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How a Subscriber Opts Out
Learn how a subscriber opts out in Email Studio.
Marketing Cloud Engagement uses the subscriber status to capture whether a subscriber has opted out (unsubscribed) from your publications.
An unsubscribed subscriber appears with a red icon in the application interface. You can also retrieve subscriber status information using the web service API.
Every time you send a commercial email, the system checks the statuses of the subscribers to be sent to and excludes any whose status is Unsubscribed.
A subscriber can unsubscribe from emails at three different levels:
- List-Level Unsubscribe - A subscriber who unsubscribes at the list level doesn’t receive any emails that are sent to that list or publication list. For example, a person could unsubscribe from your Sale Announcements list but still receive emails that you send to your Weekly Newsletter list. Unsubscribing at the list level is different from removing the subscriber from the list. If you remove a subscriber from a list, the system allows you to add the subscriber again in a future import. If you unsubscribe the subscriber, the system maintains the subscriber status of Unsubscribed even if you import the subscriber again.
- Account-Level Unsubscribe or Universal Unsubscribe - A subscriber who unsubscribes at the account level has an unsubscribed status on your All Subscribers list. All current and future lists in your account inherit the All Subscriber list.
- Global Unsubscribe - A subscriber unsubscribed at the global level is suppressed from all current and future lists in all Marketing Cloud Engagement accounts.
One-Click Unsubscribe
The application requires that your commercial emails contain an unsubscribe link in the body of the email, usually in the footer. The URL of the link is a system-generated string that contains embedded information to identify the subscriber who clicked the link and the email in which the subscriber clicked it.
When the subscriber clicks the link, the system looks up which list the email was sent to and sets the subscriber's status to "Unsubscribed" for that list. If the email was sent to multiple lists the subscriber is on, the system unsubscribes the subscriber from all lists.
Meanwhile, the subscriber's browser displays a message that the unsubscribe action was successful and gives the subscriber options to resubscribe or manage other subscriptions.
Profile and Subscription Center
The application requires that your commercial emails contain a link to the profile center. The URL of the link is a system-generated string that takes the subscriber to a customized page that shows all public attributes you store about the subscriber.
From the profile center, the subscriber can update their personal information in your system, as well as click another link to the subscription center. The subscription center is a page that shows all lists and publication lists in your account that you’ve marked as public.
The subscriber's personal subscription center shows whether the subscriber is subscribed to each of the public lists and publication lists. If the subscriber unsubscribes from lists they’re subscribed to from this page, the system changes the subscriber's status to unsubscribe for that list.
From either the profile center or the subscription center the subscriber can choose to unsubscribe from all publications. If the subscriber selects this option, the system changes the subscriber's status to unsubscribe for the account.
Reply Mail
If you have the reply mail management feature configured and a subscriber replies with one of the unsubscribe keywords in the subject line or body, the system automatically unsubscribes the subscriber at the account-level.
If you don’t have reply mail management configured for your account, you must manually process leave requests that you receive.
Manual Processing
If a subscriber requests to be unsubscribed through email or any other communication channel, CAN-SPAM requires you to process this request in a timely fashion.
You can unsubscribe a subscriber at the account-level by accessing the subscriber properties and clicking Unsubscribe from All.
Feedback Loop
A feedback loop is when Internet service provider (ISP) forwards spam complaints and opt outs from its users to the senders of the messages being complained about. When ISPs use the feedback loop to forward complaints, the subscriber who complained is automatically unsubscribed at the account level.
Some email clients offer tools to subscribers to unsubscribe from mailing lists by clicking Leave or Unsubscribe in the email client interface. When the subscriber clicks this button, the email client sends an Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) reply email with a FeedbackType value of opt-out. The subscriber status changes to Unsubscribed for that Engagement account.
Most email clients also offer a tool to report an email as spam or junk. When the subscriber clicks this button, the email client sends an ARF reply email with a FeedbackType value of abuse. The subscriber status changes to Unsubscribed for that Engagement account.
Contacting Marketing Cloud Engagement
Subscribers can email, call, or write to request to be unsubscribed. Salesforce personnel manually process these requests and set the subscriber status to Unsubscribed at the appropriate level, depending on the subscriber request.
