Opt Outs and Unsubscribes

The opt-out section of the Knowledge Base (https://knowledge.technolutions.net/docs/opt-out ) has been updated 3/2024, with lots of documentation on setting up message groups and custom unsubscribe pages, so you can segment your e-mails and folks get to pick and choose what subjects they hear about.

(For history/threads of conversations leading up to the new documentation, see:

https://community.technolutions.net/archived-posts/post/12692360157467-ruFptWCDG0VDhfm

https://community.technolutions.net/admissions/post/14324931759131-6F2kh6m15qJH5Rx )

Other than these new message groups, the big thing that we all need to know is that the "Opt Out" TAG on the person record is different/separate from the general e-mail “unsubscribe" flag that gets set when someone clicks the link in the bottom of a marketing e-mail. Clicking that tag will put the person into that "general unsubscribe" bin (and removing the tag will remove them from that group) BUT clicking the link in the e-mail to unsubscribe does not set (or remove) the tag. 

Aaron Wach is a great example: he opted out of a mailing 1/2023:His opt-out tag is not set, BUT we can see the unsubscribe on the person dashboard:

Open

His opt-out tag is not set, BUT we can see the unsubscribe on the person dashboard:

Open

Post from Alexander in https://community.technolutions.net/archived-posts/post/opt-out-tag-not-set-via-all-future-communications-unsubscribe-ruFptWCDG0VDhfm

This was an intentional change in response to feedback from our Slate community. When the "opt out" tag was first introduced, email was the only mode of communication and there were no message groups. Since then, we've had many feature requests to treat unsubscribes more granularly. Now, email unsubscribes are for email and SMS unsubscribes are for SMS. Generally speaking, if you're sending a mass email or SMS, you don't have to worry about filtering out the unsubscribes since Slate will do that for you automatically---just make sure you select an unsubscribe group, but this is something you should be doing on all marketing communications anyway. If you're sending something transactional, you would typically want that to go out anyway and that will still be the behavior if you're selecting the no unsubscribe option. If you've added an opt-out tag (which might still be added through a number of different means), this will still opt them out. You shouldn't need to change anything about your process for the folks that have unsubscribed to remain unsubscribed from your emails. We're certainly open to further feedback if the community has some additional nuance that they would like to see incorporated into this process.

**The issue here is that in marketing and communications reporting, the opt-out tag is not the only way people are electing not to get email

Also, opt outs can be set automatically:

Unsetting unsubscribes 9/2024

Unsubscribe on mailings from uploaded file

“If we sent a mailing to a purchased list via spreadsheet upload list, and then import the name after the mailing, does Slate recognize those that have opted out from the spreadsheet mailing and then add the opt out tag to the new record?” 9/2024