I have unsubscribed myself from many mailers up till now. Most of the times I have opted out due to irrelevancy of the mails to me and I can surely say I had no reason to keep myself subscribed. However few mailers hit it so well that I prolonged my decision to leave despite its irrelevancy.

So what did sender X do to have me stayed and what are you doing wrong for your customers to leave? The answer for this can range from bad content to wrong targeting and anything in between. These are the few smarter ways adopted by many to reduce the opt-out rate in their email marketing campaigns.

Know Your Database

Who are you sending your mails to? Subscribers or to the rest of the world? If subscribers focus on keeping your customers updated with offers and new arrivals. Refrain from branding activities which you don’t need here either. For non-subscribers – from where your major unsubscribes arise – the only strategy to maintain is to keep cleaning the database and segregating it into various platters based on the campaign performance.

Insight: When you know your Database, you will know what to send them!!

Your Goal is Sales!

What purpose do you wish to achieve by your e-mailer? You might obviously say its SALES. No, even if the ultimate objective for any business is sales, the current objective of your mailer could be different for example- building brand awareness. So it is important that the CONTENT of your e-mailer always be aligned with the objective of your campaign, with a clear call to action even if it’s not specifically mentioned.

Insight: Content of the e-mailer should always be aligned with the objective of your campaign!!

Monitor & Monitor

Monitor your email frequency and campaign performance. Maintain an optimum frequency rate & a fixed time, ex: 10:00 AM every Thursday. This increases the chances of the user getting acquainted to your schedule. Take note of the mailers to which people unsubscribe. Are they blog mailers, offer mailers, product mailers or others? With this insight, you can proficiently map right content to the right audience.

Insight: Good monitoring leads to better analysis

Do Your Customers Have Alternative?

Many a time there are users who opt out due to reasons like inbox flooding or frequent mailers and so. In such a case provide them alternative exit options like,

• Option to choose the frequency of your mailer
• Option to take a sabbatical from your mailers for small period
• Option to subscribe for only offers e-mails etc

Insight: Alternative exit options increases the chances of the user to stay subscribed for a longer time!

Last Redemption: Take Feedback

After all your efforts, however, if the user still decides to leave then learn a lesson from it. Take feedback from the recipients who unsubscribe from your list. Provide a questionnaire that would help you improvise, for example, you can ask the user –

• Rate the email content
• Reason for your departure etc

Insight: Use un-subscribers to protect your subscribers!!

 

*Hope these practices help you in your campaign. Happy e-mailing.*

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