Optimize Email Campaigns with Subscription Types
Proper email subscription management is important from a legal perspective and for properly organizing your marketing and sales outreach to prospects and customers. It’s also not very difficult to get right if you use Hubspot’s default tools.
Why email subscription types are important
Legal reasons. If you send email to someone that has unsubscribed and they really want to pursue it, it can land you in trouble. Luckily, Hubspot makes it hard to send emails to contacts who have opted out.
Stronger marketing email engagement. You could lump all of your outreach into one subscription type. However, if you have different types of communications going out, it’s a good idea to let contacts pick and choose what type of content they’re interested in receiving. Doing so can lead to better engagement.
More effective front line management. It’s not only the Marketing team that will benefit from knowing to how to navigate email subscription types. Forward facing Sales and Customer Success teams will often want to know what a given contact is subscribed to or unsubscribed from.
1 - Determine your opt-in / opt-out strategy
This should be driven by high-level marketing strategy and internal legal guidelines.
Here are some items that should help start the discussion:
What does “opting in” mean to your company? Is it a form submission? a double opt in email sent to contact after form submission?
Do you sell to contacts in the UK or Canada? What does your legal team consider to be most important when it comes to GDPR or CASL?
Do you want to only send to people who have explicitly opted in? This will require turning on GDPR settings and only allowing emails sent to contacts who have opted in.
What will the consent text on your forms say?
How many subscription types will you have, what should they be called, and how will you describe each?
How do you plan to educate your prospects and customers about the benefits of your different subscription types?
Hubspot has subscription management features to support most marketing and legal strategy needs. Establishing goals prior to configuring Hubspot is highly recommended.
2 - Understand Hubspot’s default tools
I’ve seen a lot of teams try and build custom setups prior to understanding what’s possible with default functionality. This leads to unnecessary complexity and avoidable mistakes.
Here’s a rundown of the main default tools I find helpful when managing email subscriptions in Hubspot:
1.1 - See the current subscription types being used - You’ll find these in Settings > Marketing > Email > Subscription Types. This is where actual updates can be made, ideally after a plan is thought through.
1.2 - View and edit subscriptions for a given contact. I’ve found to be beneficial when all teams knows where to find what a particular contact is or isn’t subscribed to. If a contact is unsubscribed from all email, this is will show above their name. For specific information per subscription, this is found under “Communication subscriptions” section in the left hand sidebar.
Clicking “View subscriptions” will show you what the contact is opted into or out of.
You can also subscribe or unsubscribe the contact from each.
1.3 - View and edit subscriptions for one or multiple contacts - If there are more than a few contacts you want to opt in or out of a given subscription type, this can be done via the standard Contacts view.
Select the contact(s) > More > Edit communication subscriptions
Choose the subscription types you want to opt these contacts in or out of and give a reason for doing so (e.g. they’ve given you consent)
1.4 - Create lists for “opted out” contacts - These are contact properties that can be referenced all around Hubspot (views, reporting, automation, etc.) “Unsubscribed from all email” is probably the most useful to filter for contacts who have opted out of all email. But you can also search by subscription type.
True = Yes, they’ve opted out of all email
There is one of these for each subscription type. Search for “opted out of email” and they will all show up.
1.5 - Create lists for “opted in” contacts - These are only found in the Lists tool. I like building a list for each. This way I can look at the amount of subscribers per subscription type over time.
In the Lists tool, search for "email subscriptions” filter category
Choose “opted into all of” and select the individual subscription type to get a list of everyone who’s subscribed to this list.
3. Use as few subscription types as possible
Categorize the different types of content you sent to contacts
A great way to get ideas on subscription types is by looking at some marketing emails you personally get, clicking manage preferences at the bottom of the email, and it will take you to their subscription types. Here are some common examples:
2.1 - Updates and Resources (aka. Marketing emails) - Most businesses will almost certainly have a subscription type along these lines. This content is designed to build the brand and/or sell the product/service. I like to find an alternative term for “Marketing” because that word triggers warning bells in most people’s minds. Something like “Updates and Resources” probably sounds better in most cases.
