Handling unsubscribes properly is a legal requirement in most markets and essential for protecting your sending reputation.
The unsubscribe link
Add the {{unsubscribe}} variable to your email templates. It renders as an Unsubscribe link, and clicking it removes the recipient from your campaigns automatically.
Include it in every campaign. Under CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and similar regimes, a working opt-out mechanism isn't optional.
What happens on unsubscribe
When someone unsubscribes:
They're added to your suppression list immediately.
Any remaining steps in their sequence stop.
They're excluded from future campaigns automatically.
The suppression list
Your suppression list is a list named "My Suppression List" and lives with your other lists under Lists in the left sidebar.
Anyone on it is checked and excluded automatically when a campaign launches — matching leads are marked as suppressed and never receive an email.
Adding people manually
To suppress addresses yourself — competitors, existing customers, anyone who asked to be removed by reply — add them to My Suppression List the same way you'd add leads to any list, including by CSV upload.
Always honour a manual opt-out request. Someone who replies "take me off your list" and then receives a follow-up is very likely to mark you as spam.
Best practices
Include
{{unsubscribe}}in every campaign, including follow-ups.Make it easy to find. Hiding the link generates spam complaints, which are far more damaging than an unsubscribe.
Add customers and open opportunities to the suppression list before launching, so nobody gets a cold pitch for something they already bought.
Watch your unsubscribe rate. A rate above 2-3% usually means your targeting is off, not that your copy is bad.