How an unsubscribed contact can opt-in again
This article explains why you cannot opt-in any contacts and provides details on how to direct your contacts to resubscribe themselves.
In order to comply with
CAN-SPAM laws, any contact who has opted out must resubscribe themselves. This means that you cannot change a
contact's status from Opt-Out back to Active from within your account. Even if the contact has been opted out accidentally, they still have to resubscribe themselves.
Two options for contacts to resubscribe
When a new contact subscribes to your newsletter or email list, it's not necessary for them to confirm opt-in, but it is required for resubscription.
There are two ways a contact can change their Opt-Out status back to Active, as explained below. However, in both cases, the most important step is that the contact opens the confirmation email — which is sent after they've resubscribed — and clicks the "confirm your subscription" link.
If you have a signup form available on your website, simply direct your contact to the relevant page so they can resubscribe. If not, you can generate a link for a signup form in your account. In our instructions for editing your default signup form; the final step explains where to access options for publishing the form, one of which is a URL that you can copy and share with the contact.
Before you direct the contact to your signup form, make sure the send confirmation box for the signup form has been checked.
If the send confirmation box for the signup form has not been checked, here's how to do it:
- Open the Audience section in your account, then click Forms on the left.
- Select Signup from the form options, then click on the name of your signup form.
- Scroll down to the "Signup stages" section, then click the Manage preferences email tab.
- If it's not already turned on, select the Send manage preferences confirmation checkbox.
- Click Save.
The confirmation email they'll receive contains the subscription confirmation link that the contact must click to resubscribe.
Please note: Lightbox forms and custom signup forms created using our API will not trigger the opt-in confirmation email if an opted-out contact tries to resubscribe.
2. Resubscribe via manage preferences
If the opted-out contact can find a previously sent email from you in their inbox, you can instruct them to click on Manage in the email footer:
This opens the manage preferences form which they can submit with or without any changes to the form fields. Doing so will display a web page titled Re-join this list, as shown here:
When the contact clicks
Yes, they'll be sent a confirmation email (if it's been checked) containing the subscription confirmation link that they
must click to resubscribe.
What to do about accidental opt-outs
Links in emails sent through our application are appended with tracking IDs that make them unique to each recipient. This is how you're able to see which contacts clicked which links when viewing mailing response numbers.
When an email is forwarded using an email client, such as Gmail or Outlook, it retains those unique links and continues to track opens and clicks as if they were the original recipient's actions. The same thing happens with the "Opt out" link in emails. If the original recipient forwards the email to someone else and that person clicks "Opt out", the original recipient will be unsubscribed.