Email types & subscriptions

An email type is a kind of email a contact can subscribe to or unsubscribe from — a newsletter, product updates, event invites, and so on. Types are grouped into categories, and categories are what your recipients actually see and manage on your preference center.

Why this matters#

Subscriptions in RadarSend work at the type-and-category level, not one all-or-nothing switch. That’s what lets a contact keep your newsletter while opting out of promotions.

Setting this up isn’t optional housekeeping — it’s a required send step. You can’t add a sender without ticking at least one email type it’s used for, and sending stays blocked until you’ve defined your categories and types. It’s step 3 of the getting-started checklist (Set up email categories & types), right before you add a sender.

Categories vs types#

RadarSend organizes every email you send two ways:

• Categories are what recipients see. People subscribe and unsubscribe by category on your preference center. A category is the opt-out unit.
• Types are how you group sends internally. You tag each broadcast with a type, and reports group by type — but recipients never see types.

Each category holds one or more types. The key rule: when a contact unsubscribes from a category, they stop receiving every type under it. A type with no category (“uncategorized”) appears on the preference center on its own.

A quick example — the category Newsletter might contain the types Weekly digest and Monthly roundup. Your recipient sees only one checkbox, “Newsletter”; you still get to report on the two sends separately.

Create an email type#

Go to Settings → Subscriptions → Email types. Two ways to build them:

Guided wizard (recommended for a first setup). Click Set up with guided wizard. After a short intro explaining categories and types, you’ll:

1. Create a category — enter a Category name (e.g. Newsletter; use words recipients recognize, not internal jargon) and an optional Description (shown under the category on your preference center). Click Continue.
2. Add types under it — enter a Type name for each. Under Advanced options you can set a UTM campaign prefix (added to tracked links for analytics) and toggle Add a List-Id header (recommended — helps inbox providers group and trust your mail). Add as many types as you like, then click Save.

Add them inline. On the same page, use the Categories strip (Category name, Description, + Add category) and the Types strip (Display name *, Description, UTM campaign prefix, Category, + Add type). The type’s internal key is auto-generated from the display name.

To edit a type later, click it to open its detail page. The Subscription tab holds Display name (shown to subscribers), Description, Category, UTM campaign prefix, an Active toggle (inactive types can’t be picked for new broadcasts, but existing subscription state is kept), and the List-ID header toggle. (The Delivery tab controls which domain and sender the type sends through — see senders.)

The preference center#

The preference center is the hosted page your recipients land on when they manage their subscriptions or unsubscribe. It shows one checkbox per category (each category that has at least one active type), plus the option to unsubscribe from all emails at once.

Brand it under Settings → Subscriptions → Preference center (or click Brand your preference center for the guided version, with a live preview). You can set:

• Company name — used in the page title, the default footer, and the unsubscribe copy.
• Accent color — pick a swatch or enter a hex; tints the checkboxes and the Save button.
• Logo URL and Logo alignment — must be a public image URL (images behind a login won’t load).
• Intro text — shown at the top; falls back to “Manage your email preferences below.”
• Footer — your legal footer below the topic list.

How unsubscribes work#

Every email RadarSend sends carries the standard one-click List-Unsubscribe header (so Gmail/Apple Mail show a native unsubscribe button) plus a link in the footer to your hosted preference center.

• On the preference center, a recipient can tick/untick individual categories and save, or unsubscribe from everything.
• Unsubscribing from a category cascades to every type under it. Unsubscribing from all flips the contact to a global unsubscribed state and opts them out of every category and type.
• Unsubscribed addresses are added to your suppression list, so they’re excluded from future sends. You can review them under Settings → Deliverability → Suppression.
• If a globally-unsubscribed contact later opts back into something on the preference center, RadarSend resubscribes them.

Common issues#

• Can’t finish adding a sender. A sender must be used for at least one email type. Create a type first, then tick it in the sender wizard.
• A category isn’t showing on the preference center. It needs at least one active type. Empty or all-inactive categories are hidden from recipients.
• Can’t delete an email type. A type can only be deleted if no senders or broadcasts still use it. Reassign or retire those first — or just toggle the type Inactive to stop new sends while keeping its history.
• Deleted a category by mistake. Its types aren’t deleted — they become uncategorized and appear individually on the preference center. Recreate the category and reassign them.

Good to know#

• Categories are recipient-facing; types are internal. Name categories for humans and use types for your own grouping and reporting.
• The opt-out unit is the category. If you want two kinds of mail to be unsubscribable separately, put them in separate categories.
• Marking a type Inactive is reversible and safe — it stops new broadcasts from using the type but preserves everyone’s existing subscription state.
• Next steps: add and confirm a sender and, if you’re just starting, the getting-started guide.