A while back, we launched something that I forgot to tell you about. Oops. I just noticed it while checking my own email campaign in Hotmail. Better late than never…
All of your email campaigns sent from MailChimp are now automatically embedded with the List-Unsubscribe email header (this is different than the unsubscribe tag we place in your email footer).
The idea behind the list-unsubscribe header is to provide a trustworthy unsubscribe mechanism. Basically, some people just don’t trust the unsubscribe link you put at the bottom of your email newsletter. Or, they’re too lazy to scroll down and properly unsubscribe, when that big, convenient “Report Spam” button is right there at the top of the email.
Anyway, here’s what an email looks when viewed in Windows Live Hotmail, and with the list-unsubscribe header in place (note the unsubscribe option provided by Hotmail):
and here’s what an email without the list-unsubscribe header looks like:
Who knows, it might prevent a false spam complaint or two, or it might make your emails look slightly more reputable. Learn more about the List-Unsubscribe header, and who’s using it
I know this post is pretty old. But I have a question. What about list-unsubscribe header for Yahoo? Can you guys add one for Yahoo? Thanks a million.
Hi Ben!
Your blog posts have been infinitely helpful. We have implemented almost all of your suggestions — but the “list-unsubscribe” header isn’t working as advertised for Hotmail.
Since we’ve included it, our members are now receiving this header in MSN Hotmail:
“If you don’t want to receive messages from this sender, unsubscribe at their web site or click Junk”
Users are now being trained by hotmail that they could either navigate through the website to unsubscribe -OR- simply press “junk” in hotmail. hmmm, given this set of options, some people are opting for the single click option.
We want to be white knights in this space and make it as easy as possible for anyone to unsubscribe at any time (we actually provide an unsubscribe link at both the top and bottom of our daily email). But we are tempted to remove the list-unsubscribe field if it triggers Hotmail from including the “click Junk” header. Thoughts?
-Kevin
The ‘List-Unsubscribe header’ is causing us huge problems! We send to a couple of mailing lists, which are ‘Lyris ListManager’ lists for teachers, and they bounce back ANYTHING with a ‘List-Unsubscribe header’.
So, PLEASE, how do we turn the LUM off?
here’s the error message we’ve received:
===============================================================================
Lyris ListManager wrote ..
Your message posting was rejected because the List-Unsubscribe header
was detected in the body of the message you sent.
This header is usually only included by mailing list programs.
For this reason, Lyris ListManager does not accept messages
which contain this header, because it is highly likely that they are
automated messages, and not appropriate for this mailing list.
If you are receiving this message, it means that you accidentally set off
this safeguard, by including the List-Unsubscribe text in your message.
Please resubmit your email message, without including the headers of a
previous message (specifically, do not include the List-Unsubscribe:
line).
===============================================================================
Any help MUCH appreciated!
cheers,
matt
Hmm, using MailChimp to send a message to a traditional “list-serve” style system is a no-no for them, and it’s a no-no for us, so we’re not going to have any kind of workaround. You’d need to separately type and send your message to the list, instead of trying to send from MailChimp.
Bugger! The Lyris-based list I’m trying to send to is how we reach 99% of our customers.
We signed up to Mailchimp so that we could:
(1) Send compelling, well designed e-mails.
(2) Ensure that everyone who reads them will see them as they’re supposed to look*.
*We’ve had huge problems in the past sending to various schools and teachers via Mail.app etc. where e-mails were blocked because of our ISP’s header info, or because they had images, or because they had multiple recipients etc.
Any ideas as to our best option now?
Many thanks,
matthk
Hmm, you could try our source code: http://blog.mailchimp.com/36-open-source-email-templates/
But it does require the sending mechanism to properly deliver HTML or Multipart messages.