Syncing Unsubscribe Preferences with Our System

[MickaelV]

Hello all,

I've been trying to find a solution to this issue for months, but so far, I did not succeed

Most of our contacts in HubSpot come from member accounts in our website system, where they have opt-in checkboxes in their dashboard to subscribe to newsletters. However, when we send marketing emails to these opted-in contacts, the emails contain a link to the HubSpot preference center.

This creates a major issue: if a member updates their preferences in HubSpot (e.g., unsubscribes from a newsletter or, worse, from all emails), our system is not informed. As a result, their dashboard still incorrectly displays that they are subscribed, creating an inconsistency between the two systems.

We have three key questions:

1. Is there a simple way to trigger a webhook each time a contact updates their preferences in HubSpot, so that we can synchronize the changes with our system and update their dashboard accordingly?

2. How does the "Unsubscribe from all emails" option work? If a contact clicks this option, will they be permanently unsubscribed, even if they later re-opt-in via their dashboard on our website?

3. I read that subscribing via API "will not allow you to resubscribe contacts who have opted out."  (https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/guides/api/marketing/subscriptions-preferences) -> Does this mean that if we sync an unsubscription from our website system to HubSpot via API, we won’t be able to resubscribe that contact later? What is the recommended approach for managing an external preference center (on our website) while ensuring proper synchronization with HubSpot?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards

[Anton · Accepted solution]

Hey @MickaelV, 

subscriptions are a highly sensitive topic and I fully understand that you're looking for a seamless UX. 

I've worked with quite a few companies over the last years. From solopreneurs/small businesses to huge multi-business unit enterprise accounts. 

I'll just say that there are quite creative solutions that I've seen from other devs but one thing I always advise to my clients is: Keep this feature as default as possible.

Simply because - if you create something creative and it stops working or won't work for a user(for what ever reason), it can lead to legal actions against your company(you never know what the user is up to). To prevent this - don't try to "outsmart" common laws/guides. 

If you have Marketing Pro/Enterprise, you can easily create the subscription pages in your corporate design. 

The next thing to keep in mind is, that the HS preference page is excluded from any kind of personalization and is generated for every user individually once the user clicks on the "preferences"-link in an email. This is done for security reasons. Even the email adress is being "obfuscated" on those pages. So you technically can't even access it.

My recommendation for your case would be:

1. Create custom templates for pref-center, unsubscribe and "resubscribe" templates
2. Add a "set my preferences" link/button in your external tool/page instead of the current checkboxes. I recommend to use an embedded CTA for easier use. 
3. Create an email with some content like "Hey - thanks for updating your preferences, click this link to set them" and a link to the pref-center(you can find the link to it in the can-spam/footer module)
4. Create a simple workflow that will trigger this email when somebody clicks on the CTA

As for "How others handle such cases": There are many ways but most likely you're recieving an email with a link which leads you to a seamlessly integrated other systems without you noticing it. 
Amazon is a very specific company that "rules" the internet - they can do almost everything what they want if it's their software. If you're "just a user", you're bound to their rules. Simle example: You can't change the blue color of Amazon, or the product listing view just because you'd like something different, right? 😀

Another example - A few years ago, I've worked with such a "tech-giant".

This company told me "we don't care about feature xyz. We can do what ever we're up to..." Once I told this company that the only way that I would need them to sign me a document which states that I will be happy to implement those tactics under the condition that they will be responsible for every potential legal action, they "rowed back" and listened to what I advised them to do. 

Just saying that you shouldn't do things that might violate

• common internet laws(GDPR/German DSGVO/Privacy shield...)
• HubSpot Terms and Conditions(you really don't want to do this) 

So again - I'd suggest to think about creating custom templates and go the "click a button and recieve an email" route.

If you need help with creating those templates, I'll be happy to help

best, 

Anton

[MickaelV]

Hello Anton,

Thank you for your detailed answer and for sharing your experience! I fully understand the importance of staying compliant with legal requirements and HubSpot’s best practices.

Your proposed solution makes sense in many cases, but I see a few challenges specific to our setup, and I’d love your insights on them:

1. User experience friction – If I understand correctly, the flow would be:

• The user clicks a “Manage my preferences” button on our site.
• They receive an email with a link to the HubSpot preference center.
• They update their preferences there.
  This seems quite different from the seamless experience users expect today (e.g., Amazon or Net-flix, where preferences can be toggled in one click). Have you seen alternative approaches to reduce this friction?

2. Our event subscription model – We manage multiple opt-ins:

• One for our shop, one for our newsletter, and one for events.
• The event opt-in is linked to a multi-value property where users select specific cities (e.g., Chicago, Seattle, Sydney). If at least one city is selected, the event opt-in is checked.
• The list of cities evolves over time, so creating separate opt-ins for each event would not be practical.
  Since HubSpot’s preference center does not support this kind of logic, how would you recommend handling it within HubSpot’s constraints?

3. CTA and member identification – If we add a CTA in our external dashboard, how would HubSpot know which user is clicking?

• If users need to manually enter their email every time, it adds another layer of friction.
• Ideally, we’d like a way to let them manage preferences directly in their dashboard without requiring extra steps.
  Do you know of any workaround to allow a smoother identification process?

Thanks again for your help! Looking forward to your insights.

Best regards,

[kennedyp]

Hi @MickaelV! Welcome to the Community-- happy to have you here 😊

I understand you are looking for best practices to manage contact email subscriptions across multiple platforms. To address #2 & #3, this is a standard opt-in rule. If a contact voluntarily chooses to opt-out, they can only be opted back in by filling out another form or changing their subscription preferences themselves. Once they have chosen to 'unsubscribe from all emails' they will need to resubscribe to receive content from you.

As for any advice on a webhook to sync these preferences, I want to invite some subject matter experts to see if they have any suggestions.

Hey @Anton, @Jnix284, @zach_threadint do you have any thoughts on this?

[MickaelV]

Hello,

Thank you for your response @kennedyp !

I understand the opt-out rule and the need for users to take action to re-subscribe. However, in our case, we are dealing with known members who have a dashboard on our website with checkboxes to opt in and out of newsletters. Asking them to fill out an external form with their email just to re-subscribe would create a very poor user experience—wouldn't you agree? (To clarify, I’m not talking about users who delete their accounts; in that case, it makes sense for them to go through a full re-subscription process.)

If this is the only way HubSpot works, how do other major companies handle this to ensure a seamless opt-in/out experience? For example, on Amazon, if you opt out of promotional emails, you can later re-subscribe simply by toggling a setting—without having to fill out a form.

Is there any recommended workaround to achieve a similar smooth experience within HubSpot?

Looking forward to your insights!

Best regards,