Opt-outs allow your subscribers to stop receiving a specific type of mailing you send from your Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) account (rather than universally unsubscribing from all of your mailings). Opt-outs give your subscribers the freedom to choose which mailings they would like to receive and which mailings they would not. While you always need to include a universal unsubscribe link, additional opt-outs mean greater flexibility for your subscribers.

As a best practice, you'll want to create your opt-outs as Interests (see Interest Fields to learn more). There are a few reasons for this: First, you'll be able to see the specifics of each subscriber within an opt-out interest (such as email address). Second, you'll be able to easily manage the use of the opt-out interest within your mailings - simply exclude all members of the opt-out interest.

Creating an Opt-Out Interest

1. Navigate to Subscribers > Profile Fields.
2. Click Create.
3. In the Add New Profile Field window, select Interest from the menu.

4. In the Add Interest window, enter a name, target group folder, and description for your opt-out interest. As a best practice, and to keep everything aligned, always name your opt-out interest in a way that parallels your main interest. For example, if your main interest is named "Training," your opt-out interest might be named "Training Opt-Out."
5. Click Save. Your new opt-out interest now appears in the list of interests.

Adding an Opt-Out Link to Your Mailing Template

Once you've established your opt-out interest, it is time to add it to your mailing template.

1. Navigate to Mailings > Templates > View to view a list of all of your existing templates.
2. Identify the template you want to modify. Hover over the corresponding menu icon and select HTML to open the HTML Editor.

3. In the template footer, identify a location for your opt-out interest link and click the Insert/Edit Hyperlink button in the toolbar.

4. In the resulting window, use the following options:

1. Hyperlink Type - Opt-Out Link.
2. Opt-Out Form - Select the subscription form for your opt-out interest (the default form is always available).
3. Name - The name of the opt-out.

5. Click Insert Hyperlink. The opt-out link now displays in the mailing template footer.

Applying the Opt-Out Interest to Your Mailing

With your opt-out link placed in your template's footer, you're ready to apply the opt-out interest to your mailing.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View.
2. Identify the mailing you need to modify. Hover over the corresponding menu icon and select Edit to open the Mailing Designer. (alternatively, you can create a new mailing)
3. On the Set-Up tab, scroll down and expand the Advanced heading. The Select Opt-Out Link field is available because you're using a template with an opt-out link.
4. Click Edit to the right of the Select Opt-Out Link field.
5. In the resulting window, click the Select Informz Opt-Out Interest radio button. The window expands to include two new dropdown lists: Action and Interest.
6. Set the Action to Add To and set the Interest to the new opt-out interest that you've created.

7. Click Update to save your changes. Now, anyone who chooses to opt out of your mailing becomes a member of the selected opt-out interest.

Excluding Your Opt-Outs from Mailings

Now that you have an opt-out interest set up that resides in a template and a mailing, you'll need to exclude that group from your mailings. There are two ways to do this:

• Use the Set-Up tab in the Mailing Designer.
• Create a compound target group that excludes the opt-out interest.

NOTE: This article discusses the former method. To learn more about creating compound target groups, click here.

To exclude an Opt-Out group from a mailing:

1. Return to the Set-Up tab, and then scroll down and expand the Advanced section.
2. Click Edit to the right of the Do not send to field.
3. In the Do Not Send Mailing To window, check the Those in the following Target Groups(s) checkbox. The window expands, allowing you to select the desired target group.

4. Click the Target dropdown list and select your opt-out interest.
5. Click Add to List to add your opt-out interest as an excluded target group.
6. Click Update.

Now, when you send your mailing, you'll exclude everyone who has joined the opt-out interest.

Opt-Out Reporting

Opt-Out information is a critical component when it comes to understanding your subscriber base. Thrive Marketing Professional offers information about all your opt-outs to ensure that you are on top of this data.

Viewing Opt-Out Details

1. Navigate to Subscribers > Profile Fields.
2. Click the dropdown list and select Opt-Outs.
3. Click your desired opt-out to open the Opt-Out Info window. This window contains three tabs: Edit, Counts, and Subscribers. Let's take a look at each tab now.

Edit

This tab contains the opt-out name and description, as well as an option to transfer interests using the Interest Transfer button (which lets you transfer interests into the opt-out group).

Counts

This tab shows two rows of information:

• Number of Subscribers - The total number of opted-out subscribers.
• Number of Distinct Email Addresses - The total number of unique/distinct email addresses associated with the opt-out.

Subscribers

This tab contains a table with columns for Email, Subscribe Date, and Opt-Out Date. You can remove emails from the list by checking the corresponding checkbox and clicking Remove.