Too many potential customers unsubscribing marketing-emails can never be good for businesses. It can make a significant dent in the profits. And imagine putting more and more effort to drafting perfect emails, yet users keep unsubscribing. That can destroy one’s confidence.
Of course, you cannot expect a 100% success rate with a 0% unsubscription rate. But of course, you can always work for it not to fail either. While the average unsubscription rate for the general market is 0.5%, it might vary from market to market. A 2% might also mean you are doing just fine. But if you feel disappointed with the increasing unsubscription rates and want to do something about it. Here are a few tips to help you with that.
Communicate when they are expecting you to communicate
A business cannot flourish without the customer’s trust. And inconsistent emails will do nothing to help that cause. Remember, your customer is looking for integrity. If they cannot trust you to keep your word of sending the routine email, they might grow doubtful of your enterprise as well.
You’ll find all the successful bloggers out there have a fixed time of uploading their content. Maybe one or even 2-3 days a week.
Set your customer’s expectations and fulfill them. Let them know you value them and their trust. This way, you will not only have a reduced unsubscription rate; you can also keep your audience engaged.
Keep the unsubscribing option open.
A trapped customer is not a happy customer. Moreover, the law deems it necessary that your subscribers have the option to leave when they want to. You might think your unsubscription rate will reduce if you keep the option itself hidden. You will end up with a frustrated and disengaged subscribers list.
Remember to keep the “unsubscribe” option open and visible. Gmail itself provides the option for your header.
Customers will always go for a brand with a positive image. Moreover, they need to know you are authentic, and this is a great strategy for you to build that image.
Check Your User’s Time Requirements.
The basic idea behind email marketing is that you cannot overdo or underdo it. You cannot have your customers forget your or their reason for having subscribed, yet again no one enjoys a spammer. You have to find the perfect frequency your customers will be in tune with.
If you are worried, you will not be able to find the right balance. Ask your subscribers. They’ll tell you their favored frequency. Send them emails as per that. However, promise what you can provide. You cannot keep your content dull and irrelevant to fill the quota.
You can also use A/B testing to check at what frequency and time do your emails have a better response rate and a lesser unsubscription rate. It can help you altogether enhance the quality of your emails.
Personalize Your Emails.
Commonly, we all are more attracted to emails that are speaking directly to us. We feel valued and engage more in their content.
Instead of speaking to a general customer base, you can frame your emails in the second person, making your customers feel you’re speaking directly to them. It has been studied and seen that personalized emails bring in six times the transaction rates than plain emails do.
Personalize your emails every way you can. Ask relevant questions that your user can relate to. Send them emails at their preferred time. Use their names to refer to them and so on. Personalization is critical to businesses and equally critical to email marketing.
Use Both Single And Double Opt-Ins.
Both single and double opt-ins have their pros and cons. Yes, the single opt-in makes the subscribing process easier. However, your user’s sense of privacy might be breached, and you might end up with a negative reputation and plenty of unsubscribes.
The double opt-in gives you a smaller list of customers who are certain and interested in your content. Because if they are not, they will avoid the confirmation email. However, some customers find double opt-ins discouraging, and subscription rates might be lower.
So, the best way to go would be to use both. Relevant to where you are gathering the list of subscribers, for example, your website’s homepage, use double opt-ins and single opt-ins, respectively.
Segmenting Lists.
Irrelevant content. This is one of the most basic reasons why users unsubscribe. For example, if a customer wishes to receive content about writing tips, they will not expect content on maybe publishing. To keep your audience satisfied, offer them what they came for.
The best way to achieve that is to segment your lists. For example, at the very initial stage, you can ask your subscriber to select the type of content they want to be receiving. Modify your system so that it sends specific categories of emails to your respective users. And, this way you gain a more engaged list and lesser unsubscriptions.
Taking Feedback.
If you are bothered with increasing unsubscription rates and don’t know why that is happening. Ask. Frame a short and warm questionnaire and ask your audience their reason for leaving. This is the perfect way to rectify your email behavior. While some users might want a temporary break for whom you can send a resume-invite after a certain period. Again some users might provide some useful insight for you to work with.
Apart from this, you can use this pop-up to gain feedback and tug at the important strings. Your customer might have forgotten the initial reason they had subscribed to your content. Maybe the promise of an exciting reward or offer. Don’t seem too eager. They might, after all, choose not to unsubscribe.
However, this survey process might be more frustrating to many users. It is best to keep the necessary process short, crisp, and friendly. You could also make the feedback process optional.
Here are seven tips to help you with your unsubscription rate. Remember, a little bit of cleansing never hurt anybody.