Send secure collaterals from HubSpot using Email Verification

in this tutorial, you'll learn how to share your marketing materials by generating secure links using the hubspot cloudfiles integration we’ve covered both manual sharing and automating the entire process in just a few steps we’ll guide you through each step to ensure your files are shared securely, making it easier to manage and track the distribution of important assets what to expect by the end of this tutorial, you can expect to learn how to generate secure, trackable links for your marketing materials use email verification to ensure only authorized recipients can access your files understand how to send files that require recipients to verify their identity before accessing the content discover how to monitor the status and activity of shared content for better tracking and follow up the gif below shows the expected output if you have a basic grasp of these concepts, you can expect to finish the tutorial in under 5 minutes let's start with the steps to manually share files securely, enabling you to control access and track downloads follow these steps to create your first secure link before you start with the set up, please ensure you have installed cloudfiles and connected it to your cloud storage of choice install cloudfiles in hubspot cloudfiles is available on the app marketplace and can be installed using the standard app installation process check out installation guide for cloudfiles hubspot integration https //help cloudfiles io/hubspot/installation guide for cloudfiles hubspot integration 2 create a cloudfiles link cloudfiles links are secure publicly shareable links that can be used to share your pdfs and other documents to create a cloudfiles link, go to any contact record in your system locate the cloudfiles widget and click on the "add" button next, choose the library where your files or folders are stored select the specific file or folder you want to share and create a shareable link 3 configuring security settings once the link is created, you can configure the security settings you can choose whether to enable or disable the downloading option for the file or folder you can also set an expiry date for the link or decide after how many views it should expire if needed, you can protect the file or folder by adding a password 4 setting up the email wall to add an extra layer of security, you can put up an email wall this will require viewers to provide their email address before accessing the file if you need stronger protection, you can set up a hard email wall this requires viewers to authenticate by logging in with their google or microsoft accounts, or they can request a temporary view code sent to their inbox 5 restricting access you can control who can access your shared files to allow specific people access, add their email addresses in the "restrict to specific emails" section under the allow list if there are individuals you want to block, add their email addresses in the block list similarly, you can restrict access based on specific domains if you already have a list of contacts in hubspot, you can use the "allow hubspot contact list" feature to quickly share the file with a specific list this option can save time when managing large groups of contacts once you have configured all the settings and restricted access as needed, simply copy the shareable link and send it to your intended viewers this allows them to securely access the file or folder based on the permissions you’ve set the gif below shows the expected output automate file sharing with email verification now that you’ve learnt manual sharing, let’s automate the process to save time and ensure secure, consistent file distribution follow these steps to set up your automated workflow 1 pre requisites before you start with the set up, please ensure you have installed cloudfiles and connected it to your cloud storage of choice install cloudfiles in hubspot cloudfiles is available on the app marketplace and can be installed using the standard app installation process check out installation guide for cloudfiles hubspot integration https //help cloudfiles io/hubspot/installation guide for cloudfiles hubspot integration connect your storage login to your external storage of choice such as google drive, sharepoint etc through the cloudfiles interface this will give you instant access to your external files within hubspot the gif below shows the steps quickly check out quick start for file connector in hubspot https //help cloudfiles io/hubspot/quick start for file connector in hubspot for more information connect automation user for storage in addition to installing cloudfiles in hubspot, you also need to set an automation user for the workflow to work this is the integration user that will be used by the workflow actions to pass files into the cloud storage to connect an automation user, simply head over to app cloudfiles io http //app cloudfiles io/ > settings > integrations > google drive and login through your google account what is an 'automation user' and how does it work? https //help cloudfiles io/webapp/what is an automation user and how does it work this article explains everything you need to know about the automation user, including what it is, why it's useful, and how it operates after connecting the desired storage, we will proceed to create contact based workflow which will be triggered when a new contact is registered here’s how our final workflow looks like we will detail these elements in the sections below 2 create contact based workflow to set up a workflow that provides new contacts with access to a specific file, start by creating a contact based workflow from scratch select the trigger to fire when a new contact is created as shown in the gif below 3 create attachment the create attachment https //help cloudfiles io/hubspot/create attachment action action allows you to associate a file or folder to hubspot records to use it, search for "create attachment" and select the action to use the “create attachment” action, simply click on add button and search for ‘create attachment’ as shown below once you add this action, it will ask you to fill in certain parameters the library parameter is the desired cloud storage where you wish to choose the file from select the desired storage from the drop down field we also need to enter values for shared drive id & path to destination these are shared drive id this is important for google drive & sharepoint users only these cloud storages offer multiple 'drives' where documents can be uploaded path to file/folder this specifies the destination of the file these parameters can be easily copied from cloudfiles app library follow these steps find the cloudfiles widget from any hubspot record, and click on cloudfiles it will redirect you to your cloudfiles storage under the libraries tab, navigate to file copy the parameter from the meta data on the right side of the screen check the gif below for a quick walkthrough of these steps here's an example of how the completed create attachment action should look 4 share attachment the share attachment https //help cloudfiles io/hubspot/share attachment action action enables you to share attachments using hubspot workflows sharing an attachment is exactly the same as manually creating a sharing link of a file / folder / dataroom from hubspot record to use this action, simply click on add button and search for ‘share attachment’ this action has only one parameter that can be set to specify the attachment to be shared you can derive this from the return value of the previous create attachment action ‘new attachment id’ this is what the final share attachment action looks like 5 set the sharing link to contact property using ‘edit record’ action in this step, we will set the link created in the last step to a contact property for this, first create a single line text property in the hubspot contact settings we created a property called ‘shareable link’ to set the shared link to the above property, we will use the edit record action for the ‘property to set’ parameter, we will choose 'shareable link' and under 'shareable link' parameter we will set it to the output ‘url’ of the last action the gif below shows the configuration for the edit record action 6 update link settings the update link settings action allows you to modify the settings of cloudfiles links created in your records these settings include options for disabling downloads, setting expiration dates, and enforcing email verification, among others this action is useful for applying security policies to your shared links in this step, we’ll update the url of the attachment and enable email verification of the enrolled contact first, choose a link under “links to update” — you can either select the latest link or all links used in the workflow next, decide whether to disable downloads by selecting “yes” or “no” under “disable downloads ” you can configure the link’s expiry date in the “expires on” section and specify the time after which the link should expire alternatively, set the link to deactivate after a specified number of days in “expires after (number of days)” or after a desired number of unique views in “expires after (number of views) ” to add an extra layer of protection, you can set a password for the link by selecting “yes” under “update link password ” for collecting email addresses, choose “yes” under “requires email for accessing the link ” to enforce email verification, select “yes” from “enforce email verification” and under “allowed emails,” choose the property with access permissions here, i’ve selected the “email” property of the enrolled contact here's an example of how the completed create attachment action should look that’s it save and activate the flow in the next section, we will test the workflow 7 test the workflow now that everything is set up, let’s test our flow simply create a new contact in hubspot the workflow may take a few seconds to execute, so refresh the page if needed navigate to the properties section and look for "shareable link " copy the link and open it in a new window copy the email id of the respective contact, and you will be able to access the file this is shown in the gif below