How to Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rate
If you send out professional Emails through a mailing list, the chances are very good that some of the people on your Email recipient lists will unsubscribe at some point. It is absolutely inevitable.
Ways to minimize unsubscribing
As you are aware, there will be people who unsubscribe from your Email list and there will not be anything that you can do to change that. Although there is no way to completely prevent people from doing that, there are things that you can do to minimize the number of people who unsubscribe. In your mind, you need to prepare yourself for that reality and accept what you cannot change. It isn’t personal. It is just what some people are inclined to do.
However, there are some steps that you can take to make things better and to retain a large portion of your Email recipient list.
Offer an alternative to opt-down instead of opting out: You most likely understand what it means to opt-out. A good alternative to the finality of the opt-out concept is to opt-down. In other words, the volume of Email that the person will be receiving from you will be less that what they have received in the past. It allows the recipient to have some breathing room and not to be overwhelmed by so many Emails, which they may be likely to simply delete without actually reading and eventually unsubscribe altogether. Additionally, if you give them the option of opting down, you are making them feel that they have some control over the situation. That will make the person feel respected and it may go a long way to building a substantial relationship with you and your business.
Offer Email message type choices according to the person’s taste: In addition to opting down, there are other ways in which the recipient can control the stream of Emails that they receive. It is very important to remember that your Emails are far from being the only ones that the recipient is receiving. If you multiply the number of Emails that you are sending to the person many times, that is probably close to what they are having to deal with every day or every week. You can give your recipients the option of reducing the number of topics that they wish to receive as well as the frequency of the Emails that you are sending to them. If you think in terms of combining videos, messages about upcoming events, newsletters, alerts, etc, you should try to offer options to that person that make it less painful and less voluminous. In fact, you may be surprised at how many people would actually choose to be less connected with you rather than completely severing ties entirely.
An option for change of address: Another excellent way to allow your recipients to have some control and to make them feel that they are actually making their own decisions is by giving them the opportunity to change or update the Email address that you have for them. If you are given a new address to use, they won’t be so inundated by your Emails at the Email address that they use for everything else. It is a really great idea when you think about it!
Change the format of your Emails: Because a very large amount of people are using their mobile devices to read their Emails on a regular basis, it is worth considering changing the format of your Emails that you send to multiple recipients. If you do that, you can arrange it so that it is friendlier to the mobile devices and you won’t antagonize your Email recipients. This may or may not be a reason why people are unsubscribing but you don’t want this to be one of the reasons, especially if you can do something about it.
Interact in many different ways: You should not assume that if one of your Email recipients unsubscribes from your Email list, that the person wants to have nothing to do with or your business. This is especially important if the recipient happens to be someone with whom you share a deeper relationship. It is in your best interest and in the best interest of your business to make the effort to connect with the other person in whichever way or ways you feel are appropriate. You should think about what you want to do before you completely cut off all communication because that may be critical to your success.
Conclusion
If a person unsubscribes from your Email recipient list, you should not take it personally. It is not personal. However, from an objective business perspective, you should do everything that you can to try to save that connection and there are options that you can suggest to your recipient which may work for both of you. Remember to give your Email recipients what they need and if they still do not wish to be a part of your Email blasts, you will need to accept their decision gracefully. Of course, it goes without saying that your Emails should add value and teach your recipients something that they didn’t know before.
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Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: B2B Technology Marketing Community
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Unfortunately I do not fully agree with you. I don’t think you should hold on to your subscribers “at all cost”. Sometimes letting go is better – they might not be your prospects (so having them on your list might bring you only trouble – like spam complaints before they unsubscribe, or just people that are looking for free info).
Unsubscribes also might tell you that the info you are emailing or promotions you make, are not hitting the spot.
If unsubscribes happen too often and with larger than average volume, you might need to ask your subscribers what they want.
It also means that you might need to rethink your prospect getting strategy.
