No email marketing sender likes to loose recipients. For this reason, newsletter unsubscriptions are often paid little attention to or even made difficult for the recipient. This is a mistake, as the correct design of the unsubscription process prevents problems and even results in increased efficiency.
Generating new newsletter subscriptions is one of the essential tasks in email marketing. The best scenario is once subscribed, a recipient stays subscribed. Unsubscription is not in the interest of the sender, therefore, he often pays little attention to the design of the unsubscription process. Some senders even try to deliberately hinder the unsubscription of recipients. This may keep the mailing list volume, but quantity does not equal quality.
Inactive Users Affect Efficiency
Users, who have been prevented from unsubscribing, whether deliberately or not, will continue to receive the newsletter, but most likely, they will not open it anymore. The newsletter may even be directed immediately into the junk folder. Open rates therefore decrease and we don’t even need to talk about click rates or conversions. The newsletter looses its efficiency. An annoying result, especially for email marketing providers, who need to justify themselves towards their clients by means of performance figures. Generally, it is not in the interest of a sender to target recipients who do not wish to be targeted. A recipient, who ignores a newsletter has no value in email marketing.
Worse than a recipient who ignores the newsletter, is a recipient who is annoyed by the newsletter and spreads his resentment. Especially, in times of social media, negative propaganda can quickly tarnish a company’s image. It is also possible that an annoyed recipient reports a newsletter as spam to his provider. This can have a negative effect on the sender’s reputation and in the worst case, an entry in a blacklist.
6 Tips to Optimise the Unsubscribe Process
In order to prevent negative effects, it is recommended to make the unsubscription process as easy and smooth as possible. We have compiled 6 tips for you to optimise the unsubscription process.
1. Visible Positioning of the Unsubscription Link
The unsubscription link should be clearly visible in the newsletter and not hidden. It does not necessarily need to be in the footer as in most newletters. The unsubscription link can also be placed in the header. In order to make it easy to locate the link, it should have enough clear space around that is not enveloped by the rest of the text. We also recommend colour highlighting.
2. Enable Opt-out With a Few clicks
A person, who wishes to unsubscribe from a newsletter, would like to do this in a quick and uncomplicated manner. Some senders however, require the entry of a code or even password to unsubscribe, e.g. from an online shop where the recipient has an account. This is annoying for users, who do not know their password by heart and need to find it in order to unsubscribe from the newsletter. The unsubscription should therefore never require more than two clicks – and this is also the guideline of the DDV email marketing code of practice. Even a single click on the integrated unsubscription link is sufficient.
3. Offer Alternatives to the Current Newsletter
Maybe the unsubscriber is not unhappy with the newsletter itself, but only with other factors, such as the send frequency or certain topics. You should therefore offer alternatives on the unsubscription page before the recipient permanently unsubscribes. You could, for example, offer the option to change the send frequency, choose specific send days or exclude undesired newsletter content. However, you should limit the options to only a few alternatives. Otherwise, the unsubscriber might get the impression that you wish to deliberately hinder his unsubscription.
4. Reasons for Requesting Unsubscription
It is of interest to the sender why a recipient has unsubscribed from a newsletter. It is therefore recommended to ask for the reason for the unsubscription. This can be done by means of a field for free input, but should also take place via multiple choice replies, in order to keep the reply effort to a minimum.
5. Confirming Unsubscription
When a recipient unsubscribes from a newsletter, this unsubscription should be confirmed. This can be done via email or a short text on the unsubscription page. In the context of this confirmation, you should show again, which email address the recipient has used to unsubscribe.
6. Unsubscriptions via Email
Not all unsubscriptions take place via the unsubscribe link. Some users send an email with the request for unsubscription, either as a reply to the newsletter or to a given contact address. These unsubscriptions must also be taken into account. You should therefore regularly check emails the corresponding addresses.No email marketing sender likes to loose recipients. For this reason, newsletter unsubscriptions are often paid little attention to or even made difficult for the recipient. This is a mistake, as the correct design of the unsubscription process prevents problems and even results in increased efficiency.
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