Summary
Receiving re-engagement emails after unsubscribing can be a frustrating experience, often stemming from a mix of legal grace periods, technical complexities, and varied list management practices. While the CAN-SPAM Act allows senders up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request, meaning some scheduled campaigns might still be sent during this window, other factors also play a significant role. These include being subscribed on multiple, unsynced lists, technical glitches within the sender's email service provider or CRM system, or simply poor data hygiene that prevents the unsubscribe request from fully propagating across all communication channels. Sometimes, what appears to be a re-engagement email might actually be a critical transactional message, which typically falls outside the scope of marketing unsubscribe requests.
Key findings
- Legal Processing Delays: The CAN-SPAM Act allows email senders up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request, meaning you may continue to receive emails during this grace period.
- Multiple List Subscriptions: You might be subscribed under different email addresses or on multiple, unsynced lists maintained by the sender, leading to continued messages from other segments even after unsubscribing from one.
- Sender Technical Errors: Errors in list segmentation, poor data hygiene, or technical glitches within the sender's email service provider, CRM, or internal systems can prevent unsubscribe requests from being fully honored across all platforms.
- Transactional vs. Marketing: Some essential communications, such as policy updates or order confirmations, are considered transactional rather than marketing, and are typically exempt from unsubscribe requests, sometimes being mistaken for re-engagement.
Key considerations
- Check All Subscriptions: Verify if you are subscribed to the sender's emails using different addresses or aliases, and attempt to unsubscribe from each relevant list or segment.
- Allow Processing Time: Be aware that senders have up to 10 business days by law to process unsubscribe requests; some final, queued emails may still be delivered during this period.
- Understand Email Types: Differentiate between marketing, promotional emails, and essential transactional notices, as only the former are typically covered by unsubscribe requests.
- Sender's Responsibility: Companies should prioritize robust list management, timely unsubscribe processing, and proper system integration to ensure user preferences are honored and maintain a positive sender reputation.
What email marketers say
11 marketer opinions
Even after opting out of email communications, it's common for individuals to continue receiving re-engagement messages. This often points to a combination of factors, from the legally mandated timeframe companies have to process unsubscribe requests-which can mean a few final emails slip through-to more complex underlying technical or list management challenges. These include instances where a subscriber exists on multiple, disparate lists within a company's database, or when there are technical snags with the email service provider or the integration between different internal systems. Additionally, some messages mistaken for re-engagement could actually be essential transactional notifications, which are exempt from marketing unsubscribe rules.
Key opinions
- Unsubscribe Processing Delays: Companies legally have up to 10 business days to honor an unsubscribe request, meaning some pre-scheduled emails might still be sent during this grace period.
- Disjointed Subscriber Lists: Senders often maintain multiple lists or segments that are not fully synchronized, so unsubscribing from one may not remove you from another, or from a different email alias you might have used.
- Backend System Issues: Technical glitches, broken unsubscribe links, poor data hygiene, or a lack of integration between CRM systems and email service providers can prevent unsubscribe requests from being correctly processed across all communication platforms.
- ESP-Specific Problems: The fault can sometimes lie with the Email Service Provider itself, due to technical misconfigurations, slow synchronization of suppression lists, or other platform-side issues.
- Transactional Email Confusion: Messages perceived as re-engagement might be essential transactional communications, such as policy updates or order confirmations, which are typically exempt from marketing unsubscribe requests.
- Migration-Related Challenges: In specific cases, such as a company switching ESPs, mass re-engagement campaigns might be deployed to identify and transfer active users, leading to emails sent to those who've previously opted out.
Key considerations
- Patience with Processing Times: Recognize that businesses are legally permitted a period, typically up to 10 days, to fully process unsubscribe requests.
- Review All Subscriptions: Consider if you may have subscribed with different email addresses or to various communication types from the same sender, and check all relevant unsubscribe options.
- Distinguish Email Purpose: Differentiate between marketing, re-engagement, and crucial transactional messages, as the latter are generally not covered by marketing unsubscribe requests.
- Importance of Data Hygiene: From a sender's perspective, maintaining clean, synchronized subscriber lists and ensuring robust integration between all email and CRM systems is paramount to honoring user preferences.
- Impact on Sender Reputation: For companies, consistently failing to process unsubscribe requests not only frustrates recipients but also severely harms sender reputation and deliverability.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that companies legally have 10 days to remove subscribers and that the emails could be part of a re-engagement program where the unsubscribe request hasn't been fully processed yet.
9 Jul 2021 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks, who works on emails for Angie's List, explains that the company is switching ESPs and these emails are likely an attempt to identify and port a large disengaged audience to the new platform before the old SFMC account closes. Darien also suggests it could be a logic error from inheriting and struggling with SFMC.
