How does unsubscribe work?

All Email Campaign messages sent via Alchemer must include an unsubscribe link to allow recipients to indicate they no longer wish to receive emails from the sender. This is required by the CAN-SPAM Law.

Are you sending an SMS Campaign? Learn about unsubscribing from SMS Campaigns.

What does the unsubscribe link look like?

When a recipient receives your email invite the content from the email footer will display at the bottom of your message. The default message looks like the below example. Learn how to customize your email campaign footer including the physical address and unsubscribe link text!

What does the recipient see when they click unsubscribe?

When the recipient clicks the unsubscribe link they will be redirected to a survey page with the default unsubscribe text:

Your email address has been unsubscribed from this invitation. It may take up to 48 hours to stop receiving emails.

Respondent-Facing Unsubscribe Messaging

This page will reflect your survey's theme specified on the Style tab of the survey.

Can I change the default message seen by contacts who unsubscribe?

The default unsubscribe message text can be customized with your survey under Tools  > Text & Translations.

  1. From within the Text & Translations tool click the language for which you wish to customize the text and go to the Messages tab.
  2. Find the Email Unsubscribed Message and click Edit on the right to customize this text. Translate Unsubscribe Confirmation Message

At what level is a contact unsubscribed: Account, List, Survey, or Campaign?

When a contact clicks the unsubscribe link in an email campaign message they will be globally unsubscribed from your Alchemer account. This means they will be listed as unsubscribed throughout your account; this includes: 

  • other email/sms campaigns in the same survey
  • email/sms campaigns in other surveys
  • account contact lists

Unsubscribed contacts will not receive any further invites from any campaign within any surveys in your account. 

What if I add a previously unsubscribed email address to another campaign (in the same or a different survey)?

When a previously unsubscribed email/mobile phone number is added to another campaign, in the same or a different survey, they will be added as an unsubscribed contact in the new campaign.

What if I add a previously unsubscribed email address to a contact list?

When a previously unsubscribed email is added to a contact list they will be added as an unsubscribed contact in the contact list. 

Can I resubscribe a contact?

We do have a tool to do so; check out our resubscribe an unsubscribed contact tutorial to learn how. Keep in mind, resubscribing a unsubscribed contact without their permission to do so is a violation of the CAN-SPAM Law.

Can I customize the email campaign footer/unsubscribe link?

You can! Check out our tutorial that covers customizing email campaign footers.

Unsubscribe via SMS Campaign

When you send a survey invite via SMS, the recipients of your text messages will be able to unsubscribe from receiving further messages from any campaigns in your account (this includes email messages sent via Email Campaigns).

Visit the Unsubscribe from SMS Invites article for information on how respondents can unsubscribe via SMS.

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