Opt ins for marketing contacts

[SouthKea]

Hi,

I'm helping someone who has a large amount of contacts that are marked as marketing contacts but have not likely opted in.  What's the best way to deal with this? Is it to just opt every contact into a update your preferences email?

Is there a better way? and, any tips to suggest moving forward?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @SouthKea,

Marketing contact status does not have to do anything with consent or a legal basis, it is a purely billing-related feature: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/marketing-contacts

In other words, just because a contact is marked as marketing contact or non marketing contact, does not say anything about whether there is a legal basis to send communication to them.

Whether there is a legal basis or not should ideally be stored in subscription types: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/marketing-email/set-up-email-subscription-types

If someone is opted out of all email, correct, they shouldn't have marketing contact status, as that would be a waste. HubSpot automatically excludes these contacts from marketing sends which means that there is no point in paying for these contacts.

Contacts who have marketing contact status however should not be opted in indiscriminately. You should only opt those contacts in where there is a legal basis – a previous explicit consent, a legitimate interest or the performance of a contract. If you do not have that legal basis, it very likely against the privacy legislation that applies in your country and also against HubSpot acceptable use policy.

You would have to figure out why you can email these contacts – because of their previous confirmation on website forms, because of their customer status etc. When in doubt, always consult a legal professional or the data privacy officer of that company. (My reply does not constitute legal advice.)

Best regards!