Opt-outs & reactivation

A contact has two ways to stop receiving marketing, depending on the market: by replying STOP where inbound SMS is available, or by clicking an unsubscribe link where it isn't. The good news is that the first opt-out isn't final — it can be reversed, and only when the person insists, with a second opt-out, does it become full suppression. This page covers how contacts opt out, how that opt-out escalates, who can reactivate a contact, and how to set up your unsubscribe links.

How a contact opts out

The mechanism depends on whether the destination market supports inbound SMS:

• Markets with inbound SMS (for example the United States and France) — the contact replies STOP to opt out, and START to opt back in. Keywords are configurable per channel (see Compliance).
• Markets without inbound SMS — there's no reply channel, so each send must carry an unsubscribe link instead. Clicking it opts the contact out.

From opt-out to suppression

An opt-out doesn't suppress a contact on the first request. What it does depends on the campaign's consent policy:

• Under Opt-out or Opt-in, the first STOP (or unsubscribe-link click) leaves the contact as declined marketing (opted out) — they stop receiving marketing but stay subscribed. A second opt-out, from a contact who had already declined, escalates to suppression.
• Under Basic, a STOP goes straight to suppression in a single step, because Basic ignores the marketing preference and suppression is the only way to honour the request.

This escalation is the same whether the contact replied STOP or clicked an unsubscribe link. The full policy-by-policy breakdown is in Compliance policies — this page describes the escalation; that page owns the policy table.

stateDiagram-v2
    state "Opted out" as OptedOut
    [*] --> Active
    Active --> OptedOut: STOP / unsubscribe (Opt-out or Opt-in policy)
    Active --> Suppressed: STOP under a Basic send
    OptedOut --> Suppressed: STOP / unsubscribe again
    OptedOut --> Active: START / opt-in (contact or your team)
    Suppressed --> Active: reactivate (your team or API only)

    class Suppressed destructive

Reactivation: who can bring a contact back

Reactivation depends on the contact's current state and on who is doing it:

• A contact who declined marketing can be brought back to it — by the contact (replying START, or through a re-subscription flow) or by your team/the API.
• A suppressed contact can only be reactivated by your team or via the API. A contact can't lift their own suppression — START reverses an opt-out, not a suppression.
• A contact who is subscribed and accepts marketing — reactivating has no effect.

In the panel, you reactivate a contact from the Subscribed / Accepts marketing checkboxes on their profile; programmatically, with the reactivate operation (see Manage via API).

Setting up your unsubscribe links

Unsubscribe links are configured under Settings › Project, in the Tools group, on the Unsubscribe-links page. The campaign editor inserts the link with the unsubscribe tag.

Two things you control there:

• Tracking domain — the domain the unsubscribe link uses. The default is System default; you can switch to a branded domain so the link carries your own domain instead of Instasent's. The catalog of domains is shared project-wide.
• Opt-out prefix — the keyword shown before the unsubscribe URL.