The unsubscribe process has always been one that has irritated me as a consumer, but with the introduction of GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation, businesses are now beginning to have a much-needed conversation about unsubscribe links and being transparent regarding how consumer information is being used.

Now don't get me wrong, as a business owner I fully understand the frustration and disappointment you experience when someone unsubscribes from your mailing list, but there could be many reasons why someone no longer wants to receive your information.  In some cases, it is because you didn't provide any alternatives.  That is what I want to talk about today, the ways to identify if you have a broken unsubscribe process that could end your business up on the naughty spammer list.
<h1>Is Your Process Following the Law?</h1>
For those of you who didn't know, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the first national standards for sending commercial e-mail.  It has a number of requirements that I encourage you to read, but the section I want to bring your attention to today is <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15 U.S.C. § 7704</a>(3) Inclusion of return address or comparable mechanism in commercial electronic mail and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15 U.S.C. § 7704</a>(5) - Inclusion of identifier, opt-out and physical address in commerical electronic mail.  It states that you must provide:
<ul>
 	<li>clear identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation (however this does not apply if the recipient has given prior affirmative consent to receive the message);</li>
 	<li>notice of the opportunity to decline further messages from the sender <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704" target="_blank" rel="noopener">[15 U.S.C. § 7704</a> (3)]; and</li>
 	<li>a valid physical postal address of the sender.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

I thought of this today as I was going through and unsubscribing from an email I had received that no longer met my needs.   My normal habit is to first use the unsubscribe link or another method that by law businesses are supposed to provide on their mass emails.  A personal one on one email doesn't require this link, but an email that is sent to multiple people does.  Well, today when I went to unsubscribe, the company's unsubscribe link didn't work, so what was I supposed to do?  In this case, most people do one of two things, they either try to respond to the email (if it isn't a no reply email) or they just mark it as spam or junk.

No one wants to end up on the spam or junk list because that means you aren't getting through and if too many people mark your emails that way it could block all of your emails.  So in light of this, I want to share a few things that can get you on the naughty list:
<ol>
 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag="strong" data-verified="redactor">You don't provide a way for the recipient to unsubscribe</strong> - this first of all is against the law, you should always provide a way for people to unsubscribe from your list.  Even if your direction is to reply with unsubscribe in the subject. Please note:  the later isn't the most efficient or liked way, but it can get the job done as long as you are manually removing the people who send those emails.</li>
 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag="strong" data-verified="redactor">Your link requires the individual to enter an email address</strong> - this is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to "unsubscribe paths".  Explain to me why I must enter my email address to unsubscribe from an email that you sent me?  There should be some type of coding that can be done in your link to populate that information so that all the recipient needs to do is confirm it.  On your end, it may be innocent, but to the recipient, it is suspect behavior.  What is the purpose of asking me to supply an email when I want to get off your list to begin with?  Links that require this are more likely to get blacklisted as spam or junk mail.  I see them more times than not when a person is using an unsophisticated mailing system or they just aren't familiar with the inner workings of their system.  Ask your support team how to do it.</li>
 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag="strong" data-verified="redactor">You only provide an all or nothing path</strong> - You provide an unsubscribe link, but maybe the person just doesn't want to hear about the fishing topics you send out but want to know about the boating stuff you send out.  Give your recipients a choice if you offer different types of content.  This is something that may seem to be a limitation of your mailing system, but most can give you a workaround if you just ask them.  By having two links (Unsubscribe from this topic and unsubscribe from the company) you raise the possibility of retaining valuable clients or potential clients that may just not be interested in the fishing topics you send out (why did I use fishing as my example?!?!?!)</li>
</ol>
Something I am beginning to see with the passing of the GDPR deadlines is that many companies are burying an unsubscribe from this and all subsidiaries link in their privacy policy.  I feel a much better way to handle this is to offer that on one unsubscribe page that shows the email address associated and everywhere it is being used, this allows the person to pick and choose what they want to receive.  Since GDPR just passed in May 2018, I suspect that many mailing services are going to be introducing new options for unsubscribing from their lists.

One other thing to think about is that many times I've gone to unsubscribe from an email to realize that the company also sent emails regarding topics I still wanted to receive.  This often happens if there is a special program or type of email that is sent under a different division of your company or with a different header.  Because the company provided this information, I changed my mind about unsubscribing from everything and instead ensured I was subscribed for what I was interested in.  If the choices weren't given as options then I sometimes would stay and just understand I would need to delete the others.

So, be clear about your associated programs and divisions when people are unsubscribing and consider offering a resubscribe link in case they made a mistake.

Finally, I encourage you to walk through your email process to determine what your customer is actually experiencing.  Set up a testing email account and walk through the process from beginning to end (subscribe through to the unsubscribe process).  You want to see what your customers will experience.  You can also ask someone else to walk through the process for you and provide feedback.

<hr />

<ol>
 	<li><a class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090207040530/http://www.ftc.gov/os/2005/01/050112canspamfrn.pdf" rel="nofollow">"Definitions and Implementation Under the CAN-SPAM Act"</a> (PDF). FTC. Archived from <a class="external text" href="http://www.ftc.gov/os/2005/01/050112canspamfrn.pdf" rel="nofollow">the original</a>(PDF) on February 7, 2009<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">March 21,</span> 2009</span>.</li>
</ol>