How can I remove the unsubscribe link from bulk emails? It’s a question we get asked quite often at Envoke. Some organizations have a legal or contractual obligation to send messages that contacts must receive, regardless of subscription status. (Some examples might include safety information about a product recall, or information from an employer to an employee.) Envoke has a mandatory messages feature for these organizations to use, but we’ll explain why removing the “unsubscribe” link is not advised.
If you send marketing emails and want to remove the unsubscribe link from your messages, then this article is not for you. The unsubscribe link is a legal requirement for CAN-SPAM, GDPR and CASL. It’s an overall best practice and the right thing to do.
However, if you send non-commercial emails then you may have a good use case to remove the unsubscribe link from your bulk email messages: for example the emails are going to employees who must receive your messages according to their employment contract, you’re sending a public safety message or you’re sending regulatory or otherwise mandatory emails.
Your natural inclination is to remove the unsubscribe link if unsubscribing shouldn’t be allowed. We argue this is not the best solution and in this article we’re going to tell you why and what to do instead.
Removing the unsubscribe link is simply a crude workaround if your email provider doesn’t have a better way to handle regulatory or mandatory emails.
Having no unsubscribe link in emails also has the potential to trigger spam reports and create frustrated contacts. Besides, if you try to remove the unsubscribe link from your emails most email providers, including Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, and many others will add a default unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email, essentially making it impossible to remove the unsubscribe link. They do this because their customers send marketing emails almost exclusively and accommodating a few clients who send non-commercial messages is too much work for too little payback.
If you are a communicator looking for an email marketing platform that allows you to fulfill your legal or contractual obligation to send mandatory email (that is, email that your contacts must receive, regardless of subscription status), give Envoke a try. We are purpose-built for communicators and we understand your unique needs.
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So what can you do, if you need to send emails to your members or contacts and providing a way to opt out is not something you can work with?
The Envoke email marketing platform has a solution for you. Envoke is an email platform like Mailchimp with focus on compliance, customization options for advanced subscription and list management. FYI, here’s a detailed Envoke vs. Mailchimp comparison.
The solution Envoke offers includes three steps:
- Keep the unsubscribe link but make a distinction between optional and mandatory content
- Customize the “unsubscribe link” wording and customize the “email preferences page”
- Use the “send mandatory emails” setting
Keep the unsubscribe link to ensure your emails don’t go to spam
The first step in disallowing unsubscribes is to keep the unsubscribe link. How does this make sense? Read on.
If you remove the unsubscribe link you create more problems than you solve:
- Your emails may get blocked by spam filters, as some spam filters look for the presence of unsubscribe links. This is the last thing you want.
- You may frustrate your contacts who may report your mandatory messages as spam because they are accustomed to having a link to unsubscribe or manage their email settings.
- You may get kicked out by your email provider because removing the unsubscribe link is a big no-no. Most likely it will be technically impossible to remove the link in the first place.
So, we recommend that you keep the unsubscribe link, but update the presentation.
Instead of saying “unsubscribe” try:
- Review and manage email preferences, or
- Update email settings
This makes it clear that this is not a one-click unsubscribe, but it shows your contacts that they have options.
Customize the email preferences page a.k.a. “the unsubscribe page”
When contacts click through to update their preferences they are taken to the unsubscribe page. You should customize this page to explain to your contacts that they will, from time to time, receive mandatory messages and continue to allow them to opt in and opt out from any optional content.
The trouble is that many email providers don’t let you customize the unsubscribe footer in emails. Even fewer allow you to customize the unsubscribe page.
Envoke allows you to customize email footers and the unsubscribe page. You can add custom text to set expectations. This is an opportunity to explain what types of emails you send, and a place to show a clear distinction between the optional and mandatory content your contacts may receive.
When sending non-commercial, mandatory messages, use the mandatory email sending option
With the mandatory email option any email can be designated as “mandatory”, which means sending will bypass the standard “are contacts subscribed to optional content?” check and anyone on the list will be sent the mandatory or regulatory email.
Related post: Sending mandatory emails to contacts who unsubscribed from optional messages.
Summary
Removing the unsubscribe link is not a good idea even if you don’t want to allow unsubscribes. Instead, you should change the way the link is presented by customizing the email footer and wording as well as the email preferences page. You should also clearly label mandatory emails as such, so they reach contacts who opted out from optional content.
Related Reading:
- 7 Ways Email Marketing Software Fails Communications Teams
- Email Marketing vs Communications: What’s the Difference?
- Differentiate Between Emails Your Contacts Want to Receive and Content They Have to Receive
About Envoke
Envoke is an email marketing and communications platform for sending bulk emails. We’ve been around for 15 years and work with small and large organizations alike who value security, compliance, ease of use and great support. Get a free trial to test drive our software today.
