Can I Opt an Unsubscribed Contact Back In?

When a contact unsubscribes from receiving additional email marketing campaigns, that contact is placed on the Do-Not-Mail list and their status is set to OPTOUT. The only way a contact on the Do-Not-Mail list can start receiving email campaigns from the Constant Contact account owner again is by opting themself back in. This means the contact has to perform an action such as clicking a “subscribe me” button in an email, a landing page, or other application.

When a contact subscribes by clicking a subscribe button in an application to rejoin a mailing list, it should trigger a PUT call to the API to update the contact. The action_by query parameter defines who initiated an action and must be set to ACTION_BY_VISITOR in the PUT, meaning the contact initiated the action. The Contacts API will not accept a PUT call for a contact whose status is OPTOUT where the action_by query parameter is set to ACTION_BY_OWNER (default setting), returning a 400 response code.

Constant Contact takes SPAM very seriously, and employs a strict anti-spam policy. Review our anti-spam best practices and policy. It is a serious violation of the Constant Contact Terms of Service to use the APIs Opt-in features to opt a contact back in without his or her action and consent. The Opt-in action must be initiated by the contact.

If you have questions on how this should be implemented in your Constant Contact integration, please check our Developer Forums, or contact the Webservices support team.

How have you handled opting contacts back in who had previously unsubscribed? We encourage you to share your thoughts, ideas here.

Leave a Comment