By Dany Shalom
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Jewish Professionals
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
The biggest problem I noticed is people that have set up filters to kill your email’s newsletters. You think you are sending them, but they are not getting it. A useful idea, I find is to change the format of your newsletter completely once even the heading like for a special deal or a seasonal greeting. That will get through the user defined spam filter. Then see what reaction you get.
By Bernard Zimmermann
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network – #1 Group for CMOs
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Well in your case, you’d include a variety of products in that email. If it is well composed, flashy, yet brief, interest is increased. Plenty a time the font and layout has a massive effect. Many people prefer mac over windows because Apple uses smoother fonts, rounder layouts. I would choose a simple and ’round’ layout wig smooth and thin fonts and a minimal color scheme. From there on out it’s all really about how interesting what you have to offer actually is. Include promos etc etc and program the email to address them by their first name, eg, ‘hey Rick’ or Dear Moonunit,’ etc.
By Max Biddick
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Marketing & Communication Network
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
I have seen a big difference using the “opt down” method. However, continuously building your lists is important as well.
By Beth Bressman
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: My Small Business
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Make sure your content is what your audience wants & needs.
By Sylvia Henderson
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: My Small Business
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
hide the unsubscribe link?
j/k
Don’t sweat it. Just keep gathering new sign-ups and focus on creating great content like Sylvia said. Move ahead….and I would mix up your emails so they are not boring. People need to be entertained a lot it seems.
By Jan Rossi
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Business Development – The Missing Link between Marketing & Sales
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Those people that unsubscribe from your list, would probably not have bought from you anyway. It’s just a matter of keeping a flow of new subscribers.
By Jesper Seest Mogensen
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: B2B Technology Marketing Community
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
For me, it’s missing the obvious one – ‘Create better content for your list’, all the points raised tend to be technical or formatting related, in my experience, I generally leave a list not because I can’t read it on my mobile but because the content and value starts to slide.
I agree that you should constantly be seeking feedback about what content and information people want to see, it’s a content marketing channel after all, you can’t just endlessly sell to a list.
By Dylan Jones
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
I unsubscribe when I find the e-mail list is not as described. At that point, no alternatives are going to keep me on because the bond of trust has been broken. The only way to keep me on it to be honest up front.
By Herb Nordmeyer
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Email lists are interesting – and in my series of autoresponders, I have a few “traps” to get rid of prospects I know will not make good customers.
There are times when an unsubscribe can be a positive thing!
By Gemma Laming
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network – #1 Group for CMOs
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
The best antidote to reduce your unsubscribe rate is to provide helpful information that is germane to your audience.
Providing it in an entertaining and easily readable fashion is even better. To entertain, include humor if possible. Draw analogies and make reference to fun culture personae and events. Engage the reader by including a call to action that is based on the fun element once in a while and not just on the professional subject.
Ensure the font is easy to read and the size is easy to see. Avoid paragraphs of more than six lines. Vary paragraph length for interest and to provide white space. Use bullets. All of these small tips help the reader enjoy and thus value the newsletter more.
By Evelyn Starr
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Consulting Success
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
I have found that you have about 10% attrition per month from most any mailing list. If you don’t, you have people who are simply not telling you. The important thing is to keep adding to the list, provide relevant and interesting content or links, and be sure to purge the bad addresses. No everyone buys from you, don’t take it personally.
By Dirk Dieters
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network – #1 Group for CMOs
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
I found a few useful tips in the blog post but I think, in general, it is focused on the wrong issue. Better to focus on growing your email list with valid prospects, monitor the unsubscribe rate watching for anomalies, and find out why people are unsubscribing.
There should be churn in your email list. In general an unsubscriber is telling you that they are not interested in your company for some reason. That’s OK, it’s good to know, it cleans up your email list.
I completely agree in giving people frequency and content options during the unsubscribe process. I do this for our clients. But if they are going to unsubscribe it is more useful to find out why they are unsubscribing than to make a last ditch effort to keep them.
