How to Manage Email Opt-Out For HubSpot Integrations

As HubSpot is an Email Marketing system, it has built in functionality to track when someone has Opted Out or Opted In to the emails you send out from their platform. Learn more about managing your HubSpot email settings here. 

When it comes to syncing this information through your Formstack Sync integration, it's important to understand that you can only sync the information in one direction - from HubSpot to your other system. In other words, you cannot impact someone's opt-out setting in HubSpot by way of the integration. 

Because of this, we recommend following the below steps to manage the mapping of these fields. 

Mapping HubSpot's Subscription Opt-Out Fields 

Step 1: Create custom boolean fields in your other system for each opt out field you want to map

Identify what opt-out fields you want to map and then create related fields in your other system to map to these in Formstack Sync. Make sure to set them up as boolean fields. 

There is a field called "Unsubscribed from all email" that is a global opt out that is most popular one to map here. But if you happen to have multiple Email Types setup in your HubSpot account, each one of these will have its own unique Opt-Out field that you can map as well - "Opted Out of Email: Marketing Newsletter" is how they appear in the Field Dropdown: 

Step 2: Map the fields in Formstack Sync

Once you have the fields created in your other system, go to your Formstack Sync mappings and click on the Refresh Field Info button. Then click on Add Field and start mapping away! Make sure HubSpot fields are in the top row of the mappings.

Mapping your CRM Opt-Out Fields Back to HubSpot

As noted above, since Formstack Sync can't update or alter the HubSpot opt-out fields via the API, if you want to sync your CRM systems opt-out fields that your teams manage when they receive notice from a customer that they don't want to be emailed, you must follow the below steps below. 

Step 1: Identify CRM Opt-Out fields and create matching fields in HubSpot

Similar to above step 1, these are often boolean-style fields in your CRM so when creating the corresponding fields in HubSpot, you will want to create them as "Single Checkbox" fields. 

Step 2: Map these two fields in your Contact Mapping in Formstack Sync

After you've created the new field in HubSpot, head back into your Formstack Sync Mappings and click on the Refresh Field Info button and map away! Make sure your CRM is in the top row of the mappings. 

Step 3: Create a Suppression List in HubSpot

In HubSpot, setup a Smart List where the filter is based on this new custom field where if the field is checked, contacts will get added to this list. This will be your "CRM Opt-Out List"

When building out your email campaigns in HubSpot, choose to exclude this list when adding in the recipients to a given email campaign (read more about sending emails from HubSpot).

Learn more about how you can control your contacts Subscriptions in HubSpot through this help article.