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Audience

Unsubscribe and preference pages

The page your readers land on from the footer of every mail, and what each choice on it does.

Every marketing mail you send ends with a footer that says why the reader is getting it and links to their own preferences page. That page lets them stop exactly what they want and keep the rest. You do not build or host it: Kōlea does, branded with your account name, under https://kolea.pro, or on your custom domain when you have one.

Kōlea adds the footer to every broadcast and sequence mail. It has two links, both to the reader's preferences page:

  • For a broadcast: Unsubscribe from the newsletter and Manage all your preferences.
  • For a sequence mail: Stop just this series and Manage all your preferences. The footer names the series they joined.

Your postal address goes under the links. If you want the link in the body of a mail as well, the merge field preference_url (in double curly braces) gives each reader their own link.

What the reader sees

The page is titled with your account name and says "Choose exactly what reaches" their address. Each choice changes only itself.

  1. The lead choice. The page opens with the narrowest action for the mail they came from. From a series mail, the button reads Stop just and the series name. From a broadcast, it reads Unsubscribe from the newsletter. Leaving everything is never the default.
  2. Series. Each series they are in or have left, with Stop this series or Rejoin.
  3. The newsletter. Unsubscribe or Subscribe again.
  4. What you've said. If they have written testimonials for you, they can Withdraw permission to publish one.
  5. Leave everything. A separate, quiet link, Unsubscribe from everything, at the bottom. It opens a second page that spells out the result (the newsletter stops, every series stops, receipts still arrive) and asks them to confirm with Yes, unsubscribe me from everything.

After each choice the page reloads with a one-line confirmation, such as "Done. You're off the newsletter. Any series you're in carries on."

What happens next

The choice takes effect at once and shows on the Consent screen under Recent changes, and on the person's timeline. An unsubscribe is credited to the mail the reader came from, so you can see which send caused it.

Things to know

  • The page works without signing in and without JavaScript. Clicking a choice twice does no harm.
  • An old or broken link shows "This link isn't working" and reveals nothing about anyone.
  • Mail apps that offer their own unsubscribe button use one-click unsubscribe. It takes the same narrow action: a series mail leaves that series, a broadcast leaves the newsletter. It never unsubscribes from everything.
  • A reader who left everything can undo it by subscribing to the newsletter again.
  • Only the reader can rejoin a series they left. You cannot do it for them.
  • Receipts and download mail have no preferences footer. They are not marketing.