Unsubscribes from carefully crafted email marketing campaigns is never nice, but the reality is that some people will inevitably wish to.
Hiding an unsubscribe link from your recipients, or making it as difficult as possible for them to find, won’t stop them from doing so. In fact, if an unsubscribe link isn’t obvious enough, many of your recipients may instead resort to reporting the email as junk. This is a much worse course of action that your recipients could take.
If your email is marked as junk it will negatively impact your sender reputation compared to a recipient simply opting to unsubscribe from your mailing list. Presenting a clear way for your recipients to unsubscribe from future campaigns can help your overall sender reputation by reducing complaints. The presence of an easy way to unsubscribe also helps show your recipients that you are a legitimate sender.
The lack of an unsubscribe link doesn’t just run the risk of more of your emails being treated as spam, it’s also breaking the law. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) dictate that you must (in the words of CAN-SPAM) “tell recipients how to opt-out of future communications”. Google and Yahoo’s own authentication requirements state that this must be available in the form of a single-click link both in the body of the email and in the header message.
Most email marketeers place the unsubscribe link in the footer. However, in some email newsletters you might have noticed unsubscribe links appearing outside of the email content itself alongside the sender details. This is known as “list-unsubscribe”. This is a feature native to certain email clients (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Apple Mail, and Outlook.com), so its appearance and location within the header will depend on said email client.
This header is crucial for email deliverability, as it helps protect a sender’s reputation by reducing spam complaints and making list management easier for recipients. Major email providers like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail require a one-click List-Unsubscribe header for bulk senders.
These links do not automatically appear at the top of all emails. The email service provider (ESP) needs to instruct the email client to include it. Fortunately, Campaignmaster has this in place as standard so you don’t need to worry about including it in your campaigns. This will help reduce your spam complaints and also keeps you legally compliant.
When the button is clicked an email reply is automatically generated and sent to a dedicated email address. Campaignmaster then processes this and unsubscribes the recipient.
Please note, the list-unsubscribe in your header should NOT be considered an alternative to having an unsubscribe link in your email content.
If you need help to comply with professional email marketing please do get in touch at info@campaignmaster.co.uk or call our office on +44 (0) 208 863 5334.
