Everybody wants to reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates. It’s cheaper and more efficient to keep your existing customers or leads than to win new ones. That’s just common sense.
One classic study found that improving customer retention by 5% over a period of years increased profits by somewhere between 25% and 95%!
But what is a “good” unsubscribe rate?
Well, multiple studies put the all-sector average at around 0.52% per email campaign, although that varies by sector.
If you’re a long way from that 0.52% figure or your sector average then you are throwing leads – and money – away.
The good news, a poor unsubscribe rate is easy to fix because the reasons why people unsubscribe are pretty simple:
- You’re boring them
- You’re annoying them
- They don’t trust you
- They don’t see value in what you’re providing
In this blog, we’ll talk you through 15 simple, proven tactics to reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates.
Table of Contents
- Set subscribers’ expectations and stick to them
- Keep the frequency of messages under control
- Write compelling content for the right audiences
- Avoid spammy headlines
- Personalize your content
- Vary the types of material you send out
- Use both single- and double-opt-in methods
- Send exclusive special offers to subscribers
- Avoid highlighting the word “unsubscribe”
- Provide a prominent change of address link
- Follow-up requests to unsubscribe
- Offer alternatives to email communication
- Make sure emails load quickly and render properly
- Optimize for different devices
- Weed out disengaged lurkers
1. Set subscribers’ expectations and stick to them
When you sign up as a new subscriber, make sure you set clear expectations about what you’re going to email them and when.
Every email you send runs the risk of catching a subscriber when they are in a bad mood or busy or otherwise unreceptive. This causes a lot of “irritated” unsubscribes.
If you set clear expectations about your email schedule and then stick to it, subscribers will be less likely to react badly to unwanted content.
2. Keep the frequency of messages under control
The biggest reason for unsubscribes that people cite is getting TOO MANY emails.
- One survey of retailers’ subscribers found that 53% believe they receive too many messages
- Another found that 47.1% of millennials unsubscribe from any list that sends too many messages
When somebody initially signs up, it’s ok to send them frequent emails to cement recognition by exposure.
But unless you have time-limited offers or breaking news to share, it’s best to stick to emailing no more than once or twice a week.
More than that and the annoying unsubscribes you will get will probably outweigh the value of extra engagement.
3. Write compelling content for the right audiences
The best way to reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates is to provide interesting and well-written.
It’s easier to be interesting and relevant the more narrow and closely-targeted your subscriber base is.
So always try to SEGMENT your audience by interests and provide a range of tailored newsletters rather than just one. You can do this by:
- Using a signup form that asks people what they want to receive content about
- Segment your audience by geographical location via their IP addresses
- Tracking logged-in users’ on-site and off-site behavior to build up a more detailed profile of what will engage them
The smaller and more focused your audience, the more accurately your content can service their needs.
4. Avoid spammy headlines
Most email systems filter out emails from sender IPs and domains with bad reputations that include “spam words” in the subject line or body text.
If you get through to the inbox, there are still hurdles to overcome.
Write a dull subject line and no one will open your messages.
But write an overly-dramatic subject line that tricks people into opening an email that doesn’t live up to its billing and you can expect a high unsubscribe rate.
So avoid the temptation to do any of the following:
- Write subject lines in all capital letters
- Try to fool readers by starting with “Re.” or “Following up on our call”
- Use spam trigger words like “free”, “now”, “Viagra” etc
Your subject line should be clear and honest as well as engaging.
5. Personalize your content
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than those without.
Unsubscribe rates are correspondingly lower for personalized email campaigns.
- Use the subscriber’s name in the subject line and the opening of the email.
- Personalize content to their interests (such as recent purchases or browsing history) wherever you can.
6. Vary the types of material you send out
Don’t get stuck in a rut. Vary the type of content you send out to keep readers interested.
- Don’t send the same special offer out again and again. It’s ok to repeat yourself every so often, but if you’re not getting a response it’s usually safer to assume your subscribers are not interested.
