How to Prevent Unsubscribes
The last thing any email marketer wants to see is a high unsubscribe rate. This means that your messages are failing to resonate with your list and you’re losing your subscribers. There are many possible reasons for a high unsubscribe rate, but here are a few things you can to do to keep this number down as much as possible.
Always Gain Consent
Every member of your email list should have opted in of their own free will with the full knowledge of what they were signing up for. Don’t buy lists, trade for lists, or automatically opt-in anyone. If your subscribers didn’t opt-in, you’re basically spamming them.
Check for Spam
Your autoresponder service should have a spam check feature. This shows you the likelihood that your message will be marked as spam by your subscriber’s email client. The ideal spam rating is 0%. Tweak your messages until you get it down to zero.
Emailing Too Much
One of the main reasons for unsubscribes is that a marketer sends too many messages. If you’re sending messages often, try scaling back a bit and see what happens. If you see a drop in your unsubscribe rate, keep it at this frequency.
Another option is to offer an opt-down. This means that instead of getting your 3-times weekly emails, a subscriber can choose a weekly digest option. You can offer any number of frequency tiers to your subscribers.
Try Segmenting
Unsubscribes happen because your messages aren’t relevant to your email list members. However, it’s hard to please everyone. One way to prevent unsubscribes is to segment your list and send different messages to each. This way, you send more customized messages to your subscribers.
Review Expectations
Another reason people unsubscribe is that your messages aren’t delivering on the promise you made when they signed up. Your list isn’t living up to expectations. Go back and review your sign-up page and other marketing materials. Do they give the right impression of what your list offers?
Get Feedback
Ask for feedback about your list so that you know how your subscribers feel about it. You can offer a short survey when people unsubscribe with a dropdown menu. They simply click their reason for unsubscribing.
It’s normal even for a well-targeted list to have unsubscribes. Some people are simply no longer interested or, after receiving some emails, they realize your list not for them after all. Remember that unsubscribes are not always bad. It’s one way of qualifying your list. The subscribers who leave it were never set to become buying customers anyway.
