Make It Easy To Unsubscribe From Your Emails

Email marketing campaigns generally start out with an idea like this:

But, if you’re not careful, they can end up looking like this:

This can result in making silly decisions like trying to make it difficult for people to unsubscribe. A few common tactics for this are:

• Making customers log in to the site before you can unsubscribe
• Not providing a direct link from the email to an unsubscribe mechanism
• Requiring customers to send an ‘unsubscribe’ email from the exact email address they subscribed with (which doesn’t work if you use email forwarding or mail aliases)
• Requiring customers to double-opt-out even though they’re unsubscribing directly from an email you just sent to them

What’s the problem if I make it difficult for readers to unsubscribe?

There’s nothing wrong with keeping track of email subscriber numbers but, it’s worth remembering that those numbers are actually people. By frustrating them you’re damaging your brand and risking your profits:

1. A difficult unsubscribe process is a frustrating experience. An unsubscriber is already unsatisfied by your emails, why infuriate them further & risk losing them as a customer & losing any chance that they’d recommend you elsewhere?
2. The more difficulty someone has unsubscribing, the more likely they are to just give up & start hitting the “report this email as spam” button in their mail client instead. The more people hit those buttons, the greater the chance you’ll be blocked (or marked as untrustworthy) by mail providers.
3. If someone doesn’t find your content valuable, how could you benefit from sending them even more of that content? Every email they receive reinforces their perception of you as unvaluable.

How Should My Unsubscribe Mechanism Work?

1. Make it easy - A simple click on a link in your email
2. Make it a positive experience - “We’re sorry to see you go - if there’s anything we can do, let us know” is far better than “Your email address has been unsubscribed [close x]”
3. Gather feedback - Don’t force this option on your recipients, but, if you can find out why they unsubscribed & what they thought of your emails, you can hopefully fix a few problems.
4. Follow up the feedback - If you get useful feedback, make sure to follow it up. If an ex-customer tells you what you did wrong, that’s a chance for you to apologise & turn their negative perception into a positive one