Create the optout pages

The optout page

1. In the editor, select a folder and create a new page. Give it a name "Optout". In this example the optout pages will not have any layout, otherwise you could also import a HTML file for your optout pages.

Its a good idea to maintain some kind of folder structure. This email could go under a "Optin-Optout" folder for instance.

2. Make sure the page is in 'Edit' mode. In the Design tab, enter the following content:


This example is very basic, there are better ways to deal with optouts than this. The optout page does not need to be the end of your communication with the contact. On the optout page you can try to change their minds. Give them other options, let them change the frequency of emails they receive. Ask them why they want to optout; perhaps the content is not right, or you are simply sending to the wrong email address. Let them know you are a person, not a machine. And if they definitely want to go, part on good terms, keep the unsubscribe process straight-forward. There are enough examples of unsubscribe best practices on the web, but for this example, we are going to keep it simple.

We will however create a two-click unsubscribe journey. First they have to click the unsubscribe link in the email, next a confirmation link on this page. We don't want to unsubscribe the contact immediately after clicking the unsubscribe link in the email. What if they accidentally click and inadvertently unsubscribe? It would cost you a valid customer you worked hard for to acquire.

3. ~FIRSTNAME~ will retrieve the contact's value of the field FIRSTNAME in the audience list. Of course this field must exist and it must hold a value, otherwise nothing will be displayed. To see all the fields of the audience list, find your test audience list in the tree view on the right, under 'Audiences', click the list to see the linked lists and the audience list fields.

Instead of typing ~FIRSTNAME~ you can also right-click the field in the tree view and select 'Insert'. It will be inserted where you put the cursor.

4. Create a sensor to go to the optout confirm page. Select the text "Unsubscribe from the mailing list", Click the 'Sensor' button from the top bar to create a new sensor.

In the properties of the sensor select the last radio button. We are going to define the reaction (draw an arrow) in the journey. Rename the sensor "Unsubscribe", this name is used in the reporting, so use short descriptive names for your sensors. Click 'OK' when done, the sensor will appear in the sensors overview panel on the right. Don't forget to save your page.

 

The optout confirm page

Create a second page "Optout confirm" in the same folder. This will be the page following the click on the unsubscribe sensor on the "Optout" page. Add the following content: