Update: Support for One-Click List-Unsubscribe for Marketo Customers

[samchang]

As many of you have read or have heard, Gmail and Yahoo has issued a variety of new sender requirements starting on February 1, 2024.  Many of the initial requirements revolve around ensuring messages are properly authenticated with SPF/DKIM/DMARC, as well as compliance with Spam Complaint rates.

One of these requirements include the support of One-Click List-Unsubscribe as defined in RFC 8058.  This requirement was pushed out to June 2024 for both Gmail and Yahoo.  What this means is, starting in June 2024, all Bulk senders are required to support One-Click List-Unsubscribe which includes having the presence of the following in their marketing messages:

1. List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click
2. List-Unsubscribe: <URL Unsubscribe>, [optional <mailto:>]
3. The URL unsubscribe in the List-Unsubscribe:
   1. Must not direct a customer to a preference page
   2. Support receiving a HTTP POST response back from the receiver
   3. Process the HTTP POST response (unsubscribe the user) within 48 Hrs
4. Ensuring the List-Unsubscribe-Post and List-Unsubscribe: are included headers in the DKIM Signature (in the h= tag)

Marketo has always supported List-Unsubscribe: (RFC 2369) in all Marketing messages by automatically including a <mailto:> option in List-Unsubscribe: Header, and this was a seamless process done automatically without the need of any intervention from our customers.

Beginning on January 31, 2024, Marketo has put the necessary changes in place to support the One-Click List-Unsubscribe requirement, and all Marketing messages will support One-Click List-Unsubscribe.  Recipients who request a One-Click Unsubscribe will be automatically unsubscribed from all future communications across a Marketo instance.  We recognize the importance of Operational and Transactional messages, and One-Click List-Unsubscribe or List-Unsubscribe will not be present in these types of messages sent from Marketo.

Additional information about these requirements from Google and Yahoo can be found here:

• Google Email Sender Guidelines
• Google Email Sender Guidelines FAQ
• Yahoo Email Sender Requirements FAQ

Thank you very much,

Samuel Chang

Product Manager - Deliverability

[Zoe_Forman]

Thank goodness for GDPR - keeping Europe inline with upcoming changes. 

[Keith_Nyberg2]

@samchang - how will Marketo manage a record if the link is perceived as clicked but it is really just security scanning software testing all links in the email? Some vendors like Barracuda Networks are notorious for showing all links as clicked so curious if people using these services will be automatically unsubscribed from all email unintentionally. Would love your thoughts.

[samchang]

Hi Keith,

Great question.  Firstly most if not all security scanners do not scan the links in the Header of the Message.  Their link scanners are typically designed to scan the BODY of the message.    Secondly the per the RFC, the One-Click List-Unsubscribe was designed to have the recipient system send a HTTP POST response to the URI defined in the List-Unsubscribe: Header where the sender receives and then process vs. the recipient system executing a GET request which calls on the link itself.

Thank you,

Sam

[Leah_Sandy]

Is there a step-by-step process on how to implement this, for those who are new to setting sort of process up?

[samchang]

Hi Leah,

There is nothing that needs to be done by our customers.  We enable the List-Unsubscribe-Post header, One Click URI in the List-Unsubscribe header automatically to all Marketing Mailing.

Thank you!

Sam

[Jay_Jiang]

This may or may not be related to the above but I can't think of any other universal changes related to the backend email engine affecting email output...

I've noticed that polymorphic email script tokens* are no longer outputting text emails as intended, instead we are seeing html source code outputted as the text email. What supports the fact that there's a bug is that the preview of the text email is correct, but what gets delivered to the inbox, by either send sample or real email, is different to the preview.

I've logged a support ticket already, and while it's not an instance breaking issue, I do think this deserves extra attention as it affects numerous existing email assets written using this method

* See https://blog.teknkl.com/polymorphic-tokens/ for reference

[AngelaRose]

Has anyone  implemented a successful solution when not using the native unsubscribe field? I have an instance that leverages multiple unsubscribes that are used across brands. With the one-click unsubscribe records are unsubscribed from all our brands when they should only be unsubscribed from one.

 Any advice?

[tstevensTrane]

@AngelaRose I too struggle with this. While each of our brands manage their own custom unsubscribe/preference fields in Marketo, any one-click unsubscribe solution bypasses those and uses the instance-wide default Unsubscribe in Marketo (which prevents any marketing communications to go out to that contact across any of our brands; regardless of which brands' communication triggered the opt-out). 

[Amber_Hobson]

I'm with @AngelaRose and @tstevensTrane as well! If this is being implemented by default, how does that work for those of us with custom solutions? We have unsubscribes by brand since we do multiple within our instance. We do have the option to unsubscribe from our entire family but the preference on the one click would be that you are unsubscribing from that brand only by default. Is there any customization with this?

[JeffHensiek]

I'm in the same boat as @Amber_Hobson , @tstevensTrane , and @AngelaRose .   We have a subscription center where people can choose what content they want to subscribe/unsubscribe.  Are we able to update the unsubscribe section with both options - this way the user could see both the 'global unsubscribe' as well as 'manage subscriptions' options?