How do I manage newsletter subscriber cancellation requests?

Thursday, 26 April 2007 1:57 PM
Australian Anti-SPAM legislation requires inclusion of a functional unsubscribe option within all promotional electronic messages.

IASP has received legal opinion that the functional unsubscribe option does not have to be automated as long as it gives subscribers the means to pro-actively request to be unsubscribed from promotional mailing lists.

In fact, the IASP Messenger System does include the option to include an automated 'unsubscribe' link within both the original user welcome e-mail which is automatically sent to all new users, or within the Master e-mail footer that is automatically attached to the bottom of every e-mail sent to subscribers via the IASP Messenger System.

The Master e-mail footer can be modified as required within the Automated Messages area of the IASP Control Panel.

It is a decision for each individual IASP website owner to decide to offer the automated unsubscribe link or to include an alternative manual method for subscribers to unsubscribe.

The main advantage of inserting the automated unsubscribe link is there is no manual administration required in this process, the main disadvantage is that in IASP's experience a percentage of subscribers will click the automated unsubscribe link by mistake.

If you decide not to offer your subscribers the option to automatically unsubscribe a possible manual suggestion for inclusion in the Master e-mail Footer is:

'to cancel your subscriptions reply to this message with the word cancel in the subject line'

Important Notes:

When a subscriber clicks the automated unsubscribe link, all Mailing List Topics the User has selected are automatically deselected. The User's profile remains Live, meaning the User can still login and update their profile and continue to make online purchases etc..

If you wish to track User's history such as viewing User's who have previously subscribed to your mailing lists, but have at some point opted out of subscription you must not use the automated unsubscribe link as no record of previous mailing list subscription history is stored.

In this case you would offer manual unsubscription option and while manually processing any unsubscription requests (i.e. editing the User's profile), you would: Deselect all mail list topics, leave the User's profile Live and make any notes required in the Admin comments area of the User's profile.

If your IASP website User's profile area does not contain an Admin comments area, or if you would like to investigate advance customer relationship management options please contact IASP to discuss your individual requirements.

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