Description of the Unsubscribe By Email feature including the List-Unsubscribe Header

eNewsletter Pro supports a feature for unsubscribing by sending an email to a particular email account.  This is most useful for automated removals using the List-Unsubscribe header.  This header is recognized by major ISP's such as GMail and Hotmail.  By including this header, Gmail can add a simple "Unsubscribe From this sender" at the top of each email.  If the subscriber clicks the unsubscribe option, Gmail sends an automated unsubscribe request back to eNewsletter Pro and the person is removed and added to the opt out list.

Here is an example of what the user would see in Gmail:

How do I enable this feature?

The feature is enabled in the overall administrator console under setup in the section "Information for Unsubscribe By Email Option".  You must enter the email address that will be used for this feature along with the POP3 server and login information for eNewsletter Pro to automatically download the email messages.  Do not use a personal email account or eNewsletter Pro will login and delete the messages.  If you do use a personal account, leave the POP3 server field empty and realize that you must manually handle any unsubscribe requests you receive.

To automatically include the List-Unsubscribe header in each email check that option.  The header will appears like this:

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:enewsletterpro@emailnewsletterpro.com>

If you wish you can also set the feature to keep a copy of each unsubscribe request.  These files are placed in a folder called EmailUnsubscribeCollection.

Use VERPS (Variable Envelope Return Paths):  This option allows you to more accurately track each unsubscribe request by including the SubscriberID in the actual email.  Before turning on this option you must verify the email account is setup to support this.  This feature may require a separate domain just for these unsubscribe email request.  If turned on the SubscriberID is appended to the email address right before the @ symbol.  For example, if your email address is someaddress@somedomain.com and an email is sent to SubscriberID=876 then then unsubscribe email address becomes someaddress-876@somedomain.com

As you can see this requires the email account for somedomain.com to be a catch-all email account since the email alias is different for each subscriber.  That is why a separate domain might be required to use this feature.  Consult your email server documentation to determine if VERPS is supported.

Note: If you are not using VERPS and an unsubscribe request is received, the subscriber is removed from all User/Site accounts if the original email headers are unavailable.  When using VERPS they are removed only from the specific User/Site account matching their SubscriberID.

To learn more about the List-Unsubscribe header, visit:
http://www.list-unsubscribe.com/