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.

[cek10428]

Thank you, yes that much I understood...two issues here - 1) the only way to find records that fall under that reason is to use 'starts with' in the constraint for reason because 'is' and 'contains' didn't seem to query correctly and 2) the Unsubscribed Cause field for these records that are coming in via this reasoning (lead unsubscribed from list unsubscribe) is not properly stamped with the reason. Trying to find the balance of ensuring this is properly queried to stamp that Unsubscribe Cause (with the reason) and then update the external DB via a webhook and trigger campaign.

[SanfordWhiteman]

For (1) not sure about [is] not working but seems an easy workaround.

For (2) there isn’t any guarantee in Marketo that the Unsubscribed Cause will be updated at all!