Email Footer Design: What to Include and Why
The legally required elements, the ones that reduce spam complaints, and why burying the unsubscribe link costs you delivery.
On this page
The short version
- Hiding the unsubscribe link does not keep subscribers. It converts unsubscribes into spam complaints, which cost far more.
- A postal address is a legal requirement for commercial email in several jurisdictions, including under CAN-SPAM.
- The footer is the second most-read zone in many emails, because readers go there deliberately. Treat it as a functional surface rather than a legal dumping ground.
The footer is where two things meet: what you are required to include, and what a reader who has decided they want out is looking for. Getting the second wrong is what turns a manageable unsubscribe rate into a complaint rate that affects delivery for everybody.
It is also, quietly, one of the most-visited parts of an email. People scroll to it on purpose — to check who this is, to change their preferences, or to leave.
What belongs there
| Element | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Working unsubscribe | Required | One click, no login |
| Physical postal address | Required (CAN-SPAM) | A PO box is acceptable |
| Who is sending | Required in practice | Legal entity name |
| Preference centre link | Strongly recommended | The alternative to leaving |
| Why you are receiving this | Recommended | One line, prevents complaints |
| View in browser | Optional | Useful, and never the preview text |
| Social icons | Optional | Sends people away from the action |
| A hidden unsubscribe | Harmful | Converts opt-outs into complaints |
| Tiny grey text | Harmful | Rescaled by phones; reads as evasive |
The one line that prevents complaints
"You are receiving this because you signed up for the deliverability checklist at optinplot.com in March." One sentence, and it answers the question that precedes most spam complaints, which is not "how do I stop this" but "who is this and how did they get my address".
It matters most on lists with a long gap between signup and first send, on lists built from several sources, and on any re-engagement send. Those are precisely the situations where a recipient has genuinely forgotten, and where the spam button is the reasonable-feeling response.
Make leaving easy on purpose
Every piece of friction added to unsubscribing — a login, a confirmation page, a survey, a ten-day processing note — pushes a proportion of people to the spam button instead. That trade is always bad. An unsubscribe is invisible to your reputation; a complaint is not, and the ceiling on complaint rate is low enough that a small shift matters.
The version that works is one click to stop, with the preference centre offered as an alternative on the confirmation page rather than as an obstacle before it. Someone who wanted less rather than none will take the option when it is offered after the decision is safe.
Size and colour
Footers are traditionally set small and grey, and both halves of that are a mistake on a phone. Text below about 14px gets rescaled by iOS, which inflates the footer into the loudest block in the email — the exact opposite of the intent.
Set the footer at 14px and use a muted colour with adequate contrast to do the quieting. It stays visually subordinate, it does not get rescaled, and it remains readable for people who need it to be.
Footer check
- Unsubscribe works in one click with no login
- The list-unsubscribe header is set
- A valid postal address is present
- The sending entity is named
- A preference centre link is offered
- One line explains why they are receiving this
- Footer text is at least 14px with adequate contrast
- Links have enough vertical spacing to avoid mis-taps
Frequently asked questions
Is a PO box acceptable as the postal address?
Under CAN-SPAM a registered PO box is acceptable. Other regimes differ on the detail, and it is one of the points worth checking against the jurisdictions your list actually spans.
Should transactional emails have an unsubscribe link?
Genuinely transactional messages — receipts, password resets, delivery updates — are treated differently and generally do not require one. The moment a message carries promotional content it stops being purely transactional, and the exemption goes with it.
Do social icons in the footer help?
They give a reader somewhere to go that is not your action, and the traffic they generate is usually small. If the goal is a following, a dedicated send asking for it will outperform icons on every email.