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René_Kamine
René_Kamine
Level 2
October 26, 2018
Question

Unintentionally unsubscribing

  • October 26, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 5638 views

Hi

I have a checkbox in a form to subsribe to our marketing. In the marketing optin field there are either Yes or No values. If that field on the form is left empty a No value is either replacing the Yes (they are already opted in) or auto populating a No value. The latter is OK, but if that check box is left blank I don't want the Yes (they are opted in) to be overwritten with the No value. How do I get around this?

Form can be found here - pages.supercars.com/gc-sms-non-mktg-optin.html

Thanks in advance.

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    4 replies

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    October 26, 2018

    First of all: it's not always legal to check an opt-in checkbox by default, even if they are already opted in.   I'll assume you have cleared the legal hurdle here, but I'm not responsible for anything that happens as a result.

    Since you haven't linked to your form (you should always provide a URL when asking for help) I'm assuming you have a radio button set?  And you want a radio button set without a selection to be treated as "yes"?

    René_Kamine
    René_KamineAuthor
    Level 2
    October 26, 2018

    Hi @Sanford Whiteman

    Sorry my bad not providing a URL. I'm new. I've added it above & can be found here - pages.supercars.com/gc-sms-non-mktg-optin.html

    I have added a check box to the form, not a radio button therefore it is optional & people can quite easily untick to unsubscribe. Furthermore, these are people that attended one of our events & have voluntarily provided us their email address as they wish to receive an event schedule for next year. While this could be considered Inferred Consent, I don't want to assume hence providing them the opportunity to not subscribe by unticking the box. However I've noticed a lot of these people are already subscribed to our marketing. If they choose not to tick the box & go directly to the download, I don't want to unsubscribe them. They may have left the tick box unchecked as they know they are already subscribed so no need to check it again.

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    Level 10
    October 26, 2018

    Well, neither a checkbox nor a radio button set is inherently optional nor required. Either type of input can be optional or required. That is, a radio button set may need to have at least one button selected, or not. A single radio button can be required. (I mention these for completeness.)

    What you're not explaining is how, if the person deliberately unchecks the prefilled checkbox, that's considered "accidental".

    Marie_Ligier
    Marie_Ligier
    Level 3
    October 26, 2018

    Hi René,

    Agree with Sanford that the radio buttons are best rather than assuming the reasons why the field is unchecked.

    However I've had a similar issue with forms that were NOT on a subscription page: events registrations, content download...

    ---> we still wanted to offer the ability to subscribe but didn't want people unintentionally unsubscribing by leaving the box unchecked. I also didn't want to use radio buttons and force the contact to take action.

    The only way I found to address that is duplicating the fields:

    1- you've got a field "opt-in FRONT" which you use on all your forms

    2- you've got the field "opt-in BACK" which you only use in the background

    3- you've got the field "opt-out"

    When a contact fills out a form to download a whitepaper:

    - If they leave the field "opt-in FRONT" unchecked: nothing happens.

    - If they check the field "opt-in FRONT": a trigger campaign also checks the "opt-in BACK" field and unchecks the "opt-out" field.

    When we launch a campaign, we use the "opt-in BACK" field to target contacts, and the "opt-out" field to exclude them.

    Just sharing in case this would be useful to anyone as it kept me up at night for some time

    Marie

    Marie
      René_Kamine
      René_KamineAuthor
      Level 2
      October 28, 2018

      Hi Marie

      Yes, you get it!!!  Thank you for sharing. Like you I want to also extend this over to gated content on the website but forcing an action is not ideal. I'll look into your solution further & may reach out directly for any questions if that is OK.

      Thanks again

        Dan_Stevens_
        Dan_Stevens_
        Level 10
        October 26, 2018
        Is this out of the box functionality of MKTO to automatically unsubscribe people if the box is left unchecked to subscribe

        Usually, this checkbox is a custom boolean field.  Not checking the box (or unchecking it) will not automatically UNSUBSCRIBE that user.  You would need to have some sort of workflow setup to make that happen.  For us, this field is called "opt-in".  We use this field as one of our primary filters before any email is sent out.  If it's FALSE, they are not necessarily unsubscribed (and most are not).  They just haven't explicitly given us their opt-in consent yet.

        Here's an example of the opt-in checkbox on our contact-us form:

          SanfordWhiteman
          SanfordWhiteman
          Level 10
          October 26, 2018

          In this case "unsubscribe" can't mean the system Unsubscribe field is set to true, but instead "unsubscribe" is used to mean "set Opted-In to false".

          Dan_Stevens_
          Dan_Stevens_
          Level 10
          October 26, 2018

          Good point in clarifying that, Sandy.  I was referring to the system unsubscribe in my comment.

          KellyJoHorton
          KellyJoHorton
          Level 3
          November 1, 2018

          I use a string field for opt-ins and opt-outs in a "Checkboxes" (plural) field type that writes a True, False or NULL, depending on what the person chooses. You always want to know if someone has answered Yes, No or never answered the question at all (NULL).

          Kelly Jo HortonSenior Client PartnerEtumos503.928.1928khorton@etumos.com
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