Help with Opt-In field

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I just realized that the field I set up to manage Marketing Opt-In is flawed.

I set it as Boolean, so when leads check it works great.

Then is a lead visits another LP with the same field and ignores the  field they are switched back to false.

Can someone please advise on how to better setup this process.

Thank you in advance

[SanfordWhiteman]

Well, you're in a semantic bind here. If you can't prefill the field (I assume you're embedding the form, since otherwise prefill is the most obvious option) then you can't show they've already opted in; conversely, you can't ignore their active wish to later be opted out.

Unfortunately, only remote mind-reading could tell the difference between "ignoring" the field (as in "not seeing it") and "seeing it, but leaving it blank." You can switch to radio buttons (Email me/Don't email me/Don't change my current setting). The radios make it impossible to conclude the lead accidentally left the field blank -- but you still may not like the results you get because you still have them non-opted-in by default.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sanford,

Thanks for replying.

I created a work around which I'm not happy with although it will suffice for now.

I created an extra field: Marketing Opt-in-1 (text field)

Then I created a campaign that marks Marketing Opt-in-1 when data value change; marketing opt in = true

This then preserves Marketing Opt-in-1 if marketing opt in changes

From here I will use Marketing Opt-in-1 to identify people for marketing

[SanfordWhiteman]

But then you're ignoring people trying to opt out by leaving it unchecked.

[Anonymous]

I have a corresponding campaign that says:

Data value changed = unsubscribed then change data value Marketing Opt-in-1 = False

Do you see an issue with methodology?

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Well, you have a checkbox control whose unchecked value is being ignored even if the end user is trying to send "No."

Of course, in standard HTML, there's no such thing as an "unchecked value" because checkboxes are defined as only existing in the form post data if they are checked. Unchecked checkboxes have no value -- they are not considered "successful" in W3C parlance -- and are not posted.

Marketo Forms turn this rule on its head by having single checkbox fields always post a value ("Yes" or "No"). So that's a drastically different meaning.

And based on the form field label, leads will make assumptions about which meaning is in play.

Ultimately, I think this comes down to Marketo Booleans being a problematic control type, esp. for fields that are more like four-state fields (not known / no, don't send me / yes, send me / now stop sending me).

[Anonymous]

Agreed, Im pretty sure my system will work. As when people unsub emails will not be delivered by default.

Great insights as always thanks mate