Gmail is shaking things up again, and this time it’s with a one click unsubscribe feature that will be viewable in email headers. Users will no longer have to dig through the body of an email to locate the “unsubscribe” link (usually at the end of an email in tiny font). Whenever a user clicks the Gmail’s unsubscribe link, Gmail will send a request to the sender to remove that email address from the subscriber list.
Naturally, consumers will love the new Gmail unsubscribe feature. No more scrolling, squinting and clicking multiple times to unsubscribe from marketing emails.
Email marketers, on the other hand, are not thrilled, and we can totally understand. They spend a lot of time and effort building a subscriber list, creating beautiful email templates, and writing thoughtful marketing copy, only to have it all destroyed by Gmail!
But wait, one click unsubscribe is not really a bad thing! Many times, subscribers are too lazy to locate your unsubscribe link, and wrongly mark your email as spam as a quick, easy solution. This is terrible news for marketers because if enough people mark your emails as spam, Gmail will think you are actually a spammer, which can result in deliverability issues for your company’s emails over time.
The new Gmail one click “unsubscribe” feature provides a highly visible (for consumers) and penalty-free (for marketers) way to opt out of email promotions. This is really a win-win solution for everyone. Generally, customers will be happier, and deliverability to Gmail should improve for marketers.
This post was originally published on the Iterable blog. You can view the original post here.