Making the most of signups and unsubscribes

Claire Bending, Stream:20

Sun, 11-09-2011 05:49

Here are my Top Tips for getting it right when it comes to the all important ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ of your Email campaign.

Hello!

1. Make it easy
Capture sign-ups and potential new customers at all touch points. This could be a clear ‘Sign-up for Email Newsletters’ link within your site template (above the fold preferably). The signup process should be two clicks maximum.

2. Only ask for information you’ll actually use
Unless you’re planning on sending subscribers something by post, don’t take their full postal address. They’ll be suspicious as to why you need it and don’t ask for their mobile number unless you have a solid SMS programme in place. All unnecessary requests for information act as barriers to sign-up and your form conversion rate will suffer.

3. Give them a taste of what’s to come
You know you want a jumper but you wouldn’t buy one without knowing the size, colour and fit. Subscribers to your emails also want to know whether they’ll like the emails you’re going to send them, so sell them the benefits.

4. Welcome them in
The power of a strong welcome programme should not be underestimated. Just post-sign-up is the best time to get users engaging with you – they’ve been compelled to ask for more from you so catch them while they’re keen. With the right combination of timing and content you’re likely see open rates over double that of your regular emails.

Goodbye!

1. Make it easy (part two)
They’ve made their decision so let them go. Making the unsubscribe process smooth and easy will not just leave a more pleasant taste in ex-subscribers mouths, it will also cut down on contacts to call centres from angry (ex)customers eager to be heard. Don’t hide your unsubscribe link in reams of copy right at the bottom of your email and don’t make the font size so small users will miss the link.

2. Don’t arouse suspicion
Regularly check your unsubscribe process. Changes to your website can have a knock on effect to these often un-tested landing pages. If your unsubscribe link returns an error e.g. ‘the page you're looking for does not exist’ the relationship really gets messy. Users will become frustrated and angry, possibly even questioning whether your business is purposefully avoiding their request.

3. Give yourself a second chance
Try linking to a simple webpage offering giving the user some options. They’ve hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button but maybe they would remain subscribed if they could manage frequency, pause emails for a while or opt-out of specific mailings.

4. Acknowledge the final decision
Confirm to the user that you will act upon their request. If your suppression feed is not updated in real-time, tell the user how long it will be until they are removed from the circulation list. Or, offer them an alternative. They may not want emails from you anymore but they may be open to other channels like Facebook.

5. Do as you’ve promised
Once you’ve acknowledged the request make sure you honour it. This may seem obvious, but ensure your unsubscribe process feeds your main database and that there’s no way a suppression can be overridden by future feeds. Again schedule testing to check the process is set up correctly.

It never hurts to try and see these processes from a customer perspective, put yourself in their shoes and you’ll be able to create logical and user-friendly intros and outros to your email marketing efforts.

Claire Bending is a Senior Consultant at leading digital marketing consultancy Stream:20, whose dedicated teams work in house with their clients on all aspects of their online marketing strategy from planning through to implementation. Stream:20’s goal is to help clients maximise returns from their budget, driving incremental sales through all digital marketing channels. Clients include Sky, BetFair, Experian, Lloyds and Trend Micro.