21 Apr 2024 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
The persistence of re-engagement emails even after an unsubscribe request is often rooted in the complexities of how email lists are managed and synchronized. Key factors include the legal grace period for processing unsubscribe requests, where messages already queued may still be delivered. More fundamentally, issues like partial removal from a sender's database, where an email address is deactivated but not fully suppressed from all segments or automated workflows, frequently lead to continued unwanted communications. Additionally, if a recipient is subscribed with multiple email addresses or if list management systems contain errors, it can result in an incomplete unsubscribe, and in rare cases, malicious practices may disregard opt-out requests entirely.
Key opinions
- Segmentation Oversights: A primary cause can be segmentation errors within the sender's system, where previously sent recipients are not correctly suppressed from re-engagement campaigns.
- Partial Database Removal: Senders may deactivate a subscription status without fully removing the email address from all relevant lists or automated workflows, leading to its inclusion in subsequent campaigns.
- Legal Processing Timeframes: Legally, senders have up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request, meaning emails scheduled before the full removal can still be delivered.
- Duplicate Subscriptions: Subscribing with different email addresses or to various segments under the same sender can result in continued emails from lists not affected by a single unsubscribe.
- Disregard for Opt-Outs: In some instances, though less common for legitimate businesses, malicious actors or spammers may intentionally ignore unsubscribe requests.
Key considerations
- Robust Suppression Management: Email senders must implement robust suppression mechanisms and ensure complete removal of unsubscribed addresses across all segments and automated flows, not just deactivating a status.
- Prioritize Data Hygiene: Maintaining clean, synchronized subscriber lists and regularly auditing list management practices are crucial to honoring unsubscribe requests effectively.
- Factor in Processing Time: Recipients should allow up to 10 business days for unsubscribe requests to be fully processed, as per legal requirements.
- Verify All Subscriptions: If receiving unwanted emails, recipients should check if they might be subscribed with different email addresses or aliases to the same sender.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that receiving multiple re-engagement emails, especially after unsubscribing, could be due to a segmentation error that fails to suppress previously sent recipients.
21 Jul 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that receiving repeated emails after unsubscribing can occur if the sender merely deactivates your subscription status rather than fully removing your email address from all relevant lists. This incomplete removal means your address might still be included in re-engagement campaigns or other automated flows, leading to unwanted messages despite your unsubscribe request.
18 Jan 2024 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
6 technical articles
Despite initiating an unsubscribe request, recipients may still encounter re-engagement emails due to a combination of factors, including legally permissible processing delays and intricate technical challenges on the sender's side. The CAN-SPAM Act allows companies up to 10 business days to honor opt-out requests, meaning some pre-scheduled campaigns may still be delivered during this window. Beyond this grace period, issues frequently arise from a sender's list management practices, such as subscribers existing on multiple, unsynchronized lists, or technical glitches in how unsubscribe requests are propagated across different systems or email service providers. Occasionally, an email address might even be inadvertently re-added through a separate import process or a system synchronization error, leading to a recurrence of unwanted messages.
Key findings
- Legal Processing Grace Period: The CAN-SPAM Act allows senders up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request, meaning some pre-scheduled re-engagement or marketing emails might still be sent during this period.
- System Delays and Propagation: Unsubscribe requests may experience short delays in system processing or in the complete propagation of the opt-out status across all internal and third-party platforms a sender uses.
- Multiple Audience Lists: Users may continue to receive emails if they are subscribed to different audience lists, or if they have used multiple email addresses, and the unsubscribe request only applied to one specific list or address.
- Incorrect List Management: Technical issues such as incorrect management of suppression lists, an email address being inadvertently re-added through a different import process, or system synchronization errors can cause re-engagement emails to persist.
- Pre-Queued Campaigns: Even with an immediate unsubscribe flag, some campaigns that were already queued for delivery before the unsubscribe was fully propagated across all sending systems might still be sent.
Key considerations
- Allow Processing Time: Recipients should be aware that senders have up to 10 business days, as permitted by law, to fully process an unsubscribe request.
- Check Multiple Subscriptions: Verify if you are subscribed to the sender's communications through different email addresses or on various specific lists, and ensure you opt out from each relevant subscription.
- Sender's Technical Practices: Email senders must implement robust suppression list management, ensure timely processing of unsubscribe requests, and maintain seamless synchronization across all their email and customer relationship management systems.
- Queue Management: For senders, it is crucial to manage queued campaigns effectively, ensuring that emails scheduled before an unsubscribe request is fully processed do not inadvertently reach opted-out recipients.
Technical article
Documentation from FTC.gov explains that under the CAN-SPAM Act, senders have up to 10 business days to process an unsubscribe request. This means you might still receive re-engagement or other marketing emails during this grace period after opting out.
10 Nov 2021 - FTC.gov
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp Knowledge Base explains that users might continue to receive emails after unsubscribing due to a short delay in the system processing the request or because they are subscribed to different audience lists with the same or multiple email addresses. Ensure you've unsubscribed from all relevant lists if applicable.
17 Jun 2023 - Mailchimp Knowledge Base
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