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)

Related

• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[2]
• ^[5]