Unsubscribe and preferences
Every marketing email lets its reader leave in one click. Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft require it from bulk senders, and so does the law in most countries. Kula handles it on your own domain.
What Kula adds to marketing emails
Campaigns and flow emails always carry:
- One-click unsubscribe headers (
List-UnsubscribeandList-Unsubscribe-Post, RFC 8058). Gmail, Yahoo and Apple Mail show an "Unsubscribe" button next to the sender name, which works without opening any page. - Visible "Unsubscribe" and "Manage preferences" links. Emails written in the visual editor get them at the bottom of your email design, under your footer. In an HTML email, place
{{ unsubscribe_url }}and{{ preferences_url }}where you want: if the unsubscribe link is missing, Kula adds a short footer with it.
Both links use your tracking subdomain, such as link.acme.com, and are unique to each recipient.
Transactional emails carry none of this: a password reset is not something people unsubscribe from.
The unsubscribe link
The link leaves the list the email was sent to, not everything. A reader who leaves your product updates keeps receiving your newsletter.
| The link leaves | |
|---|---|
| Campaign | The list of the campaign |
| Flow started by a list subscription | That list |
| Flow started by an event | Every list: there is no list to leave, so the contact unsubscribes from everything |
Opening the link shows a page with a button. The unsubscription happens on the click, not on the visit: security scanners in company mailboxes open every link in an email, and they would otherwise unsubscribe people without their knowledge. The one-click button of the mail client unsubscribes directly.
After unsubscribing, the reader can open the preferences page from the confirmation.
The preferences page
The preferences page lists your public lists, with a checkbox for each one the reader is subscribed to. They can:
- untick a list to leave it;
- tick another public list to join it, without a confirmation email: the link already proves the address is theirs;
- click Unsubscribe from all to leave every list, public or private.
Private lists are not shown, but "Unsubscribe from all" leaves them too. Public and private lists.
The page uses the name of your space, your logo and your brand color.
What happens after an unsubscribe
- The subscription becomes Unsubscribed. With "Unsubscribe from all", the contact itself becomes Unsubscribed.
- The contact leaves the flows triggered by that list (or every flow, after "Unsubscribe from all").
- It shows in the campaign report and in the contact's history.
- A
contact.unsubscribedwebhook is sent if you listen to it, so your app can update its own records.
An unsubscribed contact is never subscribed again by an import. Through a signup form, it must confirm by email first.
Unsubscribe a contact yourself
- In the dashboard: open the contact, then leave a list or click Unsubscribe from everything.
- With the API: remove a subscription or unsubscribe the contact from everything. Contacts API.
Do this when someone asks you by reply or by email: you must honor these requests too.