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'To Unsubscribe' Might Trigger Filters
By Janet Roberts

Once upon a time, one golden rule of email-newsletter publishing was this: Always include unsubscribe instructions in each issue.

That was then; this is now. Spam filters are changing the email landscape in ever more basic ways. You can still tell your readers how to leave your list. Just don't tell them, "To unsubscribe...."

That's because some spam filters trap newsletters that use the action phrase "to unsubscribe."

I first noticed this trend when I noticed that email filter SpamAssassin charges points when it finds list-leaving information in a message body.

It hit home when I sent out my own newsletter last week. Three different spam filters, all at corporate accounts, flagged FoodWords as spam because I use the phrase "to unsubscribe."

You'd think having removal instructions in the message would help filters distinguish legitimate email from spam. Alas, many spammers now use unsubscribe functions that either do nothing or confirm addresses instead.

The problem is, most spam filters can't separate bogus management functions from legitimate ones. So, whenever one detects the phrase "to unsubscribe" as a call to action, especially followed or preceded by "click here" and an email address or Web site, it triggers a filter.

I won't mind dropping the word "unsubscribe," because it's not really a word in English, at least not according to my spell-checker. But it's a descriptive term that leaves not doubt about what you intend to do.

What other words can you use? Some have a line in their headers like this: List-Unsubscribe: (followed by email address or Web site). Others add a line in a subscription management section at the top or bottom of each mailing.

Here's a sampling:

• Chicago Tribune Daywatch: "Manage all your chicagotribune.com e-mail subscriptions here:" with a link to the general Member Services page, not keyed to your reader ID.



• spamNEWS: "Please remove me from this list" followed by the Web address with the reader ID.



• MarketingProfs.com Newsletter" "If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a blank e-mail here:" followed by an email address with the reader ID.

I changed my newsletter to read "To Leave," both in the message body and in the footer message that lists the reader's unique ID (see the tag at the very end of this mailing) and sent it again to the three who didn't get it the first time around. It went through this time.

Ezine-Tips for August 26, 2002

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