Unsubscribe Reason Survey

When subscribers unsubscribe from your emails, it helps to know why. MailPoet includes an optional survey that appears on the unsubscribe success page, asking subscribers to select a reason for leaving. This feedback can help you improve your emails and reduce future unsubscribes.

The survey appears only after the unsubscribe has already been completed. It never blocks, delays, or reverses the unsubscribe process.

How to Enable or Disable the Survey

The unsubscribe reason survey is enabled by default. To change this setting:

  1. Go to MailPoet > Settings > Basics.
  2. Scroll down to the Unsubscribe page section.
  3. Check or uncheck Show unsubscribe reason survey to enable or disable the survey.
  4. Optionally, check Show text field when “Other” is selected to allow subscribers to provide additional details when they choose the “Other” reason.
  5. Click Save settings.

What Subscribers See

After a subscriber confirms their unsubscribe, the success page displays the survey with the question: “Please let us know why you unsubscribed.” Subscribers can select one of the following reasons:

  • I no longer want to receive these emails
  • I never signed up for this mailing list
  • The emails are inappropriate
  • The emails are spam and should be reported
  • Other

If you have enabled the Show text field when “Other” is selected option, a text area labeled “Tell us more” appears when the subscriber selects “Other.” Subscribers can enter up to 500 characters of additional feedback.

After selecting a reason and clicking Submit, a thank you message confirms their response was received: “Thank you for letting us know why you unsubscribed.”

Note: The survey only appears for subscribers who unsubscribed through a link in a newsletter. It does not appear when a subscriber is unsubscribed by an administrator or through other methods.

Where to View Survey Results

Viewing unsubscribe reason data requires MailPoet Premium.

Subscriber History

To see the unsubscribe reason for a specific subscriber:

  1. Go to MailPoet > Subscribers.
  2. Click on a subscriber with an “Unsubscribed” status.
  3. In the subscriber’s profile, the unsubscribe history shows each unsubscribe event along with the selected reason, any additional text provided, and the date the response was submitted.

Campaign Statistics

To see aggregate unsubscribe reasons for a specific email:

  1. Go to MailPoet > Emails.
  2. Click the statistics icon for a sent email.
  3. In the email’s statistics view, unsubscribe data includes the reasons subscribers selected when they unsubscribed from that email.

Privacy and Data Handling

MailPoet handles unsubscribe reason data in compliance with privacy best practices:

  • Personal data exports: Unsubscribe reasons are included when exporting a subscriber’s personal data through WordPress’s built-in privacy tools (Tools > Export Personal Data).
  • Personal data erasure: Free text responses provided in the “Other” field are erased when a personal data erasure request is processed through WordPress (Tools > Erase Personal Data).

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