How do unsubscribe links work in campaign emails?

When a mailbox has a verified custom tracking domain with working HTTPS, you do not add an unsubscribe link yourself. Warmerly adds one to the footer of every campaign email from that mailbox, and adds the one-click unsubscribe headers that Gmail and Yahoo look for. When a lead unsubscribes, their sequence stops at once and they are never emailed again by any campaign in your workspace.

Without a working tracking domain, Warmerly adds no unsubscribe link. That mailbox sends in what we call no-link mode: no unsubscribe link, no one-click web headers, no open or click tracking, and no link to any domain of ours. Instead the footer carries a line asking the recipient to reply "unsubscribe", and the email has a mailto: unsubscribe header that points at your own mailbox. A reply that is clearly a stop request (the subject, or the first line of the reply, is the request) is treated as an unsubscribe: the lead is marked Unsubscribed and added to your do-not-contact list. A reply that only mentions the word stays an ordinary reply, which still stops that lead's sequence. You are still responsible for meeting the law where you and your recipients are. Add any other address that opts out to your workspace's Do not contact box yourself (Settings > Workspaces, then your workspace). The launch check and the email preview both tell you when a mailbox is in this mode.

#What the footer contains

Below your message and signature, Warmerly adds a footer with:

1. A thin divider.
2. A sender identity line: your business name and postal address, if you have set them.
3. The word Unsubscribe, as a link. It is deliberately easy to see, because a recipient who cannot find it clicks "report spam" instead, which hurts your domain far more.

The footer goes into both the HTML and the plain-text version of the email, so it is there even when a campaign is set to Send as plain text only. The unsubscribe link is never turned into a tracked link.

On the Free plan, one more small line, "Sent with Warmerly", can sit under the unsubscribe link. It is only added when Warmerly has a shared link address set up for its customers (see "Where the link points" below), and paid plans do not have it. See Plans and limits.

There is no setting to remove or reword the unsubscribe link. To see exactly what a lead will get, click Preview on an email step: it shows the same footer, including the "Sent with Warmerly" line on Free when one applies, and no identity line if you have not set one.

#Add your business name and address

Anti-spam laws (CAN-SPAM in the US, CASL in Canada, and similar rules elsewhere) ask for a real postal address in commercial email. It is your address that matters, not Warmerly's. Also check your local rules, for example Canada's CASL and Australia's Spam Act.

1. Open Settings > Workspaces and open your workspace.
2. Find Sender details.
3. Fill in Business name and Postal address, then save.

These are optional and apply to every campaign in the workspace. Campaigns send with or without them. If you leave the address empty, the footer just omits it (and shows the business name or sender name alone if you set one), and the campaign's Launch readiness list shows a warning with a Fix in Settings link. You can accept the warning and launch. Only people who can manage the workspace see the editable fields.

#What happens when a lead unsubscribes

• Clicking the link, or using the "Unsubscribe" button that Gmail and Yahoo show, marks the lead Unsubscribed on the campaign's Audience tab.
• The sequence stops. Any step still due is not sent.
• The address is added to your workspace's do-not-contact list, so it is skipped by every other campaign too. You do not need to do anything.
• The person sees a short page confirming they will get no more emails from this sender's campaign.

If the link fails for some reason, the page offers a form: "type the address this email was sent to". Typing the matching address unsubscribes them. This exists so nobody is left with no way out, since a frustrated recipient marks you as spam instead.

#Someone asks you to stop by reply or phone

You do not need the link. Add them in your workspace's Do not contact box (Settings > Workspaces, then your workspace), one address per line. It takes effect immediately. See What stops a campaign sequence for a lead?.

A reply also stops the lead's sequence by default (the Stop on reply switch).

#Where the link points

The unsubscribe link and its headers use your own custom tracking domain, the same one as your tracked links, once it is verified and HTTPS works for it. If Warmerly has set up a shared link address for its customers, a mailbox without a tracking domain uses that. Otherwise there is no link (see above). Warmerly's own website is never used. A tracking domain of your own is the way to get one-click unsubscribe, and it is better for deliverability.

#Common problems

A lead shows Unsubscribed but never asked. Some companies run security software that opens every link in an email. If it opens the unsubscribe link, the lead is unsubscribed. Nothing is sent to them afterwards, and you can contact them by another route if you know they are interested.

I want to email someone who unsubscribed. Not possible from Warmerly. The do-not-contact list is add-only for customers: you cannot see or remove entries.

The footer shows no address. You have not filled in Sender details yet.

#Related

• What stops a campaign sequence for a lead?
• Open and click tracking
• Suppression API