Maybe it’s just me, but has anyone noticed a change in the page shown after someone opts out of receiving email via the Infusionsoft link?

First, the font for the successful opt out notification is now HUGE and looks unwieldy within the context of the rest of the page.

Also, when did the “Report as Spam?” question show up? I’ve processed many requests for opt out and have NEVER seen it, yet I was told it’s “always been there”.

Am I going crazy or have I just never noticed it before?

Is there any way to get that off of there? Unfortunately, the average person just does not understand what legally constitutes SPAM. They think that just because they don’t want to receive the email anymore, that it’s now SPAM, even though they initially signed up for it. We’re obviously giving them the option of opting-out of receiving the email via the page they were just on, why is that link even on there? It’s just begging to be clicked. If, for whatever reason, I have a user that just doesn’t want to receive my email anymore, that’s fine. Let them opt-out and go on their way. But having that option on there is just asking for them to click it, which means I now get a mark against me and have to prove to Infusion that they initially opted-in. And it’s not even something like “Click here to report as spam”, it’s a yes or no question that appears to require (even though it does not) an answer. A few unhappy or confused users out of the hundreds of thousands of content ones can potentially cause a lot of extra work, grief and aggravation.

Hello Anthony,

First, I want to thank you for sharing your feedback on this. As you know, our client's satisfaction is mutual and is key to our success. I also want to let you know that we post any upcoming changes/announcements in our Bulletins section -- of which we posted details on the 6/17 update (effective, today) such as the changes made on the Opt-Out page.

That said, I understand your concern regarding the changes made to the Opt-Out page. I'll share my perspective on the matter below.

I agree that the font size and positioning acknowledging removal from a mailing list is quite large (it could probably use some better alignment and styling), but the benefit is that customers who opt-out see it very visibly that they have been successfully opted out. This will hopefully provide enough gratification to them, so they don't report your message as spam and simply delete it. As you may already be aware, this can effectively increase overall deliverability to various ISPs.


As far as the line that reads, "Was the e-mail SPAM?" is concerned, this allows our Mail Operations team to minimize the barriers between e-mail recipients and them to report unsolicited e-mail. (That is, less hoops for a recipient to jump through to inform the team of a client who isn't exhibiting proper e-mail practices.) The following result of that question, assuming they click Yes, is our Mail Ops team will actively investigate the complaint and determine if a client is failing to send mail within our guidelines.

The best way to look at it, is this:
It's much better for us to detect less than desirable email activity, than say, AOL or MSN. We can help proactively inform clients that their activity falls outside the guidelines and give them the tools and best practices for properly sending e-mail.


If an e-mail recipient has any doubt that an Opt-Out will work, they are very likely to utilize their provider's Report Spam button which, even individually, can have a drastic impact to your (and our) deliverability rating.

From my brief conversation with the Mail Ops team on this, they have received qualitative and useful feedback from recipients which aid them in their plight to provide industry-leading e-mail deliverability for all our clients.


I've let our Mail Ops team know about your feedback and they probably have a few pointers or interesting positions on the topic.


I have a question, what would you like our Opt-Out form to appear like? We're open to all of our client suggestions.


Thanks again for your feedback, we strive to provide the best experience for clients like yourself as well as your recipients. It's a win-win situation.

~Joe

I agree with Karma below. This "Would you like to report this message as spam" message was NOT there the last time I submitted an opt-out to see how the page looked, nor the time before that. I probably haven't checked that page more than three times but it was never there until now. Does it come and go?

If it had been there, I'd have asked about it before now.

I also agree, it begs to be checked. You are asking someone (likely already in a bad mood because they are forced to do the work to opt-out) to easily check a box simply making their point that they do not want any further messages. People do not understand what is spam and what is an opt-out.

If you want to include something like this then create a nice looking box, separate from the other content, starting something like, "Please let us know if you received this message without your knowledge or consent." I wouldn't use the word "spam" at all, unless you define it underneath. Basically I'd want to discourage the random clicking that the majority will do simply because they can.

Kathryn Martyn-Smith, M.NLP
http://www.OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com

Kathryn,

This update has been out for a while, our apologies that you weren't made aware; we've made a commitment to better inform our users when changes are made, especially as it pertains to sensitive areas of the application like Opt-Outs.

Allow me to rebut one of your points --

It does not matter if recipients don't understand the definition of Spam. To some, Spam relates to merely volume, others it can be images or sales copy. When users report a message as Spam, it's a signal they didn't have their expectations set properly and are likely dissatisfied with the e-mail being sent.

As noted earlier, the feedback we receive through the "Report Spam" area has proven extremely helpful at identifying abusers of our service and gain intelligence on less than ethical marketing practices. 99% of clients shouldn't worry about it, as the E-Mail Compliance Team uses the data to catch the 1% who risk our company's reputation and deliverability when they illegally purchase a list (for example).

Another counterpoint to the criticism we received on this is the fact that we'd rather recipients tell us directly if a message is Spam instead of their e-mail provider. If a provider receives enough complaints (over the industry standard of 0.1%), it can cause a great deal of pain and frustration for both clients and us.

Great points, we'd love to improve the Opt-Out process for all parties involved. One advantage to this in-house feedback is that we'll eventually cascade the feedback to you within Infusionsoft. Any suggestions we can incorporate into Infusionsoft should be posted in the BLISS sub-forum, as Product Management is attuned to that area more than others.

Thanks again for your feedback (and question). I hoped this addressed your question. Let me know if you have any further questions.

~Joe

I just saw the opt out success page. Seems like a point that needs to be communicated better with users.
I'm pretty sure I don't understand what would happen if someone clicks yes.


Also, I hope somebodies watching the yes responses to see if the design needs adjusting.

By the way, the way I found this was changing the email address that I use to subscribe to a few lists.
Where the aweber optout page always gave people a chance to change their email address, most of the infusionsoft lists gave only one choice: Unsubscribe.

While this can be adjusted, it's not easy, and the default opt-out link could be changed to include an email change option.

Yep, as stated above, you can customize the Default Opt-Out link. To include Update information, process associated Actions, or whatever else you like.

First, create your customized Opt-Out / Update link by going to Setup -> Misc Settings -> Marketing Settings -> Links. Next, select it as your "Default Opt-Out Link" by going to Setup -> Misc Settings -> Template Settings -> Email. Now all of your templates using the default opt-out link are customized!

Hope this helps.