Newsletter Opt-Out/Unsubscribe

[SpacemanSpiff]

I have a newsletter email campaign which goes out regularly.
I have found that if a contact "opts out" of the newsletter they are still getting the emails.
The contact is showing up in the Opt out list in the campaign, but they are not getting added to the Unsubscribed list for that campaign.
As we have many contacts opting out, manually adding each time to the unsubscribe list is not an option, and there does not appear to be a simple way of selecting all opted out contacts en masse to add to the Unsubscribed list for the campaign.

Can someone help me sort this please.

I have tried in 5.0 and 5.1 and have the same issue

[roblaus]

No, they don't go out although it looks like that. There's a difference between a permanent opt-out and a suppression list. Just check the leads/contacts - they should have the checkbox checked.
A suppression list is temporary and removes contacts that otherwise would have received the mail.
Run a test (a mini campaign with one account marked as opt put and the other not). You will see that only one message arrives.

rgds

[SpacemanSpiff]

I did a newsletter test
1. Sent the first mail from within the campaign to 2 external addresses
2. On arrival. I selected Opt Out from the end of the mail (default link) and received a "blank" page (I am presuming because I havent set the text)
3. Checked in the Campaign and saw that the address has been set to "Opted Out" in the relevant panel.
4. Set up a second mailshot in the newsletter campaign
5. Sent mail
6. Was received by BOTH addresses still!

This is in 5.0.0g

Am I right in thinking that if a contact opts out of a newsletter mail, it SHOULD put them into the unsubscriber list?
or at the very least, should prevent them receiving any more mails from that newlsetter campaign?

[roblaus]

You say in pt. 3 "in the relevant panel" - did you check whether the check box was marked?

I find it strange because I for sure ran 20 tests (before every campaign) and I am sure it works. In my part of the world it can easily become a crime if it does not behave as it should (I am doing it with all versions since 4.5)

rgds

[SpacemanSpiff]

Sorry Robert, should have expanded a little.
I go back into the campagin and View Status. I then go to the mail I opted out of in the dropdown by the chart and in the panel that comes up under it the Opted Out panel contains the correct address that I opted out.
However, that address is still receiving all future mailings from that campaign. I am never going to send out that individual mail again, but will have more mails from the same campaign. Is it only the individual mail it has opted out of?

[roblaus]

I just ran a test - with two addresses, one I opted out as by the link link in the mail and the other one not. Then I send a second mail and only the remaining person received it. This is 5h.

Now a little bit to the principles (as I understand them): You create a campaign that consists of one or more contact lists, some trackers (at least the opt out one) and the email/marketing message.
Some people have opted out what means that they are on the contact list(s) but will NEVER receive anything because the opt out check overrides everything else. Then you have suppression list(s). On there you have people who (normally) haven't opted out but will not receive anything in this particular campaign.

You should use one campaign only ONCE. You can reuse contact lists as often as you want but one shot is one shot. Or put differently: You can use a campaign more often but you should always use a new marketing message (email). Problem here: Your statistics from the first shot will be overwritten by the second (hence the first sentence).

If some addresses carry the opt out mark they will only receive emails again once the check mark has been removed.

I hope that wasn't too confusing??

rgds

[SpacemanSpiff]

Roblaus wrote: "You should use one campaign only ONCE. You can reuse contact lists as often as you want but one shot is one shot. Or put differently: You can use a campaign more often but you should always use a new marketing message (email). Problem here: Your statistics from the first shot will be overwritten by the second (hence the first sentence)."

So if I want to do, for example, a weekly newlsetter... I would make a campaign (selecting Newsletter as the type) specify frequency is Weekly, but would need to do a NEW campaign and new related email marketing each week?
I thought the whole point was that I could have 1 single campaign for the newsletter, which would run each week (based on the frequency selected) which would send any email marketing emails not sent before that time?

This is what I am trying to do, but although I opt out from email marketing mail 1, when email marketing mail 2 is sent from the same campaign, opted out recipients are still receiving it.

Sorry if I am missing something obvious here. Im getting really frustrated with it!

[roblaus]

If it helps: It took me a week to figure all this out...

And no, the set frequency has nothing to do with what happens in reality - the system doesn't know that you have a new newsletter ready.

As I said: You can use the same campaign with different messages but the statistics is only valid for the last one. One this way you only need to create a new email each time (I hope you didn't intend to send out the same message every week - this gets boring pretty soon :-) ). You can even use the same template with different attachments if you want.

Re. the opt out issue: pls check wether there is a checkmark next to the email address of the contact/lead who opted out (set it manually if there isn't any). Then create a new message (email) and send it.

[SpacemanSpiff]

Rob I got it working!!!
The solution.... I upgraded to 5.0.0h

Everything now works EXACTLY as I expected it to.

Thanks for your help

[roblaus]

Glad to hear. Just had somebody on the phone with another email campaign problem. Seems as if I start to become an expert...

rgds