Create emails with programmable content

If you have a Marketing Hub Enterprise subscription, you can use structured data sources such as HubDB tables and custom objects. This data can be filtered based on the contact properties of the recipient.

For example, a real estate website could have prospects fill out a form with their home needs. The form submission could then trigger a workflow that sends the prospect an email with homes they may be interested in.

This guide walks through how to create programmable email content using either a HubDB table or a custom object.

Before you begin

Before you start, you'll need to create:

• a HubDB table or a custom object.
• any custom contact properties that you'll use for filtering the HubDB or custom object data.
• a drag and drop email that you'll add the custom module to. 

To create the email module to access your HubDB or custom object data:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Files and Templates > Design Tools.
• In the upper left, click File, then select New file.
• In the dialog box, select Module for the file type, then click Next. Then, select the Emails checkbox and enter a name for the file.
• Click Create. 
• To enable programmable email for the module:
  
  • In the inspector on the right, toggle the Enable module for programmable email beta switch on. 

• You can also enable programmable email for a coded email template by adding isEnabledForEmailV3Rendering: true to the top of the file. 
  

  

With the module created, you'll then add code to access either HubDB or custom object data. 

HubDB

The code below uses the hubdb_table_rows HubL function to retrieve all data from the table. This will list all the real estate properties in the email, outputting the details of each property along with their image.

To filter the data returned for each recipient, you can add a query parameter, which will filter results by the specified contact properties. View the full list of filter options.

Custom object

The code below retrieves data from a custom object, returning values (e.g. location, price) stored in the custom object's properties.

To filter the data returned for each recipient, you can add a query parameter, which will filter the results by the recipient's contact properties. View the full list of filter options.

With the module published, you'll now add it to the body of the drag and drop email.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Email.
• Select the email that you created.
• In the left sidebar, underContent, click More. Find your programmable email module, then drag it into the email body.

If you've set up the module to filter data by specific contact properties, the email preview will appear blank. This is because the email tool hasn't been set to preview the email by a specific contact.

To preview what the email will look like for a specific contact:

• In the upper right, click Actions, then select Preview. 
• On the next screen, click the Preview as a specific contact dropdown menu, then select a contact. 

You should now see only the data relevant to the recipient, filtered by their contact properties.

• Building dynamic pages with HubDB
• How to join multiple HubDB tables
• How to build a dynamic team member page with HubDB
• How to build multilevel dynamic pages using HubDB

• Using HubDB in HubSpot