Preference center overview

The email subscription preference center lets subscribers choose which types of emails they want to receive, such as newsletters, promotions, or product updates.

Instead of unsubscribing from all emails, users can opt out of specific categories and stay subscribed to what matters most to them.

Why you should set it up

A preference center improves the user experience and helps you meet legal requirements:

• Better user experience. Users choose which types of emails they receive, such as newsletters, promotions, or product updates. This reduces full opt-outs and keeps your audience more engaged.
• Compliance with email regulations. Several laws require that users can easily manage their communication preferences:
  • GDPR (EU) requires clear options to opt in or out of specific types of communication.
  • CAN-SPAM (U.S.) requires every commercial email to include a visible unsubscribe link.

Without these options, you may face legal penalties, and your email service provider (ESP) account may be flagged or suspended.

Start working with the preference center

Important

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

1. Set up categories

   Create the email categories users can choose from, such as Newsletter or Product Updates, and decide who is subscribed automatically. When you save, the preference center turns on and the subscription pages are ready. Learn more

2. Add links to your emails

   Add two links to your emails: an unsubscribe link and a link to the preference center. Users reach the subscription pages through these links. Learn more

3. Choose a category for each campaign

   Choose a category for every marketing email. Only users subscribed to this category receive the email. Learn more

4. Check what users see

   Check the subscription pages users land on after a click. They are ready-made and work by default, and you can customize them later. Learn more

Manage categories

Add, rename, and delete categories, or turn the preference center off and on.

Learn more about managing categories

Manage unsubscribes

Choose the steps users go through after they click the unsubscribe link, and collect the reasons for leaving.

Learn more about managing unsubscribes

Customize subscription pages

Change the text, design, and buttons of the pages users see when they unsubscribe or manage preferences.

Learn more about customizing subscription pages

How the preference center works

Pushwoosh stores each user’s category subscriptions in a tag and uses them to decide who receives which email.

Categories and subscriptions

Pushwoosh tracks category subscriptions using the Subscribed Email Categories tag. This tag stores the list of categories each subscriber is currently subscribed to.

Delivery logic:

• If a category name is in the list, the subscriber receives emails for that category.
• If a category name is not in the list, the subscriber does not receive emails for that category.
• You can populate this tag automatically when adding a category or by importing subscription categories via CSV.

Deprecated tag

The previously used Unsubscribed Email Categories tag is deprecated and will be supported only until May 31, 2026. Use Subscribed Email Categories for all new setups and updates.

How categories apply to campaigns

Once the preference center is set up, every marketing campaign you send (via Journey or One‑Time Message) will prompt you to assign a category before sending. Learn more

This ensures emails are only delivered to subscribers who are subscribed to that content type.

Handling transactional messages

Transactional messages are a separate message type designed for critical, non-promotional communication. Unlike marketing emails, transactional messages bypass all delivery restrictions to ensure they reach the user.

When creating an email campaign in Pushwoosh, you must choose between two message types: marketing and transactional. Learn more about message types and delivery rules.

Full opt-out with the Unsubscribed Emails tag

For a complete opt-out from all marketing emails, Pushwoosh sets the Unsubscribed Emails tag to true. This happens when a subscriber:

With the preference center enabled:

• Clicks Unsubscribe from all in the preference center.

Without the preference center:

• Clicks the unsubscribe link in any email and, if the Confirmation step is on, confirms. This opts them out of all marketing emails.

In both cases, unsubscribing via the email client using the List-Unsubscribe header (for example, the native unsubscribe button in Gmail or Apple Mail) also sets the tag to true.

Transactional emails are not affected by this tag and are always delivered.

Events and segments

Every subscribe, unsubscribe, and resubscribe action also fires the PW_EmailSubscribed or PW_EmailUnsubscribed event, so you can trigger follow-up automation based on category-level opt-ins and opt-outs.

Segment by category

To target users by a specific email category:

1. In segment builder, click Event in Add filter by, then select PW_EmailSubscribed or PW_EmailUnsubscribed.
2. Click + Attribute and select categories.
3. Choose an operator. See event attribute operators by type.
4. Pick a category from the value dropdown. It lists your actual email categories instead of raw recorded values.

FAQ

Answers to common questions about categories, transactional emails, unsubscribe links, and the survey.

Read the preference center FAQ