Set up email subscription types

Subscription types represent the legal basis to communicate with your contacts through email. Contacts can manage their email preferences so they're only opted in to email subscription types they want to receive.

Understand limitations and considerations

• You can create up to 1000 subscription types in your HubSpot account.
• Accounts using HubSpot's free tools can add basic subscription types to contacts manually if they have data privacy settings turned on. Custom subscription types are not available in these accounts. 

Set up subscription types

In your marketing email settings, you can create and edit subscription types, reorder subscription types on the preferences page, and archive subscription types you're no longer using. 

Create new subscription types

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, click Marketing > Email.
3. Click the Subscription Types tab.
4. In the top right, click Create subscription type.
5. In the right panel, click the Language dropdown menu and select a language for the subscription type. Learn more about working with emails in multiple languages.
6. In the Subscription name field, enter a name for the subscription type. 
7. In the Description field, enter a description of the types of emails that will be sent with this subscription type. 
8. If you have data privacy settings turned on, you can set additional fields to provide subscribers with more information: 
   • Click the Purpose of subscription dropdown menu and select the purpose for emailing contacts with this subscription type. To add a custom purpose, select Add more, then enter a purpose in the pop-up box and click Add.

• Click the Method of communication dropdown menu and select Email.
1. In the Preview section, review how recipients will see the subscription type's details on their subscription preference page. 
2. Click Create. 

Edit subscription types

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, click Marketing > Email.
3. Click the Subscription Types tab.
4. To change the position of a subscription type on the subscription preferences page, click the subscription type and drag it into a new position. 
5. To edit a subscription type's details, hover over the subscription type and click the Actions dropdown menu, then select Edit.
6. To archive a subscription type you're no longer using: 
   • Hover over the subscription type and click the Actions dropdown menu, then select Archive. 
   • In the dialog box, click Archive subscription type.

Please note: if you archive the One to One subscription type but later send a one-to-one email or otherwise use the subscription type, the subscription type will automatically be unarchived and appear again on your subscription preferences page.

Manage contact properties for subscription types

Once you've created a new subscription type, a corresponding Opted out of email: [Email Subscription Type] contact property will be created.

While the property will be visible on contact records immediately, existing contacts will not have a property value set until one of the following occurs:

• The contact is merged with another contact.
• The contact has its email address property changed.
• The contact explicitly opts-in to or opts-out from that email type.
• An integration (i.e., public API) explicitly marks the contact as opted-in to or opted-out from that email type.

Any changes to the subscription type will update this existing contact property. Renaming a subscription type will cause the corresponding property to be renamed. Marking a subscription type as inactive will cause the corresponding property to be hidden from the contact record, and vice versa.

Review a contact's subscription types

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Contacts.
2. Click the name of a contact.
3. On the contact record, click View subscriptions in the Communication subscriptions section of the left column. 
4. In the right panel, review the status of each subscription type. The three possible statues for a subscription type are Subscribed, Unsubscribed, or Not specified.

Understand contact opt-in status

The status of a contact's subscription type corresponds to an opt-in state that dictates whether you can email them. Subscription type statuses can be updated manually for an individual, in bulk with a workflow, or via API.

If you have data privacy settings turned on, the following opt-in states are possible: 

• Opted in: if a contact is in this state, they have explicitly consented to receive emails from your brand. This corresponds to a Subscribed status for a given subscription type.
• Not opted in or out (default): a contact in this state has yet to agree whether to receive emails from your brand. This state correspond to a Not specified status for a subscription type. You cannot email a contact in this state without first obtaining explicit consent.
• Opted out: a contact in this state has unsubscribed from receiving emails from your brand. This state corresponds to an Unsubscribed status for a given subscription type. You cannot email a contact if the status associated with the subscription type of your email is Unsubscribed.

• Opted in or not opted out (default): a contact may be in this state if they've either subscribed to a given subscription type, or they have yet to agree whether to receive emails from your brand. This state corresponds to both the Subscribed and Not specified statuses for a given subscription type.
• Opted out: a contact in this state has unsubscribed from receiving emails from your brand. This state corresponds to an Unsubscribed status for a given subscription type. You cannot email a contact if the status associated with the email's subscription type is Unsubscribed.

Please note: if data privacy settings are turned off, you can email contacts if their subscription type is Not specified, but it's highly recommended you obtain explicit consent before emailing them to maintain a healthy email sending reputation.

Communicate with contacts

If you have data privacy settings turned on in your account and selected the Only allow marketing emails to be sent to contacts who have a legal basis to communicate checkbox in your account settings, emails can only be sent to contacts who have an Opted in status.

Contacts can opt in to your email subscription types through a form that includes a notice of consent for that subscription type. When you’re manually applying legal basis, you’ll also select a legal basis to communicate. If you need to establish consent with your existing contacts, you can send contacts an email with a link to update their email preferences, or run a permission pass campaign.

If you aren't using data privacy tools in your account, emails can be sent to contacts with an Opted in or a Not opted in or out status. Emails will not be delivered to contacts who have opted out of that subscription type. To track which contacts want to subscribe to each of your subscription types, you can use a custom property on a form.

Please note: emails that contain a subscription confirmation link will bypass the data privacy enforcement process, and will still be received by contacts who did not explicitly opt in.

Apart from the data privacy settings above, if you have access to the marketing contacts functionality, only marketing contacts can be sent marketing emails.