Unsubscribed from all email vs one subscription type in HubSpot
A contact who says "stop emailing me" might mean the newsletter, or might mean everything. HubSpot records those as two different things, and mixing them up is how teams lose contacts they could have kept.
The two levels
| Level | What it does | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| One subscription type | Stops emails sent under that category (for example Newsletter) | Only that category. Other types keep sending. |
| Unsubscribed from all email | Stops all marketing email, whatever the types say | Every marketing email, every type |
How they interact
The all-email opt-out wins. If a contact is subscribed to five types but unsubscribed from all email, they receive nothing marketing-related. A contact who unsubscribed from one type but not the rest still receives the others.
Checking a contact
- Open the contact record.
- Find the Communication subscriptions card in the sidebar and open it.
- Look for an all-email opt-out first. If it's on, the individual types don't matter.
- If it's off, read each type: subscribed, unsubscribed, or not specified.
Keeping people when they only want less
Most unsubscribes are about volume, not about you. Two settings help: let each email's unsubscribe link remove people from that email's type only, and offer a preferences page so people can pick what they want before they leave entirely.
Not the same as bounced or unengaged. A hard bounce or an unengaged-contact suppression stops sending too, but it is not an opt-out. Those contacts haven't asked to leave, so check the reason before you remove or re-invite anyone.
Where HubSubs fits
HubSubs is part of Kikaye, a set of small HubSpot apps on one login. See what HubSubs does, or read the setup guide.