Questions regarding subscribed / unsubscribed contacts

[arekzakonek]

I’m trying to get my head around contacts being subscribed to marketing content. I understand they need to be “Marketing contacts” which they are, but I still struggle with understanding how a contact can become “subscribed” to email communication.

The field “Unsubscribed from all email” shows -- and I can’t change that.

Also I noticed contacts coming in from a form I’m testing, get the same status as above that I cannot change.

I can’t seem to find the right article for this. Can someone point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @arekzakonek,

that's correct, that information is stored in the property 'Marketing Status'. By including that property in a list, you're not indicating anything to HubSpot (yet). You've just created a list.

What you're probably referring to is that opted-out contacts still count towards the billable contacts: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/contacts/import-an-opt-out-list#will-these-contacts-count-to-your-bill... You would have to build a list of all opted out contacts and change the 'Marketing Status' property of those contacts to 'Non-Marketing Contact', see here.

Hope this helps!

[arekzakonek]

Alright, but as I understand it I need to indicate to HubSpot which is my Marketing contact list. The plan we have have a limit of 10,000 marketing contacts, meaning that if I don't slim down the list by only including Subscribed Marketing Contacts, the list will include more contacts and the usage will go up. But maybe I don't understand that correct? 

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @arekzakonek,

If you have at some point collected opt-in (for example by sending an opt-in email and asking recipients to click a confirmation link), that would be stored in the property 'Marketing email confirmation status'.

If that property has not been used, you'd probably be looking for contacts who have not unsubscribed ('Unsubscribed from all email' is not equal to True). If you're unsure, always discuss this with a legal expert or your data privacy officer.

Best regards!

[arekzakonek]

Perfect! What confused me was that the list does not update immediately. 

I have now set these two filters for a Email Marketing list. I guess that will be fine?

[karstenkoehler]

Lists take a moment populating, correct, @arekzakonek.

I hadn't read between the lines that you're planning to use this as a recipient list. HubSpot automatically suppresses contacts who have unsubscribed or hard bounced – no need to add that.

Whether you can use this list and be compliant with data privacy regulations is not that easy to answer and depends on the countries that you're doing business in, the type of communication you're planning on sending, whether these contacts have given previous explicit consent to receive marketing information etc. Ideally, you should discuss this with a legal expert.

Best regards!

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @arekzakonek,

You can't edit values for the 'Opted out' properties in this particular way, there are however other options:

From their contact record or by import and opt-out list: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/contacts/how-do-i-unsubscribe-or-opt-out-contacts-from-email

As a workflow action, select 'Manage subscription status' (last one in the 'Choose an action' sidebar).

Some options are also available when bulk editing contacts (click 'More' after selecting multiple contacts): https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/how-can-i-bulk-edit-contacts-companies-deals-or-tasks

(And yes, this is confusing.)

Best regards!

[arekzakonek]

Yes it is indeed 😃

OK, I managed to opt contacts in via the bulk edit on the list. 

Next thing - can you advise me how to make a list of only opted in contacts. 

Thanks

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @arekzakonek,

You're not the first one to be confused, understanding subscriptions and consent management in HubSpot takes some time.

What you're seeing should be an empty field, the values that this field can take are 'True' or 'False'. The field would have the value 'True' if a contact unsubscribes through the link at the end of an email or if they were manually opted out by a HubSpot user. (You can find contacts who unsubscribed by filtering your contacts view by 'Unsubscribed from all email' = 'True')

Additionally, a contact can be opted in, not opted (default) or opted out (similiar to the unsubscribe property above) from some subscriptions, see here. If a contact clicks the 'Subscription preferences' link at the end of an email, they could opt out of some, but not all subscriptions.

By default, HubSpot will not automatically assign subscriptions to contacts. Subscriptions can be added to a contact through workflows or manually on the contact record. When doing so, Hubspot will ask you about the legal basis for communicating with the contact. You can also add checkboxes for your subscriptions to your forms.

It's also worth noting that – with the GDPR functionality disabled, which it is by default – you are able to send marketing emails to contacts without explicit opt-in to one of the sbuscription types. (Unless they have opted-out of course, see here.)

Hope this helps!

[arekzakonek]

Thank you Karsten,

But it doesn't seem like I can edit that field. Also when I try to create a Workflow, it gives me the below message: