Building an engaged subscriber list requires more flexibility to be able to deliver the most effective content. In other words, your subscribers should have a say in the email they receive from you. Building a preference center helps reduce opt-outs by giving your subscribers more flexible options on what they receive. Instead of sending your subscribers everything, this form lets them curate their experience resulting in more satisfied and engaged subscribers that are less likely to opt-out.
Benefits of a Preference Center
- You get a clear sense of your content. A Preference Center is only going to be useful to your subscribers if you have clear-defined content categories. Before you begin building your form, think carefully about what emails you send. The more clear and targeted your content is, the easier it is to define and align with your audience's interests.
- Reduce unsubscribes from your current audience. It's likely your audience has been built gradually over time from a variety of sources. Whether it's from blog content, web or in-store purchases, or through social media, these different audience types may have different interests. One of the key benefits of having a preference center is giving your subscribers a choice to opt-down instead of fully opting out of your content. They can easily choose to stay within a part of your audience without going away completely, which can help maintain healthy email engagement and less unsubscribes.
- Update what you know about your audience. A preference center is also a great place to find out more information on your audience. While they are selecting the content they wish to receive, you can help fill in blanks, or get the most up-to-date information on their name, email address, or other necessary demographic information you may need. This a great way to backfill information where you kept your initial signup form short and simple, or when you have new custom fields that didn't exist when a subscriber first joined your list.
Where to place your Preference Center
The most common place to have your preference form is linked in the footer of your email. While this is a great default way to use your preference center to prevent complete unsubscribes, you can also create a standalone email that invites your contacts to explore your audience categories. A preference center can be linked anywhere in the body of the content too. This strategy serves several purposes:
As a re-engagement campaign to spark interest from disengaged subscribers
As part of a welcome email series to new subscribers to help familiarize them with your offerings
When you've added or modified your audience categories
You can also export the code to your Delivra preference center forms and add them to your website. A preference center hosted on your website will act as a subscribe form. If you choose to implement a preference center, be sure that the information you collect is as simple as it can be to drive high conversion; you don't want your form to be too much work and drive potential subscribers away.
Wrap Up
Preference centers have great benefits, both to your audience as well as to your business internally. These defined subscribers of your audience give you focus and intent behind your emails. The option of categories should also help reduce churn over time and keep your subscribers engaged.