Why email unsubscribes aren’t always a bad thing
Contents
Why are people unsubscribing from my list?
When are unsubscribes a good thing?
How can I reduce unsubscribes?
It’s not easy to develop an email marketing strategy that works. There’s a lot that goes into planning and writing your newsletters. Not to mention crafting automated sequences that connect with your readers and make sales.
Unsubscribes can, therefore, feel like a personal attack. Especially if you’ve spent time and energy carefully designing and crafting emails to deliver valuable content to your subscribers.
So how do you handle them? And how do you stop yourself obsessing every time someone leaves your email list?
First off, you need to understand that unsubscribes aren’t always a bad thing. In fact, they can be a very good thing for your email marketing. Let’s get into it...
What are unsubscribes?
Under GDPR laws, there must be a way of easily subscribing from marketing emails. And you must not send further marketing emails to those who have chosen to unsubscribe.
An unsubscribe is when one of your email subscribers decides to leave your list. For whatever reason, they scroll to the bottom of your email and click on the unsubscribe link.
When people click that link, your email service provider (ESP) will automatically change their status on your list. Now they’re opted out of any further marketing emails.
Most ESPs do this automatically, so you don’t have to manually go through your list and unsubscribe those opt outs.
Why are people unsubscribing from my list?
When people choose to unsubscribe from your emails, it can feel personal. But there are all sorts of reasons why people choose to leave your list. Here are a few:
Email frequency
This is a tricky one to get right. People might unsubscribe because you’re sending emails too often. If you send out daily emails, for example, they might feel bombarded, and unsubscribe.
Equally, if you don’t send emails often enough, they might forget who you are altogether and why they signed up for your email list in the first place. So when you decide to stop ghosting your list, you’ll have dropped off their radar altogether. And they’ll unsubscribe.
How often you choose to send emails really depends on your audience and what their needs are. But when you’re starting out, anything between once a week and once a month should work. Less often than once a month runs the risk of them forgetting who you are. And more often than once a week results in email overload.
Of course, there are times when you can change the frequency of your emails. For example, during sequences like launching of new courses, products and services you’ll be sending a lot of emails out over a short space of time. But for the most part, you’ll want to stick to a regular schedule with your newsletter.
Consistency is more important than anything else. Just make sure you set their expectations about when they might hear from you. And stick to it.
Irrelevant content
People might choose to unsubscribe because you’re emailing content that’s totally irrelevant to them. This is where you’ll want to look at how they joined your list in the first place.
If they joined via a free checklist to help them broaden their fussy toddler’s diet, then they aren’t going to be interested in emails about hypnobirthing.
This is where properly tagging and segmenting your audience comes into play.
Then you’re only sending out the right content to the right people.
Change in interests
People's lives and businesses are constantly evolving. Over time, what they’re interested in hearing about will change too.
Around about 8 and a half years ago, I was interested in reading about teething and weaning recipes for babies. Now I’m more interested in hearing about how I explain to my 9 year old why she definitely doesn’t need a smartphone yet.
Things change. Priorities and interests move on. It isn’t personal. It’s just life.
When are unsubscribes a good thing?
The last thing you want is unengaged subscribers. Engagement is classed as opens, clicks and replies.
If you’ve got low engagement then it’s likely your list is full of the wrong kinds of people. It can actually ruin your sender reputation and deliverability to hang on to subscribers who aren’t a good fit.
So you should set them free.
Keeping a smaller list that is full of right-fit subscribers means you have:
A healthier list full of your target audience and not tyre kickers
Lower costs - most ESP charges go up as your list grows
Better deliverability with fewer spam complaints
Insights into what’s working and what isn’t, so you can refine your strategy as you go
Make sure you have a regular list cleaning strategy. For this you’ll want a re-engagement sequence for those who have gone cold. And once you’ve given them a chance to engage, simply remove the ones who don’t respond.
How can I reduce unsubscribes?
So what do you do if you’re still troubled by unsubscribes, even now you know the main reasons for them aren’t personal?
And there is a definitely a time when you should worry about unsubscribes. That’s why you need to keep a close eye on your metrics. A certain number of unsubscribes is totally normal.
What constitutes a high unsubscribe rate depends on your industry and the size of your list. But generally speaking, if unsubscribe rate is over 2%, you’ll need to pay more attention.
If you know your unsubscribe rate is high, you might want to try these tips to reduce it:
Look at how they join your list
People get annoyed when they feel like they’ve not consented to getting marketing emails. Make sure that your sign up process is fully transparent and GDPR compliant.
Never buy lists or hoodwink people into being added to your list. Also, remember that consent has to be freely given. Don’t dangle a freebie like a carrot and tell them they can only get it if they sign up for marketing emails.