(1) Do they not find your content useful?
(2) Did they learn more about your product/service and realize you aren’t for them?
(3) Do you send emails too frequently?
(4) Did they make a decision to go with another company?
(5) Did their needs change?
I’d rather focus on getting answers to questions like this during the unsubscribe process than to make a last ditch effort.
That said, every situation is different. If it’s B2B high ticket items, be professional, let them go, and do whatever you can to have them leave feeling good about your company. If it’s B2C selling products at a discount, sure, give them a super good deal along the unsubscribe path but don’t let it get in the way.
If the unsubscriber is a customer make note of it in their records and reach out to them in other ways on a regular basis, whether it’s a personal email from an actual person, direct mail, a phone call, or social media if you’re connected to them.
By Tod Cordill
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network – #1 Group for CMOs
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Great points. I find the “change of email address” option missing often. Don’t make your prospects have to unsubscribe, then resubscribe through different online steps just to send your e-newsletter and offers to a preferred address. Think user convenience, not programming simplification.
By Cheryl Swanson
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Linked User Group (Official Linked User Group)
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Consistently relevant dynamic content is the best hedge against an opt-out.
By Sean J. Kennedy
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Consulting Success
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
The options listed can be helpful.
If you’re clear up front about what you’re going to be sending and how often, it’s helpful. Sometimes the problem is that the list owner is mailing all kinds of different content, or it’s simply a different kind of content than what the subscriber anticipated getting when he signed up.
When you know what your subs are interested in (and you’ll gain a lot of insight on that based on how they found their way onto your list and what sorts of links they click on) and you deliver consistent value, your unsubscribe rate should be right where it belongs.
Sales pitches are always turn-offs, either. Some people are irritated by them, but as long as they’re getting something out of the email (which is the only reason they subscribed in the first place and the only reason they keep opening your messages), they won’t leave.
My wife opens every email she gets from Old Navy and Ulta Beauty, and they’re all sales pitches. But she loves getting in on the sales events and coupons.
Naturally, you’ll lose some people over time. I don’t know many email marketers who are losing 10% of their list every month…
By Donnie Bryant
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
For the last few months I’ve been looking at this issue–list building–from the other side and even have a section of my training session for newbie entrepreneurs devoted to it. I advise clients to regularly unsubscribe from lists.
At least twice a year I recommend they ditch the ones where content is stale or repeated, offers are pushy, or anything else that indicates the correspondence has gone from interesting to annoying. Many clients and colleagues tell me they regularly employ a dual email system anyway. They have one email devoted to signing up for free offers and content and where they end up on lists–they ignore this email and never read the messages. All of these trends, combined with gmail’s new “promotions” tab have made it easier than ever to filter and ignore marketing emails (and newsletters) and so I am telling clients to start thinking beyond list building.
By Karen Southall Watts
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Karen, people won’t unsubscribe from non-pushy, non-sales type emails that have good, interesting content. You may even find that people look forward to them!
By Gemma Laming
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Step Into The Spotlight!
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
Well, those are the criteria we both seem to be recommending. However, I’ve unsubscribed (and recommend clients to as well) when content starts to cycle around over and over, when “special offers” come in every day or when the topic is no longer interesting or engaging. This gives us time to read stuff that’s actually high quality. I do know that in the last few training sessions no one told me they ever look forward to ANY emails. Perhaps that’s just the nature of the beast though when people are in the pre-start-up to start-up phase, so many tasks and feeling there is so little time.
By Karen Southall Watts
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: My Small Business
Discussion: How Do You Prevent Reduction of Your Email List?
A shrinking email list isn’t always a bad thing. It weeds out the “fluff” that is the equivalent of padding your stats. It will make you realize where your business really stands…
That being said, if you can keep the majority of your email list engaged (like stated in your article) then losing the fluff isn’t bad 🙂
By Connor MacNeil