Opt out or unsubscribe a contact
If a person no longer wants to receive emails, you can opt out a contact.
- Go to View Data and click the name of your database to select it.
The Database Summary page opens.
- Click the Search tab.
- Search for the contact. You can type person's email address in the Search box.
- Select the check box next to the contact's name and click the Opt out Contacts button.
- If this contact is not found, do the following.
- Go to View Data.
- Go to the Suppression List tab and locate your Master Suppression List.
Can't find it? This file might be in one your colleague's Private folders.
- Click the master suppression list.
The Suppression List Summary page opens.
- Click the Add Contact button.
The Add Contact page opens.
- Enter the contact's email address to complete the form and then click Save.
Opt out or unsubscribe a contact when a contact is not found in your list
If you want to unsubscribe a contact from your contact list, but cannot find the contact, you can add the contact to your master suppression list.
- Go to Data.
- Go to the Suppression List tab and locate your master suppression list. Note: This file might be in one your colleague's private folders.
- Click the master suppression list. The Suppression List Summary page opens.
- Click Add Contact.
- Enter the contact's email address to complete the form and then Save.
Opt out or unsubscribe contacts in a database, using an import
- Navigate to Data > Import > Update.
- In the Select Contact Source you wish to update field, click Select to choose the database or list you want to update.
- Select Opt Out Contacts.
- In the Select file containing contact source data section choose Upload file from local hard drive and click the Choose File button.
- Select the file that you want to use in the update.
- Click Next.
- Select the name of the field that contains the email addresses for the clients that you want to opt out from the list. If necessary, select the field that contains the opt-out dates for the clients.
- Follow the screen prompts to complete the opt-out process.
Manually, opt out or unsubscribe a contact from a database
- Go to Data and click the name of your database.
- Go to the Search tab.
- Enter the contact's email address in the search box and click Search.
- If you find the contact, check the box next to the email address, and click the Opt-Out Contacts button.
- If you do not find the contact, do the following.
- Go to Data.
- Go to the Suppression List tab and locate your master suppression list.
Note that the master suppression list might be in another user's private folder.
- Click on the master suppression list.
- Click Add Contact, enter the email address, and click Save.
Update a contact that is in an opt out state
There are two ways that a contact can be updated when they are in an opt out state.
The contact must either fill in a web form that is linked directly to Acoustic Campaign or an UpdateRecipient API call with the added element UPDATE_IF_FOUND must be added.
Update a contact via web form
To create a web form, follow these steps:
- Go Data. Select your database from the list. If the database is in a folder, click the folder name to open, then click the database name.
- Go to the Web forms tab. If you have a standard opt-in web form on the database, click on web form name. If not, create a Standard Web Form.
- On the Site Settings tab of the web form, copy the opt-in forms path, paste it into your browser and hit enter.
- This should direct you to a page where you can opt-in by submitting the form with the contacts email address.
Update a contact via API
Example of Update Recipient API call that can be used:
<Envelope>
<Body>
<UpdateRecipient>
<LIST_ID>12345678</LIST_ID>
CREATED_FROM>2</CREATED_FROM>
<OLD_EMAIL>
<COLUMN>
<NAME>OPT_OUT</NAME>
<VALUE>false</VALUE>
</COLUMN>
</UpdateRecipient>
</Body>
</Envelope>
For further information, reference our developer documentation.
Re-add an opted-out contact
Use a web form associated with the parent database and re-subscribe the contact. This changes the contact's opted-out status to opted in and still retains any email or event history for the contact.
Additionally, you can submit an AddRecipient API call to the parent database.
<Envelope><Body>
<AddRecipient>
<LIST_ID>100732</LIST_ID>
<CREATED_FROM>1</CREATED_FROM>
<UPDATE_IF_FOUND>true</UPDATE_IF_FOUND>
<COLUMN>
<NAME>EMAIL</NAME>
<VALUE></VALUE>
</COLUMN>
</AddRecipient>
</Body></Envelope>
If your organization uses organization-level suppression, it may be necessary to remove the contact's email address from the master suppression list (or database-level suppression lists) to ensure that the contact receives future emails.
Receive a notification
A notification can be sent out when a previously opted out contact opts back in so that the contact can be removed from the master suppression list.
- You must first create a program. The entry rules on the program need to be set up on Add Contacts when the following events occur.
- You also need to include the following criteria in the program where it says: Limit to contacts that match rule. The rule is Opt in Date is before Today
- Then you select all the web form(s) that the recipients can use to opt back in. This brings in only the recipients who previously opted out. After you enter your criteria, click Save and Edit Flow. This takes you into the program interface.
- Now drag and drop a lead route onto the start track. Make sure you include Email as one of the fields from your database. Lead routes send once a day, so it might be best to have it send early in the morning.
- The Lead Route emails you the recipients who opted in from the day before and you can remove them from the master suppression list.
- Also make sure you End track all contacts 2 days after they enter the program, so they can be allowed to come back in if they opt out and opt back in again.
Remove a contact from a suppression list
Note: Removing a contact from a suppression list does not add the contact back to your database. You need to re-add the contact if you want to add them again.
- Go to the Suppression List tab.
- Click your suppression list or master suppression list.
- Go to the Search tab.
- Change criteria to Email is equal to YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS and search for the email address you want to remove.
- Click Search.
- When the email address appears, click the box next to it.
- Click Remove Contacts.
Abuse null
Abuse Null contacts can be found in the Opt Out Details of a database export. These are contacts who were opted out because they filed abuse complaints through their ISP.
Acoustic Campaign honors abuse complaints as valid opt out requests and opts out any contact automatically. Abuse Complaints through ISP's can usually be filed by a contact clicking the 'Spam' button or 'Junk' button in ISP web mail interface.
Duplicate contacts
In the case of duplicate contacts, all duplicated email addresses are suppressed when a contact opts out. For example, in a flexible database that may have more than one contact with the same email address.
Remove all suppression list members from an email list
By default, if you use the purge feature to rid your email list of master suppression list members, the purge does not remove undeliverable recipients from your email list. If you would like to do a full housecleaning on your email list and remove all of your suppression list members from it, including all past undeliverables, use this procedure.
- Export your suppression list.
Check the option for Export Recipients, Opt-Outs and Undeliverables.
- Create a new list and upload the exported suppression list.
You need only the email addresses; you can drop additional fields and columns. We'll call this the Temp List.
- Make a backup copy of your production email list by exporting it.
- Use the Purge function to remove the recipients in your Temp List from the email list.
This clears your email list of all previous opt-outs and undeliverables.