Cookie Problems with Subscription Center/Management

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I've built out a Sub Management page for my company's website.

It's a Marketo form with each subscription option presented as a checkbox that you can check to receive that line of emails or uncheck to decline. Pretty simple.

The problem is with cookies. For most users, the form autofills and you can pick your settings just fine. But in some cases, the user is changing their subscription on a browser where they aren't cookied yet.

If a user is NOT cookied yet on that device or browser, they receive a blank form with the text fields empty and the check boxes all unchecked.

This presents a problem because it makes the user fill out the entire subscription sheet again (or, God forbid, they just click Submit without thinking and erase their entire set of subscriptions).

Does anyone know how to minimize or even solve this issue?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if this would be a good solution, but you could ask uncookied users to enter their email, look the subscription details via the API, and then show their subscriptions settings. 

[Dory_Viscoglio · Accepted solution]

Hey Cheyne, similar to what Murtza suggested, I'd look at the ways that someone could get to your preferences area uncookied. If they go through an email, they'll be cookied. If they go through a portal on your system, maybe you could have them go through a form first that would pull up their current email subscriptions before giving them the option to edit them?

[NadineRegan]

Hey Dory,

are you able to provide a link to what Murtza suggested? Looks like it might have been some sort of Jquery Cookie plugin but I can't find any reference or link for the code. We are also looking for a solution to see subscription preferences populate if they come to the page via other means (not via email).

[SanfordWhiteman]

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We are also looking for a solution to see subscription preferences populate if they come to the page via other means (not via email).

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That solution (used by many very large sites ) is here: https://blog.teknkl.com/pre-fill-any-site-any-form/

[NadineRegan]

Thanks, Sanford. This is great.

[NadineRegan]

Got another quick question for you, Sanford.

If someone comes to the subscription page who is currently unsubscribed, if they check any of the other preferences is there some kind of script that can uncheck the unsubscribe box on the form at the same time? Or would it be better to make the unsubscribe field radio buttons and make it required?

[SanfordWhiteman]

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If someone comes to the subscription page who is currently unsubscribed, if they check any of the other preferences is there some kind of script that can uncheck the unsubscribe box on the form at the same time? Or would it be better to make the unsubscribe field radio buttons and make it required?

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Somewhat strange UX to have a bunch of preferences and then a radio button set with the options "Do send me all that stuff"/"Don't send me anything", no? A checkbox, unchecked if at least one "Do send me" preference is checked, makes more sense.

[Josh_Hill13]

I doubt very much that this is a big issue for leads. When someone clicks on the unsub link from an email, it is tracked back to their info regardless of the cookie value. So almost no one will encounter this issue unless they disabled javascript or decided to go to the page directly in an uncookied browser.

At the worst, they will erase their settings. I'd expect they would want that then. Most leads do know how to fillout a form and won't mind doing so as long as it is clear what they are getting in this case.

[Kenny_Elkington]

Hi Cheyne,

Is your subscription center link set up correctly in your email templates/unsubscribe HTML?  The link should be tracked and associate the known lead record to the browser on click if they're hitting a marketo landing page and prefill immediately.