3 Ways to Lower Email Unsubscribe Rates

Over time an email marketing list may erode as people lose interest in your offerings, or worse yet, become annoyed by your newsletter sends. Regardless of the reason, emailers have to accept a certain amount of list depreciation as things go on, but when that list begins to lose too much mass too quickly, it might be time to consider a few ways to stem your unsubscribe rate.

There’s always something you can do to save some of your subscribers. Following are 3 day-to-day campaign tips that are sure to minimise your opt-outs:

1) Listen to your readers

First of all, in opt-in email marketing, a subscriber ignored is a subscriber lost; which is why you need to take whatever campaign feedback you get seriously while they still have that person’s attention. A little remedial communication is always a lot easier than getting someone back onto your list after they’ve left.

Most of the time though, people will unsubscribe quietly and without logging any complaints, despite all of your hard work to keep them satisfied. When this happens you need to take the opportunity to solicit feedback from them and act on it.

Chatting to a disgruntled reader who has opted out probably won't help you save that email recipient, but it may help you prevent future subscribers from leaving your list.

2) Customise email frequency

Are you bombarding your subscribers’ inbox or leaving it too scarce for their tastes?

Just as you could let them choose the types of emails that they receive, you should also let subscribers adjust the frequency at which you send to them. A major step in preventing unsubscribes is in letting your email newsletter recipients tell you what frequency is right for them; which can vary from daily, to monthly, or anything in between.

Everyone on your list will have a different frequency that's the best fit for them. So offer customised email frequency options at the bottom of every email and also on the page to which your unsubscribe link navigates, as a final effort to retain your subscriber.

You can send these emails to your inactive subscribers too, asking them to select their ideal sending frequency to re-engage and prevent an impending unsubscribe.

3) Improve you segmentation

The more specific your email subscriber segments are, the better able you are to deliver content that speaks directly to their interests, making you a welcome fixture in their inbox.

Not everyone signs up to your newsletter for the same reasons; they live in different places, have different behavioral patterns and they like different products. This being the reality, marketers need to split up their lists and craft messages accordingly. Email segmentation is important because it allows you to deliver only the most relevant, customised content to your subscribers.

Suppose that you could create two or three different offers that would appeal to different groups of your subscribers, depending on their needs, wants, interests and objections. The more relevant an offer is, the more likely someone is to take you up on that offer, and less likely they are to unsubscribe.

GraphicMail has made segmentation easy. If you’ve never divided up your subscribers before, read our beginners’ guide to email list segmentation for practical steps on how to get started.