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ClientTether Support
Communication · Reference

Unsubscribes & Opt-Outs

What happens when a contact opts out of email, why the address disappears, and the one thing you must not do next.

New · Updated Sep 21, 2026 · 3 min read
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1What unsubscribing is

Every email ClientTether sends carries an unsubscribe link at the bottom. That isn’t optional — it’s what the CAN-SPAM Act requires, and it’s part of why your mail reaches inboxes at all. When a contact clicks it and confirms, they’re unsubscribed.

2What happens to the contact

  • A red note appears in the contact’s history saying they unsubscribed.
  • Their email address is removed from the profile, so nothing can email them by accident — not an action plan, not a group send, not a one-off.
  • Everything else about the contact is untouched: they can still be called and, if they consented separately, texted.

Don’t just type the email address back in. Re-subscribing someone who opted out is exactly what CAN-SPAM prohibits, and it damages the sending reputation of every account on the platform. Only restore an address after the contact has told you they want to hear from you again.

3What to do instead

  • Reach out by phone or text and ask why — unsubscribes usually say something about the content or the frequency.
  • If they’re happy to re-subscribe, ask explicitly, then re-enter the address on the profile.
  • If not, leave the field blank and keep working the contact through other channels.

A pattern of unsubscribes is a message about your sending, not about the contacts. Look at how often plans email, whether the content is worth opening, and whether the list was ever opted in.

4Texts work differently

Texting has its own opt-out: the OK to SMS? switch on the profile, plus the carrier-level STOP keyword. A contact who stops texts isn’t unsubscribed from email, and vice versa. See Texting (SMS).

5Troubleshooting

A contact says they never unsubscribed

Check the history — the red note records when it happened. Shared mailboxes and forwarded mail are common causes.

An action plan keeps trying to email an unsubscribed contact

It can’t — the address is gone from the profile, so the step is skipped and noted.