List-Unsubscribe

Senders - why you should include it

Including a List-Unsubscribe header in your emails will reduce complaints, improve deliverability and improve the experience for your subscribers. It's easy to do and doesn't cost anything.

It will reduce complaints because your recipients will be able to easily and reliably unsubscribe if they want to. Frustrated users are likely to hit the "Report Spam" button or complain in some other way about the email that they requested, hurting your sender reputation. In Windows Live Beta, when you enable the Unsubscribe link the Report Spam link is not an option.

Including a List-Unsubscribe header is viewed positively by most ISPs and spam filters, and allows unsubscribe reputation services such as Lashback to more reliably monitor your unsubscribe compliance. User feedeback (the "Report Spam" button) is one of the most significant factors is deliverability at the major ISPs such as AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo.

There has been a lot of "urban legend" around whether or not you should click on unsubscribe links in email messages you receive. Many ISPs warn against using any unsubscribe messages in the onilne help for their users. The words "click here to unsubscribe" can still set off some spam filters! Using a List-Unsubscribe header provides a standard way for users and software to know how to unsubscribe. Having an Unsubscribe button show up instead of a Report Spam button will make a big difference in how your recipients perceive the messages you send and your organization.

Most importantly, this is drop dead simple to do. Most software packages support it as an option if its not there by default. Most others will allow you to add "custom headers" pretty easily. To start, a generic unsubscribe address such as "unsub-listname@domain.com" is better than nothing - but eventually you should try to provide dynamic email addresses that are more dummy proof such as "unsub-listname-12352B@domain.com" (read more about VERP)

Case Study - L-Soft LISTSERV

The Spam-L mailing list is a good example of the List-Unsubscribe (and other RFC 2369 headers) in use for a discussion style mailing list.


From: LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: SPAM-L Digest - 26 Aug 2006 to 27 Aug 2006 (#2006-245)
Date: August 27, 2006 10:00:19 PM CDT
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Reply-To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Return-Path: <owner-SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Domainkey-Signature: q=dns; d=EASE.LSOFT.COM; s=BETA1; c=nofws; h=Date:Reply-To:Sender:From:Subject:To:Message-ID:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe:List-Subscribe:List-Owner:List-Archive; b=aetHboV7ctf903C4WKjpd4pfNe9PUOmErrfCwktSe7fdrc4c7H4FpGSSF2YUfYoeUEoHRxznKMia5rHTJL2Pah0t6WTCPirnyhzA3rJUz2ZxJH++Y75owoqrK4nzSM8D;
Sender: Spam Prevention Discussion List <SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Message-Id: <SPAM-L%200608272300194450.0139@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Precedence: list
List-Help: <http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=SPAM-L>, <mailto:LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM?body=INFO SPAM-L>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:SPAM-L-unsubscribe-request@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:SPAM-L-subscribe-request@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
List-Owner: <mailto:SPAM-L-request@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
List-Archive: <http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=SPAM-L>


This implementation would be better if it utilized VERP to make the List-Unsubscribe URL one-click and foolproof.

List-Unsubscribe and Domain Keys / DKIM

The List-Unsubscribe header works very well with Domain Keys and DKIM. By placing the List-Unsubscribe header within the signed portion of the headers and message, receivers can be sure that the header is legitimate and has not been modified or falsified. As an additional safeguard, receivers might choose to only recognize List-Unsubscribe URLs whose domain name match the authenticated domain.

In this standard example, the List-Unsubscribe header is signed within the DomainKey signature and the URL within matches the domain that has been authenticated.

Domainkey-Signature: q=dns; d=EASE.LSOFT.COM; s=BETA1; c=nofws; h=Date:From:Subject:To:List-Unsubscribe; b=aetHboV7ctf903C4WKjpd4pfNe9PUOmErrfCwktSe7fdrc4c7H4FpGSSF2YUfYoeUEoHRxznKMia5rHTJL2Pah0t6WTCPirnyhzA3rJUz2ZxJH++Y75owoqrK4nzSM8D;
From: LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: SPAM-L Digest - 26 Aug 2006 to 27 Aug 2006 (#2006-245)
Date: August 27, 2006 10:00:19 PM CDT
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:SPAM-L-unsubscribe-request@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>


This List-Unsubscribe header is suspicious because it is not within the DKIM signature and goes to a different domain than the one that is authenticated.

