Best practice for re-subscribe/opt-in of unsubscribed leads

[Matt_Stone2]

Apologies if there's already a few threads on this, but I just wanted to see what other folks have found works best when configuring your forms to re-subscribe/opt people back in that have previously unsubscribed. I know some documentation says just add the Unsubscribed field to each form, hide it and set it to "No" -- but I wasn't sure if it made more sense to just set a universal trigger campaign for any form fill (minus unsubscribe) to accomplish the same?

[Traci_Taylor]

It doesn't seem like anyone has answered the original question. They're not referring to privacy law best practices. They're referring to people who have unsubscribed, come back to the website and fill out a form, but get put back into Marketo as unsubscribed becuase they previously unsubscribed.

I'm encountering the same problem. I have a Trigger set up to delete contacts that unsubscribe. The problem I just discovered, is that if they fill out a new form opting themselves back in, they're still put back into Marketo as unsubscribed, therefore, deleted again.

Should a trigger be set up, so chance the attribute to unsubscribe = false IF someone who was previously unsubscribed fills out a form?

Without going into CAN-SPAM, GDRPR, or CCPA, from a systems perspective, will this work?

[Katja_Keesom]

Hi Traci,

That is what a preference center is supposed to handle for you. You should always have an operational program that updates your consent-related fields whenever a new activity changes a person's status. So if a previously unsubscribed person (whether you had them deleted or not) fills out a new form and actively gives you consent on the form, a smart campaign should manage stamping your Opt-in date/time, setting Unsubscribed to false, update any Partial opt-in fields, etc. Marketo will not do this for you automatically.

I would also not recommend deleting a person immediately upon their Unsubscribe, as you would be impacting your campaign performance stats for all campaigns that person was included in as well. If the person is deleted, they will not be part of your stats anymore, distorting your performance figures.

Kind regards,
Katja

[SanfordWhiteman]

If the system Unsubscribed field doesn't appear on the form itself, the switching of the field to true can't be attributed to a particular email.

So in fact using a Smart Campaign to set the Unsubscribed is inferior to having it as a form field (hidden or visible).

[Katja_Keesom]

Depends on the circumstances I suppose. I understand and support your logic, but in The Netherlands simply filling out a form does not automatically mean the person consents to receiving any emails outside the campaign the form belongs to. They would need to actively and voluntarily opt in, which makes the hidden field option for the Unsuscribe field with a fixed value false an unsuitable solution.

[SanfordWhiteman]

It's not about having a fixed value false or true. If the decision to flip Unsubscribed (in either direction) is made based on other field values, the Unsubscribed field itself should be on the form.

Managing the value in a Smart Campaign means you lose the built-in attribution to the email they clicked to get to the Pref Ctr.

[SanfordWhiteman]

There's no need for a trigger.

If the system field Unsubscribed appears on the form and is explicitly set to false, the person will no longer be unsubscribed.

Better to open new threads, though, as this is 5 years old!

[Traci_Taylor]

Thanks @SanfordWhiteman and noted on opening a new thread. Is the example below what you described?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Should be lower-case false.

[Josh_Hill13]

Hi Matt,

Yes, there are lots of threads on both subscription management and attempting to re-subscribe people. For resubscriptions, you  cannot do anything about these people anymore because they unsubscribed. I believe some firms had success with using RTP and retargeting to get people to resub on content offers...of course those would only be active types.

If you have customers, you can include a resubscribe link to your sub mgmt page or a special offer to entice them to resub to regular offers instead of just their operational emails or invoices.

[Matt_Stone2]

I guess my question more revolved around how you handle re-subs operationally, not so much how you influence them to re-sub. Basically, I'm wondering if it's better to re-subscribe anyone who completes any of our forms (minus the unsubscribe form), or if they should be forced to go to an explicit re-sub form.

If it's the former, is it better to hide the Unsubscribed = False field on each form, or just have a triggered smart campaign that fires for any form fill but the unsubscribe form.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Are we talking about the US here?  If not, your best bet - and to remain compliant with the variety of data privacy/spam laws - is to explicitly ask for their permission again (and in some countries, double-opt-in is required).  In fact, I would do this in the US as well.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I agree with Dan.  Even if you make the Submit button double as a (re)subscribe trigger, you still need to label it ("By clicking this...") and they might miss it.  So you'd be better off explicitly giving them a checkbox in addition to the Submit.

[Dan_Stevens_]

If we do get customers to re-subscribe (and change unsubscribe to FALSE), does the durable unsubscribed value get changed as well?

[John_Clark1]

Yes, if they resubscribe then the durable setting will change as well.

[Jessica_Cross1]

Didn't know that. Thought durable setting was permanent.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Josh Hill - do you know the answer to this?