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Every broadcast message lets the recipient unsubscribe. Recipients who unsubscribed are left out of your later broadcasts. This page explains the unsubscribe link, what an unsubscribe changes, and how it differs from the suppression list.

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What every message contains

  • A visible link. You place the unsubscribe token in your template. Each recipient gets their own unsubscribe link in its place.
  • One-click unsubscribe headers. Every message carries the List-Unsubscribe header defined by RFC 2369 and the List-Unsubscribe-Post header defined by RFC 8058. Mail clients such as Gmail use them to show an unsubscribe button next to the sender.
Laws on commercial email also ask you to identify yourself. The US CAN-SPAM Act, for example, requires a valid postal address. Add yours to your template, next to the unsubscribe link.

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The unsubscribe token

Write {{system.unsubscribeUrl}} where the link should appear in your template, for example in the href of a link in the HTML footer.
The HTML body of every template version must contain it, and so must the text body when there is one. A version without it cannot be published. The token works in the body only, not in the subject. Opening the link shows a page that names your organization and asks the recipient to confirm. The recipient is unsubscribed only once they confirm. Link scanners and mail previews open links on their own, so opening the link alone never unsubscribes anyone. A one-click unsubscribe from a mail client takes effect right away, with no confirmation page. The link stays active for a year after the last broadcast sent to the address. After that, or once you delete the contact, it shows a page saying it is no longer active.

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What an unsubscribe changes

  • The address is left out of every later broadcast of your organization, whatever the segment or topic. A broadcast that is already sending skips it for the contacts it has not reached yet.
  • Transactional email is not affected. A recipient who unsubscribes from your newsletter still receives their password reset.
  • The unsubscribe is tied to the address. It stays when you delete the contact, create it again, or import the address from another source.
  • The contact shows as unsubscribed from every topic.

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Topic subscriptions

Topics record preferences that you collect yourself, such as a contact who wants one newsletter but not another. The unsubscribe link does not change them, and a broadcast to a topic leaves out the contacts unsubscribed from it. See Topics.

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Suppression list

The suppression list holds the addresses your organization no longer sends to. An address is added when an email to it bounces permanently, or when the recipient reports an email as spam. A temporary bounce does not add it. To review or remove a suppressed address, contact support.

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Next steps

Templates

Publish a version that includes the unsubscribe link

Create and send a broadcast

Send your first broadcast