Unsubscribe Settings
Having an option to unsubscribe from your emails is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions. As well, many email service providers require unsubscribe links to be present in outbound emails.
Please refer to rules and regulations of the countries you are sending emails to for more information.
Broadcast allows you to manage your unsubscribe settings in your outbound emails.
Unsubscribe Link
On a per channel basis, you can set a default unsubscribe link that will be used in your automated emails (Broadcasts and Email Sequences).
To set the Unsubscribe Link, click on Channel Settings in the left sidebar. In the form field, you will see the option to set the Unsubscribe Link.
Because each link is unique to a channel and the subscriber, you cannot set a hard-coded value for the link.
Instead, Broadcast will generate a link for you that you can use in your emails.
To specify the link, you can use the {{ unsubscribe_link }}
variable in your emails.
Server-Specific Unsubscribe Link
Some email service providers have specific unsubscribe link options.
For example, Postmark has a slightly different unsubscribe link format. Without specifying this unsubscribe link, Postmark will automatically try to insert another link, which will make your email appear as if there are duplicate links.
To specify the server-specific unsubscribe link, click on Channel Settings in the left sidebar.
Under Email Servers, select the email server you want to customize the unsubscribe link for.
Go to Custom Unsubscribe Settings and enable the option Customize unsubscribe link. Once you do that, the form field Customize unsubscribe link for this server will appear.
For Postmark, for example, it uses the following format:
{{{ pm:unsubscribe }}}
So, you can enter something like this:
<a href="{{{ pm:unsubscribe }}}">Unsubscribe to our emails</a>
Once Postmark detects this link format, it will use it instead of appending its own.
Email Provider Unsubscribe Link
You might notice that in cases where the email service provider injects its own unsubscribe link, Broadcast’s own unsubscribe page will not be used.
This is because the email service provider’s link takes precedence over Broadcast’s.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to override this without contacting the email service provider.
However, you can set up webhooks for the email service provider to let Broadcast know when a subscribe has unsubscribed. This way, your subscriber list will be up-to-date.
To learn more about email metric integration, please see the Email Metrics guide.
Disabling Unsubscribe Link & Header
Broadcast provides an option to disable the unsubscribe link altogether in your emails. This is useful for specifying email servers that are meant to send only transactional emails, for example.
Be careful about disabling the unsubscribe link, as it is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions.
To disable a link, click on Channel Settings in the left sidebar. Go to Email Servers and select the email server you want to disable the unsubscribe link for.
In the Custom Unsubscribe Settings section, uncheck the option Include unsubscribe link and Include unsubscriber header.
Note that having an unsubscribe link (and header) is considered best practice, and helps with deliverability.