Unsubscribe Reason "lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe"

[Anonymous]

Sometimes Marketo automatically unsubscribes people with the reason being "lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe". Anyone knows what that means?

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

It means the lead sent an email to the special list-unsubscribe address that's present in the headers of all outbound Marketo emails. Most likely they didn't compose the email manually, but rather clicked an "Unsubscribe" button provided by their email app.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sanford!

[cek10428]

We have recently found this same scenario, however, the issue for us is that our 'golden source' for unsubscribe is utilizing an external DB. So, while everything we have is running through unsubscribe email links and a preference center linked to that external DB and feeding into Marketo...it is not catching and aligning with this particular unsubscribe reason. Any recommendation on how to ensure we both honor that unsubscribe (reason) but ensure it syncs and/or aligns with external DB?

[SanfordWhiteman]

When this is the only unsubscribe type for which Marketo is authoritative, we use a trigger campaign + webhook to update the external system.

[cek10428]

Thank you - one more question on trigger campaign/webhook. How are you identifying that particular change - the reason code comes in with that 'lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe' but not written to any field to be able to identify that reason in particular. 

[SanfordWhiteman]

Reason is a constraint on the Unsubscribed from Email activity. You just add it to the trigger setup.