You can either read the article below or scroll to the bottom of the page to watch the recorded video. Click here to go straight to the video.
Why This Matters
In early 2024, Google and Yahoo introduced new rules that make spam reports much more impactful on your domain’s reputation. If more than 0.3% of your recipients mark your emails as spam, it can damage your deliverability. A safer target is to stay below 0.1%.
By making it easier for recipients to unsubscribe, you reduce the chances of being marked as spam—helping protect your domain and clean up your list.
Benefits of Easy Unsubscribing
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Here’s why it’s worth doing:
It gives uninterested contacts a way out without harming your reputation.
It shows courtesy and builds trust with your audience.
It increases the value of your list by keeping it filled with engaged recipients.
How to Add an Account-Wide Unsubscribe Link
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To make unsubscribing easy:
Open your email in the HTML builder.
Add a link or button with language like “Click here to unsubscribe.”
For the URL, use the merge tag: %unsubscribe_link%
This will unsubscribe the contact from all future mass emails from your account.You’ll find this tag in the merge tag dropdown in the email builder toolbar (scroll to the bottom).
How to Add a List-Specific Unsubscribe Link
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To let contacts unsubscribe from a specific email topic or campaign:
Create a separate contact list (e.g., “Holiday Promotions” or “Father’s Day Campaign”).
Write a message like:
“Don’t want to receive messages about Father’s Day? Click below to unsubscribe from those.”Add a button or hyperlink, and for the link URL, use the merge tag: %unsubscribe_from_list_link%
This will remove them from that contact list only—not all your communications.Still include your usual unsubscribe footer to meet compliance requirements.
Key Considerations
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These unsubscribe links are optional but helpful.
They're meant to supplement your footer, not replace it.
They work best when visible toward the top of the email.
Evaluate if this approach is right for your audience—especially for sensitive campaigns like holiday messaging.
Watch the Full Training Video
Transcript
Transcript
0:01
hello everybody My name is Drew and
0:05
we've got a topic here for you today
0:08
that you might find kind of surprising
0:11
Um it is why more unsubscribes might
0:16
actually be a win Now I know that this
0:19
is kind of counterintuitive because
0:21
after all we all want big lists when
0:25
we're talking about marketing
0:26
newsletters things like that So why on
0:29
earth would you ever make it easy for
0:32
people to unsubscribe Well we're going
0:34
to dive into that So uh first of all a
0:38
bit of context that is important for all
0:41
marketers to know about which is that in
0:44
early 2024 Google and Yahoo kind of
0:48
changed the game when it comes to the
0:51
impact of spam reports uh spam reports
0:56
uh should ba basically the threshold
0:59
that you need to stay under as a
1:01
marketer especially if you have larger
1:03
lists is that
1:07
of.3% spam rate So that is three spam
1:12
reports per thousand emails sent And
1:15
that's the threshold Like when you're
1:18
exceeding that you are in a very
1:21
dangerous territory and can do serious
1:23
damage to your domain's reputation
1:26
Really realistically it's more like one
1:28
per thousand that you should be trying
1:32
to always stay
1:33
below Um so that is the uh you could say
1:37
that's the stick here um for why you
1:40
might want to make it easy for people to
1:44
unsubscribe from your lists The the
1:47
carrot is the fact that people might
1:52
feel a greater sense of ownership of
1:56
receiving emails uh from you in their
1:59
inbox if they just if they receive this
2:01
gesture of like hey just checking in We
2:05
want to make sure that we are sending
2:07
messages to people who want to receive
2:09
them So if you're not enjoying these
2:11
messages here's a nice way or here's an
2:14
easy way to unsubscribe from this list
2:17
It can build a sense of goodwill It
2:20
shows that you're not just that pushy
2:21
used car salesman but rather that you
2:25
value their
2:28
you basically Um so maybe then when
2:32
somebody sees that message and they're
2:34
like "Yeah you know what I want to
2:35
continue receiving messages from this
2:37
person they're going to feel a greater
2:39
sense of ownership over that and um and
2:42
view you in a higher regard Uh and then
2:46
of course also when you're making it
2:48
easy for people to unsubscribe for those
2:51
people who maybe don't want to receive
2:52
your messages then they'll take that
2:55
easy out and that person would have you
2:58
know disproportionately been a higher
