What is the best way to manage email preferences in NationBuilder?
For broad communications, we generally recommend including eligible, emailable supporters by default and using opt-out tags to record the categories they do not want to receive. For specialized communications intended for smaller, specific audiences only, use opt-in, role, or interest tags. In many cases, the best solution is a hybrid of both approaches.
Tags are one of NationBuilder's most flexible tools. They can help you organize supporters, track engagement, build targeted audiences, and determine who receives a particular email.
But when it comes to managing email preferences, the most obvious tagging strategy is not always the most effective one.
The challenge with using opt-in tags
A common approach is to add tags to each person's profile based on the communications they want to receive. For example:
- "Monthly newsletters"
- "Action alerts"
- "Webinar and event invitations"
- "Volunteer opportunities"
- "Fundraising updates"
- "Press releases"
Under this system, someone tagged with "Monthly newsletters" receives the monthly newsletter. Someone tagged with "Action alerts" receives action alerts, and so on.
This sounds straightforward, but it can create several problems as your NationBuilder database and communications program grow.
Problem #1: Too many choices can overwhelm new supporters
If your organization sends several types of communications, asking people to select everything they want to receive can make a simple email signup form feel complicated.
Some people will carefully review every option. Many others will skip the choices altogether, especially if they are being asked to make several decisions before they have received their first email from you.
That can leave you with new supporters who are emailable but do not have any of the tags required to receive your regular communications.
Problem #2: Not every person enters your database through the same form
Most established organizations collect supporter information from many different sources. People might join your NationBuilder database after:
- Signing a petition
- Registering for an event
- Making a donation
- Completing a survey
- Taking an action via an ActionButton
- Being imported through a CSV
- Being synced through a third-party integration
- Being added by a staff member
Not all of these entry points will ask people which types of emails they want to receive.
If your email audiences depend entirely on opt-in tags, anyone who enters the database without selecting a communication category may be excluded from future emails. Over time, you could unintentionally miss a significant portion of your emailable audience.
Problem #3: Automated tags can override someone's previous choice
A common instinct is to set up action pages and other database entry points to automatically add all your email opt-in tags to someone's profile. However, this creates a risk that people will be opted back into emails they previously chose not to receive.
Imagine this sequence:
- A supporter subscribes for email updates on a signup page and opts in for monthly newsletters, so their profile is tagged with "Monthly newsletters".
- They later update their preferences and opt out of monthly newsletters, so the "Monthly newsletters" tag is removed from their profile.
- Later, they sign a petition that is configured to automatically add the "Monthly newsletters" tag to everyone who signs.
- They begin receiving the newsletter again, even though they previously opted out.
The supporter has not changed their mind about what kind of email updates they want to receive. The petition page tag configuration simply overwrote the preference they had already expressed.
This becomes increasingly difficult to prevent when the same communication tags are being added by multiple signup forms, action pages, imports, integrations, and staff workflows.
A better approach for broad communications
For communications intended for your general supporter audience, it is often more effective to include new emailable supporters by default and allow them to manage individual preferences using opt-out tags.
Begin by creating a small number of broad communication categories for the email blasts you typically send, such as:
- Monthly newsletters
- Action alerts
- Webinar and event invitations
- Volunteer opportunities
- Fundraising updates
- Regional updates
Then, set up your unsubscribe page with options that allow supporters to opt out of any category they no longer want to receive.
Configure your unsubscribe page so that when someone opts out of a category, a corresponding tag is added to their profile, such as "Opt-out: [Category Name]."
For example, if your unsubscribe page allows someone to opt out of monthly newsletters, configure that option to add the tag "Opt-out: Monthly newsletters".
When it is time to send a newsletter email blast, target all emailable supporters except those with the "Opt-out: Monthly newsletters" tag. You could create a saved filter to make this audience easy to reuse in the future.
The same logic can be applied to your other categories:
- Send action alerts to all emailable supporters except those tagged with "Opt-out: Action alerts."
- Send event invitations to emailable supporters except those tagged with "Opt-out: Webinar and event invitations."
- Send fundraising emails to emailable supporters except those tagged with "Opt-out: Fundraising updates."
This helps make sure your emailable supporters will receive all the messaging intended for them, while still giving supporters meaningful control over what they receive.
It also reduces the likelihood that people will fall through the cracks simply because they entered your database through a form or integration that did not assign the right communication tags.
Combining preference tags with audience filters
An email does not necessarily need to be relevant to your entire database to be considered a broad communication. Regional updates, for example, may be broadly relevant to supporters within a particular geographic area.
In that case, you could first filter for emailable supporters in the relevant region and then exclude anyone tagged "Opt-out: Regional updates."
The geographic filter determines who the message is relevant to. The opt-out tag records whether someone wants to receive that type of communication.
The same principle can apply to other characteristics and behaviours in your database. You might use location, constituency, membership status, past actions, donation history, or another filter to identify the relevant audience, then use an opt-out tag to respect their communication preferences.
This distinction is important:
- Audience filters determine who an email is relevant to.
