Email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy that has the potential to convert prospects into customers and turn your customers into loyal fans. However, customers are inundated with emails and about 78% of people say that receiving too many emails is their main reason for unsubscribing (HubSpot, 2016). As a Marketer, you not only need to create quality and timely content, you need to focus on increasing customer satisfaction, improving retention, and creating a two-way communication between your brand and the customer.
Harness customer feedback to enhance the customer experience
Customers are in the driver’s seat and they can help you steer your marketing in the right direction. They know what they want in terms of email communications, and if you give them the opportunity to share their feedback, it can increase customer satisfaction.
All email communication requires a link to a Profile and Subscriber Center where the reader can enter and maintain personal information that a brand keeps about them, as well as the choice to select the type of messaging they want to receive, opt-in or opt-out from.
Out-of-the-box Profile Center references a subscriber list, a compilation of people that receive your email communications. You can create as many lists as you want to segment your subscribers based on different brands or type of communication, for example newsletter vs webinar. When a reader visits their Profile Center, they have the option to opt-in or opt-out of global lists or publication lists (i.e. newsletter, webinar), and if they unsubscribe of a global list, they will be removed from all communications.
Although the user has the power to unsubscribe or modify the type of communication they receive, there are limitations that may negatively impact their overall experience. For example, personal information cannot be updated, communication within the Profile Center is always rendered in English regardless of their location, and the center’s webpage is not mobile responsive. Considering 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices (Return Path), visitors expect a mobile responsive experience.
Additional limitations with out-of-box Profile and Subscriber Center that may negatively impact a customer’s experience:
- No additional branding options (apart from logo)
- No access to page structure / layout
- Inability to change font size / style
- Inability to Change Order or display fields
- Restriction to Change display Field Names
- Limits additional graphics on page
Build a Custom Preference Center in CloudPages
One effective solution to building a custom Profile and/or Subscription Center that gives your end users a fully branded experience when changing their preferences and/or opting in or out of communications is the utilization of CloudPages.
With a Custom Preference Center, you have the ability to create custom fields that can be saved in a Salesforce Marketing Cloud data extension or within a Salesforce Data Object that can then pass through to Marketing Cloud via the Marketing Cloud Connect connector. Using AMPscript, you have greater flexibility and are able to display dynamic content, allowing for more customization. For example, if you have more than one brand and your subscriber clicks on Brand #1 Preference Center, the content, graphics, and page layout will be a reflection of that specific brand. Should it be necessary, you also have the ability to integration with third party CRM.
Customers We've Helped Build a Customer Preference Center Using CloudPages
Additional benefits of Custom Preference Center
- Stronger branding
- Ability to control the CSS and page layout
- Option to reorganize the field attributes and visible naming
- Added personalization
- Implementing more complex scenario of opt-in and opt-out from data sources, not available in the default centers
Are you finding that the default Salesforce Marketing Cloud Profile and/or Subscription Center is not meeting your requirements? Do you want the ability to make your center look more on brand and integrate with different datasets? Take your brand’s Profile and/or Subscription Center to new heights with Bubblebox’s experience of developing customized pages on the Salesforce CloudPages and/or Landing Pages functionality.
Contact us today and let us help you customize your Profile and Subscription Center.
