How to allow subscribers to opt out of Mother's Day, Father's Day, and other holiday messages

You will learn

Learn how to offer your subscribers the option to opt out of emails and SMS related to specific holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), or Christmas. Then, learn how to exclude those who opt out of those messages. Holidays can be a sensitive time of year for some members of your community, so allowing subscribers the option to opt out can be a way to build trust and provide a better customer experience.

Create a template with an opt-out button

You can offer your subscribers the option to opt out of holiday emails and SMS by sending an email campaign with an update property link. The link saves their preference as a custom profile property; it does not unsubscribe them from email or SMS. To honor that preference, exclude the opt-out segment from each relevant email or SMS campaign, as described below.

1. Navigate to Content > Templates, then click Create > New template.
2. Select Email, enter a name for your template, and click Create.
3. Add a button block to your template.
4. In the Link address field of the button block, paste one of the following code snippets:
   For Mother’s Day: {% update_property_link 'mothers_day_opt_out' 'True' 'REDIRECT_LINK' %}
   For Father’s Day: {% update_property_link 'fathers_day_opt_out' 'True' 'REDIRECT_LINK' %}
   Use other property names, like BFCM_opt_out, as needed.

1. Replace REDIRECT_LINK in the pasted code with a link to a confirmation page built on your website.
2. Fill in the button text. Use a call-to-action that aligns with your branding and clearly indicates that clicking the button will opt you out of Mother’s or Father’s Day messaging.

Once you’ve added your opt-out button, finish designing your template and click Exit. You’ll use this saved template for the test email and the campaign you send to your audience.

Test the functionality and send a campaign

To make sure your button works, test the functionality by sending it to yourself. Follow the instructions below to send a live email with a functioning button. Do not send a preview email to yourself, as the update property URL in the preview message uses a placeholder link.

1. Navigate to your profile in Klaviyo by searching for your own email address.
   

2. Click the Messages tab on your profile.
3. Click Send personal email from the Messages tab.
4. Enter the Subject line, Sender name, and Sender email for your test email.
5. Under Email: saved, select the template you just created and click Use template. Review the email, then click Exit to return to the personal email.
6. Click Send now, then click Send now again in the confirmation window.
7. Once you receive the message in your inbox, click the opt-out link.
8. Navigate back to your profile like you did in step 1.
9. In the Custom properties section, locate the property mothers_day_opt_out: True or fathers_day_opt_out: True.

If the property in your profile shows True after you click the button, the preference has been recorded. Create an email campaign using the saved template and send it to your audience to collect their preferences around Mother’s or Father’s Day messages.

Create a segment and exclude it from holiday sends

After sending the opt-out campaign to your subscribers, create a segment to identify those who do not wish to receive marketing for that holiday. Use the following segment definition, replacing mothers_day_opt_out with your holiday opt-out property:

Properties about someone > mothers_day_opt_out is True

Give the segment a name that identifies the holiday, then click Create segment to save it.

This segment will continue to update as additional subscribers share their preferences. For each email or SMS campaign about that holiday, select this segment under Recipients in the Don't send to field. In the campaign canvas, add it to the Don't send to field for each relevant audience.

When scheduling a campaign for a specific time in the campaign wizard, select Determine recipients at send time so the latest segment membership is used when recipients are determined. Campaigns using the campaign canvas determine recipients at send time automatically.

Additional resources