It’s Friday, so time to crack open the fan mail and read some spam!
But first a bit of background. As I’ve written here ad nausea (gulp), there is one (and only one) correct way to handle unsubscribing from newsletters: opt-in, and with a single-click unsubscribe feature in the footer of the aforementioned message. Most people don’t do this.
Today, we have a competitor to Soylent:
You receive this loveletter because you’ve ordered Joylent in the past with your address [..].
Gameshow buzzer sound! But do go on.
If you don’t want to receive our mailing anymore, please click here to unsubscribe.
Fair enough, so I clicked unsubscribe.
In order to confirm your unsubscription an email has been sent to you. Clicking this link will delete you from the mailinglist!
Nooooooo!
This gets 30% on the Rubénerd Newsletter–Unsubscribe Score Card. I docked an additional 10% because “No need to confirm unsubscribe” failed in the form of an extra email, not just a superfluous web prompt.
[ ] 50% Newsletter was opt-in in the first place
[x] 10% Unsubscribe link exists in newsletter
[ ] 10% No need to confirm unsubscribe
[x] 10% No need to login to unsubscribe
[x] 10% No need to find “email preferences”
[x] 10% Reasonable time to unsubscribe (< 48 hours)