{"id":1974,"date":"2011-08-26T15:54:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T23:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2011-08-29T19:23:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T03:23:12","slug":"email-unsubscribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/","title":{"rendered":"Email Unsubscribe Links"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve become a bit of an unsubscribe connoisseur. \u00a0Niche, I know. \u00a0Rather than merely archiving unwanted emails as I\u2019m wont to do, I made it my mission to permanently reduce the clutter in my inbox.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that users and website owners view the unsubscribe link differently. \u00a0To the user, it\u2019s a way to give their bloated inbox a much needed reprieve. \u00a0The people sending the emails, however, tend to view it as a desperate last chance to retain the user. \u00a0These two goals tend to clash.<\/p>\n<h3>Unsubscribe Practices I Hate<\/h3>\n<p>During my quest to vanquish unwanted newsletters and emails from my inbox, I made a list of things no unsubscribe process should ever do.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t send a confirmation email.<\/strong> \u00a0There is no reason to send an email confirming the address was unsubscribed. \u00a0Users unsubscribe because they want fewer emails, not more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t make the user think.<\/strong> \u00a0The user should only have to click the unsubscribe link in the email. \u00a0They shouldn\u2019t have to confirm, or select an option in a form.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t have too many buttons.<\/strong> \u00a0When people see a \u201ccall to action\u201d, they tend to click it. \u00a0Even if that call to action comes in the form of a giant red \u201cResubscribe!\u201d button. \u00a0People don\u2019t read and they don\u2019t think &#8212; they just click the biggest thing on their screen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t make the user log in.<\/strong> \u00a0You sent them an email, so you already know their email address. \u00a0That\u2019s all you need.\u00a0 Same goes for unsubscribe pages that make the user enter in their email address.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t make the user cancel their account.<\/strong> If a user wants to stop receiving non-critical emails, let them. For example, in order to unsubscribe from the Amazon Student newsletter, you need to cancel your account.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t make a user edit their preferences.<\/strong> \u00a0Nobody wants to dig through a preferences page so they can uncheck options. \u00a0Just unsubscribe them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t use confusing logic.<\/strong> \u00a0A user is asking to unsubscribe, so asking them \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d is confusing. \u00a0Does checking a box mean I want to unsubscribe or that I want to get this email?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>How We Now Do It On AMO<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\">AMO<\/a>\u2019s unsubscribe process needed a refresh. \u00a0So, I set out to make it as pain free for the user as possible. \u00a0It seems silly to put much thought into a tool that makes it easier for users to leave, however we wanted to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>On every email we send out, there will be a footer that tells you why you\u2019re receiving the email. \u00a0For example, \u201cYou received this email because an add-on developer replied to one of your reviews\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>You have two options on how you want to unsubscribe. \u00a0You can unsubscribe from that particular topic, or you can unsubscribe from all emails from us. \u00a0Both options take you to a clutter free page that tells you what topics you were unsubscribed from, and gives you a small link to your preferences page so that you can re-enable anything you mistakenly unsubscribed from.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s some random things about our new unsubscribe:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We include a token for each unsubscribe link. \u00a0This means you don\u2019t have to be logged in to unsubscribe, however you also don\u2019t have to worry about someone else unsubscribing you.<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019s an \u201cunsubscribe from all\u201d link on the preferences page. \u00a0We don\u2019t want you tiring out your click finger, now, do we? \u00a0You need that finger to download add-ons.<\/li>\n<li>Email topics are split into two separate sections &#8212; regular users and add-on developers.<\/li>\n<li>You can reply to all emails! \u00a0Our emails are sent from the appropriate email address, so feel free to hit the reply button.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One thing most sites do wrong is how they manage new topics. \u00a0Let\u2019s say you unsubscribe to the five different types of emails we currently send. \u00a0Next week, however, we add a new type of email. \u00a0Odds are you don\u2019t want to get that, since you\u2019ve already unsubscribed to the rest. \u00a0So, we do our best on AMO to not send you emails for new topics if we think you wouldn\u2019t be interested.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, most users spend mere seconds on their edit profile page and instantly forget it as soon as they leave. \u00a0So, we add a \u201cnew\u201d indicator to types of emails that are new since the last time the user updated their preferences.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t want you to go; however if you must?  Hopefully unsubscribing is so painless you don\u2019t even notice it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: These updates will be rolled out over the next few weeks. \u00a0Not all features mentioned here are currently available for all users right away.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve become a bit of an unsubscribe connoisseur. \u00a0Niche, I know. \u00a0Rather than merely archiving unwanted emails as I\u2019m wont to do, I made it my mission to permanently reduce the clutter in my inbox. &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[731,288],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Email Unsubscribe Links - Mozilla Web Development<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gregory Koberger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/\",\"name\":\"Email Unsubscribe Links - Mozilla Web Development\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-26T23:54:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-30T03:23:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/8d3fbcbd19a1fc80e76a4ad481e517e2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Email Unsubscribe Links\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/\",\"name\":\"Mozilla Web Development\",\"description\":\"For make benefit of glorious tubes\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/8d3fbcbd19a1fc80e76a4ad481e517e2\",\"name\":\"Gregory Koberger\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/228dcc5038736893bcdf50cba284a617\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c98fd738dc3454f5a1649fdd25a8b87?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c98fd738dc3454f5a1649fdd25a8b87?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gregory Koberger\"},\"description\":\"Gregory Koberger is a front- and back-end developer for addons.mozilla.org. You can view his portfolio at gkoberger.net, or follow him at @gkoberger.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/gkoberger.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/author\/gkobergermozilla-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Email Unsubscribe Links - Mozilla Web Development","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gregory Koberger","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/","name":"Email Unsubscribe Links - Mozilla Web Development","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-26T23:54:21+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-30T03:23:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/8d3fbcbd19a1fc80e76a4ad481e517e2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/08\/26\/email-unsubscribe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Email Unsubscribe Links"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/","name":"Mozilla Web Development","description":"For make benefit of glorious tubes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/8d3fbcbd19a1fc80e76a4ad481e517e2","name":"Gregory Koberger","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/228dcc5038736893bcdf50cba284a617","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c98fd738dc3454f5a1649fdd25a8b87?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c98fd738dc3454f5a1649fdd25a8b87?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gregory Koberger"},"description":"Gregory Koberger is a front- and back-end developer for addons.mozilla.org. You can view his portfolio at gkoberger.net, or follow him at @gkoberger.","sameAs":["http:\/\/gkoberger.net"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/author\/gkobergermozilla-com\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}