Growing your email marketing database is one thing. Maintaining it for the long term is another. How can you stop people from unsubscribing to maintain a healthy customer database for years to come?
We’ve broken down some of the most effective tips below:
Share a personal message.
You have the power to customise your unsubscribe page. We recommend adding a small note about your business and why your customer’s subscription matters to you. Something like, ‘We’re a small business and email is the best way for us to reach you to let you know about new arrivals and specials.” It may only be a short note, but it’s enough to help your subscribers second-guess their decision.
If you want to make it even more personal, add an anecdote to the unsubscribe page. Something along the lines of “You have helped our brand grow” with an anecdote following how the brand has evolved over the years with the help of its customers. This can add a sense of missing out or even guilt that reminds customers why they chose to sign up in the first place.
Tighten your targeting.
Many customers unsubscribe because they are no longer interested in your emails. Ensuring that you’re only sending to your most engaged customers in your database can drive your unsubscribes down significantly as it ensures that people are not growing tired, bored or overwhelmed by your messaging.
You can then open up more relevant campaigns, such as storewide sales, to a larger portion of your database to confirm most subscribers are still emailed, just at a frequency that better suits them.
Keep your content relevant.
Customers may unsubscribe when they feel your content is not answering their needs as much as it once did. For example, they may find your educational emails are straying too far from your product or service. Alternatively, perhaps your emails have become too product-heavy and your customers are not finding value in them any more.
Take the time to revisit past campaigns and note if there are any trends in your unsubscribes. Are they statistically higher when you speak about a certain theme? Are they lower when you’re having a sale?
Using this data to your advantage allows you to better maintain customer engagement and retention.
Consider your sending frequency.
Sending emails too often or not often enough can cause customers to unsubscribe for a few reasons.
Emails sent too frequently can feel spammy and cause negative opinions of your brand. It can come across as overly eager or salesy. While intended to be friendly, they can impact a customer’s attitude towards your brand.
Emails sent infrequently can create a rift between you and your customers. They may begin to forget who your brand is and what it stands for. When they see your email, for this reason, they may unsubscribe purely from a lack of interest, even if they were once an eager shopper.
Find a cadence of one to two sends a week that works for your database, and be mindful to commit to a regular sending schedule.
Set up a sunset flow.
For customers who haven’t engaged in a long time, a sunset flow is ideal. It essentially allows customers to unsubscribe by acknowledging that the relationship has changed. Those customers who open and click (but not the unsubscribe button) are moved back into your engaged list. Those who take no action can be moved to a suppression list. As manually suppressing does not harm your deliverability in the same way as an unsubscribe, this maintains healthy sending and an engaged database with lower billing costs.
The Email By Design Team can assist.
Managing unsubscribes, bounces, and spam rates can be a challenge for brands. With our expertise in email marketing, however, our team is here to assist. Reach out to us today to book a free 15-minute consultation.