- Preference tags determine whether those people want to receive that type of email.
These two forms of targeting can, and often should, work together.
Keep the number of categories manageable
The email preferences available on your unsubscribe page should give supporters useful choices without presenting them with a wall of options.
Rather than creating a separate category for every campaign, program, or email series, focus on a handful of categories that reflect the main types of communications your organization sends regularly. Only create a preference category if you send that type of email often enough for the choice to be meaningful. There is little value in asking supporters to manage a category that you use only once or twice a year.
The categories should be:
- Easy for supporters to understand
- Broad enough to cover most of your emails
- Distinct enough that opting out of one category has a clear meaning
- Used regularly enough to justify a separate preference
- Consistent enough that your staff can apply them reliably
For example, you probably do not need separate preference categories for virtual events, in-person events, webinars, conferences, and community meetings. A single "Webinar and event invitations" category may be easier for both supporters and staff to manage.
Similarly, an organization with several local chapters may not need a separate preference category for each region. A single "Regional updates" opt-out tag could be combined with geographic filters to determine which regional emails are relevant to each person.
Respecting preferences requires consistency
An opt-out system only works when your team uses it consistently.
Before sending an email blast, decide which category applies. Then make sure your target audience for that email excludes everyone who has opted out of that category.
This step should become part of your regular email creation process, alongside checking the subject line, links, sender information, and test email.
It is also worth documenting your categories and audience rules so everyone who sends email from your nation follows the same process.
That does not mean every email must fit perfectly into one of your established categories. Occasionally, your organization may have an important announcement that does not clearly belong anywhere. In those cases, you may decide that it is appropriate to send the message to your broader emailable audience, provided you continue to honour opt-in and other relevant email preferences.
The goal is not to design a flawless category for every message. It is to establish a consistent system that respects the preferences supporters have explicitly shared.
When opt-in tags still make sense
Opt-out tags work especially well for broad communications that most people within the relevant audience can reasonably expect to receive.
But not every email should go to your general audience.
Some communications are intended for smaller, more specific groups only. In those cases, an opt-in, role, or interest tag may still be the better choice.
Example: Board member updates
Internal updates for board members should only be sent to people identified as board members.
Your audience could include emailable supporters tagged: Board member
There is no reason to give everyone else an option to opt out of board updates because they should never receive them in the first place.
Example: Press releases
Press releases are another useful example. Your general supporters may not want to receive every media announcement your organization publishes.
You could create a dedicated press release signup page that adds a tag such as: Press release updates
Press releases would then be sent only to emailable people with that tag, such as journalists, media contacts, partners, and supporters who specifically asked to receive them.
The hybrid approach
For many organizations, the strongest email preference system combines both methods:
- Use opt-out preference tags for broad communications that are relevant to most people within the intended audience.
- Combine opt-out preference tags with other filters when an email is only relevant to people in a certain location or with particular characteristics.
- Use opt-in, role, interest, or audience tags for specialized communications intended for a specific, clearly defined group.
This hybrid approach gives you the best of both worlds. Your organization can communicate with its full emailable audience without requiring every person to accumulate a long list of opt-in tags, while still limiting specialized messages to the people for whom they are relevant.
A simple structure might look like this:
| Type of communication | Recommended approach | Example audience rule |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly newsletter | Opt out | All emailable supporters except those tagged "Opt-out: Monthly newsletters" |
| Action alerts | Opt out | All emailable supporters except those tagged "Opt-out: Action alerts" |
| Event invitations | Opt out | All emailable supporters except those tagged "Opt-out: Webinar and event invitations" |
| Fundraising updates | Opt out | All emailable supporters except those tagged "Opt-out: Fundraising updates" |
| Regional updates | Geographic filter plus opt out | Emailable supporters in the relevant region, except those tagged "Opt-out: Regional updates" |
| Board updates | Specific audience | Emailable supporters tagged "Board member" |
| Press releases | Opt in and/or specific audience | Emailable supporters tagged "Press release updates" and/or other relevant tags like "media", "journalist", etc. |
Build your system around supporter intent
There is no single tagging structure that works across the board for every organization or campaign. The right approach depends on what you send, how often you send, the time and resources available to manage communications and audiences, how people enter your database, and what your supporters reasonably expect to receive.
The most important principle is to preserve supporter intent.
Someone should not be excluded from all your communications simply because a signup form failed to assign the right tags. At the same time, someone who has deliberately opted out of a particular type of email should not be opted back in because they signed a petition or registered for an event.
By using opt-out tags for broad communications, combining them with relevant audience filters, and reserving opt-in tags for specialized communications, you can build an email preference system that is easier to manage, harder to break, and more respectful of your supporters.
Email preferences do not replace consent
Finally, remember that email preference tags only help determine which types of communications someone wants to receive. They do not determine whether your organization has consent to email that person in the first place.
Only send email blasts to contacts you have permission to contact, and always honour requests to unsubscribe from all email communications. Use preference tags to provide additional choice within your eligible audience, not as a substitute for consent.