Email Opt Out
NetForum allows you to track different mailing types and allow customers to opt out of mailings based on the mailing type. The types of mailing are client defined.
When you send a mailing, you can choose the mailing type and then NetForum automatically excludes any customers who wanted to opt out of that topic.
Mailing Type Setup
To set up mailing types, go to Marketing Setup. On the Setup page, there is a child form for the types of mailings.
To add a mailing type from the Setup page, click the Add button on the child form. This opens the Add — Mailing Type form.
Enter a mailing type and description. The type is what will be displayed to users.
Defining Mailing Type for Communication
Once you have added your mailing types, whenever a mailing is sent through either the communicate page or a Call to Action, you will be required to select a mailing type. Based on the mailing type selected, customers opting out of that type of mailing will not receive the mailing.
In the nearby image, you will see that the count for recipients have not opted out of eNewsletter email is lower that the other counts, owing to the fact that some of the people in this list have opted out of this specific mailing type.
Note: if you choose a Seed List for the communication, anyone who belongs to the seed list will get the communication even if they have opted out of that particular mailing type.
How to Opt Out
There are three ways in NetForum for a customer to be opted out of a mailing.
iWeb
View the Managing Mail Preferences topic for full details on using iWeb to opt-out of email messages.
eWeb
Customers can also opt out of mailing types through eWeb. There are two different options for allowing your customers to opt out of mailings. These are both available as links you can add to your Marketing Correspondence Templates. These links take the user to CMS Web Pages called Unsubscribe and Unsubscribe2. These pages are included in the baseline version of the standard eWeb site.
Opt Out of Single Type
The first option is to add a link to opt the customer out of just the type of mailing that they were sent.
To do this, add the following link to the template:
.../eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=SITE&WebCode=unsubscribe2&cst_key={cst_key}&mtp_key={mtp_key}
If the user is sending the email via the Communicate Page, you must manually replace {mtp_key} with the value displayed next to the mailing type drop-down.
In Marketing > Templates, the {cst_key} should be inserted from the field list drop down, and will appear as cst :: Customer Key (cst_key). If that field is not available, you can select the equivalent foreign key (i.e. mbr_cst_key, ind_cst_key, inv_cst_key, cmc_cst_key, etc.). In a Marketing template, there is no drop down associated with mailing type. When incorporating directly into a Marketing template or other email, the easiest way to find the desired mtp_key value is to go to and edit the desired mailing type item. Show the toolbar in the modal popup to see the key at the end of the URL. For 2011 users, you must right click in the pretty, but somewhat annoying, jQuery modal box and tell it to open in a new tab or window before you can show the toolbar and get the key... sorry.If the template is being used in a Call To Action, the following link can be used instead:
.../eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=SITE&WebCode=unsubscribe2&acd_key={acd_key} <-- isn't cst_key still required here?
When they click that link, they will be brought to a page that confirms they have been opted out as shown here:
Opt Out of Multiple Types
The second method allows the customer to opt out of specific types of mailing. To do this, add the following link to the template:
.../eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=SITE&WebCode=unsubscribe&cst_key={cst_key}
When they click this link, they will be brought to a page that will have all of the mailing types.
It will also have checked the types from which they have previously opted out.
Direct Link
There is currently no direct link to either of these pages in baseline eweb, although such links may be added if desired using CMS.
MagnetMail Integration
When unsubscribes are processed from MagnetMail, if the MagnetMail Group Name matches exactly to a NetForum Mailing Type, the individual will automatically be opted out of the mailing type.
Querying for Opt Out
If you need to write a query from the Individual group item and want to consider opt out preferences, then you can do so with a sub-select condition via a Sub-Query.
The query condition will be Customer::Primary email (assuming you pick this column to send the message to) and is not in and then add a sub-query to the Email Optout table, using emo_address as the Pick Column to Select for Sub-Query.
For the sub-query conditions, add the following:
- choose the Mailing Type that you want to consider.
- Delete Flag Is Not Checked
- Email Address Is Not Null
When writing the sub-query, you must join the sub-query on the Email Address column instead of Customer Key because two or more customers might share the same email address, and it's possible that one customer has opted-out and the other customer has not. This could happen in the case of shared email addresses, or a duplicate customer who is mistakenly in the database two or more times. If you were to join on customer key, then the customer who didn't opt-out would be included which would cause their shared email address to be included in the list when it shouldn't be.
Best Practices
Consider the following best practices for email opt-outs:
- Avoid adding too many mailing types as it will confuse users.
- Mailing Types should be clear to members for eWeb; do not make them obscure internal codes they won't understand.
- Realize that a particular mailing may have only one mailing type. You cannot define a mailing as both Membership and Events, for example. If you really need to do this, then you might need to write a more precise query that weeds out these customers in the actual query.
- This is an opt out feature. If you want mailings that are opt in, then consider using Mailing Lists.