Set contacts as non-marketing

In HubSpot, you store and manage information about your potential customers in contact records. However, you may not need to market to all of them. If so, you can use marketing contacts and pay for only the contacts you want to market to.

Please note: the following instructions only apply to Marketing Hub accounts with marketing contacts. Learn how to check if your HubSpot account has access to marketing contacts. If you do not have access but would like to, you can request marketing contacts for your account.

If you want to check your current count of marketing contacts, learn how to view the number of marketing contacts in your current contact tier.

Set existing contacts as non-marketing

You can preemptively set contacts as non-marketing. This will update their Marketing contact until next update property value to Yes. Any contacts who are currently marketing contacts will remain as marketing contacts until the next update date. 

Once a contact is set as marketing, you can't set them as non-marketing before the next update date. The non-marketing contact status will be applied at the next update date.

To set your contacts as non-marketing for the next update date:

• Click Usage & Limits.
• Click Manage marketing contacts.
  
  

• In the wizard, read the information regarding marketing contacts and click Next.
• In the Unengaged contacts step, it is recommended to leave the checkboxes selected, as these contacts have bounced or unsubscribed. If you want to set these as non-marketing, click Next. Otherwise, click Skip.
• In the Filters & lists step, you can select contacts to be set as non-marketing using a filter or a list. 
  • Use a filter: click to select criteria for the contacts you want to set as non-marketing.
  • Use a list: click to select lists for the contacts you want to set as non-marketing. You can create these lists prior to using the wizard.
• Click Next once you've selected your non-marketing contacts. Otherwise, click Skip.
• In the Review & update step, review the number of marketing and non-marketing contacts. Once reviewed, click Update Contacts in the bottom right.

This will set the Marketing contact until next update property values for these contacts as Yes. On the next update date, their Marketing contact status property will be updated to Non-marketing contact. Learn how to find your next update date.

Manually set contacts as non-marketing

To manually set contacts as non-marketing:

• Select the checkboxes next to contacts you want to set as non-marketing contacts. You can use a saved view to help you select the right contacts.
• At the top of the table, click the More dropdown menu and select Set as non-marketing contacts.
• In the dialog box, click Set as non-marketing to confirm.

This will set the Marketing contact until next update property values for these contacts as Yes. On the next update date, their Marketing contact status property will be updated to Non-marketing contact. Learn how to find your next update date.

Use workflows to set contacts as non-marketing

If you have access to the workflows tool, you can automatically set contacts to become non-marketing on the next update date.

• Create your contact-based workflow and set up your enrollment triggers for the contacts you want to set as marketing automatically.
• Add an action and in the Property management section, select the Set marketing contact status action.
• In the right panel, click the Value dropdown menu and select Set as non-marketing.
• Once you've turned on your workflow, contacts who meet your enrollment triggers will be set as non-marketing contacts when they go through the Set marketing contact status action.

This will set the Marketing contact until next update property values for these contacts as Yes. On the next update date, their Marketing contact status property will be updated to Non-marketing contact. Learn how to find your next update date.

View next update date

The update date to move contacts from marketing to non-marketing depends on your HubSpot subscription:

• For monthly subscriptions, the update date will be the date of your renewal each month (e.g., if you purchased on April 15, your next renewal date is May 15).
• For yearly subscriptions, the update date will be the first of each month. 

To find your next update date:

• In your HubSpot account, click your account name in the top right corner, then click Account & Billing.
• Click Usage & Limits.
• Under Manage your marketing contacts, view your update date. 
  
  

On the next update date, all contacts with the Yes value in the Marketing contact until next update property will be updated to non-marketing contacts. Once they've become non-marketing contacts, they will not count towards your contact tier.

Please note: even if the number of marketing contacts you have is below your contact tier, your contact tier will not be downgraded to the next contact tier. Reach out to your HubSpot Customer Success Manager if you've any further questions on your contact tier.

Set the default marketing contact status for new contacts

Contacts can be created by different HubSpot tools, such as forms and chatflows. These tools have a default marketing contact status for the contacts they create. 

Learn how to set the default marketing contact status for new contacts.

Remove a user's permission to set contacts as marketing

By default, all users have permission to set contacts as marketing. If you want to restrict a specific user:

• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Users and teams.
• Click the name of the user whose permissions you want to edit.
• Click the Account tab. If you don't see the Account tab, click More, then select Account.
• In the Settings Access section, click the Marketing contacts access switch to toggle it off.
• In the bottom right, click Save. The user will not be allowed to set contacts as marketing contacts.