Users forwarding emails that others are marking as spam

[DMuller7]

We provide a Daily Devotion email to our customers that sign up for it.  Some forward these emails they receive daily to others with the best intent of sharing them.  Sometimes they forward to someone that will unsubscribe them or mark the email as spam and stop the original customer from receiving emails.  Is there a way to prevent either the forwarding or from an unauthorized user from stopping emails to the intended email address?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @DMuller7,

Unfortunately not, no. Preference and unsubscribe links are generated at the time of sending the email, specifically for the intended recipient. If someone else interacts with that email, HubSpot assumes it's the original recipient.

To avoid unsubscribes, you could highlight on the preference page that the user should not proceed if they don't "own" the displayed email address. This should already be included on the system pages but you can highlight it even more.

Regarding the spam flags, there's unfortunately nothing you can do here besides educating your recipients.

Best regards!

[GiantFocal · Accepted solution]

Hi @DMuller7,

Here is a solution I can think of:

First, add a note in your emails explaining that forwarding may result in unintended unsubscribe. And add a "Forward to a friend" link or button after your note above. 

The "Forward to a friend" can be a link to a page with a form where your subscribers can enter their friend's email address. Once submitted, a workflow will send a separate email to the friend, which doesn't affect the original subscription. 

Feel free to reach out if you need help with the implementation. 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @DMuller7,

Unfortunately not, no. Preference and unsubscribe links are generated at the time of sending the email, specifically for the intended recipient. If someone else interacts with that email, HubSpot assumes it's the original recipient.

To avoid unsubscribes, you could highlight on the preference page that the user should not proceed if they don't "own" the displayed email address. This should already be included on the system pages but you can highlight it even more.

Regarding the spam flags, there's unfortunately nothing you can do here besides educating your recipients.

Best regards!