Unsubscribes

Explains how to manage unsubscribes for SMS and email.

Note: In order to manage unsubscribes, you must be a user with a role of Administrator, Developer or Campaign Creator. Other roles can view but not edit.

EngageOne™ Communicate makes it easy to manage unsubscribes. For email and SMS communications, you can define multiple unsubscribe categories, so that customers can opt out of receiving communications within a particular category, while continuing to receive other communications.

For example, a customer could unsubscribe from marketing communications but continue to receive account status communications.

Each email and SMS communication must be allocated one unsubscribe category.

From the EngageOne™ Communicate homepage, click on Unsubscribes and then the Recipients tab (which is displayed by default). The following screen is displayed:

This screen displays all recipients who have been unsubscribed from one or more unsubscribe categories. (For how to define and manage categories, see Managing categories.) You can also manually add a recipient to this list; see Adding a recipient.

The Reason column shows the reason that the recipient was unsubscribed, such as Manual Unsubscribed, Hard Bounce or Complaint.

The Last Unsubscribe Communication column shows the last communication to this recipient prior to unsubscribing.

You can export the information on this page to a CSV file; to do this, click Export csv at the top right. Communicate will create and download a CSV file with the name Unsubscribed-Recipients followed by the date.

To search for a recipient, use the Search box at the top left.

To edit a recipient, click the edit symbol () at the right; the same screen is displayed as for adding a recipient. Note that you cannot change the recipient name when editing. Also, you can only edit a recipient where the Reason is Manual Unsubscribed or Recipient Unsubscribed; for other reasons, you must contact Support.

If you attempt to edit a recipient with a Reason that requires intervention from Support, the following type of form is displayed:

Once you click Submit, the information will be sent to Support.

Adding a recipient

To add a recipient, click Add. The following dialog is displayed:

For an email unsubscribe, click Email and enter the email address; you can specify multiple email addresses using a comma separator between them.

For an SMS unsubscribe, click SMS and enter the phone number. Again, you can use a comma separator to specify multiple phone numbers.

Communicate will validate these entries to make sure that email addresses and phone numbers are valid.

Select the appropriate unsubscribe category from the Unsubscribe from dropdown. You can make a multiple selection, or select All Categories.

Then click Add to add the new recipient.

Adding a domain

For email communications only, to add a domain to the unsubscribe list, click Domains on the Unsubscribes screen. Adding a domain will block sending to all email addresses with that domain. The following screen is displayed:

To search for a domain, use the Search box at the top left.

To edit an unsubscribed domain, click the edit symbol () at the right; the same screen is displayed as for adding a domain.

To delete an unsubscribed domain, click the delete symbol () at the right.

You can export the information on this page to a CSV file; to do this, click Export csv at the top right. Communicate will create and download a CSV file with the name Unsubscribed-Domains followed by the date.

To add a domain to the list of unsubscribed domains, click Add. The following dialog is displayed:

Enter the domain name, then select the appropriate unsubscribe category from the Unsubscribe from dropdown. You can make a multiple selection, or select All Categories. Each domain name must be valid and must match the domain for any allowed email addresses.

If you want to exempt any specific email addresses in the domain from being unsubscribed, enter them in the box Allowed email address(es) separated by commas. These email addresses will continue to be subscribed.

Communicate will validate the email addresses to ensure that they are valid.

Then click Add to add the new domain.

Managing categories

To manage the unsubscribe categories, click Categories on the Unsubscribes screen. The following screen is displayed:

All unsubscribe categories are listed, together with an optional description and the Communication Type (email or SMS).

Note: The maximum allowed number of categories is 100.

Adding a category

To add a category, click the Add Category button. The following dialog is displayed:

Enter the following information:

  • Communication Channel: Email or SMS.
  • Can recipients unsubscribe?: Select Yes to enable recipients to unsubscribe from this category, No to disable unsubscribing from this category.
  • Category Name: The name of the category (maximum of 75 characters). This must be unique for the channel (email or SMS).
  • Description: An optional description of the category (maximum of 150 characters). This is displayed to users when they unsubscribe.

Then click Create to create the new category. For email, the new category will be created. For SMS, when you click Create, Precisely Support will be alerted and will contact you to complete the process.

Editing a category

To edit an existing unsubscribe category, find the category in the Categories tab, and click the edit symbol at the right (). The following dialog is displayed:

The fields are the same as in the Add Subscription Category dialog, with the addition of the Archive Category button. If you archive a category, it will not be used to unsubscribe any emails, but it will remain in the list and can be unarchived when needed. Archived categories are displayed in the list of categories in italics. Note also that you cannot send communications with an archived category; you will need to reassign the communication a different category or duplicate it with a non-archived category.

Note: You cannot change the channel between SMS and email when editing. Also, you cannot change the setting of Can recipients unsubscribe?

Deleting a category

To delete an existing unsubscribe category, find the category in the Categories tab, and click the delete symbol at the right (). You will be asked to confirm deletion. Any such recipients will be no longer unsubscribed once it is deleted.

Note: You can only delete a category if it has not been used in a communication.