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:SPAM-L-unsubscribe-request@PEACH.EASE.ZSOFT.COM>
Domainkey-Signature: q=dns; d=EASE.LSOFT.COM; s=BETA1; c=nofws; h=Date:From:Subject:To:; b=aetHboV7ctf903C4WKjpd4pfNe9PUOmErrfCwktSe7fdrc4c7H4FpGSSF2YUfYoeUEoHRxznKMia5rHTJL2Pah0t6WTCPirnyhzA3rJUz2ZxJH++Y75owoqrK4nzSM8D;
From: LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: SPAM-L Digest - 26 Aug 2006 to 27 Aug 2006 (#2006-245)
Date: August 27, 2006 10:00:19 PM CDT
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM


Case study - Lyris ListManager

Here is an example of a default Lyris configuration with the List-Unsubscribe header. Lyris really implemented this well (not surprising since I was working very closely at the time with John Buckman, founder of Lyris).

Not only does Lyris use VERP (notice the numbered codes in the List-Unsubscribe URL) but they also make the List-Unsubscribe header a default on new lists. Administrators can easily turn on the rest of the RFC 2369 headers (List-Info, List-Subscribe, List-Help, etc.) with one click.


From: cavenders@westaradv.com
Date: August 30, 2006 3:22:22 PM CDT
To: Joshua Baer <josh@domain.com>
Subject: Cavenders.com - Labor Day Sale!
Return-Path: <bounce-127080-722348@mailer.sitebrand.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-127030-722244F@mailer.sitebrand.com>


Case study - StrongMail Systems

StrongMail has always had the ability to add in custom headers since its inception. This mean of course that any customer can take advantage of the List-Unsubscribe header today and it has already been tested in customer situations with success.

You can specify a specific email address to send un-subscription requests to or even use a un-subscription URL if supported by the receiver. The StrongMail platform offers many different methods for allowing end-users to unsubscribe. As customers take advantage of our extensive reporting system which again includes support and reporting of un-subscriptions internally, they can make this a seamless process when combined with the List-Unsubscribe header.

Here is a screenshot one of the ways you can take advantage of the header:

In StrongMail, the unsubscribe system can also generate a personalized and unique unsubscribe option for each email based on the recipient and campaign. You can apply the uniquie option as well for the List-Unsubscribe header by applying "List-Unsubscribe: ##UNSUBSCRIBETAG##" instead in your header options.

Learn more about Unsubscribe at Lashback

Learn more about Unsubscribe from the Lashback blog

ReturnPath info on List-Unsubscribe

ReturnPath just posted about List-Unsubscribe to their online resource center

MailUp adds support for List-Unsubscribe

MailUp is an email service provider (ESP) based in Italy, with a worldwide customer base. Here is an example of a default MailUp configuration with the List-Unsubscribe header. MailUp implemented this header since the new version 6.0. This header is by default added to each email message sent by our customers. Only MailUp resellers can customize it. The link provides a one-click unsubscribe: the email is saved in a "blacklist": this means that the sender will not be able to send anything more, even if he imports a new email list.

From: Paola Anni <commerciale@domain.it>
To: "gorn@domain.it" <gorni@domain.it>
Subject: newsletter
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
X-MailUp-Ver: 6
X-Abuse: Please report abuse here: http://www.mailup.it/email-marketing/Policy-antispam_ENG.asp
Reply-To: sales@domain.it
List-Unsubscribe: <http://newsletter.mailupnet.it//frontend/optout.aspx?id=310&idList=20&idNL=188&HASH=346378ba-c451-4ed0-8cba-c050f355913d>
Return-Path: mailupnl@domain.it

List-Unsubscribe with Domain Keys

I would like to ask, how am I be able to place the list-unsubscribe on the DomainKeys? And what would be the format for that, because right now, we only have the k= and p= value. We don’t have the q=, d=, s=, h=, and b=…

Thanks,

Joi Hernaez

Hi Joi,

Thanks for writing! You should be able to just include the List-Unsubscribe header normally. Ideally, it would be after the Domain Keys header so that the List-Unsubscribe header is signed as well.