GDPR

PieterVHeerden
Member

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Hi guys,

 

We have a .NET signup form which creates the user in hubspot as a contact, but we cannot find any api or mechanism that allows us to honor the contacts marketing prefereces when they register.

 

We want to show a checkbox that says "do you want to receive marketing emails....", but in hubspot, how do we set this via an API so that we can honor this field?

PieterVHeerden_0-1625833262850.png

 

We are not allowed to email them unless they opted in, but so far the only place to opt in or out of emails, is from the email you get from hubspot to manage your preferences....Am i missing somethgin here?

 

Thanks

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1 Accepted solution
karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Hi @PieterVHeerden,

 

Correct, either via an old email or the resubscription form option mentioned in the earlier article.

 

And yes, the overall opt-out by a contact (unsubscribed from all emails) will override any other settings.

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

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PieterVHeerden
Member

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Morning Karsten,

 

I familiraised myself with the subsrption endpiint api before i logged this ticket, so thanks for pointing me back there as well.

 

Just to some up my undersdanfing if I may:

  • If we enable GDPR (its off at the moment) setting, we would need to manage subscrption level opt in / opt out rather than one big opt out or in for everything? is this correct? 
  • PieterVHeerden_0-1626067452707.png

     

  • I did notice that with the above image set to true, manig i opted out of all, i am unable to use the API for subsrptions to opt myself back in. I asume i first need to go back to an old email, opt in to everything, then I can only opt in indivisually to seperate subsriptions. 
  • One thing, I dont know you if you knew, because i opted out ONCE of everyhting before, and even though i opted back into everything, the subsrcption API will throw an error that said, you have opted out before...almost like it sees i have opted out in history or something, and the API then is unable to opt me into a single subsption. I hope this makes sense?
  • So we are basically due to the above point, not able to use the subscription api to do the following:
    1. get a list of our active subscriptions
    2. show them to the end user on our custom page
    3. when they check what they want or dont want and save, the api will not perform any update back due to me unsubscribing from everything a year ago
  • in short, if you opted out of everything once in your life, the subscritpion api wont work....unless it because GDPR setting is disabled?

 

Thanks

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karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Hi @PieterVHeerden,

 

Correct, it's not possible to opt a contact back in who made the choice to unsubscribe from all email, see here: "after a contact unsubscribes from marketing emails, you cannot resubscribe them on their behalf. A contact must take action themselves in order to receive marketing emails sent from your HubSpot account again".

 

The GDPR settings don't affect this.

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

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PieterVHeerden
Member

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Thanks Karsten for confirming this.  So unless a user still has an old email somehwere in an inbox with a link to maage his preferences, he might never be able to opt in again in the event that he cannot find the email?

 

I have read some solutions where people use a custom column to manage opt in / out that can be updated by the contact api from a front end for example. this then becomes an exclusion list for example, but if i opt in using the custom field, but my overall "I do not want to recieve emails" is still true, will hubspot send them emails or not?

 

Thanks

0 Upvotes
karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Hi @PieterVHeerden,

 

Correct, either via an old email or the resubscription form option mentioned in the earlier article.

 

And yes, the overall opt-out by a contact (unsubscribed from all emails) will override any other settings.

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Creating a contact via the CRM API, how can we set the "I dont want to receive emails" flag

SOLVE

Hi @PieterVHeerden,

 

There is a general setting in HubSpot that accomplishes this, the so-called GDPR functionality.

 

After enabling this, you can choose to make the Legal basis required. What is meant here is that HubSpot will require each contact to have an opt-in for a subscription type for a marketing email send. HubSpot will exclude any contact without an opt-in, based on which subscription type was chosen for an email. (Keep in mind that this will also roll out to any other contact who doesn't have an opt-in for a subscription type.) If you're new to subscription types, this article on subscription types is a great resource.

 

With this approach, the contacts that you're generating would be excluded from any send – unless you update their subscription status at some stage.

 

If you do not want to use this setting, you could of course opt these contacts out entirely, although that would not be 100% correct. They didn't opt out. They just didn't opt in. To be precise, they're not opted. If you want to manage this via API, you'd work with the Marketing API Subscription preferences endpoints.

 

Another common approach is to create an active exclusion list. This list would filter out all contacts from a specific source. You'd always exclude this in the Send or schedule tab of your marketing emails. This is easy but not fool-proof. Someone might simply forget to use this suppression list.

 

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions! Consent, subscriptions, GDPR can be confusing.

 

(I have to point out that this reply does not constitute legal advice. When in doubt, always consult a legal professional.)

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

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