Best practice: email with download links

[freitasm]

Hi folks

What's the current best practice with forms on download pages?

Contact is not subscribed to marketing emails, therefore workflow cannot send email with link.

Thinking that in this case it's good to have the e-mail workfow to send a link with a note, and also have a link to the download in the Thank You note.

Any other ideas?

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @freitasm,

This depends a bit on whether you want a contact to confirm their email address and how important data quality is. There are a few options:

Contact submits form → Redirect to thank you page with direct link to content piece

This is obviously the best user experience. You sidestep HubSpot limitations about the delivery of the email which requires an opt-in. However, if you have the double opt-in enabled and want contacts to confirm their email address, they barely have any incentive to do so. You're left with fewer confirmed emails than if the content was delivered via email, after the confirmation. Also, you'll get more made up email adresses (invalid ones) if you do not point on the submission page that the content will be delivered via email.

Contact submits form with required marketing consent → Redirect to thank you page that mentions content will be delivered via email → Content is sent via email

This one only works if your legal team is okay with you making marketing consent mandatory. Typically, this is not compliant with privacy legislation. In this case however, you would have the opt-in necessary for delivering the email. This option will result in higher quality data (fewer invalid emails) and a higher confirmation rate (double opt-in).

Content submits form without required marketing consent → Redirect to thank you page that mentions content will be delivered via email → Content is sent via email

This, I think, is the right way to go, but it requires either a workaround or the transactional email add-on. With the add-on, emails can be sent regardless of subscription status and follow-up emails are typically transactional, since they're really just a delivery of something that was requested a moment ago.

Without this add-on, a workaround could be subscription type just used for this purpose, which you could call "Confirmation emails". This is a subscription type that you would opt every single contact into and only use for transactional emails. In the workflow that delivers a follow-up email, the first step would always be to opt a contact into this subscription type, so that the following email has the required opt-in. The email would of course be sent using that subscription type.

If a contact unsubscribes from all email, the content would not be delivered – that would only be possible with the aforementioned transactional email add-on.

Like the previous option, this option will result in higher quality data (fewer invalid emails) and a higher confirmation rate (double opt-in).

(My reply does not constitute legal advice.)

Hope this helps!

[freitasm]

Hi @karstenkoehler thanks for your reply.

Not ok in New Zealand to send an unsolicited email, unless it's transaction. Even a follow-up "How did we do" survey-type is not ok, unless opt-in is agreed by contact - and obviouslt a checkbox can't be on by default.

The best case for us is to have the consent box and contact can check or not. The link can be delivered via email if consent was given, but always shown in the thank you page.

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

@freitasm definitely a solid way to go, with the only downside that a double opt-in confirmation rate would be low (not a concern if you're not using a double opt-in) and that you might get a few made-up email addresses. But still, a common way to design the conversion path + a nice user experience.

Have a great day!

[freitasm]

Hi @JessicaBaskey 

Thanks, just as I thought. 

Cheers

[JessicaBaskey]

Hi @freitasm,

If someone fills out your form but isn’t subscribed to marketing emails, HubSpot won’t let you send them a follow-up email with the download link—that’s just how the system stays compliant.

Here’s what most people do to work around it:

• Drop the download link on the Thank You page so they get it right away, no email needed.

• You could also add a link to the pdf as an external page instead of a thank you page

• If you have the Transactional Email add-on, you can email the link regardless of their subscription status.

• Or you could add an opt-in checkbox to the form like “Yes, send me stuff”—that way you’re covered to send follow-up emails too.

Best,

Jess