2.2 - One to One - This is a Hubspot default and probably worth keeping in. It allows someone to opt out of sales emails.
2.3 - Product Updates (if needed) - If regular product releases are a part of your mass outreach, this can be considered. If these don’t occur often, it may be best to lump these into and “updates and resources”.
2.4 - Webinars and Event Updates (if needed) - Similar to product updates, if you have a lot of events it can make sense. If not, I would categorize this email content as general marketing outreach.
4. Create lists for subscription type and key audiences.
These lists help you track subscriber growth and target core audience segments.
3.1 - Create “opted in”, “opted out”, and “not specified” lists for each subscription type - Put them in an “Email Subscribers” folder. This will help you stay organized as well as be able to assess list size by subscription type over time.
Below are the three lists to create if you had an “Updates & Resources” subscription type. For this (and each subscription type you have), you’ll end up with 3 lists. For example, if you have 5 subscription types, you’ll end up with 15 lists total - 5 subscription types x 3 possible opt in statuses).
Updates & Resources - Opted In - Use the “email subscriptions” filter and set it to “contact has opted into all of Updates & Resources”
Updates & Resources - Opted Out - Use the “email subscriptions” filter and set it to “contact has opted out of Updates & Resources”
Updates & Resources - Not Specified - Use the “email subscriptions” filter and set it to “contact has not opted into all of Updates & Resources”
3.2 - Create lists for key segments - These should be a part of the larger segmentation strategy, and will likely include:
Prospect lists - There might be different list depending on the different flavors of prospects you have.
e.g. Prospects by ICP
e.g. Recently engaged prospects
e.g. Older prospects
Customer lists - Similar to prospects, there may be similar sub-segments you break your customers down into.
e.g. Current customers
e.g. Current customers of Product/Service A vs. Product/Service B
e.g. Former customers
e.g. Former customers of Product/Service A vs. Product/Service B
5. Review your subscription preferences page and start sending emails
Are you comfortable with how your subscription type preferences page appears to prospects and customers? Update design if needed.
4.1 - Edit the design of your “subscription preferences” page if needed. The “subscription update” page and “unknown contact subscription preferences” page are both also worth a look. These are found in Settings > Marketing > Email > Subscriptions.
4.2 - Finalize subscription type descriptions - The best advice here is to give each subscription type a clear description about what someone can expect when they opt in. Prospects and customers will see these and often decide to opt in or out based on the description, so it’s a good idea to make them as relatable as possible. This is in Settings > Marketing > Email > Subscription Types.
4.2 - Send emails to the various prospect and customer lists. Selecting a subscription type to group the email as a specific type of content.
6. Analyze list growth or shrinkage.
Use the lists to understand list size over time.
5.1. Review list performance by opening a list > click Actions > View list performance.
5.2 - View the list size graph on the list performance page. Since this list was just created, it won’t show you growth over time. However, next month it will be clear how subscribers to that subscription type is trending. Without these lists built, it’s very difficult to get this data.
Takeaways on email subscription types
Determine your subscription management goals. Legal and marketing strategy should drive this. If selling to UK or Canadian contacts, it’s absolutely essential. Even if only selling to US contacts, using similar rules tends to be beneficial in building long-term relationships with customers and prospects.
Learn about how to tactically manage email subscriptions in Hubspot. There are ways to review and edit subscription statuses, important for front-line reps. And there are subscription management settings, an important foundation for rolling out your strategy.
Get down to as few subscription types as possible. If there’s not an obvious reason to have multiple subscription types, keep things simple. 2 - 5 subscription types is probably the right amount.
Create opted in lists for each subscription. These will show you how many contacts are subscribed to your subscription types over time.
Ensure your audience segment lists are up to date. Prospect and customer lists for each audience you sell to are a great start. Learn more about how to set these up in my list segmentation guide.
Target audience lists and select email subscription types when sending emails. Encourage your contacts to understand what they’re subscribed to, early and often.
