Allow contacts to choose their email frequency

[philraymond]

HubSpot Support tells me this isn't possible, but there must be a way.

I'd like to give existing contacts a way to choose their own email frequency (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).

Has anyone found a way to do this?

[danmoyle]

@philraymond there's nothing more I can add after @Jnix284. Listen to her. 😊

[Jnix284]

haha, sorry @danmoyle - I felt like I cracked the code when I figured this one out, so happy I could finally share with someone else to implement! 🙂

[danmoyle]

Nothing to apologize for, my friend. I love this answer and will keep it in mind when others may ask! @Jnix284 you're a rock star! 

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

@philraymond Yes, it is possible to do this (without Enterprise). I created a slightly complex series of lists and workflows to allow Realtors to sign up for a preset frequency to receive new listings.

First - the easy solution - can you create the content you want to email using the blog tool and allow them to subscribe with the pre-existing blog frequencies?  If the content isn't public, you can try my slightly more complicated solution 🙂

I don't have access to that account anymore, but I can walk you through the basics and I'm sure you'll be able to get it working - plus some of the others might have suggestions I didn't think of at the time that would make this even better!

If you're not trying to automate the emails and personalize the send schedule based on the individual, you can skip step 4 and just use your lists for frequency to send at the email at the predetermined frequency intervals as @kvlschaefer suggested in her response.

1 - 

create a property for email frequency limited to a single choice (dropdown)

2 - 

create a signup form that allows them to choose their frequency. We also had other criteria that allowed the CTA in the email to target the specific geographic locations needed (using Smart CTAs and lists).

3 -

Create your lists - as mentioned, ours was slightly more complex with the location specific info, so we had lists for regions which pulled the right CTA into the email, and then we had lists for frequency which determined how often to send.

4 -

This is the slightly complicated part. You have to create a 2 workflows for each frequency (3 frequencies = 6 workflows).

The first workflow triggers when they meet the criteria of being on the frequency list (or being enrolled).

The workflow then runs through a series of email sends with delays.

Send email 1, wait X amount of time, send email 2, wait X amount of time, send email 3, wait X amount of time, send email 4. Unenroll from workflow and enroll in second workflow.

The second workflow is by enrollment from the first and basically does the exact same thing, except at the end, it unenrolls and reenrolls into the first workflow, creating a loop.

For us, this worked, because we used the same email every time and changed the content with Smart content, but for the most part, our email was delivering the same thing regardless of the frequency, we just used the delays to create the frequency.

It was also successful because it allowed everyone to sign up at a different time and receive the emails at a different cadence (my monthly email didn't go out the same day as your monthly email).

I think the greatest challenge will come down to whether you have a set sequence of emails with content you are sending (like nurturing) or if your content is more dynamic and requires unique emails.

With the email templates, you can create some pretty smart emails and features to make the same email dynamic.

This is a LOT. sorry. let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to help!

[philraymond]

Wow, thanks so much for this! Might take me a while, but I will circle back if I get something working. Thanks again!

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @philraymond,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

This is a great suggestion, and I appreciate your explaining how it would help your contacts. 

Have you checked out the Email Frequency Safeguard feature? This feature is available for Enterprise users and allows you to set the maximum number of marketing emails a contact can receive on a rolling basis. 

As a workaround, you could potentially survey your contacts to ask them how many emails they would like to receive from you on a monthly basis for example, and then you could segment them into lists based on their responses. Once you've segmented your audience, you can add the pertinent lists to your marketing emails. 

I also wanted to tag in our subject matter experts to see if they have any advice:

Hi @Jnix284, @danmoyle, @NicoleSengers - Do you have any workaround suggestions for @philraymond?

Thank you!

Best,

Kristen