Manage your unsubscribe list

Why Is It Important to Allow Unsubscribing from Mailing Lists?

The option to unsubscribe from a mailing list protects both parties: the sender (your business) and the recipient (the contact). The recipient can choose whether to continue receiving emails or to stop them, ensuring a positive customer experience.

On the other hand, the law requires the inclusion of an unsubscribe option according to anti-spam regulations, preventing potential complaints and fines.

But there is also a business advantage: refining your marketing efforts so that time and energy are invested only in contacts genuinely interested in your content and offers. This improves customer engagement and enhances your email deliverability.

Additionally, allowing users to unsubscribe is preferable to alternatives that could harm your sender reputation, such as recipients deleting your emails or marking them as spam.

Methods of Unsubscribing from Mailing Lists

Emails

• Unsubscribing via link – A link is automatically added at the bottom of every email sent via the inwise system.
  When a contact clicks on the unsubscribe link, they are redirected to a page where they can specify the reason for unsubscribing – this page can be edited and customized (instructions available in the next guide).
  After submitting the form, they are redirected to a confirmation page verifying their removal from the mailing list (this page can also be customized). The contact’s email address is added to the suppression list, and the system will no longer send emails to that address.
• Unsubscribing via image or text (instead of a link) – You can embed an unsubscribe tag within an image or text of your choice.
  This action disables the automatic unsubscribe link added by the system.
  While editing the campaign, highlight the text or image you want to be clickable, open the toolbar, select “Custom Tags,” and choose “Unsubscribe.”
• Reporting as spam – inwise collaborates with email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, allowing registration of users who clicked “Report Spam” in the unsubscribe list.
  The “Unsubscribe” button appears automatically at the top of emails sent via a mailing system, making it easier for users to remove themselves from the list. This option cannot be disabled.
  If a contact clicks “Report Spam” or “Unsubscribe” in one of these email services, they will be automatically added to the suppression list of the sender’s account.

SMS

• Adding an unsubscribe link in the message body – similar to email unsubscribing.
• Unsubscribing via reply message – The recipient can unsubscribe by replying with a keyword, such as “1” or “Unsubscribe.”
  Once the recipient sends the unsubscribe keyword, the system recognizes the request and automatically removes them from the mailing list.

WhatsApp

• Unsubscribing via reply message – Similar to SMS.
• Adding an unsubscribe button as a call-to-action.
• Blocking the business – Users can block a business from receiving messages via WhatsApp. This damages the business’s reputation and may lead to a permanent suspension of the WhatsApp Business account. Therefore, including an unsubscribe option in WhatsApp messages is crucial to avoid being blocked.

Unsubscribing from Multiple Accounts

Businesses managing multiple accounts can allow their contacts to choose which accounts to unsubscribe from.
This is especially relevant for businesses operating separate accounts for different purposes, such as:
– One account for marketing emails and another for operational communication.
– Businesses in different industries may use separate accounts for various topics, allowing recipients to unsubscribe only from non-relevant categories.

When clicking the unsubscribe link, a list of topics/categories the user is subscribed to can be displayed, allowing selective unsubscribing based on preferences.
For assistance with this setup, please contact our support team.

Unsubscribing from External Lists

External lists are groups imported into the inwise system from an external database. This means the contacts are stored in the client’s database and are only synced for email delivery.
If a contact in an external list unsubscribes, their email address will be added to the unsubscribe list only if they remain in the group that received the email.

Tracking Unsubscribes

The inwise system provides tools to monitor and track unsubscribes:

• Tracking unsubscribe reasons – View data on the number of unsubscribes and analyze the reasons.
  Three main types of unsubscribes:
  • Manual – The sender manually removes a contact by adding their email to the suppression list.
  • Import – An unsubscribe list is imported.
  • Self-removal – If a contact chooses to unsubscribe, they must select a reason:
    1. These emails are not relevant to me.
    2. I don’t want to receive more emails.
    3. I don’t remember signing up for this list.
    4. I receive too many emails.
    5. These emails are spam.
    6. Other.
• If a contact reports an email as “Spam” through their email service (e.g., Gmail), it will be recorded under reason #8.
• Global unsubscribe List – The system has a global unsubscribe list of recipients who will not receive emails from any inwise account.

Returns a contact from the unsubscribe list

To restore a contact from the unsubscribe list back to the regular mailing list, you can reactive them through the system after confirm they want to receive emails again.

Guide on how to do this > Link.

Send via API

The inwise API can be used for special operations, such as:

• Sending an email campaign directly from a CRM.
• Sending transactional emails (operational emails triggered by customer actions).
• Sending personalized invoices. etc.

For API-based sending, handling unsubscribe differs. The Send Individual function does not check contacts against the unsubscribe list but only against the bounce list.
This means that when sending emails via API, managing unsubscribe is the client’s responsibility:
– You must retrieve the unsubscribe list from the inwise system and remove those contacts from your internal lists.
– Alternatively, you can create an unsubscribe link that collects requests and ensures those contacts do not receive future emails.

• This document should not be considered as legal advice