We have several clients who are interested in doing a two step sign-up process when adding new contacts to their account. The first step is the contact simply entering their email address into a form and having that email address be automatically added to Bronto. The second is generally provided as a way for the new contacts to provide more information about themselves, which allows the marketer to send more relevant, targeted emails.
In this post, we’re going to look at how to accomplish this in Bronto using our Direct Add feature in conjunction with a simple welcome message that leads the contact to the Manage Preferences page, which will act as step two of the process.
Step 1: Setting up your Manage Preferences page
The first step in the process is to make sure that your Manage Preferences page is set to collect the information that you would like to get after your contact signs up. This is as simple as adding the fields that you would like to collect to your standard manage preferences page. We’ve covered this in previous posts on Brontoversity, so I won’t go into much detail. If you need a refresher on editing webforms, please check out the following post: Getting Comfortable with New Webforms.
Step 2: Setting up your welcome message
The second step in making this work is to create the welcome message you would like to use to point your new contact to the Manage Preferences page. You will create this message just like any other message in the account, by going to the Messages->Create New Message. The message can be any type, although plain text is not recommended because links do not work in plain text messages. We’ll be using the WYSIWYG editor for our example. As with any welcome message, you should be sure to thank the contact for signing up, and provide them with an example or description of they type of communication they will receive from you and when.
When using the welcome message as the gateway to the second step of the signup process though, you’ll want to ensure that you feature a prominent link to the Manage Preferences page. To link to the manage preferences page, just type the text that you would like to be your link, highlight it, and click the Insert / Edit Link button in the WYSIWYG editor. In the pop-up, select Manage Preferences URL from the Link List drop-down, and then click Update. This will create a link to the Manage Preferences page that is customized to whatever contact this message is sent to.
Once this link is in place, and you are happy with the look and feel, content, and subject of the message, go ahead and Save and Close the message.
Step 3: Setting up your Direct Add URL
The next step in the process to to set up your Direct Add URL to send out the welcome message automatically, as soon as the Direct Add code is triggered from your site. Setting this up in Bronto is pretty simple, all you need to do is go to the Home>Settings and then click Data Exchange on the left sidebar. Once on the Data Exchange page, just check the checkbox next to Enable Direct Add for adding new contacts to enable Direct Add.
Once the setting is enabled, it is time to choose our settings for the current Direct Add URL. The URL that appears in the box below the settings is dynamic and will change as you modify the parameters using the checkboxes above. For our two step process, you’ll want to leave the Add contacts with “unconfirmed” status (By default all contacts are added with “active” status) box unchecked, and check the Send a welcome message box. You can leave the drop-down set to only when contact is new.
Checking the option to send a welcome message will expand the settings options. Here you can define the from name, from address and choose the welcome message you would like to send when a new contact fills out the form. You’ll want to choose the welcome message you set up in step 1.
We’re going to skip over the basics of implementing Direct Add on your site, as that has been covered in depth in a couple of previous posts, linked here for your convenience:
DIY Integrations: Direct Add
Adding Contacts to a Specific List with Direct Add
So once you’ve got your welcome message set up, and your Direct Add code embedded on your site, you should be all set. Now, when a new contact fills out your form and is added to your Bronto account, they will be automatically sent an email containing a prominent link to the Manage Preferences page where they can give you whatever additional information they would like.
Let us know if you have questions or comments on this post. If you are already implementing this method, let us know how it’s going in the comments below.
Lucas Weber
Bronto Client Services
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