Preference Management (Email Unsubscription Management)

Modified on: Wed, 21 Jan, 2026 at 10:37 AM

Preference Management brings compliant, category‑level opt‑outs to email marketing so you can honor what contacts actually want to receive. This article explains how to create preference categories, connect them to campaigns, manage preferences at the contact level.

Note: This feature is currently in Labs. Enable the following toggles from Agency Settings > Labs for all/specific sub-accounts.

1. Preference Management (Required)
2. CRM Redesign: Conversations & Contacts Page

Important: Preference Management is irreversible once enabled. Because it introduces location-level unsubscribe controls, this change cannot be undone after activation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Preference Management?

What is Preference Management?

Preference Management helps businesses stay compliant by honoring each contact’s communication choices including whether they want to receive emails, and if so, what types of emails they prefer to receive. This reduces unwanted outreach, minimizes the risk of being marked as spam, and supports healthier email deliverability.

With Preference Management, each location can create and manage custom communication (preference) categories that align with its marketing needs. These categories can be linked directly to campaigns, enabling the system to automatically respect every contact stated preferences.

When a contact opts out of a specific preference type, any future campaigns assigned to that category will automatically exclude them, even if they were part of the original campaign audience. This ensures more relevant messaging, stronger compliance, and a more personalized experience for every contact.

Key Benefits of Preference Management

Compliance-First Communication: Automatically uphold opt-out decisions at a category level.
Healthier Email Deliverability: Reduce spam complaints and unwanted messages.
Personalized Engagement: Send more relevant content aligned with contact preferences.
Location-Level Customization: Each location defines its own communication categories based on its marketing strategy.

Preference Types

Preference Types are the granular categories that are the foundation of Preference Management. Create as many as you need to reflect the distinct themes of your email program (e.g., Newsletters, Promotions, Event Updates). These categories live under Settings → Preference Management Hub and can be edited, disabled, or deleted at any time.

For more information on creating preferences, click here.

Associating Preferences with Campaigns

Linking a campaign to a preference category tells the system “why” you’re emailing. This allows HighLevel to filter audiences based on contact choices before delivery. When a contact opts out of that category, they are automatically kept out of current and future sends for that category, even if the contact is still on your static list.

For more information on how to associate preferences with campaigns, click here.

Automatic Audience Filtering

If a contact has opted out of a specific preference type, they will be automatically excluded from any campaign assigned to that category (even if they were originally included in the campaign audience). This ensures accurate targeting and prevents unwanted emails from being sent.

Once preferences are set, the system will:

Automatically remove contacts from campaigns that conflict with their choices
Enforce category-level opt-outs, even if the contact appears in the original campaign audience

How To Setup Preference Management

Step 1: Create Preference Types

Preference Types are the subscription categories that label your email programs (e.g., Newsletters, Promotions, Event Updates). To create a preference type, follow the steps below. Repeat this process for each Subscription Type that you will need.

Navigate to Settings → Preferences at the location level and click + Create Subscription Type.
Create the categories that support your marketing strategy. For each category, add a Subscription Name and Description.

Step 2: Assign Preferences to Campaigns

Assign a preference category to an email campaign from within the Email Builder. This enables the system to understand why the message is being sent and who should receive it. To assign a preference category to a campaign, follow the steps below:

Open the Email Campaign you would like to assign a Subscription Type. Click Send or Schedule.
Select your desired Preference Type using the dropdown.

Managing Preferences at the Contact Level

From the Contact Details Page, teams can view or manually adjust each contact’s preferences for full transparency and control. To view or update preference settings for a contact, follow the steps below.

Go to Contacts and select a contact. From the contact page, open the DND tab and click Subscription Status.
In the Manage Email Subscriptions popup, set each Preference Type to Subscribed or Unsubscribed as appropriate.
For any preference category marked as Unsubscribed, the location must provide a legal basis before the contact can be resubscribed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How does category opt‑out relate to global unsubscribe?
Category opt‑out suppresses only the selected topics. A global unsubscribe opts the user out from all marketing email from the location.

Q: Can contacts manage their own preferences?
When Preference Management is enabled, the unsubscribe link includes a 'Manage your preferences' link where contacts can manage their own preferences.

Q: Do emails sent from workflows honor category preferences?
Yes. Automatic filtering removes contacts whose preferences conflict with the campaign’s categories, regardless of how they were added to the audience.