Why people unsubscribe from your email marketing list

You can read all the how-to guides you like. You can speak to all the “experts” that you can find. Nothing will beat a common-sense approach to your email marketing if you want it to make a difference. That’s why we retain a determinedly human touch to our email marketing services.

Email marketing to people

The recipients of emails are, after all, people. They are generally busy people; just like you and me. They will decide in a split second if they are going to find the time to read your email and you need to consider how they might make this decision. It’s the same as if you approach someone for a conversation in any other way – in person, by phone or via the post – a series of questions will subconsciously be answered in that split second when your email pops into their inbox; two of which will include:

“Do I know or recognise this company?”

“Have they got something interesting and of relevance to tell me?”

If a company that you had never heard of sent you a letter about mobility aids for pensioners and yet you’re a rather fit 21-year-old, it’s going to go straight in the bin! Email marketing is no different and the bin is easier to reach with a computer mouse.

So let’s take a swift look at the main reasons why people choose to unsubscribe from your email marketing and consider how to do things better.

I don’t know the company

The greater the connection that you have with the recipient, the greater the likelihood of them continuing to receive emails from you. So customers are top of the list, followed by prospective customers that might have met you at a show or made contact via your website for example.

I’ve said it before, but less really can be more and our email marketing services will always ask this question at the outset: Where has your data come from and are you confident about its quality? Are these people that have at least crossed paths with your company before? (Ok, that’s two questions).

Coupled with ensuring quality data, a visual “house” style to emails is important to retain. Professionally compiled emails will make use of a bespoke designed template that reflects the branding of the company. That might be your corporate colours, your logo, strapline or other aspects of your business. But each time an email lands in their inbox, you want them to easily recognise it. This is key!

Help! I’m being bombarded

We can all offer examples of businesses that send us way too many emails – some achieve daily frequency and even if you like the company, it can prove to be very off-putting. Imagine if someone was phoning you daily, knocking on your door daily – you’d soon get to the point of telling them to go away. And this is just the same principle with email marketing.

Only email when you have a clear reason to – don’t email for the sake of it. For B2B, that might even be a monthly frequency. And B2C might be fortnightly unless you wish to regularly furnish them with special offers (which can also become annoying if it’s too frequent). Recipients can actually become more positive about your company if they hear from you at a frequency that is more comfortable for them. I’m sorry to say that your company is not top of their list every day. The joy of email marketing is that you can trial this sort of activity – perhaps with a particular segment or test group – and then assess the results.

I’m not interested in all this

Cast your mind back to the mobility aid example. Ensure that your audience is the correct target and even then, ensure that you’re offering them information that’s of interest to them. Again, trials can help. See what type of content they are clicking through to on your website and offer more of this. For example, if you provide an advisory article on your emails and this is getting much interest, but the feature about your new fancy office furniture is falling on deaf ears (or eyes), you get an insight into what your recipients want to hear from you.

The subject line is your best friend and you should always consider whether its content is attention-grabbing. It might relate to the strongest piece of content in the email, pose a question to capture curiosity or reassure them that the email is from you – a company that they trust.

Keep your email marketing smart

Few email marketing services will ignore the importance of mobile-friendly emails and you do so at your peril. If it doesn’t look good, they won’t read it and they are more likely to become disenchanted. Think also about how your email looks with the images turned off. If your email content is indeed a single large image, it might look lovely when that shows, but a large number of people receive HTML emails with the images turned off, meaning that all they will see is a rather bland white space and a small cross. Not the message intended, I’m quite sure.

So stop email marketing for the sake of it and think about how to do it better. Hiring experienced, outsourced email marketing services can help with this and free you up to run other aspects of your business. In short, it can make a great deal of sense and that is what we generally look for with our marketing.

If you’d like a chat or some help, please just get in touch.