How to set Marketing email confirmation status via API?

[onvista]

Hello, we have the following situation:

Our custom web application creates a contact in HubSpot via the Contacts API everytime a new user signs up and after he has confirmed his email address (own Double-Opt-In email, NOT send from HubSpot). Result: New contact who has confirmed his registration via Double-Opt-In.

Expectation:

It should be possible to create a contact via Contacts API with all necessary properties set / confirmed to receive emails from HubSpot.

Current status:

It's not possible to set the property 'Marketing email confirmation status'  (hs_emailconfirmationstatus) property via the Contacts API. All newly created contacts won't receive our onboarding information (or any other email), because HubSpot expects contacts to be confirmed when GDPR is enabled. Each day we have to manually select and update the contacts Marketing email confirmation status. This can't be the solution.

What is the solution for this problem? We think it must be a common use case to create already confirmed contacts in HubSpot.

[jasonashaw · Accepted solution]

Did you ever figure this out? We are facing this now.

Interestingly, they say "HubSpot Rep. marked confirmed: someone at HubSpot has marked the user as confirmed. This is more or less manual via an API call.*"

on this page:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/email/what-is-the-marketing-email-confirmation-status-contact-property

Yet when we try to update it via a API call it returns a read only error.

[SReuß]

Are there any news concerning this issue? I´m pretty sure many companies use register forms in external software/applications and need the confirmation status in HS  as well. the manual effort is not feasible.

[MTSUWD]

Hi,

We have exactly the same problem for our Trial and also urgently need a solution via API to change the confirmation status. Alternatively, the approach via workflow would also be ok, but as already mentioned, the required property "Confirmation Status" must be available for selection.

Is there any news here?

Best Regards

Marc

[liviamoldvai]

We have the exact same problem. 

I was thinking about unable the double opt-in possibility under the settings and making the whole double opt-in process with workflows. Creating a new "confirmed" property where I can set confirmed when a contact clicked on the confirm link in the DOI email. And I would enroll contacts coming from hubspot forms and not enroll contacts coming via APIs.

What do you think can this work this way? 

[thisisjamessmit]

@liviamoldvai Unless I'm mistaken, you'll need the Transactional Email add-on (+ $1000/month) to create such a workflow, otherwise you're limited to marketing emails in workflows, which in turn require the contact to be opted-in to the relevant Subscription Type. Perhaps you could automatically subscribe them as part of the workflow... but then the problem is the emails they'll receive as part of the workflow will have unsubscribe links in them, and once someone has unsubscribed you won't be able to re-subscribe them automatically.

Creating a fully custom workflow just to re-implement double opt-in also seems like a lot of technical debt, too. All future HubSpot admins would need to be fully aware of it and be certain to check against the custom property when creating campaigns etc. It's tempting but I think it's too fragile to go fully custom here.

[liviamoldvai]

Thanks for your reply. You can be right. But I do not really know what to do now. 😞 It is very annoying and we can really manage our users correctly...

[himanshurauthan]

Hello @onvista 

The contact property "hs_emailconfirmationstatus" is a default HubSpot property and is automatically set by HubSpot. And in order to update this property, you must have marketing emails in HubSpot associated with your subscription and must be sent from HubSpot too.

Thanks

[onvista]

Hello @himanshurauthan 

Each new contact created via Contacts API is opted into a subscription. This subscription belongs to the 'Marketing' process.
Is this what you mean by associating a subscription with marketing emails?

Our process is as following:

• The contact confirmed the double opt-in by clicking our own confirmation link in one of our custom (non hubspot) emails.
• But there seems to be no way to create a 'confirmed' contact via the API. 
• HubSpot doesn't send the onboarding emails to a contact, because the 'Marketing email confirmation status' is not set. 
• As soon as we edit a contact and choose 'Update double opt in status > Confirm double opt in status for selected contacts', the contact can receive emails.

Do you have any ideas, how to create a confirmed contact via the API?

[himanshurauthan]

Hello @onvista 

Do you guys have access to automation/contact workflows in your portal? If so, then I think it can be managed via workflows as by updating a contact property on receiving new contact.

Thanks

[onvista]

Hello @himanshurauthan 

Yes we do have access to workflows. We thought about this solution as well.

Unfortunately, the 'Marketing email confirmation status' property can not be changed via workflow as you cannot choose it in the 'Set property value for contact' building block.

Any other idea, how to automatically confirm a contacts double opt in status?

[himanshurauthan]

Sorry @onvista then I think that you need to implement your double-optin emails from HubSpot only which will in return make everything work properly and the property too will get updated.

Please check here on Set up double opt-in for emails

Thanks

[onvista]

@himanshurauthan 

We have enabled the global Double Opt-In / GDPR feature. Everytime a user signs up through a form (e.g. Newsletter) they receive HubSpots DOI mail and be able to confirm their registration. So far so good.

But we have contacts signing up for our custom web application as well. Those contacts are synced and created in HubSpot via the Contacts API. Unfortunately, there is neither a way to create a 'confirmed' contact via the Api (by setting the 'Marketing email confirmation status' property)  nor sending out HubSpots Double Opt-In email automatically using a workflow.

So from our point of view there seems to be no automatic way to create confirmed contacts in HubSpot (using HubSpots built in features)  assuming the GDPR option is enabled.

[thisisjamessmit]

@onvista Did you ever find a solution for this? We have the same problem.

[onvista]

@thisisjamessmit Unfortunately, we haven't found a solution yet. It is not possible to set the email confirmation status via API call.

Have you done any research regarding this topic?

[thisisjamessmit]

I was considering whether to try doing an ajax submission of a hidden native HubSpot form prior to registering my users to trigger the native double opt-in process, but it seems incredibly hacky for something that HubSpot should allow.

I appreciate they're probably trying to protect us from ourselves, but it's frustrating not having full control via the API.