Email subscription management
There are many considerations surrounding the management of consent. It is important to know and understand the regulations in the regions in which you operate. Use the information below to help understand the features of Oracle Eloqua that support email subscription management.
Tip: For the latest best practices on subscription management, review our post on Topliners.
Email acquisition
When it comes to acquiring email addresses, consent requirements vary from region to region. Oracle Eloqua features support email acquisition best practices, such as opt-in and double opt-in. Using Oracle Eloqua forms, emails, segments, and campaigns you can build your opt-in subscriber database and ensure that you are only emailing recipients that have given you permission to do so. Opt-in status and the date of the opt-in can be stored directly in custom fields on the contact record, or by using a custom object.
Learn more about forms and campaigns.
Email groups
You can use Oracle Eloqua email groups to help manage email recipients. An email group is similar to a distribution list. However, email groups determine eligibility to receive an email. Segmentation is used to further refine your final recipients.
Email groups might be set up based on campaign, industry, product, or type of email. When contacts opt-in to your emails, you add them to an email group and contacts can manage their group membership using Oracle Eloqua’s subscription management page or by a customized preferences center.
Learn more about email groups.
Subscription management center
Oracle Eloqua offers an out-of-box Subscription Management Page that contacts can use to manage email group membership or globally opt-out from your organization’s emails. You decide which email groups appear on the page and contacts can then use the page to manage their email subscriptions. Whenever a subscriber make changes, their contact record is updated. You can easily link to the Subscription Management Page from your emails or from your website. Your organization can customize the subscription management center to include additional information, for example, if you needed to allow contacts to manage the data associated with their contact record.
Learn more about managing contact subscription pages.
Global opt-out
Oracle Eloqua manages global opt-outs automatically. After a contact globally unsubscribes from your emails, Oracle Eloqua prevents you from emailing that contact again. Oracle Eloqua retains the global subscription status even if the contact record is deleted. This ensures that if the contact ever enters your database again, their global opt-in status is respected.
Bulk Opt-in/Opt-out
You can batch subscribe and unsubscribe contacts through form processing and the program canvas. While configuring bulk subscription options, ensure your contacts have consented to email communication on the individual level.
When creating forms, you can subscribe and unsubscribe in bulk by selecting Processing, then clicking Subscribe Contacts Globally or Unsubscribe Contacts Globally. This feature allows you to select certain criteria for global subscription management, or subscribe/unsubscribe all who fill in your form. You can capture contacts' countries, pre-check opt-in for specific nations, select opt-out automatically for United States residents, and more. This tailored approach helps with region-specific opt-in compliance, ensuring you do not break any privacy laws. You can also send emails to contacts who have submitted forms, allowing for double opt-in through email confirmation.
TheSubscribe Contact and Unsubscribe Contact action steps on the program canvas allow you to subscribe or unsubscribe email groups. For example, to batch unsubscribe an excel file, use the contact upload wizard to create an email group using an excel file, then use this action step to unsubscribe that email group. If you want to link to a database and subscribe contacts through those means, add a listener step to detect whether contacts have opted in or out of emails. This listener step allows you to pull contacts into the program based on lead score changes, new contact creation, or campaign responses. You can then configure the action steps on the canvas to subscribe or unsubscribe a contact.