Top Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing - Page 9/10

Phase Two: Your Unsubscribe Page

A useful subscription-management page could have these features:

- A statement recognizing the subscriber’s wish to leave the list but also asking them to consider other options, such as less frequent mailings, or other emails/newsletters, blogs, podcasts, etc. that your company may offer.
- A form allowing subscribers to change preferences instead, including format (HTML to text or RSS or vice versa), frequency, or type of mailings and an address change form
- A link to customer support or service, or a telephone number (if that’s more appropriate) for subscribers who want to report a problem receiving or viewing your email. (This should also be part of the regular email message template to keep subscriber frustration from escalating into unsubscribing.)
- Links to other resources on your site the visitor might find useful. Yes, they may be opting out of your email, but they still might find that white paper or special offer of value.
- And perhaps most important, a quick exit survey (text box or clickable options) that asks for the reason for leaving and any suggestions for improvement. More on this below.

Phase Three: The Exit Interview

Your unsubscribe process can work better with a simple two-phase upgrade, one that addresses unsubscribe reliability first as detailed above, then helps you mine more data from your departing subscribers. You may even be able to salvage a few customers. How do you mine this data?

Instead of letting unsubscribers go with just a thank-you note, give them the opportunity to tell you why they’re leaving. You can use that information to sharpen the focus of your email program, redo your template or send schedule, improve personalization, or find other ways to become more valuable to subscribers or customers.

The fastest way to do this is to beef up your Web-based opt-out page by requesting more information or by offering other ways to keep the relationship going. Instead of a brusque sentence saying, “Thanks, click here to be removed from future mailings,” an opt-out page should include these elements:

- A form asking why the subscriber is leaving. You can either use a text box and let the subscriber use his own words or provide a checklist of common reasons (no longer interested, don’t like the offers, too much email, images don’t show up properly, mailings weren’t what was expected or wanted). You’ll get more responses from a checklist.
- Keep it to two questions maximum. Preferably, have the survey form on the unsubscribe page so they don’t have to leave, as once they do it is unlikely they’ll go elsewhere to complete a survey. Also, don’t require subscribers to fill out the survey forms for an unsubscribe to take effect.
- Be sure to set up the page so it loads with the recipient’s address pre-populated in the form.