Setting up an Unsubscribe Survey

An unsubscribe survey allows you to get feedback from recipients who've unsubscribed from your marketing campaigns. Once you've gathered the information, you can use it to improve your campaigns and subsequently, minimise the risk of unsubscribing.

You may choose to make the unsubscribe survey by placing the unsubscribe Event on the submit button. However, we recommend you make the unsubscribe survey optional, which a recipient may choose to fill out after they've unsubscribed.

It's not possible to overwrite any email client-based unsubscribe function. If a recipient unsubscribes by clicking list-unsubscribe in the email client, the recipient will be unsubscribed and therefore, it's not possible to make an unsubscribe survey for list-unsubscribe.

In this article, you'll find information about:

• How to Set up an Unsubscribe Survey
  • Creating the Person Data
  • Create the Unsubscribe Event
  • Create the Unsubscribe Survey Page
  • How to Link to the Unsubscribe Survey Page
• How to Test an Unsubscribe Survey

How to Set up an Unsubscribe Survey

Creating the Person Data

In order to save the answers from the unsubscribe survey, you'll need some Person Data fields. The specific fields will depend on how many questions you're setting up. In this example, we want a reason field and a comment field.

1. Create a string Person Data called UNSUBSCRIBE_REASON.
2. Create a string Person Data called UNSUBSCRIBE_COMMENT.

Create the Unsubscribe Event

Agillic offers an Event called 'Unsubscribe' by default, which will set the Person Data UNSUBSCRIBE to 'true' as a Side Effect. You may choose to use this Event or create a new one.

1. Create an Event called 'Unsubscribe all'.
2. Add a Side Effect for each permission like EMAIL_PERMISSION set to 'false'.
3. Save the Event.

Create the Unsubscribe Survey Page

The unsubscribe survey page will have both an unsubscribe verification, the survey, and a receipt of when the survey is complete.

1. Create a Web page with a user Menu Item.
2. Write an unsubscribe verification message to make it clear the recipient is already unsubscribed.
3. Add a Questionnaire to the Web Page.
4. Insert a drop-down question for UNSUBSCRIBE_REASON and add different reasons as answers.
5. Insert a comment field for UNSUBSCRIBE_COMMENT.
6. Set the questionnaire to go show a receipt when completed and write a verification message.
7. Click 'Save'.

An unsubscribe survey page using the questionnaire application

How to Link to the Unsubscribe Survey Page

1. Change the email template to have a non-editable link to the unsubscribe survey page in the footer.
2. Add the 'Unsubscribe all' Event to the link.

You are now ready to test the configuration. Remember to test the setup on Staging before you choose to go live.

How to Test an Unsubscribe Survey

Testing an unsubscribe survey is an important step before pushing the survey live. This way, you can make sure that everything works as intended. When testing your Unsubscribe Survey, you'll need to: 

1. Create an email with the newly updated email template. Make sure that you link to your unsubscribe survey.
2. Send the email on behalf of the test recipient.
3. Click the link to the unsubscribe survey page in the delivered email.
4. Verify that the test recipient's permissions are set to false.
5. Fill in the unsubscribe survey on behalf of the test recipient.
6. Verify the test recipient has the answers saved correctly in the Person Data fields.

 Suggested Next Steps

• Understanding Web Portal
• Understanding Advisor Portals
• How to Create a Questionnaire