Set up the unsubscribe footer
The unsubscribe footer is the visible way out on every message: one line with an unsubscribe link, and your postal address underneath. It is off when you start. This page turns it on.
If you want the reasoning behind having two opt-out layers at all, read How unsubscribes work first.
Where the setting lives
Section titled “Where the setting lives”- Go to Settings, then Sending defaults.
- The first section is Unsubscribe footer.
Next to the section title is a When it’s required hint. It reads: “US CAN-SPAM requires a visible unsubscribe link and postal address. EU and UK GDPR expect a plain way out.”
The line under the title tells you the current state. Off, it reads “Off by default. One-click header only; a visible footer can cost you the inbox.” On, it reads “On. Link and postal address on every message.”
That first line is honest about the trade. A visible footer looks like bulk mail, and some recipients treat it that way. ColdMerge leaves the choice with you rather than forcing it, and tells you what you are choosing between.
Turn it on
Section titled “Turn it on”There is one switch. What happens when you flip it depends on whether ColdMerge already holds a postal address for you.
If no address is stored yet
Section titled “If no address is stored yet”- Turn the switch on. The label changes to Add an address to turn it on and a Postal address box appears.
- Type your address. It can run to several lines, and the lines you type are the lines the footer shows.
- Select Turn the footer on. That one action saves the address and enables the footer together.
Nothing is saved until you select that button. Turning the switch back off before you do simply folds the box away and changes nothing.
If an address is already stored
Section titled “If an address is already stored”Turn the switch on and it is on. The address you supplied before is reused, so there is nothing else to fill in. The label reads On for every message.
Turn it off
Section titled “Turn it off”Turn the switch off. The change is saved immediately.
Your postal address is kept when you do this, so turning the footer back on later is a single click rather than a form to fill in again.
Why the postal address is required
Section titled “Why the postal address is required”ColdMerge will not let the footer go out without one, and refuses the change if you try.
The reason is that the footer exists to satisfy a legal obligation, and in the US that obligation is two things, not one: a working way to opt out, and a valid physical postal address for the sender. A footer with a link and no address satisfies neither the law nor the point of having a footer.
The rule holds from both directions. You cannot enable the footer with no address stored, and you cannot clear the address out from under a footer that is already on. There is no sequence of two reasonable-looking steps that ends with a live footer naming nobody.
Any address that reaches you works. A mailbox or a registered office is fine. The field’s own hint says as much: “A mailbox or registered office works, as long as post reaches you there.” ColdMerge checks that an address is there, and does not try to parse it, because no format is shared by every country that has one and a parser would refuse real addresses.
Change or remove the address
Section titled “Change or remove the address”The Postal address box stays visible whenever the footer is on. Edit the text and a button appears:
- Save the address when you have typed something different.
- Remove the address when you have emptied the box. Turn the footer off first, because while it is on the removal is refused, for the reason above.
Emptying the field and saving really does remove the stored address. It is not a no-op.
What the footer actually says
Section titled “What the footer actually says”The wording is fixed and cannot be edited. In plain text it is a rule of hyphens, then:
If you would rather not hear from me, you can unsubscribe:
<link>
<your postal address>
In an HTML message it is the same thing, as a thin line followed by two small grey lines, with “unsubscribe” as the link.
The footer is added by ColdMerge at the moment of sending. It is not part of your template, so it never appears in your composer as text you could edit or delete, and it carries no merge tokens. If your postal address happens to contain something that looks like a merge token, it goes out as literal text.
If the footer cannot be added
Section titled “If the footer cannot be added”Once the footer is on, a message that would go out without it is refused rather than sent incomplete. The refusal names which half went missing, the unsubscribe link or the postal address, and the message is not sent.
This is rare. It happens when the body’s own markup swallows whatever follows it. If you see it, simplify the end of your email body and try again.
Who can change it
Section titled “Who can change it”Owners and Admins. A Member sees the current state as read-only text with the line “Ask an Owner or Admin to change it.” The server enforces this regardless of what the screen shows.
Should you turn it on?
Section titled “Should you turn it on?”Turn it on if you send to anyone in the US, the EU, or the UK. That is what the in-app hint advises, and it covers most cold outreach.
Beyond the legal case, there is a practical one. The one-click header is not something you can count on: Gmail decides for itself whether to render a control from it, and has been observed rendering none even on a technically correct setup. When that happens the footer is your recipient’s only visible way out, and the alternative they reach for is Report Spam, which costs you far more than a grey line at the bottom of an email.