Be able to amend GDPR Subscription preferences through workflows
The new communications subscription properties are great, however only if using the HubSpot default form properties to gather consent. However, if we use custom properties for example, we have one that asks 'Do you want to optin - Yes or no' radio button, then there seems to be no way of starting a workflow that updates the subscription preferences. Also, third party providers such as Unbounce or Leadpages don't see the subscription preferences, and therefore we have to use custom properties in the forms.
We've released the ability to update opt status per subscription type via workflows; the new action is called 'manage subscription status' and can be founder under the 'Contact Properties' section of the Workflow actions. For GDPR-enabled portals you can opt a contact in or out and set a legal basis for communication. For non-GDPR-enabled portals it simple either opts contacts in or out.
Opted out contacts will not be able to be opted in as only the contact can manage their preferences and the opted out status won't be overidden.
Ahh thanks for clarifying @ElleP, and no problem happy to help!
This does make sense, in the event a contact fills out a form but doesn't check off the box to subscribe we can assume that they'd meet the criteria of 'filled out form and has not opted into <subscription type on the form>'. You could make a smart list based on this criteria which ought to do the trick as a suppression list for your workflows, and you're correct in the event contacts do reconvert and check off the box to subscribe they'll be eligible to get those awesome emails as they'll be moved off the suppression list :).
Let me know if there is anything I can clarify further!
Hi @ElleP that actually should be available at the moment (though let me know if I'm missing the point!), right now you can make lists of contacts based on subscription status (when GDPR is enabled in the portal) as well as enroll them into a workflow based on subscription status. For example, you could enroll contacts based on being opted into a subscription type to trigger a notification to yourself or a user. What we're working on now is the ability to update the subscription status of a contact, for example if a contact has not opted into a subscription type you can enroll them and have them be opted in automatically.
@mariannedawson thanks for commenting! This is still actively being worked on, we had a target for a Q4 release and are still on track. The hope is that this will be released sooner rather than later as we're still refining the last few pieces in getting this out the door.
Re: Be able to amend GDPR Subscription preferences through workflows - changed to: In Planning
Not being able to adjust subscription types through workflow prevents us from using subscription types altogether. This is a big issue for us. I head that this is already being worked on. Please keep a high prio for this. It's really important for us.
Same here. I was trying to set up a workflow with a trigger based on somebody entering a subscription, but unfortunately found out that subscriptions are available in workflows.
Agreed! This is definitely needed. The majority of our leads come from Facebook Lead Ads, and there's no current way to use the lead ad to ask them to opt-in and sync that back to HubSpot. The result is our leads are coming in with 0 subscriptions and the only way to change that is to manually do it for every lead (or mass update). This means we cannot email them until we add the subscription, so we have to constantly be doing this for new leads.
On top of that, the vast majority of our leads aren't even in Europe...so we're doing this all for a small portion of leads coming in. We definitely need a way to update subscriptions via workflow for situations like this, and a way for Lead Ads to sync the opt-in status (which I hear they're also working on but isn't ready yet).
This looks crucial for us to be able to manage subscriptions and legal basis to communicate. Further to this, we need to be able to sync subscriptions with Salesforce - and subscriptions are also not available to map with Salesforce sync.
Struggling with this as well. Our goal was to use communication subscriptions as an email contact list. I'm somewhat at a loss now (beyond GDPR legal) how to create a contact distribution list that coincides with what our contacts what to actually receive from us.
We need Subscription preferences to be a trigger for workflows.
Otherwise people who have NOT opted into our emails can still be enrolled in our workflows, but they just won't be sent the emails.
If they later opted in to our emails, we'd have to re-enroll them into any workflows OR they could be half way through a workflow when they opt in - which ruins the workflow...
*** UPDATE
Email Subscriptions have now been added to Triggers and If/then branches.
Just waiting for it to appear as an action now - else we're not going to be able to send email marketing to people who fill out our third party quizzes!
Just to add to this - you can sync the 'opt out' property for each subscription with Salesforce, however it's a read-only field and so still can't be updated by Salesforce or a Workflow.
We have the same scenario with Collected Forms from our booking site. We have the Opt-In fields on the booking site, but cannot update the customer record to include the Email Type that the customer has selected, that they would like to receive.
Status on this, HubSpot??? Unfortunately, there seems to be a bunch of interest in this, but no comment yet from HS.....
Yes please to this idea. Would be much easier if 'Communication subscriptions' updated a Contact property then we can use it in many different ways inside and outside of HubSpot.
This is required urgently, Hubspot has been rendered pretty useless with these subscriptions. Even those with a legitimate intrest can't be contacted without a subscription. We use hubspot to send important update notifications to all of our software subscribers and eventhough they have legitimate interest we have had to set up a new subscription for "softwareupdates" which of course they are not subscribed and therefore they don't get the updates.
Subscribing automatically by workflow is an urget requirement to keep Hubspot as a viable option.
For your scenario. Couldn't you use the Yes / No options to take the customer to one of 2 landing pages (a YES page and a NO page), with a subsequent form that does have the appropriate GDPR options available?
This is a significant problem. Rather than being able to gauge a leads' interest in a custom form that automatically sets subscription preferences based on responses, the current tools would require us to send a follow-up email taking the new lead to the email preference page. I already know, based on the form completed, that half of my subscription types are irrelevant for the new lead. I don't want them to have to decide that my customer emails are not yet relevant for them. I only want them to have the option to enroll in relevant email types. As it is, I'm replicating the subscription tool by using a custom property that I can update via form and workflow to manage email types.
Is something like this, what you're looking for? Give them a couple of possible lists, that they may be interested in? If so, this is what I created in the Forms tool. Scott
Please please make this possible in workflows!! It is crucial for updating new customers/SQLs with legal basis + communication and even more important that we can REMOVE the legal basis/communication automatically when they stop their subscribtion and are no longer customers.
Right now you guys make it really hard to be GDPR compliant 😞
This is the most critical issue right now for both Marketing, Inbound Sales and Customer Success.
Agree! We're using SumoMe to collect subscribers and either 1) Need the integration to be able to pass GDPR-compliant list opt-in, or 2) Need to be able to update list opt-in through a workflow.
