Once you have created your Subscription Lists and Subscription Management Page you will need to determine how you want to add the people who opt-in to Subscription Lists to the right Marketing List(s) (opt outs are handled automatically by Click). A simple and effective way to do this is to use a Campaign Automation.
NOTE: This article assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of Campaign Automations. If you are unfamiliar with Campaign Automations, click here to learn more about the feature.
Goals
- Learn how to manage Opt Ins using a Campaign Automation's Posted Subscription Trigger and Decision Node
Set Up a Campaign Automation
A Campaign Automation can be set up to run when somebody submits a specified Subscription Management Page, then a decision node can be used to check which lists the person opted into and send them to different series which contain Add to List Actions for the Marketing Lists relevant to the checked Subscription Preference.
In this example we will look at a Campaign Automation that checks for the submission of a Subscription Management Page that includes three Subscription Lists, then uses a decision node to add the participant to the Marketing Lists that they opted into.
This is the Subscription Management Page being used,
and this is the basic structure of the Opt In Campaign Automation. The decision node can be used to branch into as many different paths as you need for the number of Subscription Lists included on the Subscription Management Page.
Begin by adding a Submitted Subscription Trigger as the entry point for the Campaign Automation. In the trigger's properties, select the Subscription Management Page for which the Campaign Automation should check for submissions.
Add a series for each subscription list included in the Subscription Management Page. Set each series' Display Name to correspond to the name of the relevant Subscription List on the Subscription Management Page, then connect the trigger to each of them. A decision node will automatically appear when the trigger is connected to at least two series. Click on the decision node to access its properties.
The Decision Node
In the properties for the decision node, each connected series will be listed. Decision nodes use logic to determine which paths to send the participant down. For each of the series listed, set the criteria as
Submitted Subscription (select relevant subscription list) Equals In.
This set up will ensure that a participant will be sent down the paths that correspond to Subscription Lists that they opted into.
Once all of the series logic has been set up, the decision node's properties should look something like this:
Click Save & Close in the decision node settings to return to the Campaign Automation builder. Next, click on a series to add Actions to it.
REMINDER: If a participant meets the criteria for more than one branch of the decision node, they will be simultaneously sent down each path that they qualify for. That's why we can use the decision node to manage multiple subscription lists instead of creating separate Campaign Automations for each one. You can learn more about how decision nodes work here.
Add Participants to the Appropriate Marketing Lists
In the series, add two Add to List Actions. Click on the first Add to List Action and in its properties, add the Contact-specific Marketing List for the Subscription List that the series corresponds to. In the second action, repeat the process for the Account version of the Marketing List.
NOTE: If you are only marketing to Accounts OR Contacts, it is not necessary to include two Add to List Actions. Also, multiple Marketing Lists can be included in the same Add to List Action, so both Accounts and Contacts can be handled with the same Action if you would prefer to only use one.
Click Save & Close to return to the Campaign Automation builder, then Publish the Campaign Automation.
Now, whenever somebody submits the associated Subscription Management Page, the participant will automatically be added to the Marketing Lists that you specified for the opted in Subscription Lists. If they submit the Subscription Management Page again at a later date and opt into something new, they will automatically run through the Campaign Automation again and be able to be added to the new Marketing Lists.
Manage Opt Outs Using a Campaign Automation
The Campaign Automation presented in this example can also be modified to handle opt-outs instead of (or in addition to) opt-ins. The only changes necessary are to check for OUT values for the Posted Preferences instead of IN values in the Decision Node, then replace the Add to Marketing List Actions with Remove From Marketing List Actions to remove the participant from relevant marketing lists when they choose to opt-out.
It is not explicitly necessary to remove opted-out Contacts from your marketing lists since we will automatically exclude any opted-out recipients when sending an Email Send, but it is generally a good practice because it ensures that your marketing lists actively reflect the recipients who want to receive your content and engage with your organization.