Unsubscribing: Improve the Process
By Julia Gulevich
Unsubscribes are the normal phenomenon in the email marketing. You can resign to it. Or, you can improve your opt-out program and learn how you can keep more subscribers around.
The process of unsubscribing has changed over the years. Very early, the unsubscribe requests were completely ignored by the email marketers. This method, however, provoked the increase of spam complaints and reports. Then, the email marketers began using the unsubscribe links like "Want to unsubscribe? Click here". This method is called a no-questions-asked approach. Of course, a no-questions-asked approach reduces the number of spam complaints and clicks on the "Report Spam" button but it is not perfect either because it doesn't let you know why the subscriber wants to opt-out. The subscribers can have several reasons for wanting to be removed from your list and knowing those reasons would help you improve your email marketing program and keep more subscribers.
Instead of letting your subscribers go with a simple "thank you" note, design your opt-out page in the way so people could tell you why they are unsubscribing. Do you send too frequently? Unrelated message content? Inappropriate offers? Broken links and images? Whatever the reason is, it can serve you. You can use that information to change the meaning content of your mailings, segment your list by preferences, compose more relevant messages to different groups of subscribers, scheduler your email campaigns at more suitable time, or find any other ways to become more valuable to your subscribers and customers.
The simplest way to do this is to expand the form on your opt-out page by requesting more information from unsubscribers and providing them with alternate subscription options to keep the relations going.
Consider including these elements on the opt-out page at your web site:
• A form asking the subscriber why he is leaving your list. This can be a text box where the subscriber can formulate the reason in his own words, or a check list of common reasons to select (not interested anymore, images or links don't work, don't like offers, mailings were not what was expected, etc.)
• A suggestion to consider other mailing options such as less frequent emails, different type of newsletters, offers, etc.
• A form where the subscriber can change his preferences: message format (from text to HTML or vice versa), frequency or type of mailings.
• An address-update form (in case of the email address loss or change). Sometimes people unsubscribe because they don't know how to update their profile. With this option they won't have to unsubscribe and subscribe again with the new email address. Setup your opt-out form so that it loads with the current email address of the subscriber pre-populated.
• Links to other resources at your web site. Although people are leaving your mailing list, they may find that information interested.
• A link to customer support service of your company for subscribers who want to report a problem with viewing or receiving your emails.
• Instructions what to do if a subscriber clicked on the opt-out page in error.
By improving your unsubscribe process, you boost deliverability. Giving your subscribers the right way to unsubscribe instead of just clicking on the "Report Spam" button improves your reputation with ISPs making you less vulnerable to blocking and filtering.