Unsubscribes and the do-not-email list
Every email carries an unsubscribe link. Who used it, how to add people yourself, and how to see the totals.
Every campaign, sequence and marketing automation email carries an unsubscribe line and the one-click unsubscribe header that Gmail, Apple Mail and Yahoo show. One-off emails carry them too unless you switch the line off. Anyone who opts out lands on your do-not-email list, and nothing from the workspace reaches them again.
What the reader sees
The line sits under the email: Don't want these emails? Unsubscribe. Clicking it opens a page naming your workspace with one button. Opening the page does nothing by itself, so security scanners that follow every link never opt anyone out. The button does, and so does the unsubscribe option in the reader's mail app.
The page can ask why they're leaving: Too many emails, Not relevant to me, I never signed up for this or Other. The answer is optional and shows on the list.
Who has unsubscribed
Email → Unsubscribes shows the whole list with the totals on top:
| Tile | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Total unsubscribed | Everyone on the do-not-email list right now |
| Via the link | People who clicked the link or used their mail app's unsubscribe |
| Added by you | People marked, pasted, imported or added through the API |
| Last 30 days | Opt-outs in the last 30 days, against the 30 days before |
| Unsubscribe rate | Opt-outs in the last 30 days as a share of the emails sent in that window |
Each row says how the person got there, the reason they gave, and the campaign, sequence, automation or one-off email they left from. Search by address or name, filter by reason or how, and Export CSV for your records.
The same facts show elsewhere:
- The Contacts table has an Unsubscribed column, red for yes and green for no, with a filter and sort.
- A contact's panel shows a banner with when and how they left, and the Activity tab marks the email they unsubscribed from.
- Campaign and sequence reports count unsubscribes and show the rate against emails sent. Filter the people by Unsubscribed to see who.
- The home dashboard has an Unsubscribed tile for the period you're looking at.
Two kinds of entry
| Reason | Who gets there | What still reaches them |
|---|---|---|
| Unsubscribed | The link, the mail app, marking a contact Unsubscribed, the API | Transactional automations only, such as receipts and failed-payment notices |
| Blocked | Added by hand with Block every email | Nothing |
Campaigns, sequences, one-off emails and marketing automations skip both. Send anyway on a one-off email overrides a contact's stage, never the list.
Adding people yourself
Three ways, all for managers and the owner:
- Mark a contact Unsubscribed in their panel. Their address goes on the list, their sequences stop at once, and marketing automations they're in end.
- Email → Unsubscribes → Add addresses: paste addresses or import a CSV, up to 1,000 at a time, and pick whether transactional mail may still reach them. Addresses that match a contact mark that contact Unsubscribed.
- Through the API or an AI assistant.
Someone added to your contacts whose address is already on the list starts as Unsubscribed.
Letting someone back in
A contact on the list can't have their stage changed away from Unsubscribed. Remove them from the list instead, from the Unsubscribes tab or the banner in their panel. Their stage goes back to Contacted, or New if they were never emailed, and they can be emailed again. Sequences they were in stay stopped; enrol them again if you mean to.
Do this only when the person asked to hear from you again. Removing someone who opted out and emailing them is what gets a sender blocked.
Wording and defaults
Settings → Workspace → Unsubscribe link sets the words of the line and its link, whether one-off emails start with it, and whether the page asks why. The wording is plain text; it's escaped, never rendered as HTML.
A signature can place the link itself by linking to {{unsubscribe_url}}. The standard line is then left out of every email that uses it, and the one-click header still goes on.
Automations
Two events let automations react:
pedibee.contact_unsubscribed, withvia,reason,feedback,source_kindandsource_id. Start an automation from it to notify your team or send the fact to your CRM with a webhook step.pedibee.contact_resubscribedwhen someone is removed from the list.
Marketing automations stop for a person the moment they unsubscribe. Transactional ones carry on, as the law expects.
Related
- One-off and scheduled emails: the per-email switch.
- Automations: marketing versus transactional.
- Do-not-email list API