Using unsubscribe links to your advantage

Unsubscribe links are very important part of any campaign:

  • They build trust and control in your subscriber relationships
  • They decrease the likelihood of your campaign being marked as spam
  • They are a legal requirement, and part of our Terms of Service

An unsubscribe link must be included at least once in every campaign that you send, however the number of times and where it is displayed is up to you.

Each unsubscribe link is unique. The links are generated for each email and each subscriber. You can insert an unsubscribe link anywhere in your campaign by using the Unsubscribe Placeholder – see the Manual section on placeholders for more information.

Making unsubscribes work for you

If you’re sending to a list that hasn’t been used in some time then subscribers may be confused by your message (see The Easy Way to Bring a Cold Email List Back to Life for advice on this subject). Including a reminder that readers can unsubscribe in your introductory message can help prevent avoidable Junk clicks, which can damage your future performance and deliverability. Similarly, if you are sending to very large lists it is advisable to include an additional unsubscribe link in the header of each campaign as part of your campaign template. This also builds trust — the subscriber is in control and can opt-out at any time.

When an unsubscribe link is clicked, your relationship with the subscriber does not end — they can opt-out of one of several different lists you maintain, tailoring the variety and quantity of your communications to their needs. By default notifications of each list unsubscribe will be sent to the phpList account administrator, giving you the opportunity to reach out to individuals personally and solicit feedback on how to better meet their needs.