Marketing email and unsubscribe

Marketing email includes promotions, campaigns, and subscription newsletters. Confirm that recipients want the content and provide a clear, working unsubscribe method. Unsubscribe and complaint handling directly affect future delivery reputation.

Marketing message rules

• Every API message object must contain exactly one To and no Cc/Bcc. For batch marketing, create one object per recipient.
• A non-template request without messageType defaults to MARKETING; a template determines the type.
• Do not label promotional content as TRANSACTIONAL to bypass recipient or unsubscribe requirements.
• When providing both HTML and plain text, keep a readable unsubscribe link in both.
• Do not continue marketing to recipients who unsubscribed, complained, or otherwise declined the messages.

Platform unsubscribe links and List-Unsubscribe

Automatic unsubscribe content is controlled by an API Key-level switch, which is off by default. Contact platform operators to enable or change it; this is not a self-service setting in the email console.

When enabled for marketing email, the delivery pipeline:

1. Replaces {{unsubscribe_url}} or the compatible shorthand {{unsubscribe}} with a platform-generated unsubscribe link, or appends an English unsubscribe footer when no placeholder exists.
2. Adds these headers so compatible mailbox clients can present an unsubscribe action:

List-Unsubscribe: <https://...>
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click

List-Unsubscribe provides the URL. List-Unsubscribe-Post declares one-click POST support. The current implementation does not promise to add List-ID or other list headers. These two managed headers also cannot be overridden through custom headers.

Transactional email does not receive this content automatically.

When automatic content is disabled

• You should still provide a valid HTTPS unsubscribe link in marketing email and ensure that your unsubscribe process works.
• For a regular API template send, an unsubscribe placeholder can use your own HTTPS URL supplied through variables. An invalid URL can render as an empty string.
• If a console campaign contains an unsubscribe placeholder but platform unsubscribe is disabled and no valid HTTPS URL is available, the message can be rejected in a later stage with 141015.
• Confirm with the platform whether the current API Key uses platform-hosted or customer-owned links; do not infer that the feature is enabled from an example.

Customize the platform unsubscribe page

From Suppressions, open Unsubscribe Page Settings to:

• Set brand name, logo, layout, primary color, and background color.
• Configure English, Simplified Chinese, and Indonesian copy and select a default language.
• Provide a website URL and support email.
• Preview confirmation, success, already unsubscribed, error, and invalid-link states.
• Save a draft, publish the configuration, or roll back when available.

Publishing this page configuration only changes the unsubscribe page. It does not enable the API Key's automatic unsubscribe feature or remove historical suppressions.

Manage suppressions

Open Suppressions to search, add one record, or delete records visible to the current account.

Resolve the underlying address, complaint, or blocking issue before deleting a record. Later hard-bounce or similar events can create a new suppression. Marketing opt-out stops marketing delivery; deleting a record neither erases history nor guarantees that every message type will be accepted.

Contacts and campaign audiences

• Contacts supports create, edit, delete, tags, groups, and CSV import/export. The UTF-8 CSV template is limited to 1 MB and 10,000 rows. email is required, name is optional, and tags is a JSON string array.
• A contact can have at most 10 tags and belong to multiple groups.
• Campaign previews match sendable contacts by tags and groups. Multiple selections within one category are ORed; tag and group categories are ANDed together.
• Saving a draft or submitting for review stores a recipient snapshot for the campaign. Later tag or group changes do not automatically change that snapshot.

Delivery and reputation practices

• Start with test addresses and a small, engaged audience, then scale gradually rather than increasing volume abruptly.
• Keep the domain, display name, and content purpose consistent. Avoid misleading subjects and spoofed identities.
• Regularly remove invalid, disengaged, and opted-out addresses. Manage complaints, not just volume.
• Follow each receiving provider's authentication, unsubscribe, and rate requirements; filtering outcomes differ by provider.
• Open rates depend on tracking pixels. Apple Mail privacy preloading can inflate them, while blocked remote images can hide real opens, so they are not an exact count of readers.

See Console operations for campaign review, scheduling, and cancellation, and Send records and statuses for final outcomes.

FAQ

Can a marketing message have multiple recipients?

No. The original marketing request must contain exactly one To recipient and no Cc or Bcc recipients.

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