Glossary Compliance
Unsubscribe in cold email: why and how
Also called Opt-out
An unsubscribe, or opt-out, is a way for a recipient to tell a sender to stop emailing them, which the sender must then honor for all future messages.
In cold email, an opt-out can be a link, a one-click header that mail apps show as an Unsubscribe button, or simply a line inviting the reader to reply "no".
Under the US CAN-SPAM Act, commercial email must include a working opt-out, and requests must be honored within 10 business days.
Why it matters
- It is required by law in many places, including the US.
- People who can unsubscribe easily do not need to report spam.
- Honoring it protects your reputation and the reader's trust.
How Reach Crew handles it
Every first email Reach Crew sends ends with a plain line, "Not for you? Just reply "no" and we won't write again.", and carries one-click unsubscribe headers. A reply of no, stop or unsubscribe, or a click, stops all follow-ups and adds the address to the do-not-email list.
Related terms
- One-click unsubscribe. One-click unsubscribe is an email standard (RFC 8058) in which the sender adds List-Unsubscribe and...
- CAN-SPAM Act. The CAN-SPAM Act is the US federal law, enforced by the FTC, that sets rules for commercial email, including...
- Do-not-contact list. A do-not-contact list, or suppression list, is a list of people or addresses that must never be emailed again...
- Spam complaint. A spam complaint is recorded when a recipient clicks "Report spam" (or similar) on your email, and the spam...