Unsubscribes, opt-outs, and the blacklist
For anyone sending email, SMS, or website messages through The AI CMO.
The short version
- Every marketing email you send carries a working unsubscribe link. You don't add it, you can't remove it, and it can't break.
- Opt-outs are enforced automatically on every send, on every channel. There is nothing to configure and no way to accidentally email someone who said no.
- An unsubscribe is not a blacklist entry. Unsubscribing stops marketing messages – it is the customer's choice, recorded and honored forever. The blacklist is a stronger tool that you control, for people who must not be contacted at all.
Email unsubscribes
Every journey email includes an unsubscribe link in the footer, plus the one-click unsubscribe support that Gmail and Yahoo require of bulk senders – recipients can opt out directly from their inbox without opening the email. Both are added automatically.
The links are signed. A link only works for the address it was sent to, so nobody can unsubscribe someone else by guessing a URL.
When someone unsubscribes:
- They stop receiving marketing email from your account immediately.
- They leave all running journeys, so no queued step will reach them on any channel.
- The opt-out is recorded permanently and applies across your whole account, including all brand profiles in it.
Bounced addresses and spam complaints are handled the same way, automatically – the address is suppressed and future sends skip it. This protects your sender reputation as much as it protects the recipient.
SMS opt-outs
When you connect SMS sending, the setup includes an inbound webhook URL for your SMS provider. Once that is in place, replies are handled automatically:
- STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT opts the number out immediately, as US law (TCPA) requires.
- START, UNSTOP, or YES opts it back in.
Failed numbers and carrier complaints are suppressed automatically, like email bounces.
What "opted out" changes – and what it doesn't
Marketing stops. History stays. An opted-out customer still appears in your analytics – revenue, RFM segments, cohorts, lifetime value. Your numbers stay honest. What changes is targeting: they disappear from lists that feed sends, such as the Churn Risk "save these first" list and its CSV export, and journeys skip them.
Transactional messages are unaffected. Order confirmations, receipts, and password resets come from your own store or app, not through The AI CMO – so a marketing opt-out never touches them.
Opting back in is the customer's move, not yours. For SMS, they text START. Email opt-outs are permanent. There is deliberately no button in the app to re-add someone who opted out – that line is what keeps your sending compliant and your deliverability strong.
The blacklist
Where: Customer Intelligence → Retention → Audiences.
The blacklist holds identities – email addresses, phone numbers, or your own customer IDs – that you decide must not be contacted. Use it for legal do-not-contact requests, self-excluded customers, or anyone you never want a campaign to reach. Entries can be added one at a time or imported as a list, and lists can be copied across brand profiles.
Each list enforces one of three levels. When someone appears on several lists, the strictest level wins:
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Blocks everything | No email, no SMS, no website messages – nothing, from any journey or campaign. |
| Suppresses marketing | Marketing messages stop on the channels you choose – all channels, or email or SMS only. |
| Flag only | Nothing is blocked. The person is flagged so campaigns and content can treat them with care. |
Every send the blacklist stops is logged, so you can show exactly when and where an entry did its job.
Blacklist or unsubscribe – which is which? An unsubscribe is the customer's choice and happens on its own. The blacklist is your policy: you add entries, you pick the level, and "Blocks everything" reaches further than any unsubscribe can – it silences every channel at once, including website messages.
Blocked and opted-out people are excluded from targeting surfaces automatically. The Churn Risk list, for example, says so in plain text: "Blacklisted and opted-out customers are already excluded."
Frequency cap
Separate from opt-outs: in your email and SMS sending settings you can cap how many marketing messages one person receives per 7 days, counted across all journeys. It is optional, and it is the polite ceiling that keeps an enthusiastic month of campaigns from burning a list.
Questions
Do unsubscribed customers still count in my dashboards? Yes. Analytics count everyone; only targeting filters them out.
Someone unsubscribed by accident – can I fix it? Not from the app. SMS recipients can opt back in themselves by texting START. Email opt-outs are permanent today – if a customer genuinely wants back in, contact support and we'll handle it with their consent on record.
Does the blacklist remove people from my analytics? No. Their history remains in your numbers. They are removed from every list that could feed a send.
We run several brands in one account – does an unsubscribe apply to all of them? Yes. An email opt-out applies account-wide. Blacklist lists are per brand profile, and you can copy a list across brands when policy should follow the person.