Ever had an unsuscribe you don't believe was intentional?

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lstein
lstein ✭
Ancient Membership First Reply
in Blackbaud Luminate Online® & Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Discussions

Hi folks,

A member of our staff had an account tied to her hotmail address which was unsubscribed on Jan 11, from an e-mail sent Jan 9. She says she definitely did not unsubscribe. She remembers deleting the e-mail.

The Interactions tab on her record indicates she did not open or clickthrough the January 9th e-mail. My AM says this is possible because:

1. If she read the e-mail in a preview pane, it would not count as an open

2. Clicking on an unsubscribe link does not count as a clickthrough, so if that was the only thing she clicked on in the whole e-mail, it would not count as a clickthrough.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that she would not remember clicking on the unsubscribe link, which then takes her to a page on our site, where she would have to intentionally click on "No, please completely remove me..." and then click on "Update my e-mail profile." That's three clicks, in two different locations, that she would have to not remember doing at all, while she does specifically remember deleting the e-mail. And she's very familiar with Convio, knows what it means to unsubscribe, etc.

My AM has checked around and hasn't seen any other instances of this being reported or happening, so there's not much more she can do. So, community - has this ever happened to you? I'm worried that other people we believe have unsubscribed really didn't unsubscribe. And because we've been treating unsubscribes as a pretty hard, firm, 'I don't want to hear from you anymore' I can't say we've ever followed up with our other unsubscribes to say "Hey, did you really really mean to unsubscribe?"

Thanks - if you have had any similar experiences, please let me know!

Laura

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Comments

  • Seamus Leahy
    Seamus Leahy ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1

    Has she ever forwarded one of your organization's emails?

    We have the problem of chapter leaders being unsubscribed because they forward (instead of using the Convio forward link) the email in its entirety. The forwarded email then contains the unsubscribe link for the chapter leader. The person gets the email and then click unsubscribe causing the chapter leader to be unsubscribed.

  • Corey Pudhorodsky
    Corey Pudhorodsky ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1

    If she mistakenly clicked on the SPAM button rather than the delete button then that would have unsubscribed her. With specific email providers there is a feedback loop that enables Convio to receive updates when constituents mark your messages as SPAM. This is in place to prevent people who continue to mark your messages as spam (rather than unsubscribing) from continuing to damage your mail reputation.

    Corey

  • lstein
    lstein ✭
    Ancient Membership First Reply
    Seamus Leahy:

    Has she ever forwarded one of your organization's emails?

    We have the problem of chapter leaders being unsubscribed because they forward (instead of using the Convio forward link) the email in its entirety. The forwarded email then contains the unsubscribe link for the chapter leader. The person gets the email and then click unsubscribe causing the chapter leader to be unsubscribed.

    Thanks - that's a good problem to know about, but I don't think it's the case here. She hadn't forwarded the e-mail to anyone, just deleted it.

  • Michael
    Michael ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2
    Corey Pudhorodsky:

    If she mistakenly clicked on the SPAM button rather than the delete button then that would have unsubscribed her. With specific email providers there is a feedback loop that enables Convio to receive updates when constituents mark your messages as SPAM. This is in place to prevent people who continue to mark your messages as spam (rather than unsubscribing) from continuing to damage your mail reputation.

    Corey

    If I'm not mistaken, those specific providers are AOL and MSN/Hotmail right now. Is that correct?

  • TJ Spinks
    TJ Spinks ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    Michael :

    If I'm not mistaken, those specific providers are AOL and MSN/Hotmail right now. Is that correct?

    ISP are deploying Complaint Feedback loops more and more. Hotmail/MSN and AOL were the two biggest that Convio utilized. As of 2009/01/20 Yahoo! has once again opened its Complaint Feedback loop for open enrollemnt and Convio has begun the process of establishing this CFL.

    The reopening of the Yahoo! CFL has marked the culmination of the change to signing email bound for Yahoo! with YDK signatures. At this time we have begun processing Spam Complaints originating from Yahoo! users.

  • lstein
    lstein ✭
    Ancient Membership First Reply
    Corey Pudhorodsky:

    If she mistakenly clicked on the SPAM button rather than the delete button then that would have unsubscribed her. With specific email providers there is a feedback loop that enables Convio to receive updates when constituents mark your messages as SPAM. This is in place to prevent people who continue to mark your messages as spam (rather than unsubscribing) from continuing to damage your mail reputation.

    Corey

    Thanks Corey. She says she definitely did not mark it as SPAM, but let's assume for a moment that she accidentally did. Would one such marking potentially unsubscribe her, or is it something a user would have to do more than once? Is there any established system or threshold? (Such as, if a Hotmail user marks three e-mails coming from Internews as SPAM, the feedback loop will kick in and unsubscribe them?)

    Laura

  • Michael
    Michael ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2
    lstein :

    Thanks Corey. She says she definitely did not mark it as SPAM, but let's assume for a moment that she accidentally did. Would one such marking potentially unsubscribe her, or is it something a user would have to do more than once? Is there any established system or threshold? (Such as, if a Hotmail user marks three e-mails coming from Internews as SPAM, the feedback loop will kick in and unsubscribe them?)

    Laura

    It only takes one time. edit last I heard anyway.

  • TJ Spinks
    TJ Spinks ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    lstein :

    Thanks Corey. She says she definitely did not mark it as SPAM, but let's assume for a moment that she accidentally did. Would one such marking potentially unsubscribe her, or is it something a user would have to do more than once? Is there any established system or threshold? (Such as, if a Hotmail user marks three e-mails coming from Internews as SPAM, the feedback loop will kick in and unsubscribe them?)

    Laura

    A single Spam complaint received through a Complaint Feedback loop will unsubscribe the user.

    This is the response expected by the ISP returning the Spam complaint. Removing complaining users is necessary to prevent brand damage and ensure good deliverability practices.

    A user that advises that they are no longer receiving expected messages may opt in manually themselves or by an admin via the Convio UI.

    For sites with an active user base that is logging in regularly, displaying the user's current email status using STags would be a simple way to keep users up to date. Using STags it is possible to indicate to the user their current opt in status as well as thier deliverable stat (Good, Hard-Bounced, etc.). Making this information visible to the logged in user via the wrapper is a simple way to let constituents manage their email status on the Convio site.

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