Previously, when a prospect clicked "Unsubscribe" in an email, they were removed from all future communication. This often meant losing the ability to send critical updates because a prospect opted out of a marketing blast.
With Communication Preferences, you can now give your prospects more flexibility. They can choose to unsubscribe from specific types of emails (like "Marketing") while remaining subscribed to others (like "Loan Status Updates").
This article covers how to create categories, assign them to your automation, and what the prospect experiences.
1. Creating Communication Categories
Before assigning categories to your campaign or pipeline communications, you need to define them at the company or branch level.
Navigate to Settings.
Select Company Settings or Branch Settings (depending on your access level).
Locate the Communication Categories section.
Click to Add a new category or Edit an existing one.
Important Note: When creating a category, you will be asked for a Name and a Description. Both of these fields will be visible to the prospect on their preferences page. Please ensure the language is clear, professional, and customer-facing (e.g., "Monthly Newsletter" or "In-Process Updates").
2. Assigning Categories to Pipelines & Campaigns
Once your categories are defined, you must assign them to your specific pipelines and/or campaigns so the system knows how to classify the emails being sent.
For Pipelines
Go to the Settings tab of the specific Pipeline you wish to edit.
Find the Communication Categories dropdown.
Select the appropriate category (e.g., "Status Updates"). More than one category can be selected if applicable.
Save your changes.
For Campaigns
Open the specific Campaign settings.
Locate the Communication Categories section.
Select the category that best describes the emails in this campaign. More than one category can be selected if applicable.
Save your changes.
How delivery works: Once assigned, the system checks the prospect's preferences before sending. If the prospect has unsubscribed from that specific category, the email will be skipped.
3. The Prospect Experience
Here is how this new feature looks from your prospect's perspective:
The Link: Emails will still contain an "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom.
The Preferences Page: Instead of instantly unsubscribing them, clicking the link takes them to a Communication Preferences page.
The Choice: On this page, they will see the Names and Descriptions of your categories. They can:
Toggle specific categories on or off (e.g., keep "Updates" but remove "Promotions").
Select "Unsubscribe from All" if they wish to receive no further contact.
Confirmation: Once they click Update Preferences, their settings are saved immediately.
4. Tracking Changes in Prospect Preferences
When prospects make changes to their preferences, those changes are tracked in Bonzo so that it's easily visible which communication categories your prospect is subscribed to.
When a prospect unsubscribes from a particular category, that action will be tracked in their communication details with a date and time stamp when that action occurred.
You can also view the prospects current preferences at any time by clicking the email icon located by their email in the Prospect data section.
Best Practices
Be Descriptive: When naming categories, imagine you are the prospect. Use names like "Weekly Market Updates" rather than internal jargon like "Nurture Campaign A."
Separate Operational from Marketing: We highly recommend keeping urgent operational emails (like transaction updates) in a separate category from general marketing. This ensures prospects don't accidentally block important updates just because they are tired of newsletters.