DOI-Email based on Form Entries (GDPR)

Marketing & Content Hub Email Marketing Tool
1

We require customers who fill out one of our forms to manually confirm via checkbox that they want to receive further information (and therefore become a marketing contact).

We were very surprised to see that the built-in DOI solution always sends a confirmation email as soon as a form is submitted.

For us and our stakeholders, this is not the appropriate behavior. Since we can only exclude certain forms or pages - but cannot distinguish between users who checked the marketing consent box and those who did not - we were forced to create a rather complex workaround using workflows.

Are we missing something? I can hardly believe that HubSpot is this inflexible.

2

Hey @NReddig,
Thanks for posting in the Community!
I’d like to tag in some Community experts to see if they have any context for us! @RomyFuchs1, @Crystal_Hopper, and @jonchim - any thoughts on this setup?
Shane, Senior Community Moderator

3

Hi @NReddig

Short answer: you’re not missing a setting. HubSpot’s built-in Email > Double opt-in is form/page-based, not submission-value-based. If DOI is enabled for a form or page, HubSpot automatically sends the confirmation email when that form submission creates the contact; it does not natively branch based on whether a specific consent checkbox was checked.

A few important distinctions:

  • The form consent checkbox and Double Opt-in are separate mechanisms.
    The checkbox can subscribe a contact to a subscription type when selected.
  • Double opt-in is an additional email confirmation step for marketing email eligibility, and when enabled, contacts created via HubSpot forms, non-HubSpot forms, lead ad forms, or the Forms API automatically receive that confirmation email.
  • In the advanced DOI settings, HubSpot lets you include or exclude specific forms or pages — not conditional logic based on a checkbox value inside the submission.

So your conclusion is basically correct: if you need “send DOI only when consent checkbox = true,” the native DOI feature does not currently handle that directly.

What HubSpot does support natively:

  • Enable DOI for all forms/pages.
  • Enable DOI for only some forms/pages.
  • Exclude some forms/pages from DOI.
  • Add consent checkboxes for one or more subscription types on the form.

What it does not appear to support natively:

  • “On this same form, only send DOI if checkbox X was checked.”

That means your workflow-based workaround is, unfortunately, the expected approach for this use case.

Practical recommendation

  1. Use the form’s consent checkbox to capture explicit permission.
  2. Keep the built-in DOI only on forms where every submitter should get it, or turn it off for mixed-intent forms.
  3. For mixed-intent forms, use workflows to:
    • check the consent field,
    • set subscription / lawful basis as needed,
    • and trigger your desired follow-up process only for opted-in contacts.
      HubSpot docs confirm lawful basis and subscription-related properties can be updated in workflows.

One nuance: with privacy settings enabled, contacts without communication consent are not considered confirmed for marketing email purposes, but that still does not give you a native “only send DOI if checkbox selected” rule.

Regards