Cheetah Digital (formerly Experian Marketing Services and now part of Marigold alongside Campaign Monitor, Emma, and Selligent) is an enterprise B2C marketing platform serving retail, travel, and hospitality brands with cross-channel loyalty and CRM integration. The unsubscribe mechanism uses the token-based system field, requires manual placement in email templates, and enforces contact-level opt-out flags tracked in the CRM data model. Cheetah supports RFC 8058 one-click compliance with custom tracking domain configuration. This guide covers the token, the loyalty CRM sync, and the enterprise-specific issues with multi-brand account structures.
Cheetah unsubscribe link
| Tag syntax | ~%unsubscribe%~ |
| Placement | Manual placement in the email footer template |
| Scope | Contact-level opt-out with CRM sync |
| Config path | Setup > Email Preferences > Unsubscribe link management |
| RFC 8058 one-click | Requires custom tracking domain configuration |
How to add the unsubscribe tag in Cheetah
Place the merge tag exactly as shown below in the email template. Cheetah replaces it at send time with a signed URL scoped to the recipient and campaign.
~%unsubscribe%~For custom HTML templates, wrap the tag in an anchor to render a proper hyperlink in the delivered email:
<a href="~%unsubscribe%~">Unsubscribe from this list</a>Manual placement in the email footer template
Requires custom tracking domain configuration The recipient's mailbox provider (Gmail, Yahoo) uses the List-Unsubscribe-Post header to expose the native one-click button on the message. Requires domain authentication with DKIM and DMARC.
Cheetah multi-brand accounts (used for parent-and-subsidiary brand structures) partition subscriber records per brand by default. A subscriber unsubscribing from Brand A stays active on Brand B unless the Universal Opt-Out toggle is enabled at the org level. Enterprise legal teams should audit this setting quarterly.
Testing your Cheetah unsubscribe link
- Send a test message to a controlled Gmail address you own via the Cheetah campaign preview action
- Click the footer unsubscribe link and confirm the opt-out on the landing page
- Check the subscriber or contact record: the status should be Unsubscribed within seconds
- Verify the RFC 8058 headers in Gmail: open the message, click three dots, then Show original. Look for
List-UnsubscribeandList-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click
Want the full 222-platform reference?
See the pillar guide with the compliance landscape, the RFC 8058 deep dive, and the unsubscribe tag for every ESP: How to add an unsubscribe link: the complete 2026 guide →
Cheetah Digital and the Marigold portfolio
Cheetah Digital (formerly Experian Marketing Services) is now part of Marigold alongside Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, and Vuture. Its unsubscribe mechanism uses the %UNSUBSCRIBEURL% token in HTML templates, replaced with a signed URL at send time. Cheetah enterprise deployments serve retail, travel, and hospitality brands with sophisticated preference centers that let subscribers manage marketing categories independently rather than forcing an all-or-nothing opt-out.
Enterprise preference centers
Large Cheetah deployments define 4-10 marketing categories (Weekly Digest, Loyalty Updates, Product Launches, Restock Notifications, Special Events, VIP Programs) that subscribers can opt into independently. The preference center is customized per brand, hosted on Cheetah infrastructure but styled to match the sender site. Retail brands using Cheetah typically see 30-40 percent lower full-list unsubscribe rates than they would with a single blanket opt-out, because subscribers can reduce content volume without leaving entirely.
RFC 8058 and Google/Yahoo compliance
Cheetah implements RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe headers on all authenticated sending domains, which is essentially all Cheetah accounts given the enterprise onboarding process. The List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers are added automatically to marketing sends. Cheetah customer success guides enterprise deployments through full domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, custom Return-Path) as part of launch, so accounts satisfy the Gmail and Yahoo February 2024 bulk-sender requirements from day one.
Multi-jurisdiction compliance
Enterprise retail and hospitality brands using Cheetah typically operate across multiple US states and international markets, each with distinct consent and opt-out requirements (CAN-SPAM, CCPA, CPA, VCDPA, GDPR, PIPEDA, CASL). Cheetah compliance tooling segments subscribers by jurisdiction and applies the appropriate rules per region. The Data Subject Rights portal handles GDPR and CCPA access and deletion requests. This level of compliance tooling is often the reason enterprise brands select Cheetah over simpler ESPs.
About the Author
Alaa · LinkedIn
Email infrastructure specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience in SMTP, deliverability, and email verification. I’ve configured and troubleshot mail systems across Postfix, Exchange, and cloud relays, managed IP reputation and warmup campaigns, and built verification pipelines processing millions of addresses. My work spans DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), bounce handling, blocklist monitoring, and compliance frameworks including CAN-SPAM and GDPR. I write every article on SMTPedia to give email professionals, developers, and marketers the accurate, RFC-grounded reference they need.
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