Handling Marketing Contact Status and Opt-Outs when importing contacts
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Hi everyone,
We want to use the CRM API to automatically import contacts from our platform to Hubspot to add them to email lists. Therefore we set every imported contact to 'Marketing Contact Status = True' (only contacts with Marketing consent are imported). Now we're asking ourselves what happens if a user sets an Opt-out from Email communication through the unsubscribe link in one of our emails. Is the property 'Marketing contact status' affected by an Opt-out?
So in other words, we try to figure out what is the leading property for Hubspot when deciding if a user receives emails or not. And next, we are searching for best practice on how to deal with this property when it comes to automated contact imports.
It would be great if anyone had some experience on this.
Marketing Contact Status does not have any impact on a contact's email subscriptions, and vice versa. I confirmed this by filtering for contacts with "Marketing contact status = Marketing Contact" and "Unsubscribed from all email = true".
When a contact opts out, HubSpot stores this information in contact properties (Opted out from *email subscription type*, or Unsubscribed from all email are the specific contact properties) and essentially adds the contact to a sort of suppression list, which prevents you from emailing them.
That said, you may want to create a workflow so that if a contact has "Unsubscribed from all email = true" that you set "Marketing Contact Status = non-marketing".
The property that stores the information about an unsubscribe is "Unsubscribed from all email". It is not related to "Marketing contact status". A contact can be unsubscribed while still being a marketing contact.
Keep in mind that there are more properties which affect email sending, there isn't one leading property. If you've enabled a double opt-in in your portal, for example,, HubSpot will hold back emails for example if the value in "Marketing email confirmation status" is not equal to "User clicked confirmation" or "Customer marked confirmed". This property is again independent from "Marketing contact status".
Also, if you've enabled the GDPR options, including "Legal basis required...", HubSpot will not send email to contacts where there isn't any opt-in for the corresponding subscription type.
You might see that there isn't one leading property (and that this is indeed quite confusing). Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!
Karsten Köhler HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer
The property that stores the information about an unsubscribe is "Unsubscribed from all email". It is not related to "Marketing contact status". A contact can be unsubscribed while still being a marketing contact.
Keep in mind that there are more properties which affect email sending, there isn't one leading property. If you've enabled a double opt-in in your portal, for example,, HubSpot will hold back emails for example if the value in "Marketing email confirmation status" is not equal to "User clicked confirmation" or "Customer marked confirmed". This property is again independent from "Marketing contact status".
Also, if you've enabled the GDPR options, including "Legal basis required...", HubSpot will not send email to contacts where there isn't any opt-in for the corresponding subscription type.
You might see that there isn't one leading property (and that this is indeed quite confusing). Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!
Karsten Köhler HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer
Handling Marketing Contact Status and Opt-Outs when importing contacts
SOLVE
Hi @karstenkoehler, Thank you very much for the explanation. This makes sense for me and even though it is a bit confusing, I now know how to deal with Marketing contact status and the other relevant properties.
Marketing Contact Status does not have any impact on a contact's email subscriptions, and vice versa. I confirmed this by filtering for contacts with "Marketing contact status = Marketing Contact" and "Unsubscribed from all email = true".
When a contact opts out, HubSpot stores this information in contact properties (Opted out from *email subscription type*, or Unsubscribed from all email are the specific contact properties) and essentially adds the contact to a sort of suppression list, which prevents you from emailing them.
That said, you may want to create a workflow so that if a contact has "Unsubscribed from all email = true" that you set "Marketing Contact Status = non-marketing".
Thank you for your reply. This makes sense to me, great explanation. And I'll definitely consider implementing a workflow to set unsubscribed contact to "non-marketing".