So, a few years ago I published a blog post demonstrating how you could build an email preferences center in less than 16 minutes (read the post), and a few years later the concept here is still the same – but the tools have changed a little bit.
And before we get started, I should say that PlusThis has introduced a feature that handles this in a cleaner and more powerful way – you can read about that below.
Alright then, now just to be clear – we’re talking about setting up a preferences portal that allows your Keap subscribers to manage their own email preferences
This tactic is a total win:win – it allows contacts to select which types of communication are most important to them, so they’re not seeing stuff from you that they don’t care about; and it helps ensure that you’re only sending them emails they actually want, which will encourage engagement, and help improve deliverability.
Anyway, it’s easy, it’s a good idea, and it doesn’t require any fancy third-party tools or ninja customization – the thing to “gotcha” for this process is that while this allows your subscribers to automatically tag and un-tag themselves, removing a tag doesn’t automatically stop automation – so, it’s still our responsibility to respect the preferences that our subscribers express.
The demo above is built using Keap Max Classic (which was called Infusionsoft at the time), but this same approach would work for Max, Pro, or any version of Keap with landing pages.
Note: You may have noticed that I’m using tag goals to trigger the follow-up processes, instead of just using a decision diamond to put contacts in the right sequence – if you’re wondering why, it’s because the new landing page builder options aren’t available yet for decision diamonds.
So, instead, we’re raising tags on the different selections, and then using the tags to trigger goals and launch the automation. It’s an extra step, but it achieves the same result.
PlusThis Solution
If you have PlusThis, then you’ll be pleased to hear they have an Email Subscription Manager tool that lets your recipients manage the types of content they receive.
Here’s their blog post about it.
And if you don’t yet have PlusThis, you can take it for a test drive with a free trial here >>
On Version 1, I made my ‘thank you’ page be an updated list of what they have subscribed to – in other words, a ‘listing’ of their preferences.
Good job Greg!
Right on! Were you able to easily follow along?
Yeah … but I now know it’s time to update my preference center so i’ll need to rewatch when I do that.
Would it be possible to create 2 preference centers with one attached to Owner A and and the other attached to Owner B?
It might…and insert the links user owner merge fields instead of static URLs? Is that what you’re thinking? What’s the benefit?
In my first version of my email preferences center, I stored their preferences using custom fields (Dropdown with No first). This way, they can see what they are already subscribed to and can adjust. Then I use the tags for campaigns and broadcasts.
That totally works too! No qualms with that route. 🙂
Can you please let me know what type of action field do you have for UPDATE action? Quick little video or step by step instructions? At min. 10:49
Hi Josh, so the “UPDATE” Action Type is simply a category I created for my Notes/Tasks. You can manage these “types” under CRM >> Settings >> Task/Apt/Note Settings; once you’re there you should see a list with the default types, and you can remove any you don’t need, or add a new one.
Hope that helps! Thanks for reading/watching/commenting.