Unsubscribe link: what happens when someone clicks, and how to test yours
Two ways out of every marketing email: the link you write and the button the mail app shows. Both have to work first time, from every email you send.
- 141Unsubscribe Link
- A mandatory element in commercial emails allowing subscribers to opt out of future communications.
- Two versions
- A visible link in the email, and a one-click option from a hidden header
- In Klaviyo
- Required in every email, with the header added for you
- One click does
- Unsubscribes them from all your marketing email, not their texts
The link you write, and the button the mail app shows
There are two ways out of your email now. The link at the bottom is yours: it opens a page you control. The other comes from a hidden header, which lets the mail app show its own unsubscribe button and send the request straight to your platform. Nobody visits a page.
Google's sender guidelines ask bulk senders for both on marketing email. Klaviyo adds the header to every email and won't let you skip the link. What the link has to say, and where it sits, belongs to the email footer.
What Klaviyo does the moment someone unsubscribes
| What changes | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Email consent turns to unsubscribed | Every list and flow stops, as long as global unsubscribe stays on |
| SMS consent stays as it was | Texts carry on unless they ask you to stop those too |
| The click is counted on that email | It shows in the unsubscribe rate for that campaign or flow message |
| The profile and its orders stay | Reporting still works, and they can sign up again later |
Global unsubscribe is the default, and Klaviyo's help centre recommends leaving it on. Switch it off and someone who leaves one list keeps getting the others. That's a quick way to turn a polite exit into a complaint.
How to test your unsubscribe link before a customer does
- Send yourself a real campaign and click the link on your phone
- Check your profile in Klaviyo now shows email as unsubscribed
- Open one email from every live flow and click its link too
- Check the preferences page offers a clear way to stop everything
- After a platform move, check no template still points at the old platform's unsubscribe page
- Ask every other tool that emails customers whether it hears about Klaviyo unsubscribes
That last one is the leak nobody checks. A loyalty app or a review tool with its own mailing list will keep emailing someone who left your Klaviyo list last month. Run the whole test once a quarter, and again after any platform move.
Related terms
FAQs
Do flow emails need an unsubscribe link too?
Every marketing email does, flows included: the welcome series, abandoned cart, winback, all of it. Klaviyo requires one in every email anyway, so the real risk is a flow built from an old template with a broken link. Order confirmations and delivery updates are different, because they're service messages.
Can the unsubscribe link go to a preference centre?
Yes, as long as stopping everything is one obvious choice on it. A preference page earns its keep with people who'd happily stay for fewer emails. What fails is a page of topics to untick with no way to leave altogether. That reads as a trap, and the spam button is right there.
Why isn't our unsubscribe link working?
Usually one of three things. A template copied over from your old platform still points at its unsubscribe page, someone hand-coded the footer and broke the link, or the link works but a second tool keeps mailing from its own list. Send yourself a real email, click it, and check the profile in Klaviyo.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
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