Contacts Vs. Subscribers Vs. Members

CONTACTS:

Any visitor/user that takes an action or submits their information in some way on your site or funnel (via filling out a form, submitting a quiz, booking an online appointment, making a purchase etc.) is considered a "Contact" and they will have a Contact Record listed under your Contacts area, accessible via a link in the top black bar of your builder.

You may also import a list of your existing Contacts into your Contacts area - creating Contact Records for each person.  Contacts can be turned into "Members" or "Marketing Subscribers"/"Subscribers" from within their Contact Record.  You can also add Tags, Notes, CRM details etc. within a Contact's "Contact Record". 

*NOTE: You get unlimited CONTACTS on all ShinePages plans.

MARKETING SUBSCRIBERS:

"Marketing Subscribers" (or "Subscribers") on the other hand, are "Contacts" who have been "subscribed" in your system to a Marketing/Email List and are thus  eligible to receive emails and/or be included in ANY Automations you may set up. 

In order for a Contact to become a Marketing Subscriber, they must initially be added to a specific Marketing/Email List. (manually by you - OR automatically via the Settings of a Form, Checkout, Booking or Registration widget) 

If you are sending Emails to Marketing "Subscribers", they will be able to "unsubscribe" themselves at any time from a link that will be included at the bottom of each email sent. (Note: an "Unsubscribe" link is required by law) By Unsubscribing themselves, they will not receive any emails from you, regardless of which Email List/Lists they were a part of.  

Please note that their contact record will still show the Email List(s) they were previously a part of in the Marketing tab of their Contact Record - but they will NOT receive emails sent to that Email List if they are Unsubscribed) 

✅ Look for a green "checkmark" at the top of the Contact Record's "profile circle".  If there is a green checkmark - they are "Subscribed" as a Marketing Subscriber in your system.  If no green checkmark, they are NOT "Subscribed".

As the site owner, you may manually Remove a Subscriber from one or more Email Lists from with the Contact Record and you may also manually Subscribe or Unsubscribe the Contact to an Email List/Lists.

**ALL Marketing Subscribers are Contacts - but NOT ALL Contacts are Marketing Subscribers (or Members).

Note: You should always get consent from people before sending them emails or making them a "Subscriber" in your system. You should let them know that by filling out a Form on your site they will be added to your email list where they will be able to unsubscribe at any time.  (See Related Articles below about emailing) 

*Each ShinePages plan comes with a set number of Free Marketing Subscribers and a set number of included Email Sends per month.  Additional Marketing Subscribers may be purchased.  See HERE for email pricing. 

You may set up as many Automations as you wish - as long as you are within your allotted or purchased Marketing Subscriber and Email Sends/month limit.

WEBSITE MEMBERS:

"Website Members" (also abbreviated to "Members") are Contacts who are "Members" of your Website or Standalone Funnel (note: if your Website has nested Funnels - the "Member" would be a "Member" of both your Website and all nested funnels with ONE login) 

Someone becomes a Website Member when they are added to a "Member Group" in one of 3 ways: (you can create any number of Member Groups). 

-When they are manually added to Member Group by you/website admin

-When they use the Member Login/Register widget to "Register" as a Member

-When they purchase a "membership" type of product.

Members have access to "sign in" to your website (and/or funnel) and view specific "members-only" pages, including a "member details" or "member profile" system page with their account info as well as any member-specific content pages that you have created and set to "Members-Only".

Once someone is a "member" of your site, they will always be a Member of your site and have access to their Member profile page. If they are removed from any (paid-for) Member Groups that you have created, they will be moved/added to the default website Member Group. 

**ALL Website Members are Contacts - but NOT ALL Contacts are Website Members (or Marketing Subscribers).  

*NOTE: You get unlimited WEBSITE MEMBERS on all ShinePages plans. 

COMMUNITY MEMBERS / CIRCLE MEMBERS: 

"Circle Members" or "Community Members" are a subset of "Website Members" and include any registered Website Member who is an active participant of a Community Circle (ie: has accessed or interacted with content within a Community Circle.)   

For example, if a Website Member enters a Community Circle, marks content as completed, comments or reacts to a comment, participates in a discussion or creates a post on a wall, they’ll automatically appear under Community > Members.

It’s important to understand that Circle members are not a separate type of member - they are regular "Members" of your website or funnel. The only difference is that they’ve interacted with Community/Circle content. 

If someone isn’t a Website Member yet, they’ll be prompted to "Register" the moment interaction is required (for example, if access to the Circle is restricted, or they try to leave a comment, post on a Wall or track progress). 

Once they Register, they’re added to your default "Website Member" Member Group and counted as a Circle member as well. 

The only case in which a Circle Member would NOT be created, is if the Circle’s access level is set to “Open”, the “Enrollment Required” option is disabled, and the visitor has not interacted with any content - such visitors are considered anonymous.

In short, Circle members are just a filtered list of all members, showing only those who have activity participated in your Community/your Circles.

**ALL Circle Members are Contacts and also Website Members.  NOT ALL Circle Members are Marketing Subscribers, unless you have set it so that your Circle enrollment also "Connects to Email Marketing" and adds them to a List upon enrollment.  

*Each ShinePages plan comes with a set number of Free Circles and Free Circle Members. Additional Circles/Circle Members may be purchased as an add-on.