Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot brand fonts in marketing email: pick the fallback first | Shipped Apr 2026
Transcript
- Rob (AI host): You finally get your brand font into a HubSpot email. Rob (AI host): Then half your list opens it in Gmail or Outlook, and sees something else entirely. Dana (AI host): The font ships. The fallback font is what most of your inboxes will actually show. Rob (AI host): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped. Here we go. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Dana (AI host): Hi, I'm Dana. Dana (AI host): Rob and I are AI hosts, so neither of us has ever had strong feelings about a typeface. Dana (AI host): Our designers do. Rob (AI host): I'm Rob, and today I'm the email marketer whose whole list lives in Outlook. Rob (AI host): So, be gentle. Dana (AI host): No promises. Here's what shipped. Dana (AI host): Our research says that on April 14, 2026, custom fonts from your Brand Kit started showing up in the drag and drop marketing email editor, as a public beta, for all hubs and tiers. Rob (AI host): All tiers. Including free? Dana (AI host): Including free. HubSpot's own June product update roundup describes it the same way. Dana (AI host): Custom fonts from your Brand Kit, in the drag and drop editor, without custom coding, with fallback fonts. Dana (AI host): Available for all hubs and tiers. Rob (AI host): So what was the problem before? Dana (AI host): Before, our research says custom fonts lived in the Brand Kit but didn't flow into drag and drop emails. Dana (AI host): Coded templates could use them, with CSS. Rob (AI host): So it was a developer ticket, or Arial. Dana (AI host): Pretty much. Now setup starts in the Brand Kit. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's help page says go to Marketing, then Brand, and open the Brand Kit tab. Rob (AI host): What if we run more than one brand? Dana (AI host): If you have the Brands add-on, pick the brand from the dropdown in the top right first. Dana (AI host): Each brand has its own kit. Rob (AI host): Got it. Then? Dana (AI host): In the Fonts section, click Add a custom font, give it a name, and upload your files. Dana (AI host): Supported formats are TTF, OTF, and WOFF. Rob (AI host): Can I upload bold and italic separately? Dana (AI host): Yes. You can upload more files, and map each one to a font style. Rob (AI host): Okay. Now my real question. Who actually sees it? Dana (AI host): HubSpot says custom email fonts are supported in Apple Mail, and partially in Samsung Mail. Dana (AI host): They're not supported in Gmail, Outlook, or most mobile web clients. Rob (AI host): So my Outlook list sees none of it. Dana (AI host): They see your fallback font. Dana (AI host): Which is why you set one when you add the custom font. Rob (AI host): And HubSpot recommends? Dana (AI host): Honestly, HubSpot's help page says that for a consistent experience, default web fonts are recommended. Dana (AI host): Custom fonts are the option, not the advice. Rob (AI host): That's refreshingly blunt. Dana (AI host): It is. And if you do go custom, they give three fallback tips. Dana (AI host): Pick a fallback with a similar x-height and weight. Preview in a variety of email clients. Dana (AI host): And make sure the important elements still render with the fallback. Rob (AI host): Similar x-height. So the line breaks don't jump around. Dana (AI host): That's our read of why it matters. Your headline won't wrap into three lines in Gmail. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Brand fonts are a small win. Templates your whole team actually uses are the bigger one. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): In our Marketing Hub training, we train inside your portal, with your data, on your campaigns, and we build custom email templates to your brand standards along the way. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Every session is recorded for new hires. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Find Marketing Hub training under services at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Okay, Dana. The font is uploaded and the fallback is set. Where does it show up? Dana (AI host): Two places. In the email editor, click the template design icon in the left sidebar. Dana (AI host): In the Text styles section, pick a font from the Custom fonts section for paragraphs or headings. Rob (AI host): And for one line? Dana (AI host): Highlight text in a rich text module, open the font dropdown, hover over Custom Fonts, and pick a font weight. Rob (AI host): And if I need to swap the font file later? Dana (AI host): In the Brand Kit, under Custom fonts, click Actions next to the font, then Edit or Delete. Rob (AI host): What about Lato and Merriweather? They're in the regular font list. Dana (AI host): Good catch. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's page marks both as only available as a web font in the drag and drop email editor. Dana (AI host): So the same rule applies. Plan the fallback. Rob (AI host): What if I skip the fallback? Dana (AI host): Our October research says HubSpot falls back to Arial by default if none is set. Rob (AI host): And my existing templates? Dana (AI host): Our research says they won't update on their own. Dana (AI host): You open each template, pick the brand font, and save. Rob (AI host): That's a real afternoon of work. Dana (AI host): It is. Dana (AI host): And for agencies, our research suggests making the Brand Kit font check a standard onboarding step for every portal you manage. Dana (AI host): Now, three things we couldn't line up. First, Google Fonts. Dana (AI host): Our April article said Google Font support was coming soon. Dana (AI host): Our October article says Google fonts from the Brand Kit now appear in the email picker. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's fonts help page still describes Google Fonts in email only for coded templates. Rob (AI host): So test it before you build a campaign on it. Second? Dana (AI host): That same help page has a summary table that still says custom fonts in email are for coded templates only, while a section further down walks through the drag and drop steps. Dana (AI host): We're going with the steps. Rob (AI host): And the last one? Dana (AI host): The menu path. Our April article said Content, then Brand. Dana (AI host): Our October article said Settings, then Brand Kit. HubSpot's page today says Marketing, then Brand. Dana (AI host): If your menu looks different, that's probably why. Rob (AI host): Fair. So what do I do on Monday? Dana (AI host): Start with your list. Dana (AI host): Check how many of your recipients open in Apple Mail versus Gmail and Outlook. Dana (AI host): That tells you who actually sees the font. Rob (AI host): Then the fallback. Dana (AI host): Pick one with a similar x-height and weight, set it in the Brand Kit, and preview in more than one client before anything goes out. Rob (AI host): And then the boring afternoon. Dana (AI host): Yes. Open your most used templates, set the brand font in Text styles, and save. Dana (AI host): Do the newsletter first. Rob (AI host): Fine. My Outlook list will at least get a nice fallback. Dana (AI host): That's brand fonts in HubSpot marketing email. Ship the font, but design for the fallback. Rob (AI host): Every source we used is listed on the HubSpot Updates page at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Thanks for listening to Sidekick's What Just Shipped. Rob (AI host): Go set that fallback. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.