The Unsubscribe Link Gmail Puts at the Top

A new word beside the sender

Over the past week, people reading newsletters in Gmail have started to notice something new at the top of some messages. Beside the sender's name and address, in small type, is the word Unsubscribe.

The change arrived quietly, and not every account shows it yet. It is turning up on bulk mail from all kinds of senders, small businesses among them.

Clicking it either sends an unsubscribe request on the reader's behalf or, after asking, opens the sender's own unsubscribe page, using details the message already carries. Either way, the reader never has to scroll to the footer.

For senders, it changes one thing that matters: how readers who want to leave actually do it.

Which messages show it

The link appears only on bulk mail, such as newsletters and promotions sent through a mailing service, and only when the message carries a working way to unsubscribe of its own.

Mailing services usually put unsubscribe details in the hidden header of each message as well as in the footer, and Gmail's link appears to depend on them. A sender without them simply does not get it.

Ordinary messages between people do not show it, and nor do most messages sent straight from a website or an office mail program. It also seems to be held back from senders without a good sending record.

Better an unsubscribe than a spam report

Some readers will always want to stop hearing from you. What matters is how they leave, because the two ways out look very different to the mail system:

• An unsubscribe removes one address and tells nobody else anything.
• A spam report tells Gmail that your mail is unwanted.
• Enough spam reports can send your next newsletter to other readers' spam folders.
• Readers who wanted the newsletter then stop seeing it.
• Ordinary business mail from the same domain can be doubted too.

A reader who cannot quickly find your link, especially on a phone, often presses the spam button because it is right there. Gmail's new link puts an easier choice in the same place.

What your own link still has to do

Gmail's link helps only Gmail readers. Everyone using Outlook, an iPhone, Yahoo or a company mail server still depends on the link in your footer.

It should be easy to find, in plain words, at the foot of every message. It should work in one or two steps on a phone, without asking the reader to sign in or remember a password.

It should remove the address from every list you keep, not only the one the newsletter came from, and confirm on screen that it has done so.

Test it every few months by subscribing an address of your own and then leaving. Links break quietly when a website or a mailing account changes.

The law that arrives in July

From July 1, Canada's anti-spam law will require a working unsubscribe mechanism in every commercial email.

Using it has to be easy and free, the link has to stay live for 60 days after each mailing, and the sender then has ten business days to act on a request.

Gmail's link does not replace yours for that purpose, since it relies on the details you supply. This is a plain summary rather than legal advice, and your lawyer can say how it applies to your mailings.

Keep a record of each request and the date it was processed.

A worked example

A country inn on the Sunshine Coast sends a newsletter to past guests four times a year, with seasonal menus, weekend packages and the dates of its cooking classes.

Its list had grown for years from the guest register and a sign-up form on the website. Some guests had stayed once, long ago, and no longer remembered signing up.

The mailing service's report showed a few spam complaints after every issue. The footer link led to a page asking readers to sign in before changing their settings, which most had never done.

That sign-in page was the problem. Readers who wanted to leave could not, so they used the button that always works.

The footer now has a plain link that removes the address in one step and confirms it on screen. The sender name is the inn's own, which readers recognise beside Gmail's new link.

Unsubscribes are copied to the guest register each week, so an address that leaves is never added back. Readers who no longer want the newsletter now have a quick, quiet way out.

Making staying worthwhile

A newsletter readers want to receive gets fewer exits of either kind. Send it when there is something worth reading, put the useful part near the top, and keep a sender name people recognise.

Offering to send less often, or only seasonal news, is fine as long as the unsubscribe button sits on the same page and works at once.

Never make readers explain why they are leaving. An optional question after the unsubscribe is done is enough.

Reading the mailing report

Mailing reports show unsubscribes and, for some mail providers, spam complaints. Watch the complaints more closely.

A jump in unsubscribes after an issue usually means the content or the timing missed. A jump in complaints means readers did not recognise you or could not find the way out.

If Gmail's link becomes the way your Gmail readers leave, that is a good sign: they are leaving quietly rather than reporting you to Gmail.

The counter-case

A business that sends only receipts, booking confirmations and similar messages may never see Gmail's link, and should not want it.

Those messages are not bulk promotions, and readers should not be able to stop them by accident. Keep them separate from the newsletter, sent from the business's own system, without marketing in them.

For anything that is a newsletter or an offer, though, an easy exit is in your interest, whether or not Gmail shows it.

Before the next newsletter

1. Open your last newsletter in Gmail and look at the top.
2. Click your own footer link on a phone.
3. Remove any sign-in step before unsubscribing.
4. Confirm the removal on screen at once.
5. Copy unsubscribes to every other list you keep.
6. Use a sender name readers recognise.
7. Watch spam complaints after each mailing.

Step three matters most. A reader asked for a password before leaving often presses the spam button instead, and that costs you more than one address.

Gmail now loads newsletter images itself explains the other recent Gmail change, images fetched through Google's own servers, and what it does to open counts.

Frequently asked questions

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