# Sending newsletters

A newsletter needs a way to unsubscribe. Send it as a campaign and Rasket handles that for you; send it through the API or SMTP and the email has to carry the link itself.

## Use a campaign

A campaign sends one email to a segment of your contacts. It adds the unsubscribe link and the one-click unsubscribe header, keeps unsubscribed people off the next send, and counts the subscribers your plan includes. That is the right tool for a newsletter, an announcement or a product update.

## What counts as a newsletter

Rasket looks at what each email sent with `POST /emails`, `POST /emails/batch` or the SMTP relay says, with the recipient's own name and address taken out. When the same content reaches 500 different people within 24 hours and has no unsubscribe link, it is counted as a newsletter.

- Receipts, password resets, sign-in links and shipping notices are not counted: an order number, a total or a token makes each copy different.
- Campaigns and flows are never counted. They handle unsubscribes themselves.
- `to`, `cc` and `bcc` all count. A suppressed address doesn't.

## What happens

- **The first time**, nothing is blocked. Your team's admins get an email and the dashboard shows a notice.
- **After that**, the next newsletter sent this way — at least 24 hours after the warning, or any after 7 days — is refused with `422` `validation_error` and `details.reason` `bulk_requires_unsubscribe`. Over SMTP the relay answers `550 5.7.1`.
- Adding an unsubscribe link lets the same email through at once. You don't need to contact us.

The full response is on [Errors](https://www.rasket.com/docs/errors).

## What counts as an unsubscribe link

A link to a web page, or a `mailto:` address, whose address or text says unsubscribe. In a plain-text email, a line that says it and carries the link. The word on its own, with no link, doesn't count.

An unsubscribe link in HTML:

```text
<p>
  You're getting this because you signed up at example.com.
  <a href="https://example.com/unsubscribe?u=8f2c">Unsubscribe</a>
</p>
```

These words count, in any letter case and with or without accents:

`unsubscribe`, `un-subscribe`, `opt out`, `opt-out`, `optout`, `manage preferences`, `manage your preferences`, `email preferences`, `subscription preferences`, `manage subscription`, `manage your subscription`, `desabonner`, `desabonnement`, `desinscrire`, `desinscription`, `abmelden`, `abbestellen`, `darse de baja`, `dar de baja`, `cancelar suscripcion`, `cancelar la suscripcion`, `cancelar inscricao`, `descadastrar`, `disiscriviti`, `annulla iscrizione`, `cancella iscrizione`, `uitschrijven`, `afmelden`, `avsluta prenumeration`, `avregistrera`, `afmeld`, `avslutt abonnement`, `wypisz sie`, `odhlasit`, `abonelikten cik`.

> The link must work: it should stop that person getting the newsletter, and you should keep them off your next send. Mailbox providers expect the same of any bulk sender.

## If your email is not a newsletter

Some legitimate mail is the same for everyone: an outage notice, a policy change, a security notice to every user. If yours is refused, reply to the warning email or contact support and we can allow it for your team.