topic Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations in Lead Capture Tools

Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

SGIDP — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:48:35 GMT

I'm confused about how the consent to communicate checkboxes align with the "Review and Publish" box when I update my form.

I have a standard "Contact us" form which asks for fairly standard contact details and a text box to leave a message. This is primarily for enquiries, but I have a checkbox option for the user to select if they want to recieve marketing communications from us as well. This is optional. I also have a required consent checkbox for Sales and information storage. This is to meet Privacy requirements

To enable this I have the following in the Data Privacy and Consent

Communications consent text > Consent to communicate checkbox set to Subscription Type Marketing Email | Marketing Information with checkbox label and set to not required.
Communications consent text > Consent to communicate set to Subscription Type Sales Email |One to One with checkbox label and set to required.

I then have Privacy text.

The user then has to click the Submit button to Submit the form.

Then I hit the Update button and the Review and publish sidebar pops up. This says:

Automation

Create new contacts for new email addresses

Set contacts as marketing contacts

Off

Where I am confused is the "Set contacts as marketing contacts is off" designation in this popup.

If I turn this designation on in Options, it say that "Any contacts created through this form will be set as marketing contacts. They will be eligible for marketing actions and will be added to your marketing contacts tier." which I don't want. I only want those who have opted in by clicking the checkbox to be set as Marketing subscribers.

How does Set contacts as marketing contacts "Set contacts created as marketing contacts switch" work with a form with an optional Communications consent checkboxes? If the toggle is on, I assume ALL submissions will be marked as Marketing opted in.
If it's off, does the selection of the check box override this?

And how does this map to the Contact - View All - Column: Marketing Contact Status?

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

karstenkoehler — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:47:32 GMT

Hi @SGIDP,

The "Set contacts as marketing contacts" feature does not refer to consent but HubSpot's billing on these contacts: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/marketing-contacts

Marketing contact status does not say anything about consent, it is just named in a very unfortunate way. Marketing contact status is a credit-based system. You have a certain limit for marketing contacts that you're billed for. For contacts to receive marketing emails, they have to be a (billable) marketing contact.

A contact can be a marketing contact and not have provided consent. It can also be vice versa, the contact can provide consent but not be a marketing contact. In that case, HubSpot would hold back emails you're trying to send to this contact because you're not "paying" for this contact.

Best regards

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

SGIDP — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:02:20 GMT

Ahhh I see! Thank you - it is a bit confusing but I'm happy your answer clears things up!

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

Wesimplifi_ — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:52:16 GMT

When someone fills out your form:

If they check the marketing communications box, HubSpot logs that consent under their subscription preferences this is visible on the contact record under “View subscriptions.”
However, this doesn't automatically make them a marketing contact.
That part is controlled by the “Set contacts as marketing contacts” toggle in the form settings.

So when that toggle is OFF (as in your case), no one will be added as a marketing contact even if they opted in via the checkbox. HubSpot separates the two things intentionally to give you more control (and help you manage your contact tier/billing more efficiently).

If you want only those who tick the marketing checkbox to be set as marketing contacts (and not everyone who submits the form), here’s what I recommend:

Create a custom contact property, like “Wants Marketing Emails” just a simple checkbox.
Add this field to your form as the opt-in box.
Then, build a simple workflow:
- Trigger: When “Wants Marketing Emails” is checked.
- Action: Set the contact as a marketing contact.

That way, you stay GDPR-compliant , you only pay for actual marketing contacts , and it gives you full control over who gets added where.

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

karstenkoehler — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:55:39 GMT

@Wesimplifi_ if you set marketing contact status with a workflow after the submission, any immediately sent follow-up emails will fail. All workflows sending emails immediately would have to be updated to include the marketing contact status update – it's important to mention that.

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

Wesimplifi_ — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 11:06:33 GMT

@karstenkoehler

That’s a really helpful point and definitely worth calling out! 🙌

In this particular case, the user hasn’t mentioned using immediate follow-up emails after form submission so it looks like they’re mainly focused on handling consent properly and managing marketing contact status based on opt-in.

But you’re absolutely right for anyone using instant follow-up emails, it’s super important to ensure the contact is marked as a marketing contact before those emails are triggered. Otherwise, they’ll fail to send.

Appreciate you highlighting this it’s a great heads-up for anyone applying this setup more broadly.

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

SGIDP — Thu, 01 May 2025 01:02:37 GMT

Thank you for your additions to this thread and your example. Based on the further details from Karsten, I believe that I need to a) implement your example and b) ensure that the contact is added to the Subscription type Marketing Contact.

In my case, I do want to send an instant followup to confirm to the user that they've successfully submitted a form and we'll be in touch, regardless of whether they've opted in to the marketing consent.

I'd set this up using the Transactional subscription, which seemed to work until yesterday, but now it's not. I'll try your method and see if that works.

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

karstenkoehler — Thu, 01 May 2025 05:11:39 GMT

@SGIDP just to keep things separate, there is no such think as marketing contact subscription type. Marketing contact is the billing feature, subscription types are the consent feature.

If you have the transactional email add-on, marketing contact status is not needed for sending emails. Transactional emails do not require marketing contact status: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/how-to-use-transactional-email-in-hubspot

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

SGIDP — Fri, 02 May 2025 05:26:06 GMT

OK, this is all getting very confusing. I need to go away and start it all over from scratch....

Is there a very simple ELI5 guide to setting up a standard contact form that sends a reply to the user when the form has been submitted by them? It can't be this hard (I'm making things complicated by adding in that consent button, so I'll remove it for now. )

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

karstenkoehler — Fri, 02 May 2025 05:38:50 GMT

@SGIDP can you please share a screenshot of your form?

If your follow-up email is transactional, the marketing contact status is not required.

If your follow-up email is an automated marketing email, non-transactional, the marketing contact status is required. Using a workflow to set marketing contact status is typically not an option because the workflow sending the follow-up email is faster than the one setting marketing contact status (unless you combine the two). That means that HubSpot will prevent the send and it will effectively fail.

Consent and marketing contact status are different things.

Consent is a checkbox in the consent notice at the end of your form. If you have the GDPR settings enabled (specifically "Legal basis required") and your follow-up email is not transactional, then the subscription type behind the checkbox has to match the subscription type chosen for your email.

If you do not have GDPR settings enabled, technically it doesn't matter.

Re: Consent to communicate checkboxes and marketing contact designations

SGIDP — Thu, 08 May 2025 01:22:32 GMT

I've managed to get it working and rebuilding it from scratch. Thank you for your help with this all!