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Opting Respondents Out of Emails

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About Opting Respondents Out of Emails in Qualtrics

Whether you’re sending your respondents survey invites, reminders, or thank you messages over email, they can choose to unsubscribe from further communications. Every survey distribution in Qualtrics requires an opt-out link, and comes with one by default. But if you have XM Directory, it’s important to understand what level your recipients have opted out of – mailing list, one directory, or all directories –  so you can customize your program accordingly.

On this page, we’ll link out to key resources on subscription behavior for survey distributions and how opt-out links work. We’ll also explain how to implement a fast, one-click unsubscribe button. This support page only covers subscription behavior for emails connected to standard survey projects.

Qtip: Throughout this page, we’ll cover differences in behavior for XM Directory and XM Directory Lite. If you’re unsure which you have, check our FAQs below for a guide.

Understanding Opt-Out Behavior

XM Directory

In XM Directory, you can have a directory that contains multiple mailing lists. Therefore, contacts can be opted out on the “level” of a list or an entire directory.

To learn more, see Opt-out Behavior in Directories and Lists.

XM Directory Lite

In XM Directory Lite, when you opt a recipient out of the list (or they opt themselves out by clicking the link), they are opted out of the specific mailing list you contacted.

Because XM Directory Lite doesn’t have a directory feature, every mailing list has its own, separate contact records. You cannot identify other lists the contact belongs to without checking those lists, and you cannot opt contacts out of all lists at once. To do that, you would need to switch your license to full XM Directory instead.

When you send a survey through Qualtrics, an opt-out link is included by default. Regardless of whether you use XM Directory Lite or XM Directory, this link opts respondents out of the specific mailing list, not a directory.

Qtip: If you have XM Directory, then contacts see the option to unsubscribe from all contact lists (the entire directory) after they unsubscribe from the list. For information on how to customize this opt-out message, see Directory Messages. For help making a “one-click unsubscribe” button that removes them from directories instead, see One-Click Unsubscribe.

For more information, see Using the Opt-Out Link.

To learn how to add an opt-out link back to your email, see this page.

One-Click Unsubscribe from Directory

If you’re using XM Directory, your contacts can be part of multiple mailing lists, as well as a larger directory of contacts. It’s important to keep in mind that the default opt-out link unsubscribes respondents from the mailing list. Only after they click this link, they’ll be asked if they want to unsubscribe from the entire directory. This means it usually takes 2 clicks to unsubscribe a respondent from the directory.

button says, you've been successfully unsubscribed. you'll no longer receive this type of communication from this sender. didn't mean to unsubscribe? then a link to resubscribe. next is a link that says, unsubscribe from all communications from this sender

However, you can make an opt-out link that unsubscribes the contact from the entire directory with just one click. To do this, add &OptOut=dir to the end of the opt-out link piped text in the survey invite.

Example: To display the directory unsubscribe button as a clickable URL, you’d use ${l://OptOutURL}&OptOut=dir
Example: To use a hyperlinked phrase, like “Click here to unsubscribe,” you’d use ${l://OptOutLink?d=Click here to unsubscribe}&OptOut=dir
Qtip: Make sure you also consider how you want email provider subscription buttons to work.

Unsubscribing from Email Provider Buttons

While Qualtrics opt-out links appear in the body of the email, email providers also offer an “unsubscribe” button that appears in their tool menus. For example, here is what this button looks like in Yahoo mail:

clicking tools 3 dots button in email and highlighting unsubscribe option

When recipients click non-Qualtrics unsubscribe buttons, they are unsubscribed from the mailing list, but not the larger directory.

To change this behavior, please reach out to your Technical Success Manager and ask for them to enable the “directory-level one-click unsubscribe” brand permission. Once this permission is enabled, then any time a recipient uses the provider “unsubscribe” button on emails sent from your Qualtrics organization, they’ll be unsubscribed from the entire directory.

Qtip: For information on how the “Report Spam” button impacts recipient subscriptions, see When Emails from Qualtrics are Marked as Spam.

Opting Contacts Out of Lists or Directories

In this section, we’ll link out to resources that show how you, as a Qualtrics user, can opt contacts out of lists and directories. You may need to do this for a contact if they ask you to change their subscription status, or if you only temporarily want to disable someone’s communications without permanently deleting them from a list.

In general, the user who owns the mailing list can opt contacts into or out of their own lists. To opt contacts into or out of the directory (or lists you don’t own), you need to be an XM Directory admin.

XM Directory

XM Directory Lite

To opt contacts into or out of mailing lists in XM Directory Lite, open a mailing list, find the contact, and use Contact Actions.

Areas of the Platform Covered on This Page

This support page only covers subscription behavior for emails connected to standard survey projects. It covers both XM Directory and XM Directory Lite behavior.

Supported features

The following is a list of areas covered on this page. The following is also a list of features where the opt-out link piped text will work.

Unsupported features

The following is a list of areas not covered on this page. The following is also a list of features where the opt-out link piped text will not work.

  • Preview links
  • Email tasks
  • Library message types not listed in the “compatible” section
  • Other project types, such as Employee Experience

FAQs