Understanding email unsubscribes

Overview

In Ortto, there are several ways someone might be unsubscribed from your communications—such as opting out, a bounced email, or manual unsubscription. This guide will explain these scenarios and show you how to resubscribe them.

Learn more about:

• The unsubscribe email activity.
• Unsubscribe methods.
• Resubscribe methods.
• Reporting on unsubscribes.
• Frequently asked questions.

Unsubscribe from email activity

When a person is unsubscribed from emails an Unsubscribe from email activity is logged on the person's activity history.

Unsubscribe methods

People can unsubscribe from emails directly within emails they receive by clicking the unsubscribe link.

Users can update the email permissions field using the following methods:

Manually update the email permissions field for a single person

To manually update the email permissions field, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the person's record.
2. Locate the Email permission field.
3. Toggle it to False and save.

Update the email permissions field in a journey

To update the email permission field in a Journey, follow these steps:

1. Add the Update Field action shape in a Journey.
2. Select Email permission as the field to update.
3. Select False as the new value.

Upload a CSV file

To unsubscribe a contact via a CSV import, follow these steps:

1. Click CDP > People from the sidebar.
2. Click More > Import.
3. Select Spreadsheet import and follow the prompts.
4. On the Map page, map the Email permission CDP field against the Email permission column.
5. Tick the checkbox: I certify that I have the appropriate permission to send emails to these contacts.

Learn more about importing data from a CSV file.

API

To unsubscribe a contact via API, use the POST /v1/person/merge endpoint to update the person's Email permission field to False.

Sunset policy

To unsubscribe contacts via the Sunset policy, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings from the sidebar.
2. Click Customer data.
3. Click Sunset policy.
4. Toggle Auto-unsubscribe on > Use the default conditions or add/remove conditions.
5. Click Save.

Resubscribe methods

Recipients can resubscribe themselves using the following methods:

• Submit their email address in a capture widget or form.
• Navigate to the Email preference center from an email they've previously received > Click the link to opt in.

Users can update an unsubscribed person's Email permission to True as long as the user has received explicit opt-in consent from the unsubscribed person.

Users can resubscribe an unsubscribed person's Email permission using the following methods:

Manually update the email permissions field for a single person

To manually update the email permissions field, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the person's record.
2. Locate the Email permission field.
3. Toggle it to True and save.

Update the email permission field in a journey

To update the email permissions field in a journey, follow these steps:

1. Add the Update Field action shape in a Journey.
2. Select Email permission as the field to update.
3. Select True as the new value.

Upload a CSV file

To resubscribe a contact via a CSV import, follow these steps:

1. Click CDP > People from the sidebar.
2. Click More > Import.
3. Select Spreadsheet import and follow the prompts.
4. On the Map page, map the Email permission CDP field against the Email permission column.
5. Tick the checkbox: I certify that I have the appropriate permission to send emails to these contacts.

API

To resubscribe a contact via API, use the POST /v1/person/merge endpoint to update the person's Email permission field to True.

Auto-resubscribe

To resubscribe contacts via Auto-resubscribe, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings from the sidebar.
2. Click Customer data.
3. Click Sunset policy.
4. Toggle Auto-resubscribe on > Use the default conditions, or add/remove conditions.
5. Click Save.

Reporting on unsubscribes

To quickly view your unsubscribes and their reasons, create a ledger report:

1. Navigate to Analytics > Reports.
2. Select New report.
3. Choose Start from scratch.
4. Select Ledger.
5. Add Unsubscribed from email activity.

You can also include additional columns such as:

• Campaign/Email name.
• Contact Email/Contact name.
• Unsubscribe reason.
• Unsubscribe context.

Frequently asked questions

What happens when a person is unsubscribed?

• The system Email permission field is updated to Unsubscribed.
• This means they will no longer receive marketing emails, but they will still get transactional emails.

What happens when an unsubscribe person is archived?

Once a person is archived, their activities will no longer be tracked. Any archived person that is not restored within 29 days will automatically be deleted on the 30th day.

If Ortto receives an activity involving an archived person from a data source, then a new person record will be created in the CDP.

The new person record will not retain the person's original subscription status (unless created as an unsubscribed record via a data source or via the appropriate API call, or the person has been added to the Email suppression list).