As of June 2024, Gmail requires senders who send 5,000 or more emails a day to make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe. Messages must support one-click unsubscribe.
What is one-click unsubscribe?
One-click unsubscribe, in this context, is specific data included in the header of an email that allows a mail client to use the one-click unsubscribe feature. Every email application has implemented this feature differently, but below are some common examples of where one-click unsubscribe can appear.
Gmail
Microsoft Outlook
The crucial component of one-click unsubscribe is that after a recipient clicks "Unsubscribe," there should be no other confirmations or follow-up questions; they should be unsubscribed immediately.
How do I enable one-click unsubscribe in Totango?
Within a campaign's settings, you can optionally enable one-click unsubscribe, per campaign. This setting is disabled on new campaigns by default.
We recommend enabling this option on all campaigns that target a large audience, intended for a marketing purpose. You may want to give special consideration for not using this option on campaigns intended to be transactional in nature (e.g., introduction of a CSM, renewal reminder, overage notification) or that are designed to feel like they're coming directly from a CSM's inbox.
Once enabled, there is no guarantee that the unsubscribe link will appear for all mail clients right away. Totango will add it to the email header, but mail applications use their own algorithms to separate legitimate one-click unsubscribe links from spammers inserting links from phishing attacks disguised as one-click unsubscribe links. Typically, these algorithms rely on sender reputation that is accrued over time, thus it's unknown when the one-click unsubscribe link will become visible for a specific sender or message.
How does one-click unsubscribe work in Totango?
When enabled, a recipient of an email sent from Totango clicks a one-click unsubscribe link, an API call is sent to Totango servers to process the request in the same way as other unsubscribe links:
- The system's Campaign Unsubscribe attribute will be updated for every user with the same email address, including setting the "User Unsubscribe" attribute to yes
- The unsubscribed statistics will be included in the campaign performance tab
Essentially, the one-click unsubscribe option is no different than other unsubscribe mechanisms with regard to how Totango processes the request. Depending on the user's email application, there might be a confirmation message (within the application), but no page is loaded in the browser.
Are there any cautions about the one-click unsubscribe requirement?
Because this requirement is new, security systems may trigger the unsubscription events accidentally.
It’s responsibility of the security system administrators and developers to process unsubscribe links accordingly. There have been reports online about link screening tools triggering regular unsubscription events. When this happens, there is nothing a sender can do. It’s up to recipient system administrators to customize their systems correctly.
It’s reasonable to expect that link preloading and screening tools are ready for the changes of this new requirement and will not send unnecessary API calls to bulk senders, like Totango.