Custom Subscription Preferences w. the Customer Engagement Engine

[Lauren_Galietti]

Background:
We do not use the standard Marketo subscription preferences but rather, have our own subscription center where people can opt-in or out of any of 5 different categories (Product information, Events information, etc.).

Currently, when we set up a smart lists to launch an outbound campaigns, we add the filter "Email Opt-In - _______ information" is "TRUE." What goes in the _____ depends on the type of email being sent. So an email about a tradeshow would use the filter "Email Optin - Events Information" is true. This ensures that only people who are still opted in to that category receive the email we are sending.

Question(s):
1) When setting up a nurture program using the new customer engagement engine, how can we be sure that someone who opts out after receiving our first email will not receive future emails that are part of the engagement program? Is it as simple as adding "E-mail Opt-In - ________ information" is true to our smart list for the engagement program?

2) If our engagement program is going to be a mix of different types of communication, let's say mainly educational content/product information but when we're attending a relevant trade show we want to insert event information, how would we handle the subscription preferences for that?

Thanks in advance for any guidance / advice!

[Anonymous]

Hi Lauren,

Have you considered making a different Engagement Program for each subscription center option? Then you can use campaigns to add/remove folks so only the right people are in each one, according to their preference.

[Anonymous]

Erik,
Does that mean the Engagement Program looks at the smart list before it sends each email? Therefore, as long as we made that subscription preference a filter, then it should pick it up for each cast?
Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

Carey,

I'm not sure about that, I would have to try it. What I meant you could use campaigns to add and remove from the programs with one program per susbscription checkbox.

[Lauren_Galietti]

Thanks, Erik. I'll have to play around with it to see if I can make it work with the campaigns.

Is what I'm understanding, correct?

1) If a campaign is set up to add people to or removes them from an engagement program based on "e-mail optin - product information" being true or false then I am good to go as long as that engagement program only contains product information.
- If "true" they will enter the stream and start receiving e-mails from us
- Once changed to "false" the campaign to remove them will remove them from the engagement program entirely. They will no longer receive any communications that are a part of that engagement program.
- However, if their subscription statuses change again, and they re-meet the qualifications to be a member of the program, the campaign to add them to the program will pick that up and add them back in.
- The cycle could go on...

2) If we wanted to invite members of an engagement program to a webinar, I would add the program for the webinar to the top of the stream. The program itself will require "e-mail optin - webinars" to be true before it will send an invitation. Question is: if someone is not qualified to enter a program that is a part of the stream (in this case, they are opted out of webinars), will they just receive the next piece of content for which they are qualified?

I think this is starting to make some sense...

[Anonymous]

For #1, I think you'd need two trigger campaigns- one to add when they opt in and one to remove when they opt out.

I think you're misunderstanding on #2. I was suggesting you make a different engagement program per area of interest. Now this does get tricky when you want to coordinate when folks get pieces.

If you want one program running all of this, when you build out the streams you could use Programs instead of emails and have the campaigns they trigger check to see if someone has opted in for that particular piece of content.

[Anonymous]

We have added that second trigger campaign. Trigger is "Email Opt-in Preference" changes to false. Flow step is "Change Engagement Program: Nurture > Unsubscribed". However, people that have been unsubscribed in this manner are still receiving emails.

Do you know if the "Nurture > Unsubscribed" is supposed to stop people from receiving the email nurturing? I know that I could use a flow step to actually remove people from the Engagement Program, but for analysis, we'd like to keep them in.

[Anonymous]

Here is how we solved it. Create a last stream called "Unsubscribe". We have a campaign that does this:

Trigger:
Data Value Changes: Subscription preference - New value = false

Flow:
Change Engagement Program Stream = Unsubscribed Stream   [This step stops them from receiving future emails]
Change Program Status = Nurture > Unsubscribed     [This step allows you to see who has unsubscribed in the dashboard.]

We have tested this multiple times and it is working.