How to only email people once a month (subscription center option)

[Anonymous]

I've set up a subscription center that gives people the option of choosing how frequently they want emails and one of the options is monthly. I'm having trouble figuring out what kind of program I can create to make sure these people only get emailed once a month. Has anyone ever done this before and can help point me in the right direction? Is this even possible to do automatically (versus manually)?

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

Add them to a Customer Engagement engine campaign that serves content on a monthly cadence.

[Andy_Varshneya1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Alyssa,

You could set up a trigger smart campaign that fires when they are delivered an email with a filter to check if they opted for the once a month option. Then in the flow, you mark them as marketing suspended, add a 30 day wait, and then set marketing suspended to false.

[Anonymous]

Hi Andy,

That is what I was thinking of doing, except that sounds like they're only taking a 30 day break, not limiting the lead to 1 email per month. Did I read this wrong?

Thanks!

Alyssa

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Alyssa,

You are right, they will take a 30 days break as soon as they receive an email. This is not exactly as if you would send 1 email per calendar month.

To limit to 1 email per calendar month, create a field (type checkbox).

Create a triggered smart campaign that sets to Marketing suspended these people when they are sent an email (trigger: email is delivered). do not set the wait and the following step to cancel the suspended. As a replacement create a batch smart campaign that set every lead in the list to non suspended on the 1st day of the month at 12:01 AM.

-Greg

[Abhilash_M]

Hi Greg,

I created a Global campaign (trigger: email is delivered) and suspending leads based on weekly/monthly choices provided on Preference center page.

My question is, If a person is receiving a confirmation/Thank-you email up on filling a form should we consider it as a 1 email received and mark the person as suspended?

Or is there a way to exclude these people from the trigger campaign.

Thanks!

Abhilash

[Grégoire_Miche2]

That's a good question because there is no way to accurately separate an operational email from a marketing one in filters and triggers.

Vote

In the meantime, you will have to use some naming convention to separate them. we always prefix operational email names with OP- . Then you can use constraints in filters and triggers to exclude emails containing "OP-" or starting with "OP-".

-Greg

[Abhilash_M]

Hi Greg,

Thanks a lot for your response.

I think containing "OP-" or starting with "OP-" in the campaign will only exclude emails which are already existing in Marketo till date, but not  the future emails created with OP- in the name.

Thanks!

Abhilash

[SanfordWhiteman]

I think containing "OP-" or starting with "OP-" in the campaign will only exclude emails which are already existing in Marketo till date, but not the future emails created with OP- in the name.

Greg's suggested naming convention works as thoroughly as you enforce it. I don't know what you're talking about here.  It goes forward and backward; of course it can't cover Operational emails that you don't rename.

[Andy_Varshneya1]

I agree that is the best way to handle a true "once a month" type email limitation, but the thing to be careful with this is that it'll become possible for you to send them one email during the last few days of Month 1 and then send another email in the first few days of Month 2. While you're technically not violating the agreement of 1 email a month, it's not an ideal end user experience.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Andy,

I agree, but sending 1 email per calendar month was the question asked

-Greg

[Grégoire_Miche2]

IMHO, simplest and surest way. Good catch.

-Greg

[Andy_Varshneya1]

One thing to be careful of is if there are multiple such campaigns, which could cause someone to be opted back in earlier than the 30 day wait time if you're not careful and don't setup filters to check if they're a part of the other suspend campaigns.

Andy