How to Track All Communication Channel Opt-Ins in HubSpot Using a Custom CRM Card

HubSpot’s native Communication Subscriptions panel shows whether a contact is subscribed to at least one email type - but it doesn’t give the full picture. If a contact has opted out of some subscription types but remains subscribed to others, the panel still displays a green “Subscribed” status, without clarifying which channels are opted-out, unless the user clicks to drill-down further into subscription preferences. 

What’s more, it doesn’t reflect opt-ins or opt-outs for custom communication types, such as SMS or phone calls.

This can lead to confusion for Sales and Success teams - especially if they’re about to call a contact who’s opted out of phone communication.

To address this, we’ve developed a custom CRM card that surfaces a colour-coded summary of subscription preferences using a multi-check property and a few simple workflows. Green for opt-in, red for opt-out. It’s visible at a glance - right from the contact record.

This solution doesn’t override native HubSpot functionality - in fact, it complements it.

It helps teams make smarter, faster decisions without needing to dig through subscription logs.

Step 1: Create your subscription types

Navigate to Settings > Tools > Marketing > Email > Subscription Types in your HubSpot portal.

Here, create each subscription type that aligns with your communication strategy - such as Marketing Emails, Product Updates, Event Invites, or SMS Notifications.

Best practices for creating subscription types:

• Be specific, not generic: Create subscription types that clearly describe the type of communication (e.g. Event Invitations is more useful than General Emails).
• Think cross-team: Ensure subscription types support use cases for marketing, sales, and customer success. Involving these teams early avoids confusion later.
• Group by channel if needed: If you're using multiple communication channels (e.g. email, SMS, phone), consider including the channel in the name (e.g. SMS Product Alerts, Call Follow-Ups).
• Respect legal compliance: Align subscription types with your GDPR or CAN-SPAM obligations. Having clear, specific types makes it easier for contacts to give meaningful consent.
• Keep it manageable: Avoid creating too many niche subscription types. Strike a balance between granularity and ease of use/reporting.
• Document your strategy: Maintain a simple internal guide or table listing your subscription types, what they’re used for, and who owns them. This helps new team members and keeps things consistent over time.

Step 2: Create your custom contact property

Next, create a custom 'Communication preferences' multi-checkbox contact property with two options for each of your communication subscription types - an opt-in and an opt-out.

Colour-coded these, to more easily show end-users at a glance the preference of each subscription type, using red or green. 

To ensure compliance within this process, I'd advise setting the property access to Super Admin only. That way users can't override the property values and misalign the property with the native HubSpot functionality.

Step 3: Build out the automation

Create a contact-based workflow that triggers when a contact’s subscription preferences are updated.

Use this automation to dynamically update your custom Communication Preferences property. You’ll want to:

• Check each subscription type the contact is opted into
• Add or remove the matching opt-in/opt-out value in the property
• Use "append to property" actions rather than overwriting values - this helps preserve other selections that might still be accurate

You may need multiple branches or if/then logic depending on the number of subscription types in your portal.

Use clear naming for your workflow and actions (e.g. “Update Communication Summary – Marketing Subscription Opt-Out”) so future admins can easily follow what’s being updated.

Step 4: Add your custom CRM card to the contact record

Finally, surface your new property in a custom CRM card on the contact record. This makes the communication status clearly visible—no extra clicks required.

We recommend:

• Naming the card something like Subscription Summary or Comms Preferences
• Placing the card on the Overview tab (or wherever reps spend the most time)
• Including any other relevant properties, such as:
  • Marketing Contact Status
  • Legal basis for processing data
  • Do not call

This gives users a complete, glanceable picture of whether and how a contact can be communicated with - saving time and reducing risk.