Unsubscribe through checkbox

[02638]

Hello,

I'm trying to get around some of the limitations of the default subscription preferences ("manage preferences" in the email footers) form. See that discussion here.

One thing I'm trying to take another go at is creating a customized form. One thing I need this form to have, similar to "Manage Preferences" is the ability to have a checkbox for un-subbing from marketing emails. The out-of-the-box "Unsubscribe from all emails" property can not seem to be added to forms as a checkbox, and it doesn't like we can manipulate it using workflows either.

As a workaround, I was hoping to create a checkbox that would instead fill in an "unsubscribed reason" and also set the pertinent enrollee as a non-marketing contact.

However, in running my test, even though the unsubscribed reason populates, the contact remains a "Marketing contact" in the profile view.

Here's the test form with the newly created checkbox property:

And here's the Workflow that I'm trying to trigger with the checkbox:

Yet, when submitting the form with the box checked ("Yes"), the unsub reason is filled in but the contact remains a marketing contact.

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!

[Ben_M · Accepted solution]

How long are you waiting for the marketing contact status to update? That property does not get updated immediately. When you set a contact to non-marketing the marketing contact until next update property will be set to yes. Then when your billing cycle rolls the contact officially moves to non-marketing. This is to prevent customers from getting away from high bills by moving contacts immediately to non-marketing. The full details are in this KB article: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/set-contacts-as-non-marketing

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @02638,

When someone unsubscribed, they're immediately unsubscribed and you can find this information in the contact property "Unsubscribed from all email". I'd recommend not using a custom checkbox for this as a custom checkbox does not integrate with HubSpot's default unsubscribe mechanisms.

Marketing contact status is not a consent feature, it's a billing feature. https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/marketing-contacts

Marketing contact status is also needed for some ads features, so a contact can be unsubscribed and a marketing contact.

In most cases however it does make sense to set contacts who unsubscribe to non-marketing, yes, so you don't unnecessarily have that contact towards your limit.

This change takes effect on the first day of the next month. Until then, the contact remains a marketing contact. https://knowledge.hubspot.com/account/understand-marketing-contacts-billing

Best regards!

[02638]

I apparently failed to link the convo that started this all: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Lead-Capture-Tools/Editing-default-subscription-form-to-include-opt...

Idea being a goal that combines the default "manage preferences form" with some additional fields like zip code, name, etc. If it has to be a custom form, I need an unsub option.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @02638,

When someone unsubscribed, they're immediately unsubscribed and you can find this information in the contact property "Unsubscribed from all email". I'd recommend not using a custom checkbox for this as a custom checkbox does not integrate with HubSpot's default unsubscribe mechanisms.

Marketing contact status is not a consent feature, it's a billing feature. https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/marketing-contacts

Marketing contact status is also needed for some ads features, so a contact can be unsubscribed and a marketing contact.

In most cases however it does make sense to set contacts who unsubscribe to non-marketing, yes, so you don't unnecessarily have that contact towards your limit.

This change takes effect on the first day of the next month. Until then, the contact remains a marketing contact. https://knowledge.hubspot.com/account/understand-marketing-contacts-billing

Best regards!

[02638]

Sounds like what I'm attempting is not supposed to work. Now it seems my best bet is to try to implant a form into the default subscription preference form (overall goal is to add fields to capture lead details) in order to have a place where we can combine all our needed functionalities.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

@02638 if you want to add additional fields, then yes, as discussed in the other thread you linked, you could add follow those steps outlined there.

Just keep in mind that there is no additional setup needed to capture whether a contact unsubscribes. This is all pre-set up by HubSpot and creating your own checkbox for unsubscribing means that you will bypass some of the mechanisms in HubSpot, such as HubSpot automatically suppressing fully unsubscribed contacts from email sends.

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My priority is keeping my marketable contacts on the upside so there's no marketing contact subterfuge here. As of now (around 24 hours later), the dummy contact remains a marketing contact.

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This is expected behavior, as I mentioned, the marketing contact status will only update in the next billing cycle, typically the next month. Until then, they will stay marketing contacts.

Hope this helps!

[Ben_M · Accepted solution]

How long are you waiting for the marketing contact status to update? That property does not get updated immediately. When you set a contact to non-marketing the marketing contact until next update property will be set to yes. Then when your billing cycle rolls the contact officially moves to non-marketing. This is to prevent customers from getting away from high bills by moving contacts immediately to non-marketing. The full details are in this KB article: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/set-contacts-as-non-marketing

[02638]

Very interesting background, thank you! My priority is keeping my marketable contacts on the upside so there's no marketing contact subterfuge here. As of now (around 24 hours later), the dummy contact remains a marketing contact.