Automation Example: Ask Contacts To Set Preferences Shortly After Subscribing

Details

It's generally always a good idea to have as few questions as possible on your subscription forms. After all, no one's going to want to answer 10 questions just to sign up to your eNewsletter.

On the flipside, as marketers, we also value the importance of personalisation and the benefits it can have on your buyer and customer journeys for prospects and clients alike.

A handy 'workaround' then, is to send a personalisation email shortly (generally a day or two) after the user subscribes - allowing them to adjust their preferences so that future communications are more personalised and thus, more likely to resonate with your readers.

What This Example Will Cover

In this article, we'll be building an automation to send an email a few days after the user subscribes, allowing them to update their email preferences. If the user doesn't complete this step, they'll still get emails from you of course - but their contact record just won't have any additional data against it that you can use for personalisation purposes.

The subject line will be key to getting your contacts to open the email and set their preferences - which is why, in our case, we've used a subject line such as: %%First_Name%%, we’d like to know you better (First Name is a wildcard)

Here's what the preferences email looks like, in the case of our example...

Update Preferences Form vs. Update Profile Form

Although the email used in the automation below links to the Update Preferences form, you could in theory link to the Update Profile form instead.

Update Preferences forms can only ask the user to update their preferences (ie. no other fields are available on this form), whereas Update Profile forms allow you to place almost any field on the form for the user to fill in - including an Update Preferences component, to gather this data at the same time.

We've included examples of our two forms below, to give you some ideas and inspiration and to help you select which might be right for you.

Our Update Preferences form:

Our Update Profile form:

How-to Guide

This automation makes use of our List Preferences function, so before you begin you'll need to have your preferences setup. Additionally, the email will direct users to the Update Preferences form - so be sure to have this setup & designed to your liking.

Part 1: Link Your Email To the Update Preferences Form

1. Select Messages from the sidebar.
2. Open the email (that you wish to send as part of this process) for editing.
3. Use the linking options to add a link to a form and select your 'Update Preferences' form.
4. Save the email.

Part 2: Setting up the Automation

1. Select Automation from the sidebar.
2. Click New Automation.
3. Under the Create your own automation section, click Create.
4. In the first section, set the trigger as Subscribe.
5. In the second section, select the list you'd like to monitor for subscribes.
6. In the third section, select the 'Update Your Preferences' email you have created.
   
7. In the fourth section, select when you'd like the system to send the email. One or two days later is generally best. Remember, you don't want to bombard your new subscribers with emails straight away.
   
8. Click Save. You will now be taken back to the main automations screen. You can rename the automation if you wish.