Whenever somebody chooses to unsubscribe from your email content or SMS Messages, Click will record that choice as an Unsubscribe Record. Specifically how Unsubscribes are managed varies depending upon whether the unsubscribe action is initiated through a Global Unsubscribe Snippet or a Subscription Management Page submission.
Goals
- Learn how Click tracks and records global unsubscribes from email and SMS content
- Learn how Click tracks and records unsubscribes for specific Subscription Lists
Unsubscribe Record
Unsubscribe records tell you who has opted-out of something and what they have opted-out of. To see a list of Unsubscribes, navigate to ClickDimensions > Unsubscribes.
The Email/Phone field displays the email address or phone number that the recipient has chosen to unsubscribe. Account/Contact displays which person the unsubscribed email address or phone number belongs to, although this is just for convenience; the unsubscribe will be applied for any record that has the same email/phone even if they are not associated here. The Subscription Lists subgrid displays all of the Subscription Lists from which the person unsubscribed. If there are no Subscription Lists displayed here, the email address or phone number is globally unsubscribed.
In addition to seeing a global view of Unsubscribe records, Unsubscribes can also be accessed directly through a Contact Record's Related Menu.
Global Unsubscribes for Emails
Email Recipients can globally unsubscribe by clicking on the Unsubscribe Snippet that is placed in your emails. When they click on the link, a window opens in the browser with a message asking the user to confirm that they want to unsubscribe.
NOTE: The Global Unsubscribe Request text and styling cannot be modified. If you would like to change the text or style the unsubscribe request, we recommend creating a Subscription Management Page containing an unsubscribe all component instead of using the Global Unsubscribe link.
If they confirm, Click creates a global Unsubscribe record in your environment for the recipient. This is denoted by the lack of Subscription Lists associated with the Unsubscribe record.
The Bulk E-mail field on the person's Contact record will also change to Do Not Allow.
As long as either of these two items are present in your environment, Click will exclude the recipient from the all emails.
Please note that if the "Email" field is set to "Do Not Allow", this will also cause recipients to be excluded but this field is not automatically updated via Click's Unsubscribe process.
Note: If a Contact allows bulk emails but has an Inactive Unsubscribe record, the unsubscribe record will still apply and they will still be opted out of any applicable emails.
Global Unsubscribes for SMS Messages
If a recipient replies back to a text with the response STOP, we will create a global Unsubscribe record for that person's phone number.
Unsubscribes via Subscription Management for Emails and SMS Messages
An Unsubscribe record will be created if somebody submits a Subscription Page and chooses to opt-out of at least one Subscription List.
In this case, an Unsubscribe record is created with a list of all of the opted-out Subscription Lists included in the Subscription List subgrid. The Email/Phone field on the Unsubscribe record indicates if the person opted-out of email content or SMS content. If the person opts out of both kinds of content, we will create two unsubscribe records for them; one record displaying their email address and the email-related Subscription Lists they opted-out of, and another Unsubscribe record displaying their phone number and the SMS-related Subscription Lists they opted-out of.
Global Unsubscribe Snippet
The first is universally unsubscribing from all emails sent by you through Click by clicking on the Unsubscribe Snippet that is placed in your emails. When they click on the link, a window opens in the browser with a message asking the user to confirm that they want to unsubscribe.
NOTE: The Global Unsubscribe Request text and styling cannot be modified. If you would like to change the text or style the unsubscribe request, we recommend creating a Subscription Management Page containing an unsubscribe all component instead of using the Global Unsubscribe link.
If they confirm, Click creates a global Unsubscribe record in your environment for the recipient.
The Bulk E-mail field on the person's Contact record will also change to Do Not Allow.
The next time you send any email through Click, our service will scan the recipients to see if their record is marked to not allow bulk emails. If this is true, Click will exclude the recipient from the mailing, and that person will not receive the email. Please note that if the "Email" field is set to "Do Not Allow", this will also cause recipients to be excluded but this field is not automatically updated via Click's Unsubscribe process.
Note: If a Contact allows bulk emails but has an Inactive Unsubscribe record, the unsubscribe record will still apply and they will still be opted out of any applicable emails.
Subscription Lists
The other way is to subscribe and unsubscribe from different lists with Subscription Lists. If you have the Standard Click package or higher, you have access to Subscription Lists. Subscription Lists allow you to give options for different lists for users to opt-in or out of rather than universally unsubscribing from all emails. For example, you can have a Newsletter list and a Special Events list. Then when they click on the Subscription Preferences link they are taken to a page where they can check the boxes next to the lists they want to receive emails from. If they do not check a box, they are unsubscribed from that list.
Click will automatically create an Unsubscribe record for that person for that particular list. It associates the Unsubscribe with the Marketing List the person is a part of. And that Marketing List is associated with the Subscription List. So if you try to send to that Marketing List again, that person will not receive the email. When a box is checked that they want to receive the emails, you must follow the steps in the following article to connect that information: Opting in with an Action (Static Marketing Lists only).
Unsubscribe in the Email Header
The list unsubscribe header is used by some email clients (like Gmail) to provide an Unsubscribe link within the email client. Unfortunately, whether that link displays is out of Click's or our customers' control. Gmail, for example, only renders the link for the domains that they deem have good reputation
This unsubscribe header link will look something like this:
Recipients may also click here to unsubscribe or block the emails.