We have an exciting new change to announce! The Unsubscribe tag is now optional in Pardot emails; instead, clients can substitute the Email Preferences link to manage unsubscribes (note: either the Unsubscribe tag or the Email Preferences link MUST be present). This change is still CAN-SPAM compliant.
This is cool for a number of reasons. First, email recipients can still unsubscribe using the Email Preferences page (the unsubscribe link will only show on the Email Preferences page if the page is being viewed from an email). Second, it’s a good option for clients with robots crawling their unsubscribe links and auto-unsubscribing their clients. And third, instead of opting out of all communications, prospects and clients can visit the Email Preferences page to add or remove only certain lists.
Any email preference page can be used in place of the unsubscribe link in emails–this includes custom email preference pages!
We will still be validating emails to check for either the Email Preferences link or the unsubscribe tag.
Keep an eye out for additional training opportunities focused on the Email Preferences page!
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Wow, this is great! Already thinking of all the public lists I can add to our Preference center…
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Exciting indeed! Love that you guys continuing strengthening an already strong platform. Kudos!
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This is awesome! It always felt a little redundant and potentially confusing to have both options in our emails. We will definitely experiment with just the preferences link and see if we get any complaints from folks looking for the quick unsubscribe… and of course will share the data here!
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Is it sufficient to include a custom email preferences page e.g. pi.pardot.com/emailPreference/e/… or does it have to be the %%email_preference_center%% default page?
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Absolutely. You can use any email preference center you create. Sorry we weren’t clear about that at first. Here is some more info on creating custom preference centers and inserting them into emails:
https://www.pardot.com/faqs/emails/email-preference-center/#Custom_Email_Preference_Pages
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I really love the idea of this! Wishing we could use it. Our problem is we can’t use the %%email preference%% link. We have to have multiple email preference pages in English and French for our clients (thus the main one is not used). It would be awesome if there was another way around this for clients that have to use multiple email preference pages and not just the main one.
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Tracy, you are in luck!
Sorry we weren’t clear about that at first. Here is some more info on creating custom preference centers and inserting them into emails:
https://www.pardot.com/faqs/emails/email-preference-center/#Custom_Email_Preference_Pages
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Is it possible to allow for any preference center to be used? Currently you have to use the variable tag (%%email_preference_center%%) in the email. But in our case, we have multiple preference centers created to use for different audiences.
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Absolutely. We didn’t explain this well at all at first. You can use any preference center you would like (since they all include the ability to unsubscribe).
Here is some more info on creating custom preference centers and inserting them into emails:
https://www.pardot.com/faqs/emails/email-preference-center/#Custom_Email_Preference_Pages
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When I try to use the links to my custom preference centers, I get an error from the editor:
“An unsubscribe tag (%%unsubscribe%% or %%email_preference_center%%) is required somewhere in the body of the email.”
Going with this theme, one way of tracking usage of the preference center (and not just opt outs from it), was using a custom redirect that forwarded to the preference center (since the EPC itself isn’t included on click reports). Would this be possible?
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How will this feature work if you have multiple email preference centers? Are you able to use different ones or can you only use the default EPC variable tag?
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Hi Matt,
Thank you for your feedback! You should definitely be able use any of your EPC’s, not just the default. I’d like to see what you are seeing – could you connect with Pardot support, tell them to connect your ticket with “Ian”, and we will get you squared away!
Best,
Ian Snead – Engineering – Pardot
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Experiencing exactly the same problem as Matt when trying to use my custom prefs page. If you discover a fix, please let us know.
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Fantastic!
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This is huge! EPIC! A massive victory for the preferences page!
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I suggest you update the screenshot (Screen shot 2012-05-03 at 3.35.34 PM) on the “https://www.pardot.com/faqs/emails/email-preference-center/#Custom_Email_Preference_Pages” page to show the new feature, so that everyone can see what it will look like.
Thanks!
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Thank you for this! Huge improvement over old method.
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You bet! Thanks for the feedback.