This article explains how contacts can manage their preferences with signup forms.

Note

On June 17, 2019, the Subscription Center was launched to provide a more comprehensive way for contacts to manage their preferences.

If your account was created before June 17, 2019, your subscribers will interact with one of your signup forms to manage their preferences, until you publish your Subscription Center. Once you publish your Subscription Center, your subscribers will then interact with the Subscription Center rather than the default signup form.

If you created your account on or after June 17, 2019, then the Subscription Center will be the default method for your subscribers to manage their subscription preferences. This article is specifically about managing preferences through a signup form, rather than through the Subscription Center.

Finding the Manage Preferences Options

All Emma accounts include a default signup form. But for accounts created before June 17, 2019, the default signup form doubles as the Manage Preferences form and is linked in the footer of your campaigns and templates. When you send a mailing, recipients can click on the Manage link to update their personal details or change subscription settings.

The fields and options for your contacts to manage their preferences are identical to what's on your default signup form. The only thing that changes when someone clicks on the Manage link is the form description in the footer. It automatically changes to "Update your contact information and email preferences using the options below".

If you would like to encourage your contacts to update their preferences, there are some easy options for you to gather more detailed info about your contacts that will better customize their experience. If you have not customized the signup form in any way, it will only include an "Email" field and nothing else. While nothing more is required, not adding more options to the signup form is a missed opportunity. When you provide more personalized options, you put your subscribers in charge of the relationship, which helps to show that you value their input and care about sending content they're interested in.

Expand Your Contact Data by Adding Fields

Contact fields can be used to collect all kinds of information and also provide the user with a more customized experience. The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to send relevant and personalized messages that get results. For example, if you know your contacts' city or company name, you can use that to add personalization to a mailing, either in the body copy of the email, or the subject line.

A good starting point is to add a 'first name' option to your contact fields and then add that field to your signup form. Doing this means that a new subscriber will be asked for their first name and email address upon signing up, which gives you the opportunity to then use their first name to personalize the campaigns you send.

Data stored in contact fields can also be used to create segments, allowing you to send more personalized content to specific groups of people, based on common traits or demographic data. We suggest putting some thought into deciding what information would create the best experience for your customers and adding a few more options to your contact fields.

Send a Manage Preferences Campaign or Link to the Form

Some recipients will never scroll to the footer of an email to read its contents, so they may not know it's possible to update their subscription details. You can let them know about it by sending a manage preferences campaign to point people towards the form. Or, you can also just link the manage preferences form in the body of any campaign via a button or linked copy.

Doing so creates an opportunity to let your contacts know that you want to learn more about them and their interests, so you can send the kind of emails they'll look forward to. Additionally, sending a new campaign out after someone has signed up helps to not overwhelm them with having to provide all that info right away when signing up.

To link to the manage preferences form from the body copy of an email or link it behind a button, you'll follow the same steps that you would for any other type of link, you'll just use a special personalization tag.

Editor	Tag
Drag and Drop Editor	[% manage %]
Legacy* Editor	[% manage_url %]

 

For step-by-step instructions about how to create links, please refer to these articles:

• Drag and Drop Editor: Links
• Legacy Editor: Links

To create a manage preferences campaign you would build it like any other mailing and then angle the copy to reflect that you are asking the recipient to update their preferences. Add a button to the campaign and then add the manage preferences tag in place of the URL on the button.

Don't forget that your signup form doubles as your manage preferences form, so if you have multiple signup forms, make sure that you select the right one when you review and send your campaign.

When the campaign is sent, the manage preferences tag is converted to a personalized link for the recipient. When they click on it, it will open the manage preferences form pre-filled with any existing data, or subscription preferences, that they've previously submitted. If they have never submitted extra details, it will just be their email address pre-filled in the "Email" field.

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*In April 2022, Emma's legacy editor was replaced with a new drag and drop editor. Accounts that existed prior to this change still have access to the legacy editor through their previously saved templates and campaigns, however new, from-scratch campaigns can only be created in the new drag and drop editor. Accounts that were created after this change only have access to the new drag and drop editor. Please refer to our new editor FAQ article for more information.