How to set up mailing channels

Mailing channels let people choose which of your mailings they receive, rather than all or nothing. With only your site’s default channel, someone tired of one email can only unsubscribe from everything; give the newsletter its own channel and they can drop that while still hearing from you elsewhere. This guide shows you how to add one.

Adding a mailing channel

1. Go to Site Settings, then Users, then Consent & Mailing Channels.
2. Hover over the blue ‘+’ button at the bottom right and choose ‘Mailing Channel’. The same task is on the ‘Tasks’ button at the top right.
3. Give the channel a name and a description. Your members see these when choosing their preferences, so make it clear what they’re signing up for.
4. Group the channel under a consent question, usually your general communication consent. People only receive a channel’s mailings once they’ve agreed to that overarching consent.
5. Choose the correspondence methods available on this channel (such as email or post), and set the default method for anyone who hasn’t stated a preference. You can add an image for the channel too if you’d like.
6. Click ‘Save’. The channel is now available when you send a mailing.

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Good to know

• New channels only help if people can answer them. On your registration form (Site Settings, then Users, then Registration Form) switch the consent section on, and choose whether to show every consent field or a custom set.
• A monthly newsletter is the classic case for its own channel: people who’ve had enough of it stay reachable for everything else.
• Channels sit under consent questions, and the two are set up together; how to set up consent questions and mailing channels covers the consent side in full.
• People with a login manage their own preferences in My Area, and anything they change is reflected in the web office.