Double opt-in email formatting in Dynamics Marketing

Dynamics Marketing has a relatively new feature that allows you to set up the double opt-in experience different depending on the form which is submitted [1], this ensures you can personalise your customers subscription options based on things like country or membership level. It also means that the customer gets a single email where they can confirm all of their subscriptions by clicking a confirmation button. You can find a detailed blog post about it here [2].

The problem

There has always been two things that bugged me about this feature but they were never enough of an issue to try fix, until I used it on a recent project.

1. The list of subscriptions comes out in the email as a numbered list which isn’t necessary and just looks a bit clunky

2. The email looks great in the Outlook email client but absolutely tragic on web, mobile and most other email providers as the formatting is overwritten by the email client default - yuck!

Despite formatting the test in the designer space and checking the preview - it still comes out in the offensive unformatted text

The solution

With the help of Microsoft support we concluded the formatting override issue its a bug which needs fixing and currently has an unknown ETA, the number list format is by design and no plans on changing any time soon. Fortunately the prposed work around to fix the formatting can also be used to switch the numbered list into bullet point.

At the time the email gets sent, the content of {{FormDoiSubmission.SubscriptionListNames}} is generated a as a list using html tags <ol> (this stands for ordered list - hence the numbers)

Using the code snippet below we can add styling in the header section of the email which will override the formatting to gives the exact look and feel required. We then use list-style-type: inherit to change the numbered list into bullet points - yay!

ol {
    font-size:12px;
    font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
    color:#404041;
    line-height:13.5pt;
    list-style-type: inherit;
}

Now we have a bulleted list, consistently formatted no matter what email client is used - hurahh!

[1] Set up double opt-in on a per-form basis - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/dynamics365/marketing/form-double-opt-in?WT.mc_id=BA-MVP-5003692

[2] Form level double opt-in explained - https://www.ameyholden.com/articles/compliance-made-easier-consolidated-double-opt-in