Nobody wants the people on their email list to unsubscribe. Some even take it personally. Of course, we all want our subscribers to be completely fulfilled and eager to receive our emails week after week, month after month. The reality though, is that there will always be some people on your list who want to unsubscribe, for whatever reason. Making it difficult for them to do doesn’t help. In fact, it can turn a passive unsubscriber into an active spam reporter.
Previously, I wrote about making opt-out links easy to find and even easier to process.
Earlier this year, Mark Brownlow shared some valuable insights about how to make your unsubscribe process painless for your recipients.
“…Unfortunately, some marketers take the Ikea approach to subscriber management. Once you’re in Ikea, it’s hard to get out again. Not without following the long route that takes you through almost the entire store.
Ikea can “trap” me because I have no viable alternative once I’m in. Plus there’s a restaurant at the end selling cheap meatballs and cake, which makes up for the long walk.
Subscribers, however, do have alternatives if they feel trapped by your inadequate unsubscribe process. They can hit the “report spam” button instead. (And you don’t give them cake for not doing so.)…”
The same is true for the opt-in or subscription process. If you make make your subscribers jump through hoops to sign up for your newsletter, they might stop jumping before they get to the end. Complicated unsubscribe processes pose an even greater risk as your sender reputation is on the line.
Make subscribing and unsubscribing easy.
