This is an advanced tutorial, suitable for users who want their Patients (or subscribers to Custom Lists) to be able to opt in and out of specific interests in a preference centre.
Peptalkr allows you to segment your Cliniko database based on a bunch of custom data we have automatically synced over from Cliniko.
But what if you want your patients to set their own interests?
For example - let's say you want patients to be able to select the topics they want to be emailed about. Topics could be something like this:
Workshops & Events
Exercise at home tips
Diet and Nutrition
New products and services
This way - patients can manage their own communication preferences and allow you to send more targeted emails to those who want to receive them.
It may also reduce the number of unsubscribes you receive by giving subscribers more options when it comes to how you communicate with them.
The preference centre is only applicable to marketing campaigns and automated journeys. It is not for use with Transactional emails which are connected directly to your entire Cliniko database, not your marketing list. If you'd like a refresher on how your database(s) work click here.
Creating a Preference Centre
Step one: Come up with your list of topics
We've provided an example above, but each and every clinic will have their own unique topics. Think about how your topics might be structured and come up with a list.
Remember, you don't need to create interested for things like the practitioner they see, or the business location they visit - all of this is done using regular segmentation. Interests are not for appointment history or other data we can already see about a patient.
Step two: Create a custom field for 'Interests'
Now we need to create a place to store this data.
Go to the Send Email tab.
Click on Lists & Subscribers.
Click on the 'Patients' list.
Click 'Custom fields' on the left hand side of the screen.
Here - you'll see all of the custom fields we automatically created for you when your account was set up. These are imported from Cliniko and are synced with Cliniko every 5 minutes. Don't delete or edit them. We're going to create a new custom field.
Click 'Add custom field' on the right hand side of the screen.
Name the field 'Interests'
In the 'Select a field type' dropdown - select 'Multiple options (select many options)'
Enter your topics as separate options
Click 'Save'
Now you need to make this visible in the preference centre - so go ahead and click 'Hidden' to make it 'Visible'
Awesome! Now you have a custom field for Interests 🎉
Step three: Add a link to the preference centre to your emails
In order for your patients to edit their interests, you need to give them a link to the preference centre. We recommend the following:
Include a link in your email footer
A link to your preference centre is already added automatically to the bottom of all Campaign and Automations - right beside the unsubscribe link.
But you can add a hyperlink of your own manually elsewhere if you want to by copy pasting this into a text field of the email:
<preferences>Preference Center</preferences>
Add a button to your email
You can also add a button to any emails where you want the preference centre to stand out. Go ahead an add a button block to your email, then set this as the URL:
[preferences]
Step four (optional): Send a campaign asking your patients for their preferences
This is a great step to follow if you'd like to collect all of your existing patients/clients preferences in one go.
Go to the Send Email tab.
Click on Campaigns.
Create a new Campaign - call it 'Update Interests'
Set the subject line:
We have a quick questionSet the 'From' sender name and email address as you wish.
Set to 'To' by clicking 'Select Recipients' and choose your 'Patients' list
Click 'Build email'
Choose a template from one of the 100+ templates or create your own. Here's my email:
My button has the URL set to [preferences] - see below:
Once you send your campaign, recipients can click the button to access the preference centre and select their topics. We recommend you do a test prior to sending the campaign to ensure everything is working correctly.
Now you'll be able to create segments based on interests for use in future campaigns and automated journeys 🎉