Before a campaign, Cruise email or drip email goes out, SplashSend checks it. Two of the checks come from email law. The US and Canadian laws require your postal address in every marketing email, and email laws in most countries, the UK and the EU among them, require an easy way to opt out. A missing unsubscribe link stops the send. If your address is missing, you see a note before a campaign goes out and on the Cruise page, and the email can still be sent. The other checks catch things that would look broken in the inbox.

This is general guidance on how SplashSend helps, not legal advice.

Your address and the unsubscribe link

Your postal address is the one in Setup → Business address. Your Header & Footer, the first card in Designs, prints it at the bottom of every email, with an Unsubscribe link and an Email preferences link under it. If you change your address in Setup, emails sent after that show the new one.

Your Header & Footer shows your address and the two links at the bottom of every email.
Your Header & Footer shows your address and the two links at the bottom of every email.

To add your address, go to Setup → Business address and fill in Address line 1, City and Country, and Postal / ZIP code and State, province or region where your country uses them. It saves by itself and shows Saved. Use an address where post reaches you. A PO box or a virtual office address is fine, and so is your home if you work from there.

Your address saves as you type. Website URL is where buttons without a link go.
Your address saves as you type. Website URL is where buttons without a link go.

Where the checks happen

  • Campaigns: the Send Campaign window lists anything that needs fixing in red, and Confirm Send stays greyed out until it's done. A note about your address shows in amber and doesn't stop the send.
  • Cruise: an email that fails a check isn't sent. A note at the top of the Cruise page says if you haven't added an address.
  • Drips: a drip can't be published until its emails pass, and an email waiting in a live drip is held until it's fixed. A missing address doesn't hold a drip.
  • Test emails you send to yourself aren't checked, so you can try a design before it's finished.
If something needs fixing, the Send Campaign window says what and won't send.
If something needs fixing, the Send Campaign window says what and won't send.

The messages, and how to fix them

No postal address

The amber note starts “You haven't added a postal address”. The email can still go out without one. To add it, fill in your address in Setup → Business address.

No unsubscribe link

The message reads “Your email design must include an unsubscribe link.” The footer of this design has lost its Unsubscribe link. See Putting the footer back, below.

The address isn't in the email

The amber note starts “This email doesn't show your postal address.” Your address is in Setup, but this design doesn't show it. The email can still go out. To show it, put the footer back, or type your address into the design itself.

A product card with no product

The email would arrive saying “Product name”. Open the design. An empty product card shows a Choose product button: click it and pick a product, or remove the card.

A button with no link

A button without a link of its own goes to the address in Website URL under Setup → Business address, or to your Shopify store if it's connected. You only see this message when there's neither. Add your website there, or give the button a link in the designer, where an unlinked button shows Add a link.

A basket block outside a drip

The “What they left behind” block shows the products someone left in their basket, so it only fills in when a drip sends it. Remove it from this email, or send the design from a drip.

A form that's been deleted

The message starts “This email uses a form that's been deleted”. A button or block in the design still points at a form you've deleted. Pick another form for it in the designer, or take it out.

Putting the footer back

  1. Go to Designs and click the Header & Footer card.
  2. If your address or the Unsubscribe link has gone from the footer, click Templates in the panel on the left and choose one. Every template includes both. It replaces your header too, so check your logo afterwards. The templates leave out the line giving your email address for questions, so if you send to people in Canada, add a way to reach you back into the footer. See CASL (Canada).
  3. Open the design you're sending. If it shows OWN HEADER & FOOTER at the top, click Use the standard one.

People who click Unsubscribe confirm on a page and are unsubscribed straight away. Email preferences lets them choose topics and how often they hear from you instead. See Unsubscribes and preferences.