- Mix things up with the occasional video, text-only email, quiz, survey, etc.
Keep reading for more tips on how to reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates!
7. Use both single- and double-opt-in methods
Alongside “too many emails” the other big reason why people unsubscribe is that they didn’t realize they were signing up to receive emails.
You can avoid getting these “false sign-ups” on your list by using a DOUBLE-OPT-IN system. That is:
- A new subscriber completes a web form and submits their email address.
- They immediately receive a message asking them to confirm their address, their preferences, etc.
- Only if they respond to this are they added to the list.
Double opt-in gives you a more engaged audience who are less likely to unsubscribe BUT you’ll get fewer subscribers overall than if you use a one-step Single-Opt-In form. With Double-Opt-In, around 20% of people who fill in the first form never complete the process.
So in choosing a sign-up method, you need to decide between a larger, less engaged audience and a smaller, more engaged one.
8. Send exclusive special offers to subscribers
Give your subscribers a reason to stay on your list by providing valuable offers and exclusive benefits.
Reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates by making it clear you lose these benefits when you leave!
9. Avoid highlighting the word “unsubscribe”
In most jurisdictions, it is a legal requirement to include an unsubscribe link in your emails.
And while it’s not advisable to make it difficult to unsubscribe, you can be creative…
People are primed to look for the word “unsubscribe” in emails. So give them that option, but using different words – like this:
Also, many newsletters present the unsubscribe link in a less prominent color than the rest of the copy.
10. Provide a prominent change of address link
People change their email addresses from time to time, for example when they change jobs.
Give your subscribers the option to change their details to avoid losing them when this happens!
11. Follow-up requests to unsubscribe
When somebody does unsubscribe, it’s permissible to send a confirmation email.
And you should use that email to try and win them back!
- Salesforce found that 63% of marketers find the return on re-engagement emails to be “very effective”.
- Studies have found that it is five times cheaper to win back an old subscriber than to win a new one.
12. Offer alternatives to email communication
Some people may unsubscribe because they don’t want to get emails from you – not because they don’t want to hear from you.
So, make sure your emails include the option to be contacted via social media or SMS instead.
You may lose email subscribers, but you needn’t lose those leads entirely!
Final tips on how to reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates coming up…
13. Make sure emails load quickly and render properly
Load speed is a key factor in SEO and User Experience.
- For web pages, Google says that an extra one second added to load time cuts conversion by 12%. Research by Akamai put this at closer to 70%!
- In 2018, Google found that 53% of people immediately bounce away from pages that take more than 3 seconds to load.
The same goes for emails. People will unsubscribe from emails that make them wait.
Compress or simply leave out large images and multimedia files that will slow load times.
And check the rendering! Your messages will look completely different in different email clients and badly rendered emails also drive unsubscribes.
For example, Microsoft Outlook doesn’t preload graphics in emails at all and it accounts for around 8% of all email users worldwide. Provide a text-only alternative or use clear Alt Tags to describe your images for users who won’t see them.
14. Optimize for different devices
47% of emails are read on mobile devices. 26.9% use desktop clients, while 26.1% use webmail.
You need to cater to all of them and make your emails responsive to the device type. There is nothing worse than trying to read a horizontally-aligned desktop message on a tiny, vertical mobile screen.
With mobile being so important, you must pay particular attention to the CHARACTER LIMIT for email subject lines.
Most mobile email apps will cut off a subject line after between 40 and 50 characters.
15. Weed out disengaged lurkers
Our final tip is to think differently about your unsubscribe rate.
How valuable are “subscribers” who never engage with your messages?
Let them go. Unsubscribe from them yourself or message them asking if they want to keep hearing from you.
Your KPIs will give you much more valuable information about performance if your list is kept clean.
Follow this exclusive Get a Newsletter guide and you’ll reduce newsletter unsubscribe rates dramatically!
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