Hi @PBraun5,
Let’s go through these one by one.
@PBraun5 wrote:
Can someone please explain to me how subscribing and unsubscribing works with my mailing list.
Before we start, these two articles are very helpful on this subject:
Set up email subscription types
Manage your contacts’ email subscriptions
@PBraun5 wrote:
I am using a hubspot form on my website for people to sign up. The contact is automatically assigned the property “newsletter”. Next I added everyone with the newsletter value to a new list.
I then sent out my newsletter to everyone on the list. I also added everyone Communication subscription type as subscribed.
I feel like I am missing something in this flow but I don’t know what.
When new people fill out my form they will be given the propery “newsletter” but how can I have them automatically added to my mailing list?
Custom properties in your forms aren’t linked to the actual subscription types in the background. (You can create that link in higher HubSpot licenses such as Professional and Enterprise, using workflows, but there’s actually a simpler way.) It’s best to use the GDPR options in your form.
When you’re in the form editor, you can reference these subscription types via the Other form elements > GDPR options in the left sidebar. Admittedly, these are a bit hidden. You can find a short screen recording of this setting here.
Once a contact submits a form and checks this box, they will be opted into the corresponding subscription type. Should they ever click on the “Manage preferences” link at the end of one of your emails, the can opt back out again.
If you now want to get all the contacts who have opted in this way, you’d create an active list:
@PBraun5 wrote:
And how does unsubscibing work? They will stay on my newsletter list but emails wont be sent to them because they are unsubscribed?
Contacts can unsubscribe through the links at the end of your marketing emails, “Unsubscribe” and “Manage preferences”. The first one will set the contact property Unsubscribed from all emails to “True”, the second will update the subscription types (as explained above). A contact might then be opted out of the Marketing Information subscription type. HubSpot will also store this information in a contact property Opted out of email: [Subscription type].
You can build suppression lists based on these properties but HubSpot will automatically exclude these contacts from your future emails – along with hard bounced contacts, contacts who did not confirm their email (only applies when double opt-in is enabled) and contacts without a legal basis (only applies when GDPR options are enabled).
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions! Took me a while to wrap my head around this as well.
(As always when it comes to GDPR options in HubSpot, my post does not constitute legal advice. Make sure to discuss this topic with a data protection officer or legal professional when in doubt.)
Best regards!
