Are most of your resources for your email marketing strategy dedicated to obtaining opt-ins over keeping people locked in? Do you find yourself a bit annoyed and perplexed at frequent “unsubscribed” notifications? If so, you are like many other small business owners.
If you’d like to stop the flow of unsubscribes, the bottom line is you need to put in just as much work, if not more, to keep your subscribers convinced to stay as you did getting them in the first place.
Avoiding Common Email List Pitfalls
In her CIO article “Top 7 reasons people unsubscribe from your email list,” Jennifer Lonoff Schiff looks at mistakes that often send subscribers running away. These tips are summarized and included below.
Poor Email List-Building Tactics
Amazingly enough, some people never signed up for your email list, or unknowingly signed up for it. Once they realize they’re receiving an email, they bail – and rightfully given they had been roped into receiving unsolicited email.
All companies MUST obtain proper consent and confirmation before adding people to their email list, and should clearly avoid sneaky tactics such as immediate email subscription upon downloading a whitepaper. Build your list ethically.
Over-Emailing
According to survey findings, about 53 percent of consumers reported getting too many emails from retailers; while only 44 percent said they get the right amount. Additional research indicates that sending an email every two weeks is the ideal frequency for subscriber engagement.
However, an even more surefire successful strategy is to ask your customers how much they want to hear from you at sign up by offering various frequency preference options.
Wonky Email Formats
Sometimes an email that looks great on your end simply won’t translate. Philip Storey, head of global strategy & insights consulting at Lyris, explains: “Over 50 percent of emails are opened on mobile devices, and mobile devices struggle to download images. Therefore, if you hide your awesome value proposition in an image, people won’t see the content and are more likely to unsubscribe.”
Do the extra work to make sure the email looks correct on all devices and platforms, and enlist the help from tools such as Litmus if you need it. Of course, make sure to always rely on mobile-friendly email templates and campaign managers to minimize any potential for problems.
Cluttered Emails
Nothing will send subscribers running more than a messy and cluttered email, especially if it looks like spam. Seek help if graphic design is not your specialty. Whether you choose an actual designer or a reputable template provider, it’s important that your brand looks polished when it is presented to the masses. Remember, most of your audience will be viewing the email on a mobile device. An amazing format on a desktop screen can look disastrous in smaller form, so check out how it looks on the miniature version before you hit send.
Irrelevant Content
People are most concerned with how information relates to them so it’s important to cater to that tendency. Segment subscribers based on their preferences and campaign activity, and tailor personalized content through targeted offers. If brands focus on what they need instead of what the customer wants, your readers will most certainly flee.
Keep a pulse on what your target audience needs by conducting research (i.e. focus groups), checking out online discussion groups, and monitoring important social media channels. Doing so, will help you speak to them in a way that compels them to listen, even when their needs shift and evolve.
The Over-Sell Dilemma
Follow the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of your emails should be focused on helpful, relevant content (i.e. free webinars, exclusive ebooks), while the remaining 20 percent of your emails can be sales-related. If you tip that balance and sound more like a slick salesman than a trusted advisor, readers will block your sales pitch with the fastest click you’ve ever seen.
The Yawn Factor
If you are boring or repetitive, people will tune you out. On the flipside, Schiff points out that “research shows that marketers who align content to their audiences’ interests at specific stages of the buyer’s journey enjoy an average 73 percent higher conversion rates vs. marketers who don’t.”
If you are struggling to create great content, remember that less is more. It is far better to put out amazing engaging content once a month than to distribute weekly emails that say nothing.
Building Your Following One Email Subscriber at a Time
The best part about creating an email strategy centered on value over frequency is that your loyal subscribers will spread the word about you to their own networks, a wealth of untapped potential and exposure for your brand. If you don’t see the potential for your network to be engaged enough to share, go back to the drawing board and come up with something more compelling. When you start to view your content in this shareable lens, you’ll start producing content that is impossible to opt-out of.
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