HubSpot Email Marketing Certification
Email is the channel marketers own outright, and also the one where a careless list or a spam complaint can quietly ruin results for months. HubSpot's Email Marketing certification covers both sides: strategy, segmentation, copy and design, and the less glamorous work of permissions and deliverability.
It is the only certificate in our HubSpot set that adds a graded practical exercise to the exam.
Certificate facts
- Level
- Foundational
- Field
- Marketing platforms
- Access
- Free
- Assessment
- Online exam, not proctored
- Languages
- EnglishThe course page lists no other language editions.
- Price
- Free (read 26 September 2026)
- Validity
- 2 years, renewable
- Exam delivery
- Online on HubSpot Academy, unproctored; some certifications add a graded practical exercise
Prerequisites: None, but the practical exercise has to be completed by you personally and submitted for grading.
Renewal: Two years, as a certification not tied to HubSpot's software. Renew by passing the exam again; HubSpot notes that any required practical exercise not yet completed must also be done.
Source: certificate page at HubSpot · Price: Free on HubSpot Academy, including the exam and the graded practical exercise (read 2026-09-26)
How to prepare
1. The programme
The certificate is earned inside this programme. Its facts, price and the provider's own page are on the course page; the link there carries no commission.
Affiliate disclosure: the course link above is an affiliate link — buying through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. The vendor's learning path and booking links carry no commission.
The exercise changes what the certificate means
Every other HubSpot marketing certificate on this site is earned by passing an unproctored multiple-choice exam. This one also requires a practical exercise that you submit for grading, and HubSpot is explicit that each person must hand in their own work even when colleagues share an account. Some exercises are marked automatically; others go to a human grader and take five to seven business days. You must finish the exercise before your exam result lapses, which in practice means within the certificate's validity window.
That is still a long way from a proctored exam, but it moves the certificate from recall toward demonstration. An employer who knows the certificate has a practical element can reasonably read it as evidence that you have built something, not only that you recognised the right answer.
Twelve lessons, in the order a campaign happens
- 31 videos, 9 quizzes and one practical exercise, just under four hours of material.
- English only, as far as the course page shows.
- Free, with a free Academy account.
- Valid two years; a fresh exam pass renews it.
| Stage | What the lessons cover |
|---|---|
| Plan | Strategy fundamentals, segmentation and contact management |
| Stay deliverable | Permissions and deliverability |
| Build | Personalisation and automation, design, copy, calls to action |
| Improve | Analysing results and testing |
| Apply | Getting started with HubSpot's free email tool |
Where it is strong and where it is thin
The deliverability lesson justifies the course on its own. Permission, list hygiene and sender reputation decide whether any of the rest matters, and many marketers learn them only after a campaign lands in spam folders. The segmentation and testing lessons are also solid, and they connect naturally to marketing automation, which is where email earns most of its return.
It is thinner on law. Consent rules differ by country and change, and a course built for a global audience can only point in their direction. Anyone sending to European recipients needs to learn the local rules separately. The penultimate lesson is also, candidly, a walkthrough of HubSpot's own free email tool. It is useful if you use that tool and skippable if you do not.
Planning around the exercise
Because a human may grade the exercise, leave time between finishing it and needing the certificate. Five to seven business days is HubSpot's stated range for manual grading, and a resubmission would add to that. Do the exercise early in the course rather than at the end: it forces you to apply segmentation, copy and testing to something concrete, which makes the later lessons easier to follow and the exam easier to pass.
Renewal after two years is an exam retake. HubSpot notes that any practical exercise you have not yet completed must also be done, so check your status in the Academy dashboard before assuming you are current. The deliverability knowledge, unlike the badge, does not expire, and most senders wish they had met that lesson sooner.
What a question looks like
Written by us in the exam's style. It is not a real question from any question bank, and we do not publish those.
A shop's newsletter open rates have fallen steadily for six months, and a growing share of messages arrive in spam folders. The list includes contacts added years ago from trade-show badge scans. What should the team do before redesigning the email?
A redesign, a new subject line strategy and a send-time change all sound productive. The question points at list quality and consent: unengaged and unconsenting contacts damage sender reputation, so cleaning and re-permissioning the list comes first.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Certification | 0 USD | free on HubSpot Academy (read 26 September 2026) |
| Practical exercise | 0 USD | free to submit; manual grading can take five to seven business days (read 26 September 2026) |
| Renewal | 0 USD | retake the exam every two years (read 26 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- You already send campaigns from an email tool
- Quick on the exam. Allow time for the exercise and for the deliverability lesson, which most senders have never studied formally.
- You have never sent a marketing email
- Follow the lessons in order and build the exercise inside HubSpot itself; doing it is the point.
What passing this does not prove
- Compliance with the consent and privacy law of any specific country.
- Coding or debugging email templates across mail clients.
- Running high-volume sending infrastructure.
- Copy quality beyond the principles taught.
Against the alternatives
- HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification
- Inbound places email inside the whole method; this certificate teaches the channel properly. Take Inbound for the frame, Email for the skill.
- Google Ads Measurement Certification
- Google's Measurement certificate covers proving the effect of paid media. Email has its own, simpler measurement, and this course teaches it. The two rarely compete for the same reader.
HubSpot Email Marketing Certification — quick answers
Is there a practical part as well as the exam?
Yes. The certification includes one graded exercise, and HubSpot awards the certificate only when required exercises are done.
How long does grading take?
Some exercises are graded automatically. Those marked by hand take five to seven business days, according to HubSpot.
Is the Email Marketing certification free?
Yes, course, exam and exercise are free on HubSpot Academy.
Do I need to use HubSpot to pass?
The course has one lesson on HubSpot's free email tool, and HubSpot's FAQ describes practical exercises as work done inside a HubSpot account. The strategy lessons apply to any email platform.
Where this certificate sits in the field
What comes next
Concepts this certificate draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for HubSpot Email Marketing Certification.
- Marketing Automation
Segmentation, personalisation and automated sends are core lessons.
- Digital Marketing
Email is the owned channel the certificate covers.
Last reviewed 26 September 2026 · Getting Digital