Create a Preferences Center

A preferences center lets subscribers decide what types of messages they want to receive from you. To give your audience some options to customize how often they hear from you, or about what topics, create a preferences center. That way your subscribers can opt in or out of groups you create.

In this article, you'll learn how to create and publish a preferences center for your contacts.

Before you start

• Preferences centers are currently not available for audiences with GDPR-enabled signup forms or websites created with the classic website builder.
• Using a custom domain for preferences centers requires a paid plan.
• The preferences center does not include Mailchimp Inbox message permissions.
• After you publish a preferences center, it will replace the update profile form.

How it works

A preferences center is a stand-alone webpage where your contacts can update their profile information. This can include a list of interests based on the groups in your audience. If you only send certain campaigns to specific groups, this helps contacts pick which communications they’ll receive from you.

After you first publish a preferences center, it will replace the update profile form for that audience. This means that all emails with an *|UPDATE_PROFILE|* merge tag will link to the preferences center instead.

Create a preferences center

To get started, you'll navigate to your audience tools to access the preference center. Choose the audience you want to work with and use Mailchimp's preference center builder to create it.

To create a preferences center, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience.
   
2. Click Preferences center.
   
3. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
   
4. Click Start Building.
   
   If you haven't added any groups to your audience yet, click Build Your Preferences Center.
   

Great work! This will take you to the preferences center builder, where you can customize the content, design, and URL.

Customize and publish your preferences center

Now, you’ll edit the text, and customize the colors, text, and button style.

To customize your preferences center, follow these steps.

1. In the preferences center builder, click the color set icon to pick one of five color sets.
   
2. Click the text icon in the panel to customize the button style and fonts.

3. Click the image icon to upload an image from your computer.
   

   If you want to use an image in the content studio, click the header image and select Replace in the pop-up.
   

4. Click the description text to edit or delete it, and use the menu bar to style it.
   

5. Click Edit fields to expand the panel and toggle the optional audience fields. Any field visible on your signup form cannot be turned off.
   

6. When you’re done editing, click Save and Continue.

7. On the Domain step choose a URL for your preferences center. You’ll have the option to use a custom domain or a mailchimpsites.com domain.
   
8. Review your layout and URL in the preview window and click Continue when ready.
9. Click Publish.
   

After you publish, contacts who click an *|UPDATE_PROFILE|* merge tag link in your emails will be taken to your preferences center instead.

If you need to make additional changes, navigate to the preferences center page in your audience and click Edit.

Unpublish or delete a preferences center

If you unpublish or delete a preferences center, Mailchimp will change the default "Update your preferences" link in your email campaigns and any other instance of the |UPDATE_PROFILE| merge tag to point to the update profile form.

In this section, you'll learn how to unpublish and delete a preferences center.

Unpublish a preferences center

If you need to take a preferences center offline temporarily, you can unpublish it at any time.

To unpublish a preference center, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience.
   
2. Click Preferences center.
   
3. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
   
4. Click the dropdown menu next to the Edit button and choose Unpublish.
   
5. Click Unpublish.
   

Delete a preferences center

Unpublishing the preferences center allows you to use it again in the future, but if you're sure you no longer wish to use it, you can delete it. When a preferences center is deleted, its customized contents and formatting will also be erased permanently.

To delete a preferences center, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience.
   
2. Click Preferences center.
   
3. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
   
4. Click the drop-down menu next to the Edit button and choose Delete.
   
5. In the Delete Preferences Center pop-up, type DELETE and click the Delete button.
   

Next steps

Check out these additional resources to help you maintain an active, up-to-date audience.

Requirements and Best Practices for Audiences
The Importance of Permission