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CNTMike
Member

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

I have three regional active lists (for context, they are set up for us to email regional news).  

 

I would like stop emailing regional lists and only email news to people who request market-specific news. (For example, I don't want to email people in Miami about New York news just because they're on the "East" list). 

 

Should I set up subscription types (by market, in my case) and ask contacts to update their preferences to accomplish this, or should I set up market-specific active lists and have people migrate themselves from the regional to the market lists (I presume I can do that in the "Manage Preferences" form somehow)?

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

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karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Sure, @CNTMike.

 

You can create recipient lists that exclude contacts from other lists. Simply look for the List membership filter in contact lists. Here you can specify that contacts should be in the list because of a form submission, a property value etc but only if they are not a member of another specified list.

 

Another way to approach this would be exclusion lists: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/email/how-do-i-create-an-email-suppression-list

 

On a marketing email level, you can say that you'd like to email list A but only if the contacts are not in list B.

 

Hope this helps! If it does, you can help other community members (and me) by accepting my two replies as solutions. I'd appreciate it!

 

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

 

Have a great day!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

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karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Hi @CNTMike,

 

I would recommend to not use subscription types for this (i.e. the manage preferences page). Subscription types a are a tool to capture consent (opt-in, opt-out), not a tool to capture preference. Yes, the page is called a preference page but mainly because 'manage or withdraw your consent' isn't easy language.

 

Using subscription types for this makes things messy further down the line. You want to keep these as simple as possible, e.g. a general marketing subscription type, and use custom properties to further segment. (Let's for example assume that someone does not want to receive marketing emails from you anymore, you unsubscribe from each category's subscription type. In the future, you change the subscription logic again and they might become eligible to receive emails again – not what they'd want. It's better to have them opt out of a broader marketing email subscription type and manage their preference for a topic through a custom property.)

 

My recommendation would be to start creating active lists based on your new segmentation logic. If you have information that lets you do this without asking your subscribers, that's perfect. If not, you could try to push them to a form submission where they specifically let you know which topic they're interested in. Alternatively, you can create CTAs for your emails for each choice and send them to a 'thank you for letting us know' page. The CTA click can sort contacts into the correct lists.

 

In summary, the subscription type should not be used for this. You would capture this preference in a custom property (dropdown select or multiple checkboxes) which you'll start using in website forms / newsletter forms. You can update this manually based on previous marketing touchpoints (contacts interacting with content from a specific category) or simply ask them in your next email what they're interested in.

 

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

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CNTMike
Member

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply, @karstenkoehler

 

Is there a way to set a rule so that they are removed from the larger list when they opt into the new, more specific list?

 

For example: 

 

1. I have a contact currently receiving "East" emails.

2. I push them an email to get them to opt into more specific lists, and they choose to receive "Miami" emails only.  

 

It's critical to remove them from the "East" list, so they don't receive emails about cities other than the one they chose, in this case, "Miami."  

 

Can I create a rule to make that happen automatically, as I need to continue emailing the larger East list perhaps indefinitely as a significant portion of people will not necessarily opt into the new market-specific lists?  

 

If it matters, a contact could theoretically opt into several of the new smaller lists (For example, Miami and Orlando), so I have to offer them checkboxes and not radio buttons. 

 

My thanks!  

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karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Sure, @CNTMike.

 

You can create recipient lists that exclude contacts from other lists. Simply look for the List membership filter in contact lists. Here you can specify that contacts should be in the list because of a form submission, a property value etc but only if they are not a member of another specified list.

 

Another way to approach this would be exclusion lists: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/email/how-do-i-create-an-email-suppression-list

 

On a marketing email level, you can say that you'd like to email list A but only if the contacts are not in list B.

 

Hope this helps! If it does, you can help other community members (and me) by accepting my two replies as solutions. I'd appreciate it!

 

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

 

Have a great day!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

CNTMike
Member

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Thanks again! 

 

So it seems there is no automatic way to remove someone from a list when they choose to opt into another, which is a pity. 

 

Seems my only recourse is to use method #2 and exclude several lists from campaigns.  

 

Seems like there should be a way to set a rule to do this.  If there is, I'd be happy to know at mnoonan@centerpoint.com.  My thanks, @karstenkoehler for your kind help!

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karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Hi @CNTMike,

 

This is possible. Again, you can specify as a filter in list A that a contact should not be a member of list B 🙂

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

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CNTMike
Member

Best way to get more specific emails to contacts currently residing in large regional active lists

SOLVE

Let's say John is in the "East" list.  

 

I create two lists for "New York" and "Miami" using the filters "Form Submission" and "List membership," and I choose "is not a member" of "East." 

 

I send out an email to the "East" list offering contacts the choice of narrowing their news from us, and John accepts our offer to get only "Miami" and "New York" emails. 

 

The "List membership" filter for both "Miami" and "New York" will remove him from the "East" list? 

 

Seems to me he'd only be able to be filtered into Miami and New York if he's *not* a member of the East list.  

 

If I choose "is a member" of "East," seems to me he'll now be in three lists, and when I send "East" an email about Atlanta, he'll get it even though he only wanted "New York" and "Miami."

 

Am I being obtuse?  Wouldn't be the first time if so. 🙂

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