If you’re offering a free guide, checklist or webinar, make sure it really is free. Don’t make access to it conditional. Let them sign up to receive the freebie and the welcome emails for that freebie. But have opting into ongoing marketing emails as a separate check box.
Yes, you might get fewer people on your list this way, but they’ll be more loyal and have more trust in you.
2. Set expectations
When people join your list it’s good practice to welcome them. A sequence of welcome emails is ideal, but if time is short, one welcome email is better than none.
Your subscriber’s interest in your brand is never as high as it is during a welcome sequence. They’ve actively opted in and said they want something from you. They’re interested in what you do. They’ve found value in your instagram posts, resonated with your witty remarks on LinkedIn or devoured your podcast series.
A welcome sequence is your opportunity to let them get to know you a little better and share extra value.
It’s also where you set expectations for how often you’re going to email them.
If you’re emailing once a week, let them know. If you only send out monthly round-up newsletters, tell them that.
If you offer different frequencies, spell that out. Some people want everything you send them. Others will be more interested in a monthly highlights email.
When you set expectations and stick to what you promise, your unsubscribes are likely to be lower.
3. Tag and segment your list
Along with welcome emails, this is arguably the most important aspect of email marketing. ESPs make it easy to tag and segment your list. So you can send them only the stuff they’re interested in.
Launching a new course? Make sure you tag those that purchase so you don’t continue to send them promotional emails after they’ve bought.
Promoting an in-person networking event for Bristol-based businesses? Don’t send it to your subscribers in Sydney.
Filling up people’s inboxes with irrelevant content is a fast track to them hitting that unsubscribe button.
4. Be consistent
You’ve set expectations in your welcome sequence. You’ve said you’ll be emailing once a week. So stick to it.
People don’t like it when you don’t do what you say. They’ll subconsciously mark your card as ‘unreliable’.
Of course, life happens. Even with the best intentions, sometimes you might miss a week. Just make sure you point it out. Tell them why you’ve not been in touch. If you’re comfortable, share your personal stories about where you’ve been.
Holding your hands up helps make a connection and builds trust. You’re a human. You’re not a robot. Life happens. Reassure them that it happens to you too.
5. Offer ways to opt out of promotions
In addition to your regular newsletters, you’ll be sending out automated sales sequences from time to time.
Perhaps you’ve got a new product launch coming up. Or you’ve developed a signature course you want to share with your subscribers.
Obviously it’s only fair that you get to promote your products and services sometimes. After all, you’ve given them a ton of free, valuable content in your newsletters.
But sales sequences can be a bit much sometimes. You could be sending tens of emails out over your pre-launch and launch periods. These email sequences are carefully crafted to get sales. And there needs to be a lot of them, depending on your product or service.
Some of your subscribers might not be in the right place to be buying right now, though. To those people, sales emails can be annoying. It might just take a few sales emails to have them looking for the unsubscribe link.
And understandably so. But here’s the thing. They might not really want to unsubscribe. They might still be getting incredible value from your newsletters. They just might not be quite ready to buy from you yet.
It’s a shame to lose those people from your list because they’re not ready for your current launch.
So what you need to do is offer them a way to opt out of the sales sequence. There should be a link they can click in your sales emails to turn off that promotion.
That way, they can stop sales emails, but stay on your list for your newsletters where they get great free, valuable content.
Just because they’re not ready to buy yet doesn’t mean they’ll never be ready to buy. They might need a bit more time to get to know you before they take the leap. Give them that space.
6. Vary your subject lines
People can get very tired, very quickly of your subject lines. So make sure you mix it up. Generally speaking, there are three main types of subject line:
Urgency
Curiosity
Clarity
Urgency signals limited time, or availability. Curiosity piques their interest with a question or an open loop that makes them want to find out more. Clarity gives them important information like order confirmations or logins for a course.
Make sure you have a reasonable balance between the different types of subject lines. Curiosity subject lines always work well. But don’t confuse them with clickbait subject lines.
Always make sure the content of the email answers the question and closes that loop. Otherwise people get annoyed and unsubscribe.
Also - be honest. Subject lines that really boil my piss are the ones that put something like [Urgent] or [Action required] in the subject line to get me to open it only to find that the content isn’t urgent and I don’t need to take any action. Shitty marketers do this to increase their open rates.
But what’s the point of a good open rate if your subscribers completely lose trust in you? Using the [Re:] at the start of a subject line is sneaky too. That’s a sure fire way to get me to unsubscribe.
The way to do well at email marketing is to be trustworthy, reliable and consistent. It’s like anything else in life: don’t be a dick.
To get help forming a consent-based, respectful email marketing strategy, drop me an email at natalie@elvinwrites.com
