They Unsubscribed from Email. That Doesn't Mean You Can Call Them.

A client in Melbourne came to us last year with a "clever" idea. Their email list had 40,000 subscribers. About 8,000 had unsubscribed over the past 18 months. Dead leads, right?

"They only unsubscribed from email. We can still call them. We can still text them."

No. No you can't. And the fine for finding out the hard way starts at $2,220 per breach in Australia.

This misconception kills more campaigns than bad copy ever will. If someone opts out of your marketing, they've opted out of your marketing. Not just the channel. The intent.

Unsubscribe Means Unsubscribe. Full Stop.

Here's what most marketing teams get wrong. They treat each channel as a separate consent bucket. Email consent in Mailchimp. SMS consent in their telephony platform.

Phone consent in their CRM. Three systems. Zero coordination.

But that's not how the law works for your business. In Australia, the Spam Act 2003 and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 both target commercial electronic messages and telemarketing calls. In New Zealand, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 covers the same ground.

The test isn't which channel you're using. The test is whether your message is commercial in nature. If someone unsubscribes from your email marketing and you call them with a sales pitch, you haven't found a loophole. You've found a compliance violation.

What Counts as Marketing (And What Doesn't)

Your contact unsubscribed from your emails. Can you still reach them? The answer comes down to what you're saying.

This is marketing — you cannot send this:

This is also marketing:

This is NOT marketing — genuine service communications:

The distinction matters because it determines whether you need consent at all.

The Safety Exception: When You Can (and Should) Call

There are legitimate reasons to contact someone who's opted out of your marketing. Safety is the clearest one.

Real estate agents in Australia and New Zealand: If you discover a building compliance issue, you have a duty to inform your clients. Earthquake strengthening requirements, fire safety deficiencies, weathertightness problems. That's not marketing. That's a service obligation.

Automotive workshops: A wheel alignment recall, a brake pad safety notice, a manufacturer advisory. Your customer unsubscribed from your monthly newsletter? Fine.

But a safety notification about their vehicle isn't a newsletter. It's a duty of care.

Healthcare providers: Appointment reminders, prescription alerts, test results. These are transactional and safety-related. They don't require marketing consent.

The key test: would a reasonable person expect this communication regardless of their marketing preferences? If yes, you're likely in the clear. If you're stretching to justify it, you're not. Our batch testing process validates every compliance scenario before your first live call.

The Penalties You're Risking

Australia:

New Zealand:

These aren't theoretical. The ACMA actively investigates complaints. One disgruntled contact, one complaint, and your entire calling operation is under scrutiny.

Unsubscribe from one channel means unsubscribe from your marketing. Period.

How to Re-Engage an Unsubscribed Audience (Without Breaking the Law)

Your 8,000 unsubscribers aren't lost forever. You just can't contact them directly. Here's what works:

Lookalike audiences on social media. Upload your unsubscribed list to Meta or LinkedIn as a suppression list. Build a lookalike audience from your active subscribers. You're reaching similar people — not the ones who told you to stop.

Retargeting with genuine value. Create content worth coming back for. A free industry report. A tool that solves a real problem. An event with a speaker worth hearing.

Promote it through paid social to your suppression audience. Give them a reason to come back.

Make your re-subscribe path frictionless. Your unsubscribe page should offer a "change preferences" option, not just a hard exit. Let people choose frequency or topic rather than disappearing entirely.

Organic content that earns attention. Your blog, your social posts, your podcast. If your unsubscribers follow you on LinkedIn, they'll see your content. They chose to stop receiving direct messages. They didn't choose to stop seeing you exist.

The principle: give them a reason to opt back in. Don't trick them into a channel they've already rejected. Your human team handles the relationship — the AI handles the volume.

The Critical Step Most Teams Miss: Sync Your DNC Back to Your CRM

Here's where it gets real for your AI voice campaigns. Your prospect tells your AI agent "don't call me again." Your agent catches it. The global opt-out node fires, the number hits your suppression list.

But what happens next? If that DNC status doesn't flow back to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or HubSpot, you've got a ticking time bomb. Your AI agent respected the opt-out. Your Tuesday email blast didn't.

This is the gap that creates compliance violations. Not malice. Just disconnected systems.

What your integration should do:

At Waboom AI, we build this into every deployment. Your AI agent's opt-out doesn't just suppress a phone number.

It triggers a cascade across your entire marketing stack. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign — our API integrations push that unsubscribe everywhere it needs to go.

Your CRM stays current. Your compliance stays clean. Your team doesn't accidentally re-contact someone who already said no.

Your AI agent's opt-out cascades to every platform. No gaps.

Your Compliance Checklist Before Contacting Unsubscribers

Before you reach out to anyone who's opted out of your marketing, verify every item:

1. Is your message genuinely non-commercial? Safety notifications, transactional updates, and legal obligations pass. "Just checking in" doesn't.

2. Would a reasonable person expect this contact? Your customer would expect a vehicle safety recall. They wouldn't expect a "special offer just for you" SMS.

3. Is your DNC synced across all platforms? If someone opts out via your AI agent, does that status reach your email platform within seconds? If not, fix this first.

4. Do you have an audit trail? Every opt-out needs a timestamp, source, and channel logged. When the ACMA asks, you need to show your records.

Read our full compliance framework and our guides for NZ/AU privacy compliance and US TCPA compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I call someone who unsubscribed from my email marketing?

Not for marketing purposes. In Australia and New Zealand, the test is whether your message is commercial — not which channel you use.

Someone opts out of your email marketing, you call them with a sales pitch? That's a Spam Act or Do Not Call Register Act breach.

Safety notifications and genuine service communications are the exceptions.

What's the difference between marketing and a service communication?

Marketing promotes products, services, or commercial offers. Service communications include safety recalls, transactional confirmations, legal obligations, and account alerts.

The test: would a reasonable person expect this message regardless of their marketing preferences? A vehicle safety recall passes. A "we miss you" message doesn't.

What are the fines for contacting unsubscribed contacts in Australia?

The ACMA can impose fines of up to $2,220 per breach for individuals and $444,000 per breach for companies under the Spam Act. Do Not Call Register violations carry similar penalties.

The ACMA issued $6.3 million in penalties across 2023-2024. These aren't warnings — they're enforced.

How do I re-engage people who've unsubscribed?

You can't contact them directly. Use lookalike audiences on Meta or LinkedIn to reach similar profiles. Create genuinely valuable content and promote it through paid social.

Make your re-subscribe path easy with preference options. Give them a reason to opt back in through organic content they choose to consume.

Does a DNC from an AI voice agent apply to email and SMS too?

It should. If your systems aren't synced, you're creating compliance gaps.

At Waboom AI, every AI agent opt-out triggers a webhook that pushes DNC status to your CRM, email platform, and SMS provider within seconds.

Your Mailchimp or Klaviyo suppression list updates automatically. No gaps.