Documentation version: 2026-10-23.6
Canonical: https://docs.creator.gg/guides/email-preferences.md

# Email subscriptions, lists, and recipient preferences

## Start with the distinction

A mailing audience answers who this campaign should target. A subscription category answers what kind of email a contact is willing to receive. Global email suppression answers whether marketing email can be sent at all. These are separate controls.

| Control | Purpose | Agent support |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tag audience | A named group used to select campaign recipients | audiences_list/create and contacts_tags_add/remove |
| Native subscription category | A topic such as product news, offers or guides | Configure and inspect in the account screens |
| Global or email DND | Suppress marketing email across topics | Read returned contact fields; contacts_suppress_email enables email suppression |
| Preference footer link | Lets a recipient open their personal category choices | Configure in the account screens |

Creating an audience creates a tag. Creating a subscription category creates a topic preference. Neither action sends an email. One does not automatically create or synchronize the other.

## How are people added to the buckets?

For a tag audience, add a contact with contacts_tags_add and remove them with contacts_tags_remove. The contact must already exist; search before creating or updating them. Use only the intended mailing-list tag and preserve unrelated tags. A general lead, customer or access-request tag does not establish membership in a particular newsletter.

Native subscription categories are contact-level Subscribed or Unsubscribed settings. They are separate from tag audiences. A Subscribed state is eligibility for the topic; it is not evidence of an explicit signup to every mailing list. Inspect the actual contact state when the distinction matters.

For topic-specific mailing lists, a website form or integration must map the person's requested emails to the intended audience. Creating categories or enabling the footer does not configure that mapping. A tag-backed signup flow does not automatically update native category preferences. A program that targets all eligible contacts does not need separate topic tags or checkbox-to-tag mapping.

When explaining an existing account, report which of these has actually been set up: contact capture, audience membership, native categories, footer link, campaign category assignment, and automation. Do not describe category setup alone as a working mailing-list enrollment system.

## Use the default subscriptions without an enrollment workflow

New contacts can start Subscribed to every active native category automatically. A live check on 22 October 2026 confirmed this for a fresh manually created contact: every active category showed Subscribed immediately, without audience tags, an enrollment workflow or a manual preference change. This verifies the manual creation path; inspect the actual initial state for an unfamiliar account, import or integration, especially when it supplies DND or existing preference data.

For an email program that includes all eligible contacts by default:

1. Select the intended contacts as the campaign audience. An all-contacts audience can be used for this approach; an email address and applicable suppression rules still determine eligibility.
2. Assign the campaign its matching subscription category on the native Send or Schedule screen.
3. Include the working preference footer so recipients can opt out of a topic or unsubscribe from all marketing email.

No separate topic checkboxes, tag audiences or new-contact enrollment workflow are needed when the account already supplies the desired Subscribed defaults. Those are optional choices for narrower targeting. Category opt-outs and global email suppression continue to apply to the selected audience. The current agent send/schedule tools still require the native-screen handoff for category assignment described below.

Do not add a workflow that repeatedly subscribes everyone or resets all categories whenever a contact is updated or a tag changes. That can overwrite a recipient's later choices. A previously unsubscribed contact is not a new subscriber merely because their record is updated, re-imported or re-added to an audience. Preserve topic opt-outs and global suppression.

If a verified creation path does not supply the intended initial defaults, inspect the available native preference controls before proposing an enrollment workflow. Do not claim a working category-subscribe action based only on the Contact Created trigger or tag actions.

## How categories affect a campaign

In the account email editor, choose the campaign's audience, then select its Preference Type or subscription category on Send or Schedule. For example, a product-news campaign can target the product-news audience and use the matching topic category. The platform excludes contacts who have opted out of that assigned category, even when they are in the selected audience. Global unsubscribe or email suppression can exclude them across categories.

The category must be associated with the actual campaign. The presence of a matching tag, the category's name, an active category, a saved template, or the footer link does not prove that association.

Current Creator Agents email_campaigns_send and email_campaigns_schedule inputs do not expose native category assignment. Do not invent emailPreferenceId, preferenceType, subscriptionType or another argument. If the requested send needs a native category, prepare the draft through supported tools and use the account send/schedule screen to select the category and finish the authorized action. Do not assume an earlier draft setting will be preserved or enforced by the current tool submission.

Scheduling follows the existing tool contract; see https://docs.creator.gg/guides/scheduling.md. Category configuration is not delivery proof.

## Let recipients manage their own choices

Open the correct business account, then Settings → Preference Management Hub. Create the intended subscription types with clear names and descriptions, and verify their status. Enable Add preference management link to email footer when the user requests that setting. The account's automatic unsubscribe footer is a separate setting under Settings → Business Profile → General; preserve its working unsubscribe behavior.

With preference management enabled, the native unsubscribe experience includes Manage your preferences. The personal page lets the recipient choose among the available categories. A category opt-out applies to that topic. Unsubscribe from all applies across marketing email. Native preference choices do not automatically add or remove audience tags.

The recipient page must be reached through the platform's personal link. Do not invent a public recipient URL, embed a raw contact ID as authentication, or promise that a generic account settings link lets a recipient manage their preferences. The admin Preview control is a layout preview, not evidence of a particular contact's state or a delivered footer.

Read https://docs.creator.gg/guides/email-content.md for the exact {{unsubscribe}} content token and automatic-footer behavior. Do not invent a category-preference merge token. Creating categories and enabling the setting verifies configuration; it does not verify a delivered email or the recipient's completed preference change.

## View or change one contact's categories

In the account screen, open Contacts, select the exact contact, open DND and choose Manage subscriptions. Some layouts label the entry Subscription Status. The panel shows each category's Subscribed or Unsubscribed status. Keep inspection read-only unless the user authorized a change to that contact's preferences. Resubscribing an opted-out category may require the account's legal-basis field and the person's renewed permission; do not fabricate either.

contacts_get exposes the returned contact fields, tags and DND data. It is not a dedicated native category-subscription inventory. Missing category data does not establish Subscribed, Unsubscribed or an empty category list. The current tools do not create, list or change native category records or individual category choices. Use the matching account screen when those operations are requested.

contacts_update and contacts_upsert must not be described as native category editors. contacts_tags_add/remove change tag membership. contacts_suppress_email enables email suppression across topics; it is not a topic-only unsubscribe and does not re-enable email. Never clear an existing global opt-out merely because a topic tag was added.

## Automation and reusable account setup

A Contact Tag workflow trigger can react to a tag addition or removal. That can drive a tag-based mailing workflow, with explicit conditions for its intended audience. It does not by itself establish a workflow action that changes a native subscription category. Verify the actual action before promising tag-to-category or reverse synchronization. Distinguish a proposed automation from an active, published workflow.

A snapshot can distribute selected tags, workflows, custom fields, custom values, forms and templates to new accounts. Native subscription-category copying, footer-setting transfer and destination ID remapping require verification; do not assume they are included. A shared snapshot is account configuration, not permission to copy contacts or enroll everyone in every topic. Existing accounts require their own controlled application or update.

For a repeatable setup: configure a clean template account, map signup choices to the intended audience, inspect category and footer configuration in each destination, assign categories to native campaigns where required, and verify the imported workflows and account-specific values. The current agent tools do not create or apply snapshots.

## What to check before answering

For questions such as who is subscribed, how someone joins, whether a tag controls preferences, or whether the footer is live, identify the relevant control first. Inspect permitted live account state or state the missing evidence. Use https://docs.creator.gg/guides/contacts.md for tag audiences and https://docs.creator.gg/guides/email.md for supported campaign work. Reuse the existing workspace connection; a documentation or capability gap is not a reason to reconnect the account.