How to insert an unsubscribe link
In the Drag and drop editor, you can insert it by selecting UnsubscribeURL from the Merge Tag drop-down menu in the text editor. To display the toolbar, click the space bar on your keyboard and highlight the empty space. It'll be replaced with the merge tag once you've selected it from the drop-down menu.
If you wish to change the text, you can click on the text and press the Edit Link icon:
You can also add it manually by typing the text, for instance, "Unsubscribe here," highlighting it, and adding a hyperlink with the "Link to" Unsubscribe URL.
Keep in mind that you need to add the {{UnsubscribeURL}} merge tag as a hyperlink – simply typing it into the body of your emails won't work. It's because this merge tag will be populated with a specific unsubscribe link for each recipient. If you were to add it as simple text, it would display as a very long string of characters and wouldn't be clickable, so nobody would be able to unsubscribe.
In the Code your own editor, you can insert the unsubscribe link by adding {{UnsubscribeURL}} as a hyperlink to any text, for example, Unsubscribe:
<p><a href="{{UnsubscribeURL}}">Unsubscribe</a></p>
In the Legacy editor, you can insert the unsubscribe link by selecting UnsubscribeURL from the Merge Tag drop-down menu in the campaign editor:
If you wish to change the text, you can click on the text and press the Edit Link icon:
Custom unsubscribe links are not currently supported, so you must use the unsubscribe link provided by EmailOctopus. We also don't support inserting an unsubscribe link hyperlinked to an image – you need to hyperlink it to text.
I added {{UnsubscribeURL}} to my footer, but I'm still getting an error
This happens when the {{UnsubscribeURL}} merge tag is added incorrectly. Here are some troubleshooting tips:
- check that you added the merge tag as a hyperlink.
❌ Example of an incorrectly added {{UnsubscribeURL}} merge tag (as plain text):
✅ Example of the {{UnsubscribeURL}} merge tag added correctly (as a hyperlink):
- check that the {{UnsubscribeURL}} link is hyperlinked to a text or button. It cannot be hyperlinked to an image.
- check that you used the {{UnsubscribeURL}} merge tag as a hyperlink – we don't support custom links or merge tags.