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Unsubscribe Link, Address, and Footer

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Anti-spam laws such as Canada’s CASL and the US CAN-SPAM Act require commercial email to give recipients a way to unsubscribe and to include the sender’s postal address. You can place both in your own footer, or leave them out and let Envoke add its default footer. This page explains how Envoke decides, and what it does and does not check.

What Envoke Checks

Section titled “What Envoke Checks”

Envoke does not check your HTML for an unsubscribe link or a postal address when it is saved, when the message is launched, or when it is sent. Instead, when each email is sent:

Your HTML contains Envoke adds its default footer Postal address in the email
No {@pref-0} Yes Yes, in the default footer
{@pref-0} and {@brand-address} No Yes, where you put it
{@pref-0} but no {@brand-address} No None

So if you add your own unsubscribe link, add {@brand-address} too: nothing else will put your address in the email.

Section titled “Your Unsubscribe Link”
<a href="{@pref-0}">Update your email preferences or unsubscribe</a>

{@pref-0} is replaced with a link to the contact’s own email preferences page, where they can change their subscriptions or unsubscribe. Its presence anywhere in the HTML stops Envoke adding its default footer.

  • Use it as the whole href, as above, with no https:// in front.
  • Write it in lower case, exactly as shown.
  • In Send API messages, a {@pref-0} inserted through a recipient’s replace value does not count: the tag must be in the HTML itself.

Your Postal Address

Section titled “Your Postal Address”

{@brand-address} is replaced with your account’s postal address, set on the Account tab of Account settings, with a line break between lines. Put it in your footer next to the unsubscribe link, usually after your organisation’s name, {@brand-company}.

In Send API messages, {@brand-address} is only filled in when enable_merge_fields is on; with it off, the email shows the literal text {@brand-address} (see Send API Messages).

Section titled “Envoke’s Default Footer”

When the HTML has no {@pref-0}, Envoke adds a footer at the very end of each email, below your content, in a 660-pixel table. It contains:

  • “This message was sent to you by” your account’s name, linked to your website, when your account has both;
  • your postal address;
  • “You can change your communication preferences or unsubscribe from future mailings”, linked to the contact’s preferences page;
  • the Envoke logo, if your account shows it (see The Envoke Logo).

Mandatory messages get a different version, which gives the message’s stated reason, the link to the preferences page, and your postal address. The default footer uses Envoke’s own fonts and colours, so if it should match your design, write your own footer.

Section titled “An Example Footer Section”

A footer section with the account name, address, and unsubscribe link, for the end of your email:

<div class="block-outer">
  <table class="layout-table outer-table" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="660">
    <tr>
      <td class="block-inner-background block layout-column outer-column" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #555555;" align="center" valign="top">
        <table class="layout-table" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="660">
          <tr>
            <td class="block-inner-background" style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #555555;" align="left" valign="top">
              <div class="block-inner">
                <table class="inner-table" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="660">
                  <tr>
                    <td class="inner-column" style="padding: 20px;" align="left" valign="top">
                      <div class="content-edit" rel="#bck-overlay">
                        <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">{@brand-company}<br>{@brand-address}</span></p>
                        <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><u><a href="{@pref-0}">Update your email preferences or unsubscribe</a></u></span></p>
                      </div>
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                </table>
              </div>
            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>

The footer is an ordinary text block, so users can edit or delete it in the drag-and-drop editor like any other. If they delete the {@pref-0} link, Envoke’s default footer is added again at send.

Mandatory Messages

Section titled “Mandatory Messages”

A mandatory message is non-commercial content that the sender marks as mandatory, with a stated reason, such as a change to terms of service. {@msg-mandatory_reason} is replaced with that reason; in other messages it is replaced with nothing, so a conditional can show it only when there is one:

<p>
{%if @msg-mandatory_reason}
  {@msg-mandatory_reason}
{%else}
  You are receiving this email because you subscribed to updates from {@brand-company}.
{%endif}
</p>

In the drag-and-drop editor, a mandatory message whose HTML has a preference link but no {@msg-mandatory_reason} cannot be launched until the tag is added.

Section titled “The Envoke Logo”

If your account shows the Envoke logo in emails, it is part of the default footer. When your HTML has its own {@pref-0} link, so the default footer is not added, Envoke still adds a “Sent by” line and the Envoke logo at the end of the email.

Section titled “The Consent Banner”

If your account has the consent banner turned on (Account settings, Compliance tab), Envoke adds a banner at the top of campaign emails for contacts who have not yet given express consent. It is inserted immediately after the opening <body> tag, so write that tag in lower case. The banner is not added to Send API emails.

Full reference, OpenAPI description, and Postman collection: developers.envoke.com.