Unsubscribing, list unsubscribes and the master opt-in

Owned by Michael Kalnicki
Last updated: May 16, 2024
3 min read

When you send emails to your supporters, you should of course only select supporters that have opted-in to one of your opt-in questions, but in addition you must allow them the ability to unsubscribe (opt-out of the question) from your email communications via a link in the email. 

Inserting unsubscribe links

When building your template, email campaign, or automation email, you can insert an unsubscribe link by selecting the text that supporters should click and clicking the “insert unsubscribe link” button .

This will display a list of landing pages and opt-ins.

Landing page

The landing page is the page that’s displayed when the supporter clicks on the link. This will either be

  • a Web Page (managed via Pages > Components > Web pages) for one-click unsubscribes, which immediately set the opt-in to N (no) when clicked, or

  • an Email Subscriptions Subscription Management page that will not immediately set the opt-in, but allows the supporter to see their current opt-in status(es) and manually manage them

Both these types of landing pages are shown in the same drop-down list, separated by the headings Subscription Management and On Click Unsubscribe.

Opt-in question

This drop down allows you to set which of your opt-in questions is attached to the landing page you chose. Depending on the type of landing page, two things will happen with the chosen opt-in:

  • For On-click unsubscribes landing pages, this will immediately set that question to N (no) when clicked and display the landing page. It also sets the “master opt-in”.

  • For Subscription Management pages, this does not tell the software to do anything if the link is clicked. Instead it sets the “master opt-in”.

Master opt-in

The master opt-in is set by the opt-in question you choose in your unsubscribe link (see above). This switches “list-unsubscribe” on for the received email so that webmail providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com can place an unsubscribe link within their own web client.

(Should you have set up an email with two or more unsubscribe links with different opt-ins, it’s the first that will be selected).

This native unsubscribe link offers supporters an additional way to unsubscribe, without having to hunt for the link within the email. Different providers will do this in different ways – the screenshot above shows an example in Gmail.

This makes it easier for someone receiving lots of emails to quickly unsubscribe with one click. This might sound like a bad thing, but in fact will increase your reputation as an email sender, helping to maintain high deliverability and maintain a healthy email list.