3:00
likelihood of a person to later on
3:02
report you for spam So it's great to get
3:05
them off your list and to uh to move on
3:08
to people who want to receive your
3:10
messages
3:12
So let's take a look at how we are able
3:15
to do this because it's actually really
3:17
quite
3:20
easy So here we are in the HTML builder
3:25
in
3:26
Viploud and I got a couple of just of
3:29
examples here Let's just move that right
3:32
there
3:33
So this can be implemented in any number
3:35
of ways once you see how to do it This
3:38
is just uh two examples that are uh side
3:42
by side basically So we've got this one
3:44
right here where we've got a message of
3:47
don't want to receive these emails We
3:49
don't like unwanted emails either Click
3:52
here to
3:53
unsubscribe as a button that is below it
3:57
So all you need to do to be able
4:01
to actually it's this right here
4:05
All you need to be able to all you need
4:06
to do is uh put in a merge tag that is
4:10
percent
4:12
unsubscribe link percent Now you're able
4:16
to get this merge tag from your merge
4:20
tags in the text editor ribbon up here
4:23
It's actually all the way down to the
4:25
bottom And you'll see these two right
4:27
here We got percent You got the
4:29
unsubscribe link merge tag which is the
4:33
merge tag that you use to have somebody
4:35
unsubscribe from you
4:37
entirely So it's just an accountwide
4:40
unsubscribe link from
4:42
you And then below it we have
4:46
unsubscribe from list And we're going to
4:48
walk in we're going to go through that
4:49
uh scenario in a little bit here But uh
4:54
but yeah this one right here this
4:55
unsubscribe link all you have to do
4:59
is put it in where you would otherwise
5:02
put a URL in uh for a link in Vive Cloud
5:08
So in this case we're looking at the
5:10
button editor Right where it says link
5:13
you put in that merge tag You can give
5:16
it the label that you like So in this
5:18
case you click here to
5:20
unsubscribe and then just send this out
5:23
like usual and the recipients will be
5:25
able to unsubscribe from you
5:28
easily Now below this is a slightly
5:32
different scenario but one that is
5:34
increasing in popularity which is giving
5:37
people a heads up about holidays that
5:40
are coming up that might be sensitive to
5:42
them like you know Mother's Day Father's
5:44
Day things like that and you can send
5:47
them out a message saying things like
5:50
you know don't want to receive emails
5:52
about Father's Day Click below to
5:53
unsubscribe from those
5:56
communications And same deal as before
6:00
All you have to do is put in the
6:03
appropriate merge tag where you would
6:05
otherwise put a link for that button or
6:08
for the hyperl text and you'll be good
6:12
to go So what'll happen with this type
6:15
of unsubscribe is that they are going to
6:18
be unsubscribing just from that contact
6:22
list So in in that case you just need to
6:25
make sure that you're in this case maybe
6:28
if if this if we're doing this for like
6:30
Father's Day for instance you would make
6:32
a contact list for your Father's Day
6:35
communication and then send out this
6:38
mass email to that list so that when
6:41
people are clicking on the unsubscribe
6:44
link right there they are unsubscribing
6:47
from that contact list And then you just
6:49
go forward sending out your like those
6:53
holiday specific messages to that same
6:55
contact list and you're going to be able
6:57
to avoid sending messages to those
6:59
people who have opted out from those
7:05
communications All right Um and then
7:09
lastly I do want to mention that these
7:12
unsubscribes are going to not replace
7:15
that mass email footer that does still
7:18
uh need to be in place The unsubscribe
7:21
link will be at the bottom um like it is
7:24
usually These are just kind of additive
7:27
and are things that you might consider
7:30
putting up above the fold making them
7:32
kind of a featured element of your
7:36
communication And so yep that does it
7:39
for the demo here And so um I also just
7:43
want to mention that these are just
7:44
ideas for things that you can do We're
7:47
not saying that this is something that
7:49
all marketers should um should should do
7:54
but it's just something that you could
7:55
consider doing and seeing if it's
7:57
something that might be right for your
7:59
audience because it's something that
8:00
probably just doesn't occur to most
8:02
marketers after all the idea
8:05
of inviting people
8:08
uh removing themselves from your from
8:10
your reach but might be some interesting
8:13
food for thought We'd love to hear your
8:15
thoughts about this too So if you have
8:17
any questions about it um by all means
8:20
um reach reach out to us comment on the
8:24
videos where you see this posted We'll
8:26
love to hear your feedback So thank you
8:28
so much