How to use a built-in unsubscribe mechanism

CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro lets you stay compliant with international legislation concerning email disclaimers by ensuring that your clients can unsubscribe from your mailing lists. This is achieved by a predefined combination of two rules that require no further configuration and provide a one-click solution to that issue.

Overview

To enable recipients to unsubscribe from your mailing list, you need to:

1. On the list of rules, click Add > Unsubscribe mechanism (Fig. 1.) and the program will automatically insert a combination of two rules:
    

   
   Fig. 1. Adding the predefined Unsubscribe mechanism.

   • The first rule, Unsubscribe mechanism - Unsubscribe link, includes the Insert disclaimer action with the {unsubscribe link} placeholder that allows the recipient to unsubscribe from further emails sent by your organization. Such a recipient is then added to the blacklist of users who do not wish to receive messages from your organization (read more about managing blacklists).
   • The second rule, Unsubscribe mechanism - Block message, includes the Block message action that prevents messages sent by members of your organization from reaching the mailbox of a recipient who clicked the unsubscribe link.

2. Make sure that the server where the Exchange Rules Pro Service resides has port 8080 open to outbound traffic.

Modifying the unsubscribe mechanism

By default, the predefined unsubscribe mechanism is applied to all emails sent by any member of your organization to external recipients. Also, if someone unsubscribes from your mailing list, emails sent to that person won't reach their inbox at all. You can modify the Conditions and Exceptions tabs in both rules to narrow down the scope of senders or recipients.

For example, you can add the Sender condition to the Unsubscribe mechanism - Unsubscribe link rule if the unsubscribe link needs to be added only to emails sent by the marketing team. Remember to add the same Sender condition to the Unsubscribe mechanism - Block message rule, so that the marketing team is also blocked from sending further emails to the recipients who unsubscribed. Join the conditions with the AND or OR operator, depending on your needs (Fig. 2.).

Fig. 2. Specifying a user who will send emails with the unsubscribe link.

Modifying the disclaimer

You can also edit the predefined contents of the disclaimer, including the configuration of the {unsubscribe link} placeholder. To do so, go to the Unsubscribe mechanism - Unsubscribe link rule and open the Actions tab. Click the Edit button to open the template editor (Fig. 3.).

Fig. 3. Opening the template editor.

While in the editor, you can adjust the contents of your disclaimer and configure the {unsubscribe link} placeholder. To change the properties of the {unsubscribe link} placeholder, right-click it and choose Edit placeholder from the drop-down menu. The window that opens (Fig. 4.) lets you choose to which blacklist the email address will be added once the recipient clicks the unsubscribe link. You can also type the link's display text and decide what landing page should open when the recipient clicks the unsubscribe link. The choice is between the default web page provided by CodeTwo or any third-party web page, including your custom web page.

Fig. 4. Modifying the configuration of the unsubscribe link.

Once you finish editing the disclaimer, click the Apply & Close button to save your template and close the editor (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Saving the disclaimer with the unsubscribe link.

Saving the configuration

After making all the necessary modifications, save your changes in the Administration Panel by clicking the Submit changes button (Fig. 6.). Otherwise, the changes will not be applied.

Fig. 6. Saving the configuration in the Administration Panel.

From now on, every email that meets the criteria specified in the Unsubscribe mechanism - Unsubscribe link rule will include the unsubscribe link (Fig. 7.). When the recipient clicks that link, the unsubscribe landing page opens (Fig. 8.). Make sure that the Sender conditions in the Unsubscribe mechanism - Block message rule match the Sender conditions in the Unsubscribe mechanism - Unsubscribe link rule, so that no unwanted emails can reach that recipient's inbox.

Fig. 7. A message with an unsubscribe link.

Fig. 8. The Unsubscribe mechanism's landing page.