The Importance of Managing Subscription Status in Marketing Cloud

On this episode of The Developers Speak, Donny covers key considerations that the team should take into account when they're managing subscription status and lists.

Hey everyone - welcome back to the Developers Speak season 2! I’m Donny, a Marketing Cloud developer at Digital Mass, and today we’re going to be chatting about managing subscription status in Marketing Cloud. And, why staying on top of it is so important and the options you have for managing.

Why it’s important

For marketers using Marketing Cloud to send emails, managing subscription lists, and keeping those lists up to date, is very important. Not only does it keep you in good graces with people on those lists, but allowing people to unsubscribe is required by CAN-SPAM law.

Set up options

When it comes to setting up subscription status in Marketing Cloud, you generally have two options: using data extensions or publication lists. For this video, we will talk about publication lists because they are Marketing Cloud's out-of-the-box method for managing subscriber preferences. Publication lists are best for people who will have lists containing less than 500 thousand records and value simplicity over complexity. Publication lists are the most simple method of managing preferences because it can all be done in the user interface. Once created and made public, they can appear in the default preference center, but you can also use code to manage them on a cloud page for a custom preference center. A custom preference center that utilizes publication lists is my personal preference because you can get the customization of a cloud page while leaving the upkeep of publication lists in the user interface. 

Publication Lists can also help you determine the interests of your subscribers. Giving multiple topics or publications will encourage subscribers to select options they are interested in hearing about, rather than just opting out of marketing content. When you give subscribers the choice to opt in to topics that interest them, the engagement of the emails for that lists will organically increase. Another benefit for the subscriber is they can be confident in your brand that you are delivering what is stated, which can ultimately improve the odds of conversion.

Publications lists work in your favor because if you only use the All Subscribers List, once someone chooses to opt out, you can’t email them at all. It is beneficial to allow subscribers to unsubscribe from specific messaging rather than all email messages as a way to retain a large and engaged subscriber base.

I hope this helped shed some light on why it’s important to keep subscription status’ up to date and how you can go about managing them.

The Developers Speak is a video series featuring certified Salesforce consultants at Digital Mass. They come to you twice a month to help bridge the gap between business problems and technical solutions.

If you have any questions about managing Publication lists in Marketing Cloud, get in contact with our team at Digital Mass here!