Subscription types: choosing a strategy, and what the details page shows

A subscription type is a category of email your contacts can subscribe to or unsubscribe from, such as a newsletter or product updates. Every campaign, automated email, recurring email and system email belongs to 1 subscription type, and a contact only receives it when they're subscribed to that type. The strategy of a type decides whether contacts start out subscribed or have to opt in.

Where to find them

Click the gear icon at the top right of the dashboard to open Settings, then click Marketing under Functionalities. Subscription types is the first section on the page. You only see Marketing if you're an admin with access to marketing.

Each row shows the name and description, the strategy, and Number of subscribed contacts. Click Click to fetch to count them. The count can be up to an hour old, and it only includes contacts who are actually subscribed.

A new account starts with 2 types:

• Functional Email, with the Functional strategy, for emails every contact has to get.
• Marketing, with the Opt-In strategy, described as "Receive all our marketing communication".

Check the strategy column for your own account, because older accounts may have been set up differently.

The 4 strategies

Opt-Out. New contacts are subscribed automatically, and they can unsubscribe whenever they like.

Opt-In. New contacts start out unsubscribed. They're only mailed once they subscribe: through a form, the widget, the contacts portal, the subscription preferences page, or because you subscribed them on their profile.

Double opt-in. Like Opt-In, but subscribing sends the contact an email with a link to confirm. Until they click it, their status is Pending confirmation and they aren't mailed. Once they click, they're Subscribed. The email they get is your default double opt-in email. You'll find it under Double opt-in emails, further down the same Marketing page, where you can edit it, add other versions and pick which one is the Default. Only the default is sent, for every double opt-in type, so it's worth checking that it looks the way you want.

Functional. Every contact is always subscribed and nobody can unsubscribe. It's meant for emails a contact needs regardless of marketing consent, such as login codes and emails about their vouchers or gift cards. Emails with this type don't need an unsubscribe link. Each account has exactly 1 functional type, and you can't create another.

The strategy can't be changed once a type exists. If you picked the wrong one, create a new type and move your emails over to it.

Adding a subscription type

1. In Subscription types, click Add subscription type.
2. Fill in Name and Description, and pick a Type: Opt-Out, Opt-In or Double opt-in. All 3 are required. The name is what contacts see on your subscription preferences page, so write it for your contacts.
3. Click Create. You land on the new type's details page.

Every contact you already have gets the type right away, with the starting status of its strategy. So a new Opt-Out type subscribes all your existing contacts at once, and a new Opt-In or Double opt-in type leaves them all unsubscribed. This happens in the background and doesn't start any automations or send anything.

A name can only be used once among your subscription types. Once you delete a type, its name is free to use again.

The details page

Click a type in the list to open it.

Information

The page shows the type's Strategy, Name and Description. To change the name or description, click Edit details, make your changes and click Save changes, or Cancel to leave them as they were. The name can't be left empty. Strategy is shown but can't be changed. The functional type can't be edited at all, so it has no Edit details button.

Usages

Usages lists everything that uses this type, so you can see what's affected before you change or delete it. The columns are Name, Type, Used for and Status, and each row opens the item it names.

Type is one of Campaign, Recurring email, Automated email, System email, Automation, Form, Widget or Contacts portal.

Used for says how the item uses the type:

• Audience: the email is sent to contacts subscribed to this type.
• Trigger: the automation starts when a contact subscribes to or unsubscribes from this type.
• Sign up: a form, a widget or the portal's Sign up page where contacts subscribe to this type.
• Preferences: the contacts portal's Mailing preferences page, where contacts change their subscription.

When nothing uses the type yet, you'll see "This subscription type isn't used anywhere yet".

Activities

Activities is the history of every contact's subscription to this type, newest first. Each row shows the contact, what changed, such as "Subscription was updated from Unsubscribed to Subscribed", and when. Click a contact to open their profile. This is where you look up when a contact subscribed or unsubscribed.

To see the history of 1 contact, search for them in the box above the list. You can search by email address or by name, for example their first and last name together. Clear the search to see every contact again.

It also records the starting status each contact got when they were added or when the type was created, so a new type shows a row for every existing contact.

Changing one contact's subscription

Open the contact under CRM → Contacts and go to Subscriptions. Each type shows the contact's status, Subscribed, Unsubscribed or Pending confirmation, and a button that matches it: Subscribe, Unsubscribe, or Send reminder when a double opt-in confirmation is still open. Send reminder sends the confirmation email again.

Subscribing a contact to a double opt-in type sends them the confirmation email, just like when they subscribe themselves. The functional type can't be changed for a contact.

Deleting a subscription type

At the bottom of the details page, under Danger zone, click Delete subscription type and confirm with Delete. It can't be undone, but the name becomes free to use again. 2 types can't be deleted:

• the functional type
• your last type that isn't functional, because you always need at least 1

Usages don't stop you from deleting a type, and emails, forms and automations that use it aren't moved to another type. When the type is still in use, the confirmation tells you how many items use it. Check Usages first and move each item to the type you want to keep.

Where contacts manage their subscriptions

Contacts subscribe and unsubscribe on your subscription preferences page and in the contacts portal. The unsubscribe link in your emails opens a page that asks the contact to confirm: only when they click Unsubscribe are they unsubscribed from the subscription type of that email. Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook can also show their own unsubscribe button in the inbox, which unsubscribes the contact straight away. See Editing the subscription preferences page your contacts see for how that page works and how to link to it.

If a contact is subscribed but still gets nothing, their address may be suppressed. See Bounces and spam reports: why a contact stopped receiving your emails, and what to do.