· 2 min read
Where to Define your Purpose and Topic - Segment or Email?
Including your consent Customer Insights - Journeys
With the end of life (EoL) of Outbound Marketing, we are having interesting conversations with customers and colleagues about consent, purposes, and topics. The other day, one of my colleagues asked whether to place the topic in the segment or the email.
That is an interesting question! Let’s take a look at these two elements—where to place your topic and purpose, and whether you should place your topic at all!
If you are not familiar with consent in Real-Time Journeys, check out the Compliance Series from Megan Walker.
To Topic or Not?
The first question to answer is: should we use a topic in the email or segment. Isn’t the purpose alone enough?
The easy answer: NO!
When you add a topic to your email, contacts who click on a one-click unsubscribe link will opt out of your topic, not your purpose. The purpose opt-in remains intact.
From a segment perspective, when you add only the purpose, you might not get a clear view of your target audience.
So, to topic or not? —> Yes, we must include a topic!
Segment
Should we include consent in our segment, regardless of the topic?
I would always say yes, primarily because it give you a ‘net’ view of your recipients. You can see the number of contacts or leads who will actually receive your email for that specific topic and/or purpose.
It’s quite easy to do. Simply add these elements to your segment and choose the specific purpose and topic.
If you are using a topic in your segment, always make sure to add the parent purpose as well.
What about emails? Should we always add the topic there too?
Again, yes. By aligning the email with your consent structure, you will receive accurate feedback from the one-click unsubscribe. Moreover, if you have a trigger-based journey, this is the only way to set the correct consent structure.
Wrap-up
In conclusion, I always advise adding both topic and purpose conditions to your emails and segments to:
- Get accurate feedback on one-click unsubscribe
- Have a ‘net’ view of your audience
- Build a solid foundation for trigger-based journeys