Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

8 Steps to Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rates

 Marketers put in a lot of time and pay a lot of money to build targeted email lists. At the same time, it's hard to prevent a reader from unsubscribing from your mailing list, but you can reduce your unsubscribe rate with some effective methods.

What is a good unsubscribe rate?

MailChimp conducted a statistic on data from more than 200 million emails sent by its customers after they registered their business types, with the result that average email unsubscribe rates ranged from 0.15% to 0.40% for all types of business.

This means that a good unsubscribe rate should not be more than 0.05% regardless of your industry. However, if the number exceeds this limit it means that you need to apply some methods and methods to minimize the unsubscribe rate as much as possible.

8 of the most effective methods in reducing the unsubscribe rate

The unsubscribe rate for emails can be improved via a range of effective methods and methods as follows:

1. Ask the customer to confirm the subscription via email

Some marketers are content with one subscription step based on which the customer must register their email in the mailing list subscription box only. However, if you're looking to reduce your mailing e-mail list opt-out rate, you should make sure it has targeted customers who are interested in what you're going to send them.

This goal can be achieved by adding an additional subscription step so that the customer is required to confirm the subscription via their registered email. However, be sure to explain the confirmation method to the customer after they place their email so they don't leave and thus lose a potential customer.

In addition, the customer can be incentivized to confirm the subscription by offering him a free gift such as an e-book containing simplified information or advice in the same field so that he can only download it after the subscription confirmation step.

2. Segmentation of mailing list subscribers

The unsubscribe rate can be reduced by segmenting subscribers in the mailing list into 3 categories, example: a very targeted segment, a target segment, a non-target segment, and placing subscribers in the appropriate category based on some criteria such as total previous purchase amounts, purchase frequency, or return rate for abandoned shopping carts to complete the payment process and other factors.

It's common knowledge that the higher your email marketing campaigns, the higher the average message opening rate, click-through rates, and average revenue per subscriber, while email unsubscribe rates decrease. So be sure to build highly targeted mailing lists to minimize your unsubscribe rate.

3. Reduce the unsubscribe rate by processing relevant content

You should prepare useful relevant content after dividing your mailing list subscribers into several categories depending on the intensity of the targeting. Start by setting your goal, are you aiming to sell a product or service to raise revenue? Or do you want to increase brand awareness? Or is your goal to increase trust between you and your subscribers?

Next, decide which interested client can achieve your goal. Let's say you own two products, the first is a product of a luxury brand and the other is an economic product, and you have broken down your mailing list into 3 categories: rich, middle, and poor class; hence your target customers to buy the luxury product are from the rich class, while the right customers to buy the economic product are middle class and poor.

Finally, start preparing relevant content for each target group. For example, you can focus on some of the features that tempt the poor and even middle class such as: offering free shipping or providing discount coupons. While you'll focus on other features that motivate the rich class to complete the purchase process, such as the designer's name is a luxury brand or the names of celebrities who wear the same brand.

Of course, creating sober content is a task that requires a lot of effort and time, so you can use the writing services provided by professional freelancers, and start preparing distinctive content that is relevant to your target audience.

4. Schedule a specific date for sending the newsletter

Some marketers focus on improving email marketing strategies while neglecting some important details, for example not setting fixed dates for sending the newsletter. If you message your customers at all times constantly, a portion of them will be upset by your messages; and thus unsubscribe from your mailing list.

To solve this problem, you can set a fixed deadline when you send your newsletter to your customers, examples of which are: choose a specific hour per day, choose a day or two a week. Etc. In a nutshell, try more than one fixed appointment and in a short time, you'll discover the most frequent date when subscribers interact and therefore adopt it as a fixed date for that mailing list.

5. Avoid using some annoying methods in writing the content of addresses and mail messages

You should be aware that your subscribers receive dozens of emails a day, so if they feel that your message is spam or random, this may increase email unsubscribe rates. So here are some of the annoying methods used in writing mail addresses or contents that you should avoid:

• Zoom in on some words and letters: Some marketers resort to enlarging the size of some words and letters while writing the address or the content of the mail message, this may give the impression to the customer as if you are screaming at him or to do something.

• Do not use a provocative or aggressive tone: there are some words or phrases that give an aggressive and provocative impression to the customer when used for example: "Open this message now! It contains something important!" – "Do you hate me?". Etc. Avoid such phrases and get right to the point instead.

• Creating a fake scarcity: There are sometimes limited discounts and offers or limited numbers available from a particular product, so marketers send a newsletter to subscribers telling them so. However, some marketers use this trick unnecessarily. For example, if there is no real discount on the product, your customers will consider you a scammer and may be taken off your mailing list.

So be sure to avoid such annoying methods of email marketing so that it does not entail losing a segment of your potential customers unnecessarily. Instead, make your message direct, short, and expressive of the content. For example: "I want to thank you for subscribing to my mailing list", "What do you think of the previous newsletter?", "10% discount coupon for 48 hours".

6. Interest in improving your mobile browsing experience

A large part of subscribers browse emails via their smartphones, so it's essential that they have an improved user experience so that you avoid them leaving your mailing list, thus reducing the unsubscribe rate, but the question remains how can this be done?

In a nutshell, avoid using a large number of images inside the newsletter because some subscribers see mail messages with the image shutdown feature or their internet connection may be poor and their photos are delayed.

Furthermore, add appropriate and expressive alt text to each image so that if no image is uploaded it does not appear in its place in empty white spaces, but the alt text you used appears. The final look, in this case, may not be unprofessional but it is better than the look of empty white spaces without any text for sure.

7. Ask subscribers why to leave

When a subscriber wants to leave and presses the "Unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the newsletter, don't let them leave ask them why they're leaving, and give them several options, for example: Is the content not useful? Or is the customer not interested in the content? Or is there another reason? Ask him to remind you of him.

This method helps you collect opinions and questionnaires on the most important reasons for unsubscribing to the mailing list from real subscribers. Thus you have constructive feedback that can be relied upon to reduce the unsubscribe rate with other customers later.

Moreover, completely avoid some tricks that prevent the customer from unsubscribing to your mailing list such as: hiding the "unsubscribe" button. This trick annoys your customers and may report your messages as random or annoying, as well as email service providers, prevent these tricks and consider them a fraud on the customer, which may result in closing your account with them or reducing the appearance of your messages on your mailing list.

8. Addressing subscribers in person helps reduce the unsubscribe rate

8 Steps to Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rates

Avoid automated and traditional replies while addressing subscribers to your mailing list, for example, the phrase "do not reply to this message" that appends some emails, gives the impression that the message is automatic and impersonal to those who read or see it.

But instead, sign your name at the end of each message, similarly, you can tell some stories from your personal life in line with the subject of the letter for example: "While I was going today for breakfast I was thinking with myself about the content of the message you are reading now" and so on.

In conclusion, as a marketer or business owner using email marketing campaigns, you shouldn't neglect to reduce your mailing list opt-out rate, to avoid losing an important portion of your potential customers. As you walk through your project, you can rely on the professional email marketing providers on Khamsat, to help you get it done professionally.