The question often comes up about whether or not to send a confirmation email message after you unsubscribe someone. In other words, they receive an email from you and either click on the unsubscribe link or reply with “unsubscribe” in the subject. Should you write back with an email saying “you have been unsubscribed?”.
This is one of those places where common sense seems to diverge from reality. The intuitive, common sense answer is yes. Of course you should send them a confirmation email. It should comfort them by confirming that you received the request. It looks professional. It is consistent with the way other parts of your email program work.
However, the practical reality is that it is rarely a best practice to send an unsubscribe confirmation message. When someone tells you to stop sending them email, they usually mean NOW. They don’t want any other emails. And this is evidenced by a complaint rate as high as 50% (that’s not a typo – I’ve really seen complaint rates that high).
There are a few cases where an unsubscribe confirmation is appropriate and seems to generate lower complaint rates. Banks and financial institutions are generally in a class of their own for email best practices so none of this applies to them. Also if you are getting a paid email subscription and you unsubscribe, it makes sense and is well received to send an unsubscribe confirmation
Now, you probably don’t have many unsubscribes day so even if half the people complain it probably isn’t enough complaints to get you blacklisted. But every complaint counts, and it might be the difference that pushes you over the edge and negatively impacts your deliverability.
Note: I’m just talking about a notification email when I say confirmation. I’m not suggesting that you would ever require a user to “double optout” by requiring an action to unsubscribe by email. There are probably some legitimate scenarios where you would do that, but I’ve never come across one.
Last 5 posts by Joshua Baer
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I love this topic. Does it perhaps depend on how the unsubscribe is communicated? If someone sends an email asking to be taken off the list, an email reply confirming the action is OK. If they go through a website (as in most cases), it's enough to have a confirmation page display and absolutely no need to send an email as well?
Interesting. I'm starting to see that almost zero energy goes into corporate auto emails, but when you really think about it these are often the most influential or emotional touch-points. I can't begin to count the number of times I've FUMED after receiving a confirmation of unsubscribe email, which they probably put together 3 years ago and haven't thought about since.
can someone help me on how to stop a company from sending emails when i have already sucessfully unsubscribed weeks ago more than five times.
I have set up a check box for the confirmation e-mail. If you check the box you receive it. My wife thought of that after i had 2 complaints because of that.