How to manage the unsubscribe process

It is very important to incorporate in your messages the standard unsubscribe link/button (UNS button in the HTML editor) to prevent manual errors that may have serious consequences:

1. Legal consequences: you must respect your recipients' right to unsubscribe (this applies to virtually all messages, and definitely to all commercial messages: see more on this topic), or else you could face legal consequences in all of those countries where this right is protected.
2. Brand/reputation: Properly handling the unsubscribe process is key to maintaining a high reputation among your customers
3. Deliverability: not properly handling this process can hurt your deliverability as recipients who have difficulty in unsubscribing will click on the SPAM/JUNK/BLOCK THIS SENDER button. You - as a sender - could be blacklisted, running the risk that future messages will straight to SPAM box for all recipients. More and more complaints on different portals are referred to central institutions (Senderscore, Goodmail, Habeas, CSA, SuretyMail etc.) that produce and send reports to many of the main ISPs (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc.), which rate your reputation and decide your SPAM "index".
4. Inefficiencies: You need to run the unsubscribe process as quickly and as efficiently as possible to reduce errors and cost

Why you should not use a FORM where the recipient is asked to enter his/her email address to unsubscribe

You must consider that a recipient often receives messages to multiple different email addresses (and aliases of the same address) in the same mailbox. When they unsubscribe, they may not remember which email address was used for that particular subscription, which could lead to a frustrating experience (user enters an address that is not recognized).

If that happens and the user is unable to unsubscribe, given the frustrating experience it is very likely that the user will report your message as SPAM the next time a message is sent to him/her.

Additionally, using an unsubscribe form where the address to be unsubscribed is entered manually can lead to additional problems:

• Your Web site could be temporarily offline. Again, this leads to a frustrating experience.
• A competitor could try to fraudulently unsubscribe addresses by using an automated script to try thousands of common names;
• The database where you are storing this information could be out of sync with the email system database, causing problems in the future.

Why you should not use an EMAIL ADDRESS where the recipient is asked to email the unsubscribe request

This method is also unreliable and can lead to the same issues mentioned above.

1. The customer's email could be blocked by antispam filters
2. The message might not be sent due to issue on the customer's side
3. The message is sent, but there is a problem processing the request
4. The message is sent, but it is sent from a FROM address that is not the one you have in the system for that customer

Why you should not use REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE WITH 'REMOVE' IN THE SUBJECT or alike

The same observations listed above are true for this method as well.

The solution

Our system was designed exactly for the purpose of allowing you to professionally handle your email campaigns. You can setup the unsubscribe procedure as a single opt-out (clicking on the unsubscribe link in your message completes the unsubscribing process) or double opt-out (the user is presented with a list of unsubscribe options, including receiving less frequent messages from you, etc.).

When recipient unsubscribe through this process, their subscription status is automatically changed to "Unsubscribe" (this is manage at the List level). There is no risk of making a mistake.

Advanced users may invoke a procedure to execute additional tasks such as removing the same address from a different database, or sending you an email with details on the recipient that just unsubscribed.

Here is a recap of the advantages of using the built-in unsubscribe procedure:

• Recipient are always unsubscribed: there is no uncertainty.
• Recipients who click on SPAN/JUNK are processed accordingly (management of the feedback loop) and automatically unsubscribed;
• You can be sure that those recipients will not be emailed again.
• The list of unsubscribed addresses is always available under "Recipients > USUBSCRIBED";
• The list of unsubscribed addresses is always exportable under "Recipients > EXPORT";
• You can receive a notification through email, ftp or api for every recipient that unsubscribes;
• You can invoke a separate procedure for unsubscribing recipients from other databases;
• The unsubscribe process is managed at the list level: if you have 2 newsletters (two lists), a recipient may decide to unsubscribe from one (e.g. "Partner Offers"), but not the other one (e.g. "Product Updates").
• You can give recipients options at the time they unsubscribe, via the Double Opt-out method.

HOW TO's:

• You can unsubscribe multiple recipients at once using the import feature
• You can change the unsubscribe process by editing the list settings (Settings > Edit List). Please refer to this guide to select the unsubscribe procedure that best meets your needs.
• The unsubscribe link is active by default in the footer of your messages. If you remove it by mistake and need to add it again, you can easily do so by editing the message (or the footer) highlighting the words or image to use as link and clicking on "UNS" button.
• If you need to unsubscribe recipients from an external database, please contact support and we can help you:

• call a external procedure to unsubscribe in real time recipients in another database
• FTP a file containing a daily export if an unsubscribed addresses

TESTING CHANGES

We recommend that you run some tests after every change to your unsubscribe procedures. A common mistake, for example, is to set the system to use the DOUBLE OPT-OUT WITH CONFIRMATION PAGE without entering the URL of the OPT-OUT PAGE under the list settings.

Article ID: 247, Created On: 2/3/2011, Modified: 8/22/2011