Hi,
I've been running into an issue with unsubscribed contacts who fill out forms signing up for webinars etc. and was hoping you guys could share ideas and insights. If it helps, this is a B2B marketing scenario:
A contact unsubscribed, then was deleted from Marketo, then this person came back via the website and filled out a Marketo form, signing up for a webinar, with the same email address as they had when they were in our database.
Right now what happens to this person is that they are created in the system, then automatically Unsubscribed because Marketo pulls this info from the Durable Unsubscribed list, they receive the webinar registration confirmation email because that email is marked as an operational email, but they remain unsubscribed.
How do you guys handle people who are unsubscribed but who are clearly interested in your content and possibly are valid prospects? Do you have terms and conditions on all your forms that tell them that by filling out the form they are automatically subscribed? Do you have a visibility rule on your forms that show people the option to subscribe if their Unsubscribed field is True? Do you maybe take advantage of the operational email and have a dynamic text on that email that offers them the option to resubscribed if their Unsubscribed field is set to True? Or do you just let them be unsubscribed and communicate with them only via operational emails that are only sent per their request of something? (I realize these ideas depend on where these contacts are, so for easiness of discussion purposes, let's assume everyone is in the USA and GDPR does not apply).
Thanks,
-Leticia
Hey Leticia,
Great question. Putting legalities of automatically re-opting someone in if they fill in a form aside, I generally like to think about it from the perspective of how we can best interpret their intent at different interactions, and prioritise those based on basically how explicitly clear that intent was.
So if someone has explicitly unsubscribed in the past, fills in a form and engages with us again, but does not explicitly state that they want to resubscribe, I'd be inclined to say that past explicit opt out trumps current potential willingness to opt in. But I think it's also possibly in the interests of that person to include a message in that operational email that lets them know that they are currently unsubscribed and provides them an opportunity clarify that uncertainty for us and resubscribe, or do nothing and remain unsubscribed.
It's a balance between legal compliance, best interests of the individual, and risks for your sender reputation. Ultimately, a person who doesn't want to receive your marketing is a person who is unlikely to convert through it and is likely to pose a spam complaint or compliance complaint risk.