What are the reasons people want to stop receiving emails from a company? Number one is frequency. Other reasons include not recognising who the email is from, content that provides little value to them, is not considered relevant or is hard to read and navigate.
There are also practical reasons people unsubscribe. For example they are going on an extended leave or are no longer employed at the company. In some case, they want to use a different email address.
In today’s inbox, subscribers scan their inboxes at the speed of sound, deciding whether to open – or not. If they don’t want the email, recent surveys have found that less than a quarter will bother to unsubscribe. Instead, most will hit delete or even the junk button. The “report as junk” button is not a good thing – too many of these reports can impact your reputation with an ISP.
If someone takes the time to unsubscribe, it’s making a strong statement. You can use it as an opportunity to improve your email marketing.
Set expectations with your sign-up process
If you set expectations at the beginning of the relationship – at the sign up, you’ll have a better chance of attracting subscribers who will find your emails of value and won’t want to unsubscribe – or delete or note as junk.
Structure your subscribe box to include a clear description of what they will be receiving, and how often. Include a current example of the emails your company sends for them to view. Tackle the frequency issue by including an option that allows the subscriber to control the frequency of the emails from your company. Make it easy to switch email addresses. Offer all of these features in every email so they can control what they receive from you. Having the ability to create how, when and what they receive is the secret to a satisfied subscriber.
Use best practice in your sign-off process
Just as important as the subscribe function is the unsubscribe function. Both should be extremely easy. Legally it must be simple and no-cost to be removed from a mailing. Putting up barriers or hiding the remove link in the hope that they might not unsubscribe will just annoy people and will shred your brand’s reputation with the trapped subscriber. Forever. Do not require subscribers to remember which email address they subscribed with, avoid password protection and don’t require double confirmation of unsubscribes. It should be a one-click process. Check that there is a companywide suppression process in place to ensure they don’t receive further emails.
Monitor your unsubscribes
Along with the other metrics you measure, include unsubscribes from each mailing with a view to spotting negative trends. Check unsubscribes after making changes, such as in content, frequency, the from field, etc. Any spike in your average trended results with this metric will tip you off that the change is not working.
Inserting a low-key and not-required query during the unsubscribe process asking people to give feedback as to why they unsubscribed can provide valuable insight into areas you can improve.
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