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Document Your Solution

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Review a custom preference center example.
  • Define your requirements.
  • Diagram preference management data flow.
  • Document your solution steps.

A Custom Preference Center for Cumulus Bank

The very nature of a custom preference is that it is unique to each organization. However, it’s helpful to see an example. Let’s review an example project for Cumulus Bank. Cumulus Bank has been using Marketing Cloud Engagement for a few months and they want to create a custom preference center to obtain and manage information about their US-based subscribers. They’ve been using the standard preference and profile center, but have already created a data extension to track customer preferences.

Requirements

Let’s review the specific requirements (also called user stories) for this project. 

#

Requirement

1

Unsubscribes are honored in real time, but are required to be honored within 10 days of submission.

2

Unsubscribes are honored at the subscriber key level if available, otherwise according to email.

3

A subscriber can access the Preference Center page by clicking on the Manage Preferences link at the bottom of all emails sent from Marketing Cloud Engagement. 

4

A subscriber can quickly unsubscribe by clicking Unsubscribe at the bottom of any email sent from Marketing Cloud Engagement. 

5

If a subscriber clicks Unsubscribe they are unsubscribed at the Cumulus AMER business unit level only.

6

The Unsubscribe Confirmation page should include a success message, along with a link to the Preference Center page. 

7

A user can also unsubscribe from all messages on the Preference Center by clicking on an Unsubscribe From All button.

8

The Preference Center page allows subscribers to update these fields.

Personal Details

  • First Name (required, prepopulated)
  • Last Name (required, prepopulated)
  • Email Address (required, prepopulated)
  • Phone Number
  • Street Address
  • City
  • State
  • ZIP Code

Email Communication Details

  • Weekly news (check box)
  • Investment recommendations (check box)

Your Interests

  • Cash Back (check box)
  • Savings (check box)
  • Investments (check box)
  • Retirement (check box)

8

Known subscriber information from the user’s email shall be encrypted and then preloaded into the preference center field options. Note, if an email is forwarded to a friend, that friend has access to the subscriber’s unsubscribe center link.

9

Once the subscriber has made their updates and clicked Update Preferences, they receive an on-screen success message. 

10

If an error occurs, the subscriber receives an on-screen error message to contact customer support. 

11

The Preference Center Confirmation page processes form data and updates associated fields on the Cumulus Customer Preferences data extension and the All Subscribers List when needed.

Data Flow Diagram

Now that requirements are drafted, the Cumulus solution architect, Terry, draws a diagram to illustrate the solution. Diagrams are helpful reference points to make sure all data sources are accounted for and identify where preference data needs to be updated. Review your diagram with your team, before you begin documenting the solution steps. From an email, a subscriber chooses to unsubscribe or update preferences and receives a confirmation message, then the data is updated in the All Subscribers List and Preference Center data extension.

Document Solution Steps

Next, Terry documents the high-level solution steps needed to complete the project based on the requirements. 

Pre-Work

  1. Gather assets and text copy from the Cumulus content team.
  2. Confirm SSL and a private domain have been purchased and implemented into the Cumulus AMER business unit.
  3. Allow for custom links by disabling validations for Profile Link Check and Unsubscribe Link Check in Marketing Cloud Engagement Setup.

Review Data Extension

  1. Review the Cumulus Customer Preferences data extension to ensure all fields are included from the preference center requirements.

Create CloudPages

  1. Create a preference center collection in CloudPages.
  2. Create three landing pages in CloudPages.
    1. Preference Center
    2. Unsubscribe
    3. Preference Center Confirmation

Code the Unsubscribe Page 

  1. Pull in subscriber information from the email.
  2. Use a LogUnsub events call to update the All Subscribers list.
  3. Display success message once completed.
    1. Success message: You have been unsubscribed from all Marketing Communications from Cumulus Bank. To modify your preferences, click the URL below to return to view your Preferences.
  1. Display an error message as needed.
    1. Error message: An error has occurred when updating your preferences, please contact Cumulus customer support to complete your request.

Code the Preference Center Page 

  1. Prepopulate known information into the form.
  2. Include a link to the Unsubscribe page.
  3. Confirm each field links to a field found in the Cumulus Customer Preferences data extension.
  4. Link the Update Preferences button to the Preference Center Confirmation page.

Code the Preference Center Confirmation Page 

  1. Search for a subscriber key and upsert new or changed data into the Cumulus Customer Preferences data extension.
  2. Display success message once completed.
    1. Success message: Your preferences have been updated. To modify your preferences, click the URL below to return to view your Preferences.
  1. Display error message if an error occurs during the upsert of data.
    1. Error message: An error has occurred when updating your preferences, please contact Cumulus customer support to complete your request.

Test Solution

  1. Publish pages for testing.
  2. Create a test email and update the unsubscribe and preference center footer links using CloudPages URL to prepopulate information from the email to the linked page.
  3. Send a test email to assigned testers and check functionality.

Implement Solution

Once fully tested, update the shared business unit email footer with correct links.

Create a Blueprint

Once the diagram is completed and solution steps are identified, Terry documents this information along with the original use case and requirements into a solution document or project blueprint. But before anyone can begin building the solution, Terry needs to send the blueprint to the Cumulus team to review and make sure all requirements are accounted for. After the blueprint is approved, it can then be provided to another team member to implement the solution. 

Note

Check out this sample blueprint for the Cumulus Bank solution described in this badge.

Next Up: Review the Solution Steps

In the next unit, we cover these steps in more detail, along with some tips and tricks for success. 

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