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Unsubscribe and preference pages

When someone clicks the unsubscribe link in one of your emails, they land on a page hosted by SmartMailing and styled like your brand. From there they can leave the list, pause emails for a while, or switch to the preference center and just reduce what they receive.

How recipients get there​

Every marketing email carries a personal unsubscribe link. You never build these URLs yourself:

  • If your email template contains the {{unsubscribe_url}} merge field, the link is placed exactly where you put it.
  • If it does not, SmartMailing appends a small footer line ("Don't want these emails? Unsubscribe.") so no email ever goes out without one.
  • On top of the visible link, every email includes the one-click unsubscribe header that mail apps like Gmail use for their built-in Unsubscribe button.

Each link is unique to one recipient and one send, so the page already knows who is unsubscribing. Recipients never have to type their email address.

The conversational unsubscribe​

By default, the unsubscribe link opens a short, brand-styled chat instead of a bare form. It asks for the main reason and responds with pre-written options:

  • I get too many emails: offers to pause all emails for 30 or 60 days instead of leaving. A paused subscriber is automatically brought back when the pause ends.
  • This is not relevant to me: offers a 30 day pause.
  • I never signed up: removes them immediately and flags it for you to look into.
  • I just want out: asks for optional feedback, then unsubscribes.

"Just unsubscribe me" is always visible as a one-click escape, and the one-click header used by mail apps bypasses the chat entirely, so nothing ever delays a real opt-out.

The classic unsubscribe page​

If the conversational experience is turned off for a brand, recipients see the Unsubscribe web template instead: your logo, a message, their email address pre-filled, a Confirm unsubscribe button, and an Update preferences instead link. After confirming, they land on the Unsubscribe confirmation page, which you can also edit.

The page requires a button click on purpose. Corporate link scanners open every URL in an email, and a click-to-confirm page prevents them from silently unsubscribing your audience.

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An unsubscribe is always honored, even if the recipient clicks a link from a very old email. Preference links, on the other hand, expire after 90 days; recipients with an expired link are asked to use a more recent email.

The preference center​

The Update preferences instead link on the unsubscribe page leads to the preference center. It shows:

  • the subscriber's email address, pre-filled
  • a checkbox list of email types (the defaults are Newsletter, Product updates, and Promotions and offers)
  • a Save preferences button
  • an Unsubscribe from all link as the way out

The checkboxes are pre-filled with whatever the subscriber last saved, so returning visitors see their current choices. Saving stores the choices on the subscriber and shows the Preferences saved confirmation page. The link is reusable: subscribers can come back and adjust their preferences as often as they like until the link expires.

You control the topic list yourself: in the web templates editor, edit the Checkbox list section of the preference center to rename topics, add or remove them, and choose which start checked. See Generate and edit hosted pages.

Editing these pages​

All four pages in these flows (Unsubscribe, Unsubscribe confirmation, Preference center, and Preferences saved) are web templates. Generate them once per brand under Web Templates, then edit headlines, body copy, button labels, and checkbox options per language. If a page has not been generated yet, recipients see a branded default, so the flow never breaks.