Tracking subscriptions/segmenting with topic-specific form submissions

[NNick8]

Among other things we run business surveys. We'd like an intake form for "Sign up to receive survey invitations." When someone fills this out, if we don't do anything special they will become a marketing contact with a "not specified" status to all our subscriptions, so will receive all our emails by default. (We do not have GDPR settings turned on so each subscription type can be opted-in, opted-out, or not specified.)

We could set the form to subscribe them to a "survey invitations" subscription type, but they'd still get all other emails too, unless we set the form to unsubscribe them from all our other subscriptions, which doesn't seem ideal as they haven't actually opted out.

So my question is, how do other people handle this kind of signup form that's for a specific content topic?

[JessicaBaskey · Accepted solution]

Hi @NNick8,

HubSpot doesn’t automatically limit emails to just the subscription a contact opted into unless you build your email sends around subscription types.

Have you tried setting your form to opt them into the “Survey Invitations” subscription, and then simply using that subscription type as a filter (in lists or exclusion lists) when sending related emails? You don’t need to unsubscribe them from others—they’ll only get emails tied to the types they’re explicitly included in if you use subscription filters in your sends.

Best,

Jess

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @NNick8,

Happy to help here!

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@NNick8 wrote:

When someone fills this out, if we don't do anything special they will become a marketing contact with a "not specified" status to all our subscriptions, so will receive all our emails by default. (We do not have GDPR settings turned on so each subscription type can be opted-in, opted-out, or not specified.)

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I think the issue is right here – why will these contacts receive all of your emails by default? They shouldn't be. How are you currently building lists for your emails or setting up enrollment for email workflows?

It sounds like you may be filtering / including them based on any form submission. The way this should be approached is always by filtering for subscription opt-status, regardless of whether you have the GDPR settings enabled (legal basis required) or not.

Yes, HubSpot would not prevent you from emailing these contacts if they were accidentally included in a recipient list – but you have full control over who's receiving emails by defining list and workflow criteria. Not managing enrollment / email list filters that way means that any contact in your CRM, regardless of how they're added (integration, business card scanner, manually, import) could end up receiving emails which is very likely not compliant with legislation.

One tool in your tool-kit could also be mandatory exclusion lists that exclude contacts who do not have an opt-in or meet certain criteria to receive marketing emails of a specific subscription type. If you do pursue this route, however, you're very close to the actual GDPR features and it might make sense to simply turn them on.

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@NNick8 wrote:

We could set the form to subscribe them to a "survey invitations" subscription type, but they'd still get all other emails too, unless we set the form to unsubscribe them from all our other subscriptions, which doesn't seem ideal as they haven't actually opted out.

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I would always advise against unsubscribing contacts to exclude them from certain communication as it's not reflecting the actual choice of the contact. They didn't unsubscribe, they simply didn't subscribe – meaning that the neutral/gray value would be the valid or correct one. If you unsubscribe these contacts, you cannot differentiate them anymore from contacts who actually unsubscribed.

Best regards

[NNick8]

Thanks Karsten--this gets me to the answer, which is "we should use subscription preferences for list-building." Helpful to know this. 

[JessicaBaskey · Accepted solution]

Hi @NNick8,

HubSpot doesn’t automatically limit emails to just the subscription a contact opted into unless you build your email sends around subscription types.

Have you tried setting your form to opt them into the “Survey Invitations” subscription, and then simply using that subscription type as a filter (in lists or exclusion lists) when sending related emails? You don’t need to unsubscribe them from others—they’ll only get emails tied to the types they’re explicitly included in if you use subscription filters in your sends.

Best,

Jess