for the broader sequencing strategy this integration supports.

Setup Checklist

[ ] Aaron obtains SendGrid seat from Justin
[ ] SendGrid account connected to HubSpot (contact-level logging enabled)
[ ] N8N workflow configured to trigger sends and write to Google Sheet on each send event
[ ] Sebastian briefs designers on HTML email template requirements
[ ] Drip campaign content loaded into SendGrid (content already drafted by Sebastian)

^[3]
^[4]
^[2]
^[5]