Set up the preference center

Set up email categories so users can choose which emails they receive. For what the preference center is and why to use it, see the overview.

Setup steps

Follow these steps to turn on the preference center and start using email categories.

Important

Email categories apply only to campaigns created after the feature is enabled. Campaigns created before category setup ignore user preferences entirely.

Set up categories

To enable category-based filtering and let users manage preferences, set up categories in your project:

1. Go to Settings > Preference Center.
2. Click Set up categories to define which email categories users can subscribe to (e.g., Promotional, Newsletter, Product Updates, Events).

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You can define up to 20 categories per project.

3. In the Set up categories modal, review the suggested category list, edit category names if needed, and add new categories with Add category. For each category, configure subscription options:
   • Subscribe new to subscribe new users automatically when they register.
   • Existing users to subscribe existing users once when you save changes. To subscribe users later or in bulk, import a CSV file.

Category naming

• Use names your recipients will understand and avoid internal or technical jargon.
• Each category name must be unique.

4. Click Save. Users will see these categories when they open the preference center.

After you save, the subscription pages are ready. See What happens when users click your links.

Add links to your emails

Users manage the categories you just set up through links in your emails. Add two links: an unsubscribe link, so users can opt out, and a preference center link, so users can choose which categories they receive.

Unsubscribe link

Add the unsubscribe link to your email content. After a click, users go through the unsubscribe flow.

Preference center link

Insert a link to the preference center in your emails (for example, in the footer or a call-to-action button) so users can manage their communication preferences. To do so:

• In the Drag & drop editor, select Manage preferences link from the Action type dropdown. Learn more
• In the HTML code editor, use the variable %%PW_EMAIL_PREFERENCE_CENTER_LINK%%. Learn more
• To copy the placeholder, open the three-dot menu in the top right of the Subscription categories section on the Categories tab and select Copy link to Preference center. Paste it into an email.

Select a subscription category in your campaigns

When you create a marketing email, select a Subscription category in the campaign form or in the Journey email step. Only users subscribed to this category receive the email. Learn how in one-time emails and Customer Journey emails.

What happens when users click your links

Users land on ready-made subscription pages. The pages work by default, so you don’t need to connect them. Which page a user sees depends on what they click: the unsubscribe link and the preference center link lead to different pages, and each page leads to the next one through its buttons.

There are seven pages, and users see each one at a different moment:

Page	When users see it
Preference center	They open the preference center link or click Manage preferences. They choose which types of emails to receive and click Save preferences, unsubscribe from several categories at once, or click Unsubscribe from all to opt out of all marketing emails. Learn more
Confirmation	They click the unsubscribe link, and Confirm before unsubscribing is on.
Survey	They have just unsubscribed, and Unsubscribe reason survey is on.
Unsubscribed from category	They unsubscribed from the category of the email. This is the last page of the unsubscribe flow.
Resubscribed to category	They clicked Resubscribe after unsubscribing from a category.
Unsubscribed from all	They clicked Unsubscribe from all.
Resubscribed to all	They clicked Resubscribe after unsubscribing from all emails.

To see the steps after the unsubscribe link in detail, read What happens when a user clicks the unsubscribe link.

Change the pages

To change the text, design, or buttons of any of these pages, see Customize subscription pages. To change the steps after the unsubscribe link, see Manage unsubscribes.

Manage the preference center

Use the Categories tab to add, edit, and delete categories and to check how many users are subscribed to each.

In the table, Subscribed users is the number of users currently subscribed to a category. Auto-subscribe is Enabled when new users are subscribed to the category automatically.

Add a category

To add a category to your preference center:

1. Click Add category.
2. Enter a clear, unique category name.
3. Select Auto-subscribe new users to subscribe new users to this category automatically when they register.
4. Select Subscribe existing users to subscribe current users to this category when you save it.
5. Click Add.

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For large audiences, applying Subscribe existing users may take some time.

Rename a category

1. To rename a category, open the three-dot menu next to the category and click Edit settings.
2. In Category settings, update the category name and set the Auto-subscribe new users checkbox as needed: select it to enable auto-subscription, or clear it to disable.
3. Click Save.

Once the category is renamed, the values in Subscribed Email Categories are automatically updated to match the new category name for all subscribers.

Delete a category

To delete a category, open the three‑dot menu next to it and select Delete category.

What happens when you delete a category

• The category is permanently removed from the preference center.
• Users who had this category in their preferences will no longer see it.
• Any active campaigns or journeys using the category will be paused automatically. You’ll receive a notification in the Notification Center informing you about the issue. To resume sending, reassign a new category in any affected campaigns.

Import subscription categories via CSV

Use Import subscription categories to import user subscriptions and bulk update the Subscribed Email Categories tag from a CSV file.

You can open this flow in either of these ways:

1. On the Categories tab, open the three-dot menu and select Subscribe users manually.

Alternatively, in the main menu, go to Audience > Import CSV > Import subscription categories.

2. Upload your CSV file.

3. Click Start import.
4. Review results.

CSV requirements

• The first column must contain either HWID or User ID.
• The second column must be Subscribed Email Categories.
• Category names in Subscribed Email Categories must be comma-separated.
• Save the file in UTF-8 encoding.
• Use a comma as the CSV delimiter.
• If an identifier in the first column is not registered in the selected project, that row will be skipped.
• The form validates the file automatically before upload.

Disable and enable the preference center

To disable the preference center:

1. On the Categories tab, click the three-dot menu in the top right of the Subscription categories section.
2. Select Disable Preference center.

3. In the confirmation dialog, click Disable.

What happens when you disable the preference center

• Subscribers will no longer see category options in the preference center.
• The Preference center page is disabled until you enable it again.
• The unsubscribe link still works and opts users out of all marketing emails, not one category. Users still go through the Confirmation and Survey steps if they are on in the unsubscribe flow.
• Emails will continue to be sent as usual, but without category-based filtering, until you re-enable the preference center.

To turn it back on, select Enable Preference center in the same menu.