IN THIS ARTICLE:
Manual GDPR encryption
Go to your 'Prospects'.
Select the prospects you want to be removed (encrypted).
Click on the 'More actions' three-dots icon which will appear on the right side.
Choose 'GDPR encrypt'.
5. Click 'Encrypt permanently'.
6. You successfully encrypted the data!
You'll see that the status of the GDPR-encrypted prospects will change to OPT-OUT – that's the sign their data was erased from our database. This way, Woodpecker helps you avoid contacting these prospects ever again.
Managing GDPR-encrypted prospects
After your prospects have been GDPR-encrypted, you can see them in the Prospects database.
At the top of the table, there's a checkbox "Encrypted only," so it's possible to filter them out from other prospects and manage only GDPR-encrypted contacts – change their status, tag, or remove them completely from the database.
After clicking on the "Clean your prospects list" option, the ones GDPR-encrypted will fall under the search, as they have the OPT-OUT status assigned. To filter them out, check the "Encrypted only" box again.
Automatic GDPR encryption
Including the 'unsubscribe' link in the content of your message will give your prospect an easy way to opt out. Here's how to do that:
Create or go to a previously added campaign and click 'Edit.'
Click on the gear icon next to the name of your campaign.
Look for the "GDPR-compliant unsubscribe" option and tick the box.
The option will work only if the "Unsubscribe" snippet is added to the email or account's signature.
What happens next?
The 'Unsubscribe' link redirects your prospects to a page where they are presented with 2 options:
Choose to simply opt out (UNSUBSCRIBE).
Unsubscribe and have their data deleted from our database (unsubscribe and delete my data).
Whichever option they choose, their status will be changed to OPT-OUT, and the tag #UNSUBSCRIBED will be added.
To ensure your campaign is GDPR compliant – read our guide.
List-unsubscribe header
Due to recent changes in Google and Yahoo email sender guidelines, it’s important to give your prospects a way to unsubscribe from your emails quickly and easily, preferably with one click.
You can enable the option to do so directly in the campaign edit mode in Woodpecker. Click on the gear icon at the top right of the page to open the campaign's settings. Under the “Unsubscribe link,” section, checkmark the “List-unsubscribe header” box.
We support two implementation methods here: mailto and http. The first one works so that when a user clicks on the unsubscribe link, the mail client generates an email asking the user to cancel the subscription and sends it to the specified email address.
In the case of the http method, the list-unsubscribe header is followed by a pop-up asking whether a user is sure they want to unsubscribe from your emails.
The “List-unsubscribe header” option will work only if an “unsubscribe” snippet is inserted in the email copy or an account’s signature. A corresponding message will appear under the checkbox if it's not added. The same reminder will appear in the campaign summary if you forget to add the snippet.
In case there are more than 5,000 addresses in the list of prospects in your campaign with a private account (@gmail.com, @googlemail.com, @hotmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc.), and you have not enabled the option to list-unsubscribe – a relevant message will appear in the campaign summary when activating the campaign. We suggest enabling this option since Google is changing its email sender guidelines.
Prospects receiving an email from you should have a visible 1-click unsubscribe option available in their email inbox - sometimes, they won’t even have to open the email to do so.
Prospects who unsubscribed using the list-unsubscribe option will have two tags added to their entry in the Prospects table: in addition to the standard #unsubscribed, there will also be a #method-list, indicating by which method the unsubscription was carried out.
FAQ
Q: How to find prospects who have unsubscribed?
A: Woodpecker adds the tag #UNSUBSCRBED and changes their status to OPT-OUT for all unsubscribed prospects. Here, you can find detailed instructions on how to find them in your Woodpecker account.
Q: What happens once the data gets encrypted?
A: Neither you nor Woodpecker will be able to process that personal data after that. You won’t be able to see the data. The data won’t be stored in the Woodpecker database anymore. In your Campaign view, under the Prospects tab, you’ll only see a string of bullet points instead of the personal data you entered.
Q: How can I know that the prospect in a campaign got encrypted?
A: Go to the Edit mode of your campaign. In the 'Prospects' section, you'll find information about the number of your prospects. The contacts whose data was encrypted won't be shown.
Q: How to style and adjust your 'Unsubscribe' link?
Have a look at our article here to learn how to accomplish this task.
Q.: I check-marked the "List-unsubscribe header" option but the one-click way to unsubscribe doesn't show up in the inbox – am I doing something wrong?
Sometimes, it depends on the email provider of your recipient. The ESP will be checking if the email address messages are coming from is a mass sender or if they have a good domain reputation. If those are true, it's more likely the one-click link to unsubscribe will be visible in the email header.
If you're not sure the header is added to the message, you can always check this by choosing to show the original message in your inbox. If you find mentions of the "List-unsubscribe" in the text, it means it's been correctly included in your message.
Please note:
To ensure the unsubscribe feature will work as intended, always use the snippet 'Unsubscribe' to add the 'unsubscribe' link (in every email sequence).
Simply copying the link from the content of other emails in your campaign (even if it is a previous email in the sequence) will not work, and the prospect won't be able to unsubscribe properly.