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Q: [How to] Opt users out of certain email types?
Short A: You can’t. Not using conventional HubSpot wisdom.
Longer A: Think - “there is no spoon”
Whenever faced with the limitations of any SaaS platform we do what works best for us -- i.e., look for workarounds that adhere to best practices. Our workaround goes like this.
First of all, it may be helpful to think of all HubSpot Email Types as marketing emails. (bold statement considering there is a sales module attached) Then minimize the number of HubSpot Email Types.
It seems that HubSpot may have been overzealous when recommending use cases for their original Email Types considering the impracticality of how they’re applied -- i.e., all subscribers are subscribed to all Email Types (by default).
As such, we typically limit HubSpot Email Types to only those absolutely necessary (usually 2) - i.e., Marketing and Blog Subscription. We do this expressely because of the HubSpot default ‘subscribe-to-everything’ subscription model described above.
In our view, subscriber preferences should be as minimal as possible so as to encourage their proper use and discourage subscribers from ticking the ‘Unsubscribe me from all mailing lists.’ checkbox -- effectively opting out of all emails (not good). Hey, but that may be just us. haha
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So how do we handle segmenting our lists for the purposes of controling email sends?
We create or own email groups (something that technically doesn’t exist in HubSpot) -- see dev example from our Coffee Connoisseur LP [please excuse unrelated imagery and lack of styling … no time for css today. haha]
Once we open our minds to the fact that we can build just about any solution using HubSpot, the sky’s the limit.
- Want 40 email groups? No problem.
- Want to use groups yet not have some of them appear on your email groups preferences page? A cinch.
- Want your email groups named so they appear nicely in emails? Easy!
- Want to limit subscribers to a single email group? (use radio buttons)
- Want smart lists that update against email group selection to trigger workflows? A walk in the park!
- Want to protect your Customers from accidentally receiving emails from a certain group? Child’s play! (explicitly exclude them from the smart list managing that email group membership)
See the possibilities?
Potential Issue: This workaround gives us unrestricted control (and therefore responsibility) to manage email sends to our newly created email groups. But wait, aren’t all of those ‘marketing emails’ anyway? Yep. A single unbscribe on the default HubSpot communications preferences page will still disable all sending. (so we’re good)
Potential Benefit: This workaround allows us to periodically send a friendly reminder linking subscribers to a non-threatening, fully brandable, and very easy to understand page from which they can control the groups to which they wish to belong (if any) -- a practical and valuable transfer of granular control to the user and away from the platform.
Just a thought.
