Defining Subscription Management
Subscription Management allows you to categorize your organization’s emails. This, in turn, empowers your contacts to manage the emails they want to receive.
For example, your organization may offer a monthly newsletter or an events round-up. You will need to create these offerings as forms within the Simpleview CRM and add them to your organization’s website. Doing so allows a new contact to subscribe to these offerings. Act-On enables you to create Subscription Categories that align with your established CRM subscription forms.
Once you have set up Subscription Management categories, your contacts can update their subscription preferences, ensuring they only receive the emails they want in their inbox. Contacts are less likely to opt out of all your marketing communications if you allow them to choose the emails they wish to receive.
Subscription Management Set-Up
During your Act-On account activation, a Marketing Automation Specialist (MAS) will work with you to establish Subscription Categories. In addition, your MAS will guide you through the configuration of your Subscription Management page.
If you have questions about the Subscription Management set-up, please contact your Marketing Automation Team.
Managing Subscription Management Categories and Lists
CRM Subscription Category Updates
Act-On offers your organization tools for managing Subscription Categories and Lists. The synchronization between your Act-On platform and the Simpleview CRM expands Subscription functionality; however, it does not automatically sync a contact’s Subscription preferences between the two systems. This action is manual. Follow the guidelines below to export Subscription Management Lists from Act-On for CRM contact record updates.
- Select the Contacts icon in your navigation sidebar and then click Other Lists.
- Select Account Lists from the available Other Lists options.
- Locate the Subscription Management List and click the vertical ellipsis.
- Hover on List Import / Export and click ‘Download to CSV’ from the available options.
- Clicking Download to CSV automatically saves the CSV file to your computer.
- Proceed to the Simpleview Client Portal. Open a CRM support ticket and attach the CSV file you have downloaded from Act-On. The support ticket will be a request to upload the CSV file and bulk update the CRM subscription category value for the contacts included in the file.
Please contact your Marketing Automation Specialist or Strategist if you have any questions about this process.
Best Practice
If you send a weekly newsletter, you might want to export the Subscription Management List from Act-On and submit it to Simpleview CRM for updates quarterly. A monthly newsletter can be exported and submitted for CRM updates yearly. This cadence is up to you.
Updating Act-On Subscription Categories
Act-On allows you to rename or delete Subscription Categories. These updates follow a two-step process: updating your Subscription Management Lists and revising your Subscription Management Center. Follow the guidelines below to update your Categories.
Note
You must first apply updates for Categories to your Subscription Management Lists. Once Lists have been updated, your Subscription Management Center can be revised.
Subscription Management Lists
- Select the Contacts icon in your navigation sidebar and then click Other Lists.
- Select Account Lists from the available Other Lists options.
- Locate the Subscription Management List and click the pencil icon.
- You will see a screen titled ‘Subscription Management List.’ Use the More Options dropdown menu to click ‘Change List Columns.’
- You will see a screen titled ‘Subscription Management List Edit Columns.’ Locate the category you wish to edit and click the dropdown menu to rename or delete the category column.
- Apply your edits to the Subscription Management List, and click ‘Save.’ To disregard the edits, click ‘Cancel.’
Subscription Management Center
- Select the Contacts icon in your navigation sidebar and then click Subscription Management.
- You will see a new screen titled ‘Subscription Management.’ Locate the section titled ‘Subscription Categories.’
- Hover over the Category you intend to edit. New options will appear, including Delete and Move.
- To update the title of a Category, click the ‘Category Name’ field and make your changes.
- To update the explanation of a Category, click the ‘Short Description’ field and make your changes.
- Apply your edits to Subscription Management, and click ‘Save.’ To preview the edits, select ‘Preview.’
Creating Subscriber Segments
You can utilize the Subscription data supplied by Act-On to create segments that provide a real-time total of newsletter subscribers. Follow the guidelines below to create newsletter subscriber-based segments.
- Follow steps 1-3 in the Subscription Management Lists section, then proceed.
- From the screen titled ‘Manage Segment,’ select the Profile query method.
- Select the tag you intend to query from the dropdown menu, e.g., ‘Monthly E-Newsletter.’
- The Contains value must Equal ‘Yes.’
- Select the ‘Add Criteria’ icon
- Create a new expression using the Subscription query method. Select your Subscription Category and the segment value ‘not opted out.’
- To apply your criteria to the segment, click ‘Save.’ To disregard the segment, click ‘Cancel.’