Once you create a preference center, you can insert its link into any direct or automated campaign. By including a link to your preference center in campaigns, subscribers can choose which lists to subscribe to or unsubscribe from.
Providing this option to your contacts enhances the quality of your data and segmentation, helps personalize your customer’s journey, and increases engagement.
This article will teach you to include a link to your preference center in your direct and automated email campaigns.
Take note
- You must create a preference center before you can add it to your campaign
- If a contact clicks your preference center link 24 hours after your email is sent, they will be directed to a page where they can click a button to send them an email containing a secure token. They can then click the link in the email to go to your preference center
- Preference center links are supported by the Email Designer, HTML, and Text-only email builders. These links are not supported by the Classic designer
- While you can add a link to your preference center from anywhere in a campaign, adding it within proximity of the “Unsubscribe” link is common practice, usually in the email footer. By placing it close to the “Unsubscribe” link, you provide your subscribers with an opportunity to specify their email preferences before unsubscribing
- You can apply link actions to the preference center link
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Add a preference center link to your campaign
If you want the preference center and unsubscribe links to appear side-by-side or in the same text block, replace the default footer with your own. Otherwise, you can add the preference center link to its own text block.
- You can add a link to your preference center to any existing text block, or you can add it to a new text block:
- From your campaign's email designer, add a new structure to your campaign layout
- Drag the “Text” block to the new structure
- Provide the text that will link out to your preference center. For example, you can type “Update preferences” or “Manage preferences.”
- Highlight the text, then click the link icon on the top menu.
- On the right pane, locate the “Link” option.
- Click the dropdown where it says “Site” and scroll down until you see “Preference Center.”
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Select the preference center you want to insert into your campaign.
Save your footer content to reuse in future campaigns. To learn more, please read the How to save and reuse email content help article.
Note that Message Variables do not currently work as a way to add a Preference Center to campaigns.
How the preference center works for subscribers
When subscribers click the preference center link in your campaign, they are taken to a secure space where they will see all email lists you choose to show. Email lists to which they are already subscribed will be selected for them.
From here, subscribers can select the list(s) they want to subscribe to or unsubscribe from. They can also click the option for "Unsubscribe from all."
When a contact chooses “Unsubscribe from all,” they are added to your account’s exclusion list and will have an unsubscribe status for all lists in your account - current and future. Contacts who click "Unsubscribe from all" can resubscribe to your list(s) by submitting a subscription form. Once they do, they will be removed from your exclusion list and remain unsubscribed for all lists except those they explicitly choose to join.
Once the subscriber submits their preferences they will see a confirmation page with an option to edit those preferences if they wish to change their selection. In addition, their list subscription preferences will automatically update in ActiveCampaign. They will not receive any opt-in confirmation emails.