What Unsubscribes Can Tell You About Email Marketing

June 20, 2016

The reasons why people unsubscribe often have nothing to do with your business.

By Dave Charest

No company likes to see people unsubscribe from its email list. You work hard to provide a great experience for your email readers and the last thing you want to see is them leave. But do you really know why they are unsubscribing?

Whether you’re a franchisor or franchisee, take a closer look at what “unsubscribes” can mean for your email marketing, and what you can learn from those who choose to opt-out. Here are some key things to consider:

Why unsubscribes aren’t always a bad thing.
The common reasons people unsubscribe.
How to figure out why people unsubscribe from your email list.
How to provide a great experience for new email subscribers.
“How can I get people to stop unsubscribing from my emails?”

It’s important to rethink the conversation around unsubscribes. While no one enjoys seeing someone opt-out, unsubscribes aren’t always a bad thing.

It really comes back to the idea of quality vs. quantity. While you want to grow your email list, you also want to be focused on making sure you’re reaching the right people.

If someone unsubscribes from your list, it doesn’t mean they are done having a relationship with your business. That relationship doesn’t begin and end when they join or leave your email list.

What you want to avoid however, is having those people who are interested in receiving your emails, and do want to learn more about what you have to offer, unsubscribing from your list — especially if the reason they unsubscribe is something within your control.

Also, keep in mind that there are laws such as the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation and the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act that require you to provide a way for people to unsubscribe in the messages you send.

Why do people unsubscribe?

A few years back, Constant Contact reached out to consumers to find out why they choose to unsubscribe from marketing emails. We found that:

69 percent said it’s because of too many emails from the business/organization,
56 percent said the content is no longer relevant, and
51 percent said the content wasn’t what they expected.

These statistics really boil down to three important reasons why people unsubscribe:

Frequency of your emails.
You need to think carefully about the amount of email you are sending to your list. Start by looking at what you’re doing today. Are you sending bi-weekly? Are you sending once a week? Or once a month?
Have you changed your sending frequency since you got started? If so, you can look to see how that change impacted the number of people opting-out from receiving your emails. And if you haven’t, but are interested in testing different frequencies, make sure you’re looking at your email reports to see if that results in more unsubscribes.

Relevancy of content

People subscribe to emails because they’re interested in receiving content that’s relevant and interesting to them. Pay attention to what your audience is interested in. One of the best ways you can do that is by looking at your click-through reports, which offer a breakdown of which links are getting the most attention from readers.

If you attended our Periscope training session where we talked about content a few weeks back, you’ll remember we discussed the benefits of surveying your email audience to learn more about the topics they’re interested in and the questions they’re asking. An online survey is an easy way to collect content ideas right from your email readers. The best content ideas will always start with your audience.

It’s your responsibility to set expectations right from the moment someone is signing up. If people are unsubscribing because the emails they’ve received aren’t what they expected, then it’s within your control to fix that and make sure people do know what to expect.

What type of content will be in your emails? How often will they hear from you? What is the value of signing up?

Once you’ve set those expectations, the next step will be to follow through and fulfill on the promise you’ve made to new subscribers.

How to see why people unsubscribe

If you’re using an email marketing service such as Constant Contact, you can give people the option to provide a reason when they unsubscribe. This can be a sensitive topic because it’s never fun to hear that people aren’t interested in your emails, but if you use this information the right way, it can be incredibly useful for limiting your unsubscribes.

Look in your email reports. If you noticed that you’ve received a few unsubscribes, you’ll be able to click on the number of opt-outs and, if someone left a comment when unsubscribing, you will see it.

This will help you better understand why people are leaving. As you’ll probably notice, the reasons why people unsubscribe often have nothing to do with your business. You may see that they have moved or may no longer have a need for your service.

But if you do see comments specific to your emails, it’s important to pay attention to any reoccurring feedback you receive. If you notice any trends in why people unsubscribe, it could be time to make a change.

One place where people see lots of unsubscribes is from new subscribers. This can be frustrating because they opted-in and haven’t stayed on your list.

Often, it has to do with how you’re getting people onto your email list. If you’re using an “old school” method of collecting email addresses, like a paper sign-up form, it’s important to get those contacts into your account right away. If you’re waiting days, weeks or longer to add someone to your list, then they may not recognize your email or remember signing up when they receive your message.

This is where sign-up methods, like a web sign-up form or a mobile app, can benefit your business. With these tools, your contacts are added to your account automatically.

Then, you want to think about the experience you’re giving those new people when they’re added to your list. Your welcome email is a great way to communicate with new subscribers and remind them why they signed up.

You also have the option to add a permission reminder to the emails you send new subscribers. You won’t need to include this in every email you send, but this is an easy way to remind people why they are receiving your email and can help limit unsubscribes.

Next steps

Keep an eye on unsubscribes. No need monitor them every day, but be aware that there are different reasons why people unsubscribe and take steps to limit the factors that you can control.

Remember that when someone unsubscribes, it doesn’t always mean that they are ending their relationship with your business. You will likely still see many of these people in your store or at your office. And a lot of them will choose to connect with you in other places, like on social media.

Dave Charest is senior manager of Content and Social Media Marketing for Constant Contact.