Profile and Preference Attributes in Email Studio

Email Studio uses profile and preference attributes to store information about subscribers. The profile attribute contains information to characterize a subscriber profile. For example, each subscriber is asked to provide their birth date and email address. By default, every account has three profile attributes: Full Name, Email, and UserDefined, which is intended as a generic attribute that you can use as needed. By default, every account also receives an HTML Email preference attribute that is set to Yes. You can’t modify these attributes.

A preference attribute characterizes how a subscriber prefers to receive email. These attributes are specified as yes or no choices to a declarative statement. For example: The subscriber prefers to receive email as HTML.

In addition to basic alphanumeric characters, certain special characters can be used in the values that you enter as a subscriber value for an attribute. The special characters represented by the ASCII decimal codes 32 through 254 are supported.

Note As some facets of account performance can be impacted by exceeding 200 profile attributes, the profile attribute limit is 200. If you approach this limit, delete existing attributes to avoid performance issues. If you require more than 200 profile attributes, use data extensions to send instead of profile attributes.

Create a profile or preference attribute in your account so there’s a place for the system to store subscriber data. You also specify whether an attribute is required information for every subscriber and whether subscribers can see and edit their own attributes in the Profile Center. You can specify profile attributes when you import a subscriber list.

Note If a subscriber uses the forward button in their email client instead of the Forward to a Friend feature to forward your email, the profile center link points to the original subscriber's profile center. For example, if Lee forwards your email to Ali, and Ali clicks the Profile Center link in the footer of the email, Ali sees Lee's information. To protect your subscribers' privacy, don’t include sensitive attributes in the Profile Center.

The information is populated in profile and preference attributes when you import subscribers using the import subscriber wizard or Automation Studio import activity, create a subscriber in the user interface, or otherwise add subscribers to your account, such as through a Smart Capture form. The system processes the information and adds it to your account according to the parameters that you set up.

After you've defined your attributes, you can use them to create groups and drive dynamic content.

Profile and preference management is an advanced feature; if it isn’t enabled, you can’t see the Profile Management and Preference Management sections in your navigation pane, and can’t preview the Profile Center and Subscription Center.

• Scenario: Profile Attributes
  See an example of portfolio attribute setting in Email Studio for Marketing Cloud Engagement.
• Scenario: Preference Properties Dialog Box
  See this example of the Email Studio preference properties dialog box in use.
• Create Profile and Preference Attributes in Marketing Cloud Engagement
  If the subscriber attribute is a yes or no value, create a preference attribute in Email Studio. If the attribute requires more complexity, create a profile attribute. Create several attributes, up to the limit specified in your account contract. For Enterprise 2.0 accounts, create the attribute in the top-level account.
• Attribute Properties in Marketing Cloud Engagement
  Use this topic as reference as you configure subscriber attributes in Email Studio.
• Delete an Attribute in Marketing Cloud Engagement
  In Email Studio, delete subscriber attributes you no longer want to track. Enterprise 2.0 accounts, delete the attribute in the top-level account.
• Modify an Attribute in Marketing Cloud Engagement
  Modify subscriber attributes